the city of the Council on the lake, with the Imperia at the harbour, the Münster and the lanes of the Niederburg, the flower island of Mainau and the monasteries of Reichenau Island, and in December the Christmas market along the shore
Konstanz stands where the Rhine flows out of the lake that bears its name, in Germany but with Switzerland right next door: the border runs between the houses, and Kreuzlingen is the district on the other side. It was a bishop's city for twelve centuries, and from 1414 to 1418 it hosted the Council that ended the Western Schism: in 1415 it sent Jan Hus to the stake, and on 11 November 1417, in the harbour warehouse that today is called the Konzil, it elected Martin V, the only pope elected on German soil. The old town has come down to us almost intact, with the Münster on the hill, the lanes of the Niederburg and the towers on the Rhine. At the harbour stands the Imperia, the statue that makes fun of the pope and the emperor. Opposite, in the lake, two islands that are two worlds: Mainau, the Bernadottes' flower garden, and Reichenau Island, with its monasteries from around the year 1000, a World Heritage Site, and its vegetable gardens. From late November the Christmas market runs from the market square along the shore to the gardens, and in February the old town fills with the masks of the Fasnacht. For those arriving by motorhome there is a large municipal stopover, which does not say it closes in winter, with the bus to the centre included in the price.
Sleeping
Stops and overnight stays
In the city there is only one place to sleep, the municipal Europabrücke stopover, across the Rhine, large, with no published winter closure, with no services but with the bus to the centre included. The Döbele car park, near the old town, takes motorhomes for one night in transit only. The campsites of Konstanz and Reichenau Island are summer ones and in December they are all closed, like those of Kreuzlingen, just over the border; the Litzelstetten campsite, near Mainau, does not take motorhomes. In winter those looking for water, emptying and electricity find them at Meersburg, on the other side of the ferry.
the city's stopover, opened in October 2025 on the open ground next to the Europabrücke multi-storey car park and the coach station, opposite the Bodenseeforum, on the right bank of the Rhine. You pay at the parking meter, by card, and leave by noon. There is nothing on site: no electricity and no water. Water filling and emptying are done at the service station of the coach station next door, which also opens them to motorhomes for 12 euros, and there are toilets at the coach station. Before setting off in December it is worth phoning to make sure it is open, and also to ask the maximum length, which the city does not publish. To the centre with buses 4/13 from the Neue Rheinbrücke stop or 6 from the Stadtwerke stop, in eight minutes, or on foot along the Rhine in about twenty minutes. At night you can hear the traffic on the bridge. It is a temporary stopover: in a few years a new district will be built here
about 90 places
no services
16 euros a night for the motorhome, with the city bus included, for at most three nights: this is set by the city's regulation in force since 17 December 2025. The tourist board's page still says 15 euros and 72 hours. Whether the tourist tax is also payable the city does not say · +49 7531 9000 · konstanz.de
Döbeleplatz, ingresso dalla rotonda della Grenzbachstraße, 78462 Konstanz
the large car park south of the old town, the last before the Swiss border, with twelve places for motorhomes. It is a stop in transit: at most 24 hours, one night for those passing through, not a place to stay. In October 2025 the city called it a "former motorhome area", but in 2026 its pages still give the places and the rate for motorhomes: it is worth checking beforehand. On the services the sources do not agree, and those who have been there report a broken water and emptying point and road noise. On the other hand the old town is five minutes away on foot
12 motorhome pitches
services not recorded
4 euros the first hour, then 3 euros an hour, up to a maximum of 25 euros, which for motorhomes covers 24 hours, every day (city price list, June 2026) · konstanz.de
the city's campsite on the Überlinger See, the arm of the lake north of Konstanz, at Dingelsdorf, with its meadow by the water. The largest pitches have water filling and emptying. In December it is closed
ElectricityWaterGrey water
With the 2026 price list a pitch up to 7.30 metres, two people and electricity cost 38 euros in low season and 44 in high season; up to 8.80 metres, with water filling and emptying, 42 and 48 euros. On top of that the tourist tax, 5.6 per cent of the overnight price for those over 18, and 1 euro per person for waste · camping-klausenhorn.de
a summer campsite at Staad, on the peninsula east of the city, near the port of the ferries to Meersburg and the thermal baths. The website says open from early April to the end of September, the 2026 price list until 4 October. With the guest card the bus to the centre is free. In December it is closed
services not recorded
With the 2026 price list, 12 euros per adult, the pitch from 15 to 25 euros depending on the category and electricity 5 euros: two adults spend from 44 to 54 euros a night. On top of that the tourist tax, 5.6 per cent, which includes the guest card with free buses and trains in the Konstanz district · +49 7531 31388 · campingplatz-konstanz.de
