Poster: A snowHead
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Looking at getting summer holiday sorted. Last summer we did a road trip to Mayrhofen and Zell, with a couple of nights in Lermoos to allow us to go to Area 47. It was one of the best summer holidays we have had in years, but conscious that pretty much every holiday for the last few years has been in Austria. Anyway, on the way to Lermoos from Reims, we stopped off at Uberlingen on Bodensee for some lunch. Was a really nice spot and got me to thinking that Bodensee could be a good place to spend at least 10 days in the summer - we will drive from Scotland.
Would ideally like somewhere with a bit of life about it, has the option to do some cycling and water skiing.
Will be going with 2 of our kids - ages 13 and 17.
Any ideas of towns that would be a good base to explore the area?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Bodensee is lovely but very traffic heavy.
A nice area is Bad Hindelang and Oberjoch further east along the Deutsche alpenstrasse. Plenty of outdoor activities on offer as well as day trips to say Bodensee.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Depends what you like doing really. I tend to end up using Bregenz as a base, and then either go hiking or MTBing up in to the hills straight from the town centre, or jump in the car and visit places like Liechtenstein. All 4 countries are easily accessible.
I think the lake is very very deep, and therefore quite cold, so some watersports may not be so popular. Sailing is big though.
Zeppelin museum in Friedrichshafen has been on my to do list for a long time.
Also has the bonus of being a mix of flat rhine valley as well as mountains, so attracts all kinds of cyclists.
My plan is to go there again, but explore a bit more in to the Bregenzerwald with the mountain bike.
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Quote: |
My plan is to go there again, but explore a bit more in to the Bregenzerwald with the mountain bike.
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@andy, yep, that's us too this summer, awesome place
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Thanks for the help folks. Did not realise the See would be cold - the Zellersee was 23 degrees in summer and absolutely lovely. Whilst I would love to do plenty of mountain biking, this is not my wife's bag at all, so gentle cycles along the lake would be our limit most likely. Would be good to go canyoning, which we did in Mayrhofen and loved. Also noted that Europa Park not too far away so would be good to go there/somewhere similar
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I can definitely recommend the area for summer breaks. As people said above, the "ideal" base depends exactly what you want, but if a small city is OK then I quite like Konstanz (studenty feel, plenty of bars/restaurants, quick to get out to other places by train/boat). It's a bit cheaper than Bregenz (which I would also recommend) or some of the more "resort"-like places in Germany. It's also a big centre if you're into sailing. There are plenty of flattish cycle paths anywhere in the area around the lake, and the Bregenzerwald is good for MTB.
Getting around the area is really easy by train, so there's no need to buy the motorway vignettes for AT or CH. You will probably get a local rail pass if you stay in a hotel in the area, but if not, there are some very cheap group tickets on Deutsche Bahn (look for Schönes-Wochenende Tickets or the Baden-Württemberg Ticket on www.bahn.de).
Friedrichshafen is not as picturesque but is a nice town with the excellent Zeppelin museum, and it's worth popping into Lindau.
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@boabski, Get yourself across to Arlberg, there's so much to do there, St Anton in summer is awesome, great walks and swimming/ lakes etc, and festivals etc. We base ourselves there and drive around, so much to see in an hours drive max. Great for kids too, lots of outdoor activities, climbing/ tree go-ape type stuff etc.
I'd personally avoid Bodensee, too busy (and expensive for me in summer), chilling in the mountains is much more appealing.
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There are plenty of places to visit around the Bodensee shoreline (including destinations in Germany, Switzerland and Austria) and most can be reached on the fantastic lake steamers by means of voyages lasting anything from around 30 minutes to around 3 hours. We spent a few days in Konstanz, which makes a good base - it's a reasonable size town with restaurants, choice of accommodation, shops and a good location for the steamers. Bike hire is popular and available in lots of places. For example, we took a boat to the island of Reichenau and explored it on bikes which we hired from the landing station office where they sell boat tickets. We saw lots of people doing the full bike circuit of the Bodensee - there's a dedicated cycle route right around it. From memory it's around a week's ride, but you'd need to check that. The only disadvantage is that it can be wet, even in summer.
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@boabski, try cycling round it and camping.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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We went there a couple of times 2 years ago:
1. A night on the way out to Austria when we stayed in Lindau. This was a very pretty town for an evening/morning.
2. On the way back we had a night in Bregenz and went to the Opera. Have a google for Bregenz Festspiele. You'd probably have to buy tickets in advance (we did) and it was a fantastic evening. We saw Turandot (famous for Nessun dorma) and the sets, built onto the lake, were stunning. There is also a fab swimming pool place on the lake where we spent an afternoon.
HTH
Rob
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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boabski wrote: |
Thanks for the help folks. Did not realise the See would be cold - the Zellersee was 23 degrees in summer and absolutely lovely. |
The Zeller See heats up because it's relatively shallow at only 60m at it's deepest point. Presumably also why it freezes 'relatively' easily in winter in cold calm weather. My other experience of deeper Alpine lakes in summer have been more of an endurance than a pleasure
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It's usually early summer when I'm in Bregenz, so the opera stage/set in the lake is usually being built or just built. You can wander through and check it out at any time when nothing is on. Quite impressive.
Would not want to be there if (when) a storm blows over the lake. Doesn't last long, but you know it when you see it.
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