Hello,
My wife and I (with our eight-month old son) will be staying in the Lake Constance area for two nights next week.
What are some of your suggestions for the best things to do/see, both historically as well as culturally? We will be renting a car, so there we have some flexibility with time and location.
Thank you!
We will be renting a car
So, Salem, the Reichenau (unesco world heritage site), and the Napoleon Museum in Arenenberg (combines with Konstanz or Stein am Rhein suggested above).
Where are you staying in the area for 2 nights? That might influence my suggestions even with a car.
Personally I like the towns of Lindau, Meersburg and Überlingen on one side of the lake. I recommend the Insel Mainau near the city of Konstanz and a few hours in Friedrichshafen if you want to visit the zeppelin museum.
We also enjoyed seeing storks nesting on rooftops in the village of Deisendorf. We enjoyed an evening at the outdoor opera, elaborately staged ON the lake at Bregenz.
What ever you do please spend part of a day going on the ferries that crisscross the lake from the above cities.
I like Lindau in good weather, it almost feels Mediterranean. Meersburg is a little more touristy but there is a funky old castle and old town to enjoy. Konstanz is OK but I'd prefer to stay in the other two. Fredrichshaven itself isn't super charming but it is home to the Zepplin museum - you can even take a ride on a Zepplin, although it's not cheap.
The garden island is Mainau is lovely in, again, good weather (we've been having strange weather lately so no guarantee of this next week). I enjoyed taking the boat from Meersburg to get there, but you could also drive. A friend of mine recently visited Sigmaringen castle, which isn't on the lake but it's not too far and he's been raving about it.
On our first trip we decided to drive around the lake - mistake. In addition to having to purchase the vignettes to drive in Austria and Switzerland (OK, we might have skipped the Austrian one) it's just not nearly as nice in terms of the towns to visit as the German side, and no view of the Alps.
I would go with Insel Mainau and Lindau. Agree with recommendation above to spend some time on the ferries that serve the lake. Lindau has a former church that was built in 1000 AD that is now a memorial to the town's fallen WWI and WWII soldiers. It's worth seeing (in addition to shops, parks, harbor, etc).