the campsite of Reichenau Island, on the shore, near Niederzell. With the Reichenau guest card buses and trains are free throughout the Konstanz district. Next to it there is a municipal motorhome area, with twelve places, closed from 5 October 2026 to 14 March 2027. In December it is closed
services not recorded
With the 2026 price list, 10.50 euros per adult, 17 euros for a motorhome from 5 to 7 metres with electricity and 3.30 euros per person tourist tax: two adults spend 44.60 euros a night · +49 7534 7384 · sandseele.de
a small area on Reichenau Island, unattended and without booking, at most 24 hours. It is the only one on Reichenau open in winter too; according to the map it has no services. The bus stop is a kilometre away, the tourist office ten minutes on foot
6 motorhome pitches
services not recorded
10 euros every 24 hours (Reichenau tourist office listing, November 2025) · reichenau-tourismus.de
the largest of Meersburg's three municipal areas, on the north shore of the lake, opposite Konstanz: you get there with the ferry from Staad, in a quarter of an hour. At most 72 hours, without booking. In winter the electricity works, and here there is the water and emptying point that also serves the other two areas, Allmend 1 and Allmend 2, on Allmendweg, at 23 and 21 euros a day. With the parking receipt the tourist office gives you the Meersburg guest card. It is the place to sleep, in winter, for those who want services
about 38 places
ElectricityWaterGrey water
26 euros a day, for a minimum of 24 hours; electricity 0.50 euros per kilowatt hour, water 1 euro per 80-100 litres. The municipality does not give the year of the price list · meersburg.de
In Konstanz the motorhome stays at the stopover, and you get around the city on foot or by bus: the old town is small and almost entirely pedestrian. There are buses to Mainau and Reichenau Island, the ferry to Meersburg, and Kreuzlingen, in Switzerland, is on foot from the harbour.
From Italy via Switzerland: from Chiasso via the Gotthard or the San Bernardino, Zurich and Kreuzlingen. You need the Swiss motorway vignette, 40 francs: the 2026 one is valid from 1 December 2025 to 31 January 2027. Over 3.5 tonnes the vignette is not valid: you pay the flat-rate heavy vehicle charge with the Via app, for every day spent in Switzerland, even with the motorhome parked, with a minimum of 25 francs
From Italy via Austria: from the Brenner, Innsbruck, the Arlberg and Bregenz. The ten-day Austrian vignette costs 12.80 euros; on top of that the Brenner motorway toll, 12.50 euros, and the Arlberg tunnel toll, 13 euros, for vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes. The Pfänder tunnel, at Bregenz, is included in the vignette. Over 3.5 tonnes in Austria you pay by the kilometre with the GO-Box
In Germany a motorhome over 3.5 tonnes does not pay the lorry toll, provided it is permanently fitted out for living in: this is stated by the Federal Office for Logistics and Mobility. Owners of a vehicle that the toll enforcement cameras might take for a lorry register it as exempt with Toll Collect
Konstanz has no low emission zone: in the whole of Baden-Württemberg there are only those of Stuttgart, Pforzheim and Ludwigsburg
Sleeping in a motorhome outside the stopovers: the city's police regulation forbids setting up camp with a motorhome outside the marked places, and provides for a fine. For the night, then, you go to a stopover or a campsite
City buses: those sleeping at the Europabrücke have the bus included. On the busiest days of Advent the city sends cars to the car parks on the right bank, connected by lines 6 and 4/13; in 2025, on Advent Saturdays, the Europabrücke multi-storey car park was free, but it is 2.10 metres high and a motorhome will not fit
The ferry to Meersburg leaves from Staad, east of the city, and runs every day of the year, day and night, in a quarter of an hour: in winter every 15 or 20 minutes by day, every hour at night. A motorhome up to 8 metres pays 22.60 euros with the driver, every other adult 4.30: two adults spend 26.90 euros one way and 52.30 return within 24 hours. The lower fares, up to 6 metres, apply only to vehicles up to 2.10 metres wide. On foot a family pays 16.20 euros return. Bus 1 goes to Staad
Mainau can be reached with buses 4/13 and 13/4, which stop near the entrance. Reichenau Island is joined to the mainland by a causeway, and the bus goes there from Konstanz station
Kreuzlingen is on foot from the harbour, along the lake. You enter Switzerland, which is in the Schengen area but not in the customs union: those who shop in Germany and go back over the border have a duty-free allowance of 150 francs per person per day, and quantity limits for meat, butter and alcohol
Seeing
Sights
The walk starts from the border, at Klein Venedig, goes up along the harbour to the Imperia and the Konzil, passes through the Stadtgarten and enters the old town by the Marktstätte. From there the Rosgartenmuseum, the Hus house and the Schnetztor to the south, the Rathaus and the Münster to the north, then the Niederburg down to the towers on the Rhine. Across the bridge is the archaeological museum. It is about three kilometres. Mainau is some twenty minutes away by bus, Reichenau Island about half an hour. Tap a marker on the map to open its entry below.
