Bavaria and Lake Constance: Neuschwanstein, the Allgau and Lindau

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Munich

   Munich Airport to your hotel in central Munich

   • Environ 45 min de route
   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Munich
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Munich Airport (MUC), about 40 km north-east of the city, where a driver meets you in arrivals for the transfer to a central hotel within walking distance of Marienplatz. Plan to land by about 3 pm if you want to join the first walk; the exact meeting time comes with your final itinerary. In the late afternoon your See Sight Tours guide meets the group and walks you through the old town: Marienplatz and the neo-Gothic New Town Hall, the twin domes of the Frauenkirche, and the stalls and beer garden of the Viktualienmarkt. It is an easy hour or so on foot, enough to stretch your legs after the flight and get your bearings. Over a welcome dinner of Bavarian dishes at a local restaurant, your guide runs through the week: what to wear on the Tegelberg, how the castle tickets work, and where the easy and active choices fall. Then sleep off the jet lag; tomorrow starts at a gentle hour.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Munich Airport (MUC)
   • Late-afternoon old town walk with your guide: Marienplatz, the Frauenkirche and the Viktualienmarkt
   • Welcome dinner

   Temps libre : Free until the late-afternoon walk

   Activité : About an hour on foot on flat paving.

2. Jour 2 : The Wieskirche and into Fussen

   Munich to the Wieskirche, then Fussen

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Fussen
   Détail du jour 2

   We leave Munich after breakfast and drive south-west for about an hour and a half as the Alps rise ahead. Our first stop is the Wieskirche, a pilgrimage church standing alone in a meadow, built between 1745 and 1754 by the brothers Dominikus and Johann Baptist Zimmermann and listed by UNESCO in 1983. The plain white outside gives no warning of the interior: white and gold stucco, a painted ceiling that seems to open to the sky, and light from every side. We stay long enough to sit in it, then have lunch together nearby. Another half hour brings us to Fussen, on the River Lech at about 800 m, where we stay three nights. In the afternoon your guide walks the group up to the Hohes Schloss, the late-Gothic castle of the prince-bishops of Augsburg with its painted courtyard, down through the lanes of the old town to the former abbey of St. Mang, and out to the Lechfall, where the river drops through a gorge. The evening is free.

   Compris

   • The Wieskirche, with time inside
   • Lunch together near the Wieskirche
   • Fussen old town walk with your guide: the Hohes Schloss courtyard, St. Mang and the Lechfall

   Temps libre : Evening free in Fussen

   Activité : About 2 hours of driving in two legs and about 4 km on foot, with a short climb to the Hohes Schloss.

   

3. Jour 3 : Neuschwanstein at the first slot

   Fussen to Hohenschwangau, Neuschwanstein and the Alpsee

   • Environ 15 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Fussen
   Détail du jour 3

   An early breakfast, then ten minutes to Hohenschwangau, the village below the castles, for the first timed tour of Neuschwanstein. Building began in 1869 for King Ludwig II, who lived there only a few months before his death in 1886. We walk up the road through the forest, about 30 to 40 minutes, while the day buses are still on the road, and see the castle with the morning light on its white towers. The tour inside takes you through the throne hall and the singers' hall, painted with scenes from Wagner's operas. Afterwards your guide takes you to the viewpoints over the Pollat gorge and down to the Alpsee, a clear mountain lake, for a walk along its shore below Hohenschwangau castle. By lunchtime, when the crowds peak, we are leaving. Lunch is your choice in Schwangau village, and the afternoon is free in Fussen: a swim in the Forggensee, the town museum in St. Mang, or coffee and cake. Dinner is free tonight too.

   Compris

   • Neuschwanstein Castle on the first timed tour of the day, tickets bought for you
   • The castle viewpoints over the Pollat gorge with your guide
   • Walk along the Alpsee below Hohenschwangau

   Activités en option

   • Hohenschwangau Castle, King Ludwig's childhood home, on a timed tour (price shown when you book)

   Option plus facile : Ride the shuttle bus or a horse carriage up to the castle and back, and skip the Alpsee walk for a coffee by the lake.

