Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Come in spring for blossom and autumn for new wine, fewer crowds and top visibility
when the warm
Föhn
blows. Summers are crowded, but best for swimming and camping.
Almost everything shuts from November to February, when fog descends and the first
snowflakes dust the Alps.
BODENSEE ERLEBNISKARTE
The three-day
Bodensee Erlebniskarte
(adult/child €72/36, not incl ferries €40/21)
, available at
area tourist and ferry offices from early April to mid-October, allows free travel on almost all
boats and mountain cableways on and around Lake Constance (including its Austrian and Swiss
shores) and gets you free entry to around 180 tourist attractions and museums. There are also
seven-day (adult/child €92/46) and 14-day (adult/child €130/66) versions .
Getting There & Around
The most enjoyable way to cross the lake is by ferry. Konstanz is the main hub but Meers-
burg and Friedrichshafen also have plentiful ferry options.
Although most towns have a train station (Meersburg is an exception), in some cases
buses provide the only land connections.
Euregio Bodensee
(
www.euregiokarte.com
)
,
which groups all Lake Constance-area public transport, publishes a free
Fahrplan
with
schedules for all train, bus and ferry services.
The
Euregio Bodensee Tageskarte
(
www.euregiokarte.com
)
gets you all-day access to
land transport around Lake Constance, including areas in Austria and Switzerland. It's
sold at train stations and ferry docks and costs €16.50/22/29 for one/two/all zones.
Car Ferries
The roll-on-roll-off
Konstanz-Meersburg car ferry
(
www.sw.konstanz.de
;
car up to 4m incl driver/bicycle/pedestrian €8.40/2.20/2.60)
runs 24 hours a day, except
when high water levels prevent it from docking. The ferry runs is every 15 minutes from
5.30am to 9pm, every 30 minutes from 9pm to midnight and every hour from midnight to
5.30am. The crossing, affording superb views from the top deck, takes 15 minutes.
The dock in Konstanz, served by local bus 1, is 4km northeast of the centre along
Mainau strasse . In Meersburg, car ferries leave from a dock 400m northwest of the old
town.
Passenger Ferries
The most useful lines, run by German
BSB
(
www.bsb-online.com
)
and
Austrian
OBB
(
www.bodenseeschifffahrt.at
)
, link Konstanz with ports such as Meersburg