1
Kunstgrenze
Monument · free entry · 47.65566, 9.18078
Klein Venedig, 78462 Konstanz
the border between Germany and Switzerland, on the lake, at Klein Venedig. From 1939 it was marked by a fence, put up by Switzerland and then by the Wehrmacht above all to stop Jews and opponents of the regime from fleeing: here, on 8 November 1939, Georg Elser was arrested, while in Munich the bomb he had planted to kill Hitler was about to go off. The fence was dismantled piece by piece from 1999, and on the lake, since 2007, in its place there are twenty-two steel sculptures by Johannes Dörflinger, the major arcana of the tarot, the Magician, the Empress, the Wheel of Fortune, the Fool, set on the border line, half in Germany and half in Switzerland. You pass from one country to the other walking on the grass.
the aquarium on the lake, near the border, with the fish of the Rhine and of Lake Constance from the source to the sea, and then the tanks of the warm seas with the turtles. On the first floor is the Bodensee-Naturmuseum, the city's natural history museum of the lake. For children, on a rainy or cold afternoon, it is the easy stop.
Opening hours in October 2026 from 10:00 to 17:00, with last entry at 16:00; the December and Christmas opening hours are in a calendar on the website, and should be checked there · prices change with the date: in October 2026 online from 18 euros, at the ticket office 23 euros; the ticket includes the Bodensee-Naturmuseum · visitsealife.com
Peter Lenk's statue at the harbour entrance, nine metres tall and weighing eighteen tonnes, in concrete, put up on 24 April 1993. It is a buxom courtesan holding two little naked men in her hands: one has the crown and the orb, and is Emperor Sigismund, the other has the tiara, and is Pope Martin V. It comes from a story by Balzac about the beautiful Imperia, a courtesan at the time of the Council. The churches and part of the city council did not want it, but the pier belonged to the railways and the city could not stop it; it was paid for by private individuals. It turns on itself, one rotation in about four minutes. Since August 2024 it has been a listed monument. Inside the base, which was a tower of the pier, is the water gauge of 1816. From the harbour the boats leave for Meersburg, Mainau and the other ports of the lake, less often in winter.
the large building on the harbour with the steep roof, built from 1388 to 1391 as a goods warehouse, on hundreds of oak piles, on the shoreline of the time. The sessions of the Council were held in the Münster, but for the conclave of November 1417 the warehouse was sealed like a fortress, with the windows walled up to a slit, guards and cells for the cardinals and the delegates of the five nations: here, on 11 November 1417, Martin V was elected, and the Western Schism ended. Then it went back to being a warehouse and fair hall until the nineteenth century; since 1912 it has been a restaurant and a function hall. It is considered the largest surviving secular building of the Middle Ages in southern Germany. In December the market chalets stand in front of it.
Opening hours it is a restaurant and a conference centre: the restaurant is open every day from 9:30 to 22:00; the first-floor hall can be seen during concerts and events · +49 7531 21221 · konzil-konstanz.de · mail@konzil-konstanz.de
the public garden on the lake, between the Konzil and the Rheintor, below the Münster, created in the nineteenth century on the land dug out to enlarge the harbour, after the arrival of the railway. In front, in the water, is the Frauenpfahl, a post where in the Middle Ages condemned women were drowned, tied in a sack; today it is a marker for boats. From late November it is the last stretch of the Christmas market, with the lights in the plane trees and the big tree, and in August it hosts the lake festival.
the market square, between the harbour and the old town, long and pedestrian, with the outdoor cafés and the emperors' fountain, the Kaiserbrunnen. It is the first stretch of the Christmas market, which from here goes down to the harbour and follows the shore to the Stadtgarten, and the place of the mask market on the carnival Saturday. On New Year's Eve 2025 there was a laser light show here, because fireworks are not let off over the old town.
the city museum, founded in 1870 by the pharmacist Ludwig Leiner, in the medieval guild house of the butchers, already mentioned in 1324. About fifty thousand objects: the lake's pile dwellings, altarpieces, the history of Konstanz and of the Council. The Leiner room has stayed as it was in the nineteenth century, with wooden display cases full of fossils and minerals: a museum within the museum.
