Around Lake Constance by bike: three countries
When to go
April to October is the riding season, and May, June and September are the best of it: the orchards are in blossom or in fruit, the boats run their full timetable and the path is not yet crowded. In July and August the Bodensee-Radweg is one of the busiest cycle paths in Europe, the rooms on the shore fill early and the Bregenz Festival is on. From November to March many boats stop and some small hotels close.
The stops
Interactive map of the route on our site ›
- Konstanz2 nights
From 1414 to 1418 the Council of Constance met here to end the schism of three rival popes, and in November 1417 it elected Martin V in the Council Building by the harbour — the only papal election ever held north of the Alps.
- Reichenaustop on the way
An island joined to the shore by a causeway, where the monk Pirmin founded a monastery in 724. Its three Romanesque churches, with the wall paintings of about 1000 in St George at Oberzell, have been a World Heritage site since 2000.
- Mainaustop on the way
The flower island, reached over a footbridge. Count Lennart Bernadotte, a grandson of the King of Sweden, took it over in 1932 and made it a garden of palms, roses and a great butterfly house; his family still runs it.
- Meersburgone night
The ferry from Konstanz-Staad lands at the foot of the Old Castle, which calls itself the oldest inhabited castle in Germany. The poet Annette von Droste-Hülshoff lived her last years in it and died there in 1848.
- Unteruhldingenstop on the way
The pile-dwelling museum, founded in 1922, has rebuilt Stone Age and Bronze Age houses on stilts in the water. The real remains of such villages around the Alps have been a World Heritage site since 2011.
- Birnaustop on the way
A Baroque pilgrimage church of 1747 to 1750 above the vineyards. By a side altar sits the Honigschlecker, a little cherub licking honey from his finger, carved by Joseph Anton Feuchtmayer.
- Friedrichshafenstop on the way
The town of the Zeppelins: Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin’s first airship, LZ 1, rose from a floating hangar on the lake here on 2 July 1900. The Zeppelin Museum by the harbour has a rebuilt section of the Hindenburg.
- Langenargenstop on the way
Montfort Castle, on a point of the shore, looks Moorish: King Wilhelm I of Württemberg had it built in that style as a summer house in the 1860s.
- Lindauone night
An old town on an island, joined to the shore by a bridge and a railway dam. The harbour mouth is guarded by a stone Bavarian lion six metres high and the New Lighthouse of 1856, the southernmost lighthouse in Germany.
- Bregenzone night
The capital of Vorarlberg in Austria. Since 1946 the Bregenz Festival has staged an opera each summer on a stage floating in the lake, before about seven thousand seats on the shore.
- Pfänderstop on the way
A cable car from the middle of Bregenz climbs to the Pfänder, 1,064 metres, with the whole lake below and the Alps of three countries around.
- Rorschachstop on the way
Back in Switzerland after the Rhine. On the waterfront stands the Kornhaus, a Baroque granary of 1746 to 1749, from which the grain brought over the lake from Swabia was sold.
- Arbonone night
The Romans had a fort here called Arbor Felix. Later it was the home of Saurer, the maker of lorries, buses and embroidery machines, whose old vehicles are shown in a museum in the town.
- Kreuzlingenstop on the way
The Swiss town grown into Konstanz: the border runs through the streets between them, and at the harbour it is marked by a line of tall figures from the tarot, the art border of Johannes Dörflinger.
- Konstanzstop on the way
The loop closes at the harbour, under Imperia, a turning statue nine metres tall put up in 1993 by Peter Lenk, mocking the pope and the emperor of the Council.
What it costs
Eighty dollars a night is the room. The bike is yours and is not included: your own, or a hire bike or e-bike from Konstanz, which can usually be dropped at another town on the lake for a fee. The car ferry from Konstanz-Staad to Meersburg, the Pfänder cable car, Mainau island and the museums charge their own fares, and so does the luggage transfer between hotels if you book one.
What to know
Three things. One: the borders. The loop crosses Germany, Austria and Switzerland several times, usually with no control at all, but Switzerland is outside the EU customs union, so carry your passport and keep in mind that Swiss prices are in francs and higher. Two: the luggage. Many local firms carry bags from hotel to hotel around the lake; book it a day ahead, or ride light. Three: the boats. The ships of the lake take bikes, so a tired day can be cut short on the water, but on summer weekends the bike places fill; check the timetable each morning.
Roads, tolls and rules
This route has no car. It follows the Bodensee-Radweg, the signposted cycle path around Lake Constance, marked by white signs with a blue-green bicycle and the lake, about 260 kilometres for the whole shore. Almost all of it is flat, on asphalt or fine gravel, on paths away from the road or on quiet lanes through orchards and vineyards; the only climbs are short ones behind Meersburg and Birnau. The days are 35 to 45 kilometres, so there is time for the sights, and an e-bike is not needed. Bikes and e-bikes can be hired for several days at Kultur-Rädle, a hundred metres from Konstanz station; the loop ends back in Konstanz, so there is no one-way drop to arrange. Luggage transfer between hotels is sold as part of package tours, for instance by Radweg-Reisen in Konstanz, not as a separate service. Be honest with yourself about the rooms: on the shore in July and August a room at eighty dollars is rare, in Meersburg and Lindau above all, and when none is free the site offers two flats at that price instead.
Travel Around Lake Constance by bike: three countries
The route on our site, with a room up to $80 every night.