Why Lake Constance is Perfect for Families

This was certainly the case for my family this July when Saul, our son James and I hopped on our saddles for our Family Lake Constance Bike Tour.

The beautiful route had everything we could have hoped for and we can vouch for it being a fantastic option for a cycling holiday if you have a young family. And if you have older kids who have a bit more pedalling in their legs, or you’re happy to take little ones in a trailer or child seat, then any of our other Lake Constance Cycling Holidays are every bit as enjoyable. Andy can attest to that, as he cycled our Lake Constance & Rhine Falls Bike Tour with his wife and 18 month old son back in June 2019.

Read on to discover 8 reasons why we think Lake Constance should be top of your list if you're looking for a superb cycling destination to keep you and the kids happy.

For more advice and recommendations from our team, enquire online or call us on +44 (0) 1273 224066 (Mon to Fri 9am to 5:30pm UK time).

The cycle route around Lake Constance or ‘Bodensee Radweg’ is one of the most well-established cycle networks in Europe. The vast majority of the routes are completely separate from any road traffic and are wide and sealed, which made it easy for me and Saul to relax and enjoy the cycling without fretting too much about our son!

The signposting also made for easy route finding with regular directions and distances to the next waypoints. The route is so well signposted that we didn't have to look at our route map once and we had the benefit of GPS tracks to refer to as well.

As you pedal around the lake, you'll find plenty of ways to keep the kids entertained. Children can clamber around in playgrounds, splash about in swimming pools and there are plenty of places to stop off for a well-earned ice cream too!

We were amazed by the number of playgrounds dotted along the route and of course our son James had to test every one. It's a great way to break up the distances into manageable segments and for kids to let off steam. 

One of the great features of our trip was the number of opportunities there were for swimming. There are numerous municipal lidos right the way along the route and you can always stop for a while and take a dip in the lake!

We managed to swim on every day of our trip. Our favourite moments included jumping into the Rhine, the waterslides at Rorschach lido and the simple pleasure of being able to enjoy a paddle in the lake.

The Family Lake Constance tour uses the excellent ferry and rail network to keep the cycling days manageable for all, while still completing a full loop of the lake. Needless to say, breaking the cycling up with fun ferry journeys is great for keeping children entertained, while trains are well equipped for taking bikes.

We never needed to take a train or ferry to shorten any of the stages because we enjoyed the cycling so much, but it was a great reassurance to know that we could have opted out of cycling on any of the days if our legs were getting tired.

More for the parents, you'll find a fantastic array of historical and cultural landmarks around Lake Constance. As you cycle through Germany, Austria and Switzerland, you'll visit the Lake Dwelling Museum with its reconstructed stilt houses above the water, the castles and baroque buildings of Meersburg and Langenargen’s Moorish-style Montfort castle.

The child in me still enjoyed cycling across the land borders - who doesn’t love the adventure of riding your bike from one country to another? We loved that we could tell which country our hotel was in by the style of the breakfast and whether there was a bottle of fizz in the morning (that's Austria and Germany by the way!).

There is so much to do around Lake Constance, you'll never be short of entertainment. As a bonus, tickets for the Rose Garden in Constance, the Lake Dwelling Museum in Unteruhldingen, the Zeppelin Museum and Ravensburger Spieleland in Friedrichshafen and the cable car up Mount Pfander are all included in the tour price!

Make sure you stop off at Mainau island and visit the butterfly house as we did on day two. It's an extraordinary world of huge, colourful butterflies and tropical plants. You'll also have the chance to break up the cycling with a fun day out at Ravensburger Spieleland, a child-focused theme park with everything from rollercoasters to mazes to a miniature Swabian railway.

There is a great range of bike hire options available for children of all ages and abilities. If you have younger children, you can opt for a child seat and a trailer so your little one can look around from the back of your bike or take a nap in the trailer if they're getting sleepy.

There are also ‘Tag-a-longs’ and ‘We-Hoos’ which attach to a parent’s bike but allow a child to sit upright and pedal. Then for older children who can get by on their own two wheels, there are kids bikes with 20, 24 or 26 inch wheels.

Travelling with kids can be stressful at times, but the journey to and from the tour couldn’t have been easier. We recommend taking a flight to Zurich where you'll be able to board a train from within the terminal for a one-hour railway journey into Constance.

Getting home with tired little ones is just as easy - on the way back, the check-in desk for our flight was about 20 metres from the train platform escalator!