Opening hours Tuesday to Friday 10:00-18:00, Saturday, Sunday and public holidays 10:00-17:00; closed on Monday, on 24, 25 and 31 December and on 1 January. On 26 December it is open. On the first Sunday of the month entry is free · with the exhibition on the Mosbruggers, until 10 January 2027, 7 euros, reduced 5; the collection alone 5 euros, reduced 3. Free up to 18 years. The museum does not give the year of the price list · +49 7531 900-2245 · rosgartenmuseum.de
a fifteenth century half-timbered house, bought in 1922 by the Czechoslovak State and turned into the museum of Jan Hus, the Prague reformer. Hus arrived in Konstanz on 3 November 1414 with the emperor's safe conduct, lodged in this street, then Paulsgasse, with a widow, and on 28 November he was arrested; the Council condemned him for heresy on 6 July 1415 and the same day he was burnt outside the city, where today there is a boulder bearing his name. That it was this very house is not proven. At the end of the street is the Schnetztor, the south gate of the walls, from the fourteenth century, with its half-timbered tower: it is the seat of the Blätzlebuebe carnival guild, and during the Fasnacht their great banner hangs from it.
Opening hours from 1 October to 31 March Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-12:00 and 13:00-16:00; from 1 April to 30 September until 17:00. Closed on Monday, on 24, 25 and 31 December and on 1 January · free, with the audio guide in German, English and Czech · +49 7531 29042 · konstanz.de · hus-museum@t-online.de
the town hall, in the guild house of the linen weavers. The façade dates from 1593, Renaissance, and the paintings from 1864, by Ferdinand Wagner: they tell of the Peace of Constance of 1183 between Barbarossa and the Lombard cities, the visit of Frederick II, Sigismund giving Brandenburg to the Hohenzollerns in 1417, and the city defending itself against the troops of Charles V in 1548. Behind, the Renaissance courtyard with the round tower, where in December they put up the Christmas tree. The courtyard's opening hours are not published.
the cathedral of the bishops of Konstanz for twelve centuries, until 1821, on the hill where the Roman fort stood. It is a Romanesque basilica consecrated in 1089, later dressed in Gothic, with a nineteenth century spire on the tower. The sessions of the Council were held here, and Hus was condemned here. The crypt is the oldest part, and holds four large discs of gilded copper that for six hundred years were on the gable facing the lake: the largest, from the eleventh century, shows Christ. Next to it, the rotunda of St Maurice, from about 940, with a Gothic Holy Sepulchre of 1260, and the Gothic cloister. The tower, 78 metres and 193 steps, is closed in winter.
Opening hours every day 10:00-18:00, the church, the crypt, the cloister and the rotunda of St Maurice, but they cannot be visited during mass. The tower is open only until the end of October · the church is free. The tower costs 4 euros, from 8 to 17 years 1 euro, under 7 years free; children of 7 the price list does not mention · +49 7531 90620 · kath-konstanz.de · pfarrbuero@kath-konstanz.de
the oldest quarter, between the Münster and the Rhine, where craftsmen, fishermen and small merchants lived below the bishop. Narrow, crooked lanes, made to slow down an enemy, fifteenth century houses with the name and the year above the door, wine taverns and craftsmen's workshops. It is the quarter of the Fasnacht: its guild, the Niederburg, claims to be the cradle of the nightshirt parade of Fat Thursday. From the Rheingasse you go down to the Rheintor.
the two towers of the walls on the Rhine, where the river leaves the lake. The Rheintor, built between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, was the only gate to the north: from 1200 to 1856 a wooden bridge over the Rhine led straight here. Further west the Pulverturm, the corner of the inner walls, today home of the Niederburg carnival guild. They can be seen from outside, from the promenade along the river. Next to them, the Rhine bridge, across which the French entered on 26 April 1945: the kilometres of the Rhine are counted from here.
the archaeological museum of the whole Land, in the old Benedictine monastery of Petershausen, just across the Rhine bridge. The lake's pile dwellings, the Romans, medieval Konstanz, and a large wooden boat in front of the glass wall that looks out on the old town and the Münster. Until 28 February 2027 there is an exhibition on the Romans made for children.
Opening hours Tuesday to Sunday and public holidays 10:00-17:00; closed on Monday, on 24, 25 and 31 December and on 1 January. On 26 December it is open. Until 2035 the collection is being redone, and some rooms are closed · 5 euros, reduced 4; free up to 17 years. The museum does not give the year of the price list · alm-konstanz.de
the island of flowers, 45 hectares in the lake, joined to the mainland by a bridge. For five centuries it belonged to the knights of the Teutonic Order, who built the Baroque palace and the church of St Mary, with its pink bell tower, by Johann Caspar Bagnato, between 1732 and 1746; in 1853 it was bought by the Grand Duke of Baden, who planted the arboretum with the giant sequoias, and from 1932 Lennart Bernadotte, grandson of the King of Sweden, made it into a garden open to all. The family still lives in the palace. In summer the roses, the tulips, the Italian water staircase; in winter the arboretum, the palm house and the butterfly house, at more than 25 degrees, with hundreds of tropical butterflies in flight.
Opening hours from 19 November 2026 to 9 January 2027 from 9:00 to 15:30, on 24 and 31 December until 14:00; from 10 January from 9:00 to 16:00. The butterfly house in winter 10:00-16:00. In the evening, from 19 November, the island hosts the Christmas Garden, with a separate ticket · in winter, from 19 October 2026 to 19 March 2027, 13 euros online and 14 at the ticket office, students 9 and 10; free up to 12 years. In summer 26.90 euros online, and there is a family ticket · +49 7531 303-0 · mainau.de · info@mainau.de
the church of the abbey founded by St Pirmin in 724 on Reichenau Island, the largest in the lake, which with its three churches has been a World Heritage Site since 2000. In the ninth century more than a hundred monks lived here, and the finest illuminated manuscripts of the time were painted here, today in UNESCO's Memory of the World. The church has the crossing of 816, the westwork of Abbot Berno, consecrated in 1048 in the presence of the emperor, and the Gothic choir. In the treasury are the reliquaries that the islanders still carry in procession, among them the shrine of St Mark of 1305. The island is joined to the mainland by a causeway of 1838, and it is one big vegetable garden: salads, tomatoes and cucumbers under glass.
Opening hours all year from 9:00 to 17:00. Public guided tours only from April to October. The parish does not publish the winter opening hours and price of the treasury · +49 7534 995060 · reichenau-tourismus.de · info@kirchengemeinde-reichenau.de
the little church built after 888 by Abbot Hatto III, who had brought the head of St George from Rome and placed it in the crypt. On the walls of the nave, eight large paintings of the miracles of Jesus, discovered under the plaster in 1880, among the oldest of their kind north of the Alps: from around the year 1000, of the Ottonian period according to most scholars. From outside it is a small church in the middle of the vegetable fields. It is the one best seen in winter, because in summer it is closed.
Opening hours closed from May to September to protect the paintings, with guided tours only; from October to April open, but the winter opening hours are not published: phone the parish · +49 7534 995060 · reichenau-tourismus.de
the church with two towers at the western tip of the island, founded by Bishop Egino of Verona and consecrated in 799; today's basilica dates from the eleventh century. In the apse the painting of 1104-1105, in three bands: Christ enthroned with the symbols of the evangelists, the apostles, the prophets. Inside it was redone in Rococo style around 1750, white and full of light.
Opening hours all year from 9:00 to 17:00 · +49 7534 995060 · reichenau-tourismus.de
the island's museum, in four buildings. In the old town hall, one of the oldest half-timbered houses in southern Germany, the life of the islanders; in the new building, redone for the 1300th anniversary in 2024, the monastery, the monk Walahfrid Strabo and his little poem on the garden, and the illuminated manuscripts. Two small pavilions next to St George and Saints Peter and Paul explain the two churches.
Opening hours from 1 March to 1 November every day 10:30-16:30, in July and August until 17:30; from 2 November to 31 December 2026 only on Saturday and Sunday 13:30-16:30 · with the 2026 price list, 8 euros, from 6 to 17 years 4 euros · +49 7534 999321 · museumreichenau.de · info@museumreichenau.de
Konstanz has two festival seasons. In winter the Christmas market along the shore, with the illuminated ship in the harbour and, in the evening, the garden of lights on Mainau; then, in February, the Fasnacht, the Alemannic carnival with its wooden masks and the nightshirt parade. In summer the festivals are on the lake: the regattas, the concerts, the twenty-four hour flea market straddling the border, and in August the lake festival, with fireworks on both sides. The Klein Venedig Oktoberfest, after twenty years, is no longer held.
Next: Konstanzer Jazzherbst · 28-31 Oct
28-31Oct
Konstanzer Jazzherbst
at the end of October
the jazz festival of the Konstanz Jazzclub, four evenings of double concerts at 20:00 in the Wolkenstein hall of the cultural centre next to the Münster. A ticket for one evening costs 40 euros, the festival pass 85
19 Nov › 23Dec
Christmas Garden Insel Mainau
from mid November to early January
in the evening, Mainau becomes a garden of lights: a route of about three kilometres among the trees, the palace and the shore, with millions of lights, music and mulled wine stalls. It is open from 17:00 to 21:30, with last entry at 20:00, and you enter in half-hour slots, with a ticket bought online. In 2026 adults pay from 21.90 euros, Monday to Thursday, to 25.90 on holidays, children from 6 to 14 years from 15.90; up to 5 years entry is free, and on four evenings there is a family ticket at 39.90 euros, on 23 and 30 November and 7 and 14 December. It is closed on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. In the island's car park there is an area for motorhomes, and those who stay overnight pay 12 euros for the night on top of the 6 for the evening
19 Nov - 23 Dec · 25-30 Dec · 1-9 Jan
26 Nov › 23Dec
Weihnachtsmarkt am See
from late November to 23 December
the Konstanz Christmas market, with more than a hundred and fifty chalets from the Marktstätte along the shore of the harbour and the Konzil to the Stadtgarten. The chalets open every day from 11:00 to 20:00, on Friday and Saturday until 21:30, and the food and mulled wine stalls every day until 21:30. There is the 1897 carousel, the gnome village for children and the kiosk shaped like a fir tree. Moored in the harbour is the Weihnachtsschiff, the Christmas ship, with the bar on deck and the view over the lake, the Konzil and the market; the tourist board announces it for 2026 too. The glass is paid for with a 2 euro deposit. Entry is free. The market closes on 23 December, so it is not there on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day
27-28Nov
The other markets nearby
between late November and early December
two short markets, across the lake and across the border. In Meersburg, by ferry, a weekend at the end of November on the castle square. In Kreuzlingen, in Switzerland, on foot from the harbour, one Sunday in December the Gewerbe-Dörfli market on the main street, with the arrival of Saint Nicholas in the afternoon
27-28 Nov · 6 Dec
4-10Feb
Konstanzer Fasnacht
in February
the Alemannic carnival of Konstanz, from Fat Thursday to Ash Wednesday, with the cry "Ho Narro". On Thursday, the Schmotziger Dunschtig, it begins at 6:00 with the band's wake-up call through the lanes, then the masks free the schools and storm the town hall, and at 19:00 there is the Hemdglonker-Umzug, the parade in white nightshirts, which was born in the Niederburg. On Saturday the mask market on the Marktstätte, on Sunday at 13:00 the great parade of the guilds, for which the parade badge serves as a ticket, on Monday the children's parade, and on Tuesday evening the burning of the carnival. The best-known masks are the Blätzlebuebe, with a costume made of hundreds of little pieces of coloured cloth, like the scales of a fish
20 Mar › 9May
Orchideenschau
in spring
Mainau's orchid show, six weeks with more than three thousand orchids in the palm house, included in the island ticket
25Apr
The feast days of Reichenau Island
in April, in May or June and in August
the three days when nobody works on the island and children do not go to school: 25 April, St Mark's day, the Monday after Trinity Sunday, the feast of the Holy Blood, the most important, held this way since 1738, and 15 August, the Assumption, which is also the World Heritage day. After solemn mass at the Münster the islanders bring the reliquaries out of the treasury and carry them in procession around the island, with the historic civic guard and traditional costumes
to be confirmed25 Apr · 24 May · 15 Aug
22-24Jul
Sommerkonzerte Konstanz
in July
three evenings of open-air concerts, with big names in German and international music
13-15Aug
Fantastical Kreuzlingen
in mid August
Kreuzlingen's lake festival, three days on the Swiss harbour with concerts and a big fireworks display. It is separate from the Konstanz one, with its own ticket
14Aug
Seenachtfest Konstanz
in August
the Konstanz lake festival, one Saturday in August, with paid entry, between the Stadtgarten, the Konzil, the harbour and Klein Venedig, with fireworks set to music from three points, on the water, at the Konzil and at Klein Venedig; in 2026 for the first time there was also a drone show. The ticket is also valid on city buses. In the days before there is the Stadtgarten festival, free
11Sep
Kinderfest
in September
the children's festival of Konstanz and Kreuzlingen, in the Stadtgarten, with some fifty stalls and games, on the last Saturday of the summer holidays
This year's dates are not out yet
Bodenseefestival
in May
the lake's music festival, for three weeks in some twenty venues in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with a few evenings in Konstanz, at the Konzil and the theatre
Internationale Bodenseewoche
between late May and early June
the sailing week in the Konstanz harbour: regattas, vintage boats on show, shows on the water. In 2026 there were about a hundred and sixty boats
24h-Flohmarkt
in June
the twenty-four hour flea market, from a Saturday afternoon to the Sunday afternoon, with more than a thousand stalls from Klein Venedig and the harbour to Kreuzlingen, on both sides of the border, at night too. There is a children's market and a craft market
Konstanzer Musikfestival
in July
classical music and jazz concerts in the hall of the old monastery on the little island in the harbour, today a hotel, at 20:00
Konstanzer Weinfest
between late July and early August
the Konstanz wine festival, from Wednesday to Saturday on St Stephen's Square, with the city's associations and innkeepers. You get in with a wristband, which in 2026 cost 7 euros
Remember
Useful tips
In December the Europabrücke stopover is the only place in Konstanz to sleep for several nights, and it has no services: arrive with a full tank and empty at the coach station's service station next door, 12 euros. Before setting off, phone the city to find out whether it is open and whether your motorhome fits, because the maximum length is not published. Those who want electricity and water sleep at Meersburg and come to Konstanz by ferry, on foot too
The market is at its best in the evening, when the lights come on in the plane trees, and quieter on weekdays: on Friday and Saturday half of Switzerland arrives. It closes on 23 December
For the Mainau Christmas Garden the ticket is bought online, for a half-hour slot, and it costs less from Monday to Thursday; for families there are the four evenings at 39.90 euros. You can sleep in the island's car park, in the motorhome area, for 12 euros a night
By day, in winter, Mainau closes at 15:30 and children up to 12 get in free: the butterfly house, with its tropical heat, is the thing to see in December
Kreuzlingen is reached on foot from the harbour, by way of the Kunstgrenze. In the Seeburg park, on the lake, there is the castle of 1598 and, in the monastery granary, the lake museum, open in winter from Tuesday to Sunday from 14:00 to 17:00, with a family ticket; in the basilica of St Ulrich the Mount of Olives chapel has three hundred wooden figures
In Meersburg, by ferry, the old castle is open every day, including 24 December in the morning and 25 December in the afternoon, and on Advent Sundays at 15:00 there is the tour with mulled wine; the rooms are not heated, so wrap up. It costs 12.80 euros, and families get a 25 per cent discount. The poet Annette von Droste-Hülshoff lived and died there, in 1848. The new castle, of the prince-bishops, with Balthasar Neumann's staircase, opens only at weekends until 24 December
The Münster tower is closed in winter; the crypt with the golden discs and the Holy Sepulchre rotunda can be seen every day, outside mass times
On Monday the Rosgartenmuseum, the Hus house and the archaeological museum are closed, and on 24, 25 and 31 December and 1 January too; on the 26th they are open
On Reichenau Island, in winter, you can see St George with its paintings, which is closed in summer; the island museum in November and December opens only at weekends
When it is cold there is the Bodensee-Therme, the thermal baths on the lake at Staad, open every day from 9:00 to 22:00: three hours cost 16.50 euros on weekdays and 19 at weekends
On New Year's Eve, in Konstanz, fireworks are not let off over the old town: in 2025 there was a laser light show on the Marktstätte. The 2026 programme is not out yet
For the Fasnacht you dress up: on Thursday evening, for the parade, you go in a white nightshirt and nightcap
Konstanz · part two
and then?
What to taste, and where to go tomorrow.
Taste
On the lake you eat lake fish and drink the wine of the shore. Whitefish, the Felchen, is the fish of Konstanz, but since 2024 fishing for it in the upper lake has been stopped, to save it: catches had fallen from more than 1,200 tonnes in 1978 to 21 in 2022. It will be fished again, a little, from May 2027, two days a week. In the lower lake, towards Reichenau Island, fishing has not stopped. The lake's other fish is perch, which here is called Kretzer and in Switzerland Egli. Reichenau Island is one big vegetable garden, and its salads, lamb's lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers have had a protected geographical indication since 2008. The wine of the lake is Müller-Thurgau, crossed in 1882 by Hermann Müller, a botanist born in Tägerwilen, a few kilometres away, and smuggled to the German shore in 1925, four hundred vine cuttings in a rowing boat; then Pinot Noir, which also becomes Weißherbst, the rosé from a single grape variety. The Konstanz hospital winery has been making wine since 1225. The bread is the Seele, long and sprinkled with coarse salt and caraway. And the simple everyday dish is Dünnele, the thin flatbread that used to be baked in the bread oven: on Mainau, in September and October, there are Dünnele evenings.
the Christmas market in the Stadtgarten in the evening, with the big illuminated tree among the chaletsPhoto: -wuppertaler, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Christmas market lights hanging in the plane trees along the shore, one evening in NovemberPhoto: -wuppertaler, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the harbour Christmas market at night, with an illuminated ship moored next to the chaletsPhoto: Ramessos, Wikimedia Commons, pubblico dominiothe Christmas market chalets in front of the Konzil, among the pollarded plane treesPhoto: HaSt, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Christmas market on the Marktstätte, with the tree and the decorated façadesPhoto: HaSt, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the ship Stuttgart moored in the harbour as the Weihnachtsschiff, the Christmas ship, in December 2021Photo: JoachimKohler-HB, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Renaissance courtyard of the Rathaus in the evening, with the Christmas treePhoto: JoachimKohler-HB, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Imperia at the harbour entrance at sunset, with a catamaran coming back inPhoto: JoachimKohler-HB, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Konstanz harbour seen from the lake, with the Imperia on the pier and the Konzil on the rightPhoto: Patrick Nouhailler, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the Konzil seen from the lake, with its great roof and the spire of the Münster behindPhoto: Rufus46, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Konzil, the harbour and the lake from the Münster tower, with the Swiss Alps in the backgroundPhoto: JoachimKohler-HB, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Marktstätte with the Kaiserbrunnen and the outdoor tablesPhoto: Gerhard Giebener, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0the wooden display cases with the Jurassic ammonites in the Leiner room of the RosgartenmuseumPhoto: Arkelin, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0the Hus house in Hussenstraße, with the reformer's plaque on the façadePhoto: JoachimKohler-HB, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Schnetztor at the end of Hussenstraße during the Fasnacht, with the banner of the BlätzlebuebePhoto: JoachimKohler-HB, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the painted façade of the Rathaus, with its round-arched windows and gablePhoto: Tilman2007, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the façade and the tower of the Münster in the evening sunPhoto: Berlinaut, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Romanesque nave of the Münster with its Gothic vaults, looking towards the altarPhoto: Tilman2007, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Gothic cloister of the MünsterPhoto: Fb78, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the old town seen from the airship, with the Münster, the Rhine and the RheintorPhoto: Holger Uwe Schmitt, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0a lane in the Niederburg, with its narrow houses and a yellow corner housePhoto: Rizzo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0the Rheintor on the Rhine, with the promenade along the riverPhoto: JoachimKohler-HB, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Pulverturm on the Rhine, with boats moored in frontPhoto: JoachimKohler-HB, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Rhine bridge and the Rheintor lit up in the evening, seen from the bankPhoto: Konstanzer, Wikimedia Commons, CC0a boat in the archaeological museum, in front of the glass wall that looks out on the old town and the MünsterPhoto: Maimaid, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0two sculptures of the Kunstgrenze on the border, at Klein Venedig, with the lake behindPhoto: Dominic Venezia, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0Mainau seen from the airship, with the palace, the church and the bridgePhoto: Holger Uwe Schmitt, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the ginkgo in autumn next to the church of St Mary, on MainauPhoto: JoachimKohler-HB, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Italian water staircase on Mainau with the tulips, in springPhoto: Harke, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the Münster of Mittelzell on Reichenau Island, with the westwork and the Gothic choirPhoto: Rabanus Flavus, Wikimedia Commons, pubblico dominioSt George of Oberzell in the middle of the vegetable fields of Reichenau IslandPhoto: Drolexandre, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0the paintings of the miracles of Jesus on the north wall of the nave of St GeorgePhoto: Fb78, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the two towers of Saints Peter and Paul of NiederzellPhoto: Rufus46, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the rows of green and red lettuce in the vegetable gardens of Reichenau IslandPhoto: Gerhard Giebener, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0the old town full of masks and drums on Fat Thursday, the Schmotziger DunschtigPhoto: Ulitblaetz, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the lantern dance of the Blätzlebuebe, on an evening of the 2008 FasnachtPhoto: Ulitblaetz, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the Blätzlebuebe in their costume of little pieces of coloured cloth, at the carnival paradePhoto: Ulitblaetz, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the ferry from Meersburg arriving in Konstanz, with cars on boardPhoto: Celeda, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0Meersburg seen from the lake, with the old castle above the houses on the shorePhoto: Holger Uwe Schmitt, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