   Option plus active : Walk the full circuit of the Alpsee, about 5 km on a forest path along the water.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free in Fussen; dinner on your own

   Activité : About 3 hours on foot and 6 km, with a climb of about 150 m to the castle. Photos are not allowed inside Neuschwanstein.

   

4. Jour 4 : Up the Tegelberg

   Fussen to the Tegelbergbahn, the Tegelberg and back

   • Environ 15 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Fussen
   Détail du jour 4

   Mountain mornings are clearer than afternoons, so we are at the Tegelbergbahn valley station in Schwangau soon after it opens. The cable car lifts you to the top station at about 1,720 m in a few minutes. From the terrace you look down on Neuschwanstein from above, across the Forggensee and the flat Allgau foothills to the north, and back into the limestone peaks of the Ammergau Alps; on most summer days paragliders launch just below. Your guide leads a gentle walk along the ridge paths near the top, then we sit down to lunch at a mountain hut. After lunch the group splits. The active walkers go down on foot with the guide, about 900 m of descent over roughly three hours through alpine meadow and forest to the valley station. Everyone else rides the cable car down and takes a boat on the Forggensee, the lake below Fussen, before an easy afternoon. We meet again in Fussen, and the evening is free.

   Compris

   • The Tegelbergbahn cable car up, and down for those not walking
   • Ridge walk near the top station with your guide
   • Lunch at a mountain hut on the Tegelberg
   • A boat on the Forggensee for the easy group

   Option plus facile : Ride the cable car down after lunch and take a boat on the Forggensee, then a free afternoon in Fussen.

   Option plus active : Walk down from the top station to the valley with your guide: about 900 m of descent, roughly 3 hours, on a marked mountain path through meadow and forest.

   Temps libre : Late afternoon and evening free in Fussen

   Activité : Easy group: about 2 hours on foot near the top. Active group: add the 900 m descent; you need sure feet, boots or trail shoes and no knee trouble. If the weather closes in, the walk down is dropped and everyone rides the cable car both ways, or we stay low by the Forggensee.

   

5. Jour 5 : An alpine dairy and the Grosser Alpsee

   Fussen through the Allgau to an alpine dairy, then Immenstadt

   • Environ 1.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Immenstadt im Allgau
   Détail du jour 5

   We leave Fussen after breakfast and drive west into the Allgau, the green upland of meadows, wooden farmhouses and grazing cows between the Lech and Lake Constance. In summer many herds are up on the high pastures, and the cheese is made in the morning, so that is when we arrive at a working alpine dairy, which we name when we confirm your dates. Watch the milk warmed in copper vats and the curd lifted out in cloths for Allgau mountain cheese, then sit down to a tasting lunch of the dairy's cheese, bread and local dishes. In the afternoon we continue to Immenstadt, a small town at the head of the Grosser Alpsee, our base for one night. Your guide walks the group along the lake shore and back, about an hour and a half on level paths, or you can ride the Mittagbahn chairlift up the Mittag for the view across the lake. Dinner tonight is together in Immenstadt.

   Compris

   • Morning visit to a working Allgau alpine dairy, with cheese making
   • Tasting lunch at the dairy
   • Lakeside walk along the Grosser Alpsee with your guide
   • Dinner together in Immenstadt

   Activités en option

   • The Mittagbahn chairlift up the Mittag above Immenstadt (price shown when you book)

   Option plus facile : Take the shorter lakeside walk, about 3 km, or rest at the hotel.

   Option plus active : Ride the Mittagbahn up and walk the ridge paths at the top with your guide.

   Activité : About 1.5 hours of driving with stops, and up to 6 km on foot on level lakeside paths.

6. Jour 6 : Lindau, and a boat to Bregenz

   Immenstadt to Lindau, then by boat to Bregenz in Austria and back

   • Environ 1 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Lindau
   Détail du jour 6

   An hour's drive west through Oberstaufen and down off the Allgau hills brings us to Lake Constance and Lindau, an old town on a small island joined to the shore by a road bridge and a railway causeway. We stay two nights on the island itself. After a short walk past the painted Old Town Hall and along Maximilianstrasse, we board a boat from the harbour, passing between the stone Bavarian lion and the New Lighthouse, both from 1856, and cross the eastern end of the lake to Bregenz in Austria. Lunch is your choice in Bregenz. Then the Pfanderbahn cable car lifts us to the Pfander at about 1,064 m, where the whole eastern lake opens out below: Lindau island, the Rhine delta, Switzerland across the water and the Alps behind. Back down, walk past the floating stage of the Bregenz Festival on the lakefront, then return to Lindau by boat or the short train. The evening is free on the island.

   Compris

   • Lindau island walk with your guide: the Old Town Hall, Maximilianstrasse and the harbour
   • Boat from Lindau to Bregenz, Austria
   • The Pfanderbahn cable car up and down
   • The Bregenz lakefront and the festival's floating stage
   • Return to Lindau by boat or train

   Option plus active : Walk part of the way down from the Pfander through the forest to Bregenz, about 1.5 hours, with your guide.

   Temps libre : Evening free on Lindau island

   Activité : About 3 km on foot. Bring your passport for the day in Austria.

   

7. Jour 7 : Meersburg and Mainau by boat

   Lindau to Friedrichshafen, by boat to Meersburg and Mainau, then back to Lindau

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Lindau
   Détail du jour 7

   Today the lake does the travelling. A half-hour drive takes us along the shore to Friedrichshafen, where airships were first built, for a short walk on the lakeside promenade, then we board a boat west to Meersburg. Its old town climbs steeply from the harbour in lanes of half-timbered houses, with vineyards above. We reach it before the day boats fill the lanes, and visit the Old Castle, the medieval keep on its rock where the poet Annette von Droste-Hulshoff lived her last years, and the terrace of the baroque New Palace. After lunch together, a short boat ride crosses to Mainau, the garden island, with its arboretum, rose gardens, butterfly house and baroque palace. Spend the afternoon walking its paths at your own pace. Our vehicle meets us at the island bridge and brings us back to Lindau on the car ferry from Konstanz to Meersburg and along the north shore. The farewell dinner is on the island tonight.

   Compris

   • Friedrichshafen lakeside promenade
   • Boat from Friedrichshafen to Meersburg
   • Meersburg old town with your guide and the Old Castle (Burg Meersburg)
   • Lunch together in Meersburg
   • Boat from Meersburg to Mainau and entry to Mainau island
   • Car ferry from Konstanz to Meersburg on the way back
   • Farewell dinner in Lindau

   Activités en option

   • The Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen, for those who skip Meersburg's castle (price shown when you book)

   Option plus facile : Stay on the level paths and the lakeside terraces on Mainau; the island has benches and cafes throughout.

   Temps libre : Afternoon at your own pace on Mainau

   Activité : About 5 to 7 km on foot, with steep cobbled lanes in Meersburg.

   

8. Jour 8 : Lindau and back to Munich

   Lindau to Munich Airport

   • Environ 2.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   Détail du jour 8

   A last morning on the island: walk out to the lighthouse at the harbour mouth before the cafes open, when the water is still and, on a clear day, the Swiss and Austrian Alps stand sharp across the lake. After breakfast we leave Lindau at about 8:30 am and drive back to Munich, about 220 km and two and a half hours on the motorway through the Allgau and past Memmingen and Landsberg, with one coffee stop on the way. We reach Munich Airport (MUC) at about midday, and your guide checks you in for your flight before saying goodbye. If you are staying on in Munich, we drop you in the city centre instead. Book a flight leaving after about 2:30 pm. If you would rather fly home from Zurich, which is closer to Lindau, ask us when you book and we quote a separate transfer.

   Compris

   • Drive from Lindau to Munich with your guide
   • Drop-off at Munich Airport (MUC) or central Munich

   Activité : Book a flight leaving Munich after about 2:30 pm.

Faune et météo : June to September brings long days, open cable cars and full boat timetables; afternoon thunderstorms are common in the mountains, so we go up the Tegelberg in the morning. In summer the Allgau herds graze the high pastures, and some mid-September departures meet a Viehscheid as the cows come down.

• Munich1 nuit
• Fussen3 nuits
• Immenstadt im Allgau1 nuit
• Lindau2 nuits