Best Of Lake Constance On The German Side
Lake Constance is massive and runs through Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. This is how we recommend you spend your weekend here on the German side.
Constance
Mainau (Flower) Island
Meersburg Castle
Pile Dwelling Museum (Pfahlbauten)
Boat hire
Constance
We spent 2 mornings in Constance relaxing by the lake, eating at lovely restaurants and exploring the well preserved medieval town. If you cross the river you will be in Switzerland. It’s a good place to base yourself if you’re wanting to explore the region.
Mainau
Mainau Island (Flower Island) is a 10 minute drive from Constance. We spent a few hours here, walking around the beautiful gardens and admiring the variety of plant life. Mainau provides glorious colours all year round. They also host the second largest butterfly house in Germany. Visit Mainau.de to see what flowers are blooming and what’s on for your visit.
Price: 14 € Students, 23 € Adults (online is 1 € cheaper)
Meersburg
We took the car on the ferry from Constance to Meersburg which took 15 minutes. Click here for more information on the ferry. There is 2 hour paid parking at the lower and upper fortress. It is the oldest inhabited German fortress, dating back to the 7th century. From the upper fortress there were stunning viewpoints of the lake.
Pile Dwelling Museum (Pfahlbauten)
From Meersburg we drove 10 minutes North to the Pile Dwelling Museum (Pfahlbauten). This is one of Europe’s largest and oldest open-air museums. 23 pile dwellings have been built on piles above water and have been reconstructed to replicate the buildings from the Bronze and Stone Ages. We found it fascinating to walk through these buildings and get an idea of how people lived thousands of years ago.
Hours of operation: 10.00 - 17.30
Price: 10 € Adults, 8 € Students
Boat hire
The highlight of the weekend was taking a boat out onto Lake Constance. We hired a rowboat from Bootsscheune in Wangen for 3 hours and it cost us €45. We took the boat out to the deep water, put the anchor down, relaxed, and went for a swim.
Top restaurants
Our favourite restaurants that we went to were Hirschen Horn and Cafe Bloggers.
We hope this blog helped you with your planning. If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask!