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Is the Bodensee Card Plus for Lake Constance Worth It?

When planning our trip to Lake Constance or the Bodensee I looked into getting the Bodensee Card Plus. This is the tourist card that is available in and around the area and covers the entire Lake Constance region. Of Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. With over 160 attractions offering free admission or inclusive services included it sounded very good value for money. However, I couldn’t work out if it would be good value for us. Running up to our holiday I was extremely busy with work and for one thing and another it got missed and I did not end up purchasing one.

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Is the Bodensee Card Plus for Lake Constance Worth It?

So after our 7 day holiday on the Bodensee I was keen to see if I perhaps should have been more organised. And indeed purchased a Bodensee Card Plus. Turns out that, what we wanted to do and what we ended up doing the Bodensee Card would not have worked out good value for us at all.

That’s not to say it would not work out good value for you. But I was very surprised that we would have been out of pocket by 180€ if we had purchased the 7 consecutive days card and €40 if we had purchased the 3-day pass. Despite the range of leisure facilities included. My intention was initially to purchase the 3 or 7-day version since travelling outside of peak season and with the weather being changeable. I knew we would need to be flexible with our plans and would have to adapt with it. So I was likely to have gone with the 7 day one which would have covered us for the entire duration of your stay,

After this rather startling discovery, I thought I would share our experiences. In as honest and fair way possible. From someone who is not working with the tourist board and so perhaps will give you some things to think about when making a decision for your holiday to Lake Constance.

The pros and cons of a Tourist Card

Don’t get me wrong we have brought tourist cards before. Some work out to be a complete no-brainer such as the Dubrovnik city card. But I do think you need to evaluate each on its merits. In theory, they should save you money. However, as individuals, we all have different preferences. Had we decided we wanted to spend more time on the lake or visit every museum going then it would have worked out better value for us. Even in the rain, the boys did not want to head to the museums every day. Which was a little disappointed as I quite fancied the Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen. And we were staying right next to the Pfahlbaumuseum Unteruhldingen.

A tourist card is a great way of seeing a lot of the main attractions. I often use the websites when planning, to narrow down the things that I would like to build into our itinerary. However, they may not cover everything. Therefore you do run the risk that you may miss something spectacular. A couple of the things we really wanted to do were not covered. This also means that you will need to budget additional money for those things.

I also find that when we buy a tourist card it can really shape our holiday. The focus moves very much to getting value for money. Rushing from one location to another. And not just enjoying some of the simple free things. Lake Constance has some beautiful villages on its shores. The Bodensee Card Plus offers tours of these as part of their attraction list. However, this is the boy’s worst nightmare and we are much happier exploring these places at our own pace.

What did we spend on attractions during our Bodensee holiday

Over our week-long holiday, we got up to a lot and touched on each of the four-country region. There is so much to do for the whole family it makes a great holiday destination. For this article, I have broken them down into different sections:

Things we did that were included in the Bodensee Card Plus

€30 – return family boat fare from UnterUhldingen to Mainau Island
€28 – Liechtenstein City Train
€12 – Liechtenstein passport stamp
€41.60 – Meersburg Old Castle
€30 – Bregnz Cable Car
€16 – Reptile House
€42 – entrance to see the monkeys at Affenberg Salem

Things we did that were not included in the Bodensee Card Plus

€51 – entrance to Maniau Island
€20 – entrance to the Rhine Falls
€ – boat ride on the Rhine Falls
8 CHF – Liechenstein Treasure Chamber
€11 – bus fare to Meersburg public transport is not included although the adventure bus is.
€11 – mini golf for the boys in UnterUhldingen
€20 – additional cost of the Treetop walk in the Black Forest

We also visited Neuschwanstein Castle and Hohenschwangau Castle. These are outside of the Bodensee or Lake Constance area and so I have not included these in the costs above. We also visited a few towns during our stay – Insel Lindau, Meersburg and Stein am Rhein.

How much does a Bodensee Card Plus cost?

You can buy either a three-day or seven-day Bodensee Card Plus. The three-day card costs €76 for adults and €46 for children over the age of five. Children five and under get a mini card if their parents have a card themselves. A seven-day card costs €121 for adults and €73 for children. This means that a card for us as a family of four, where the children are both over the age of five would have cost either €244 for a three-day card or €388 for the seven-day card.

How much did we spend on Bodensee Card Plus attractions?

We spent €202.60 on leisure activities that were included in the Bodensee Card Plus. Based on the prices above this means that we would not have saved any money with either option. Yet we were out exploring every day and often not back at the apartment until late most evenings.

If you are in the planning stages of your own Bodensee holiday then I would suggest ordering a Bodensee Card Plus booklet from their website. As they are available in English. We only found German versions in the tourist information offices we visited. The booklet also gives you the prices for each of the attractions so it is easy for you to work out your own calculations.

The Bodensee Card Plus

I do think that there are a number of reasons in particular that it did not work out as good value for us. These should be considered and how they may impact you as there are numerous advantages to a Bodensee Card.

Limited boat timetable

We visited over the Easter holidays in April. The season starts at the beginning of April so we were lucky that many of the attractions were open. However, it did mean that there is a reduced boat service running. Boats are expensive on the Bodensee. If you are going to get value from the Bodensee Card Plus then you need to make the most of the fact that either two or four days of boat trips are included with your card between April and October. This free travel really adds up and you can use it from the day of arrival if you would like.

There are also a number of specific cruises available. This will give you a lot better value for money. Unfortunately, the limited timetable really stopped us from using the boat more than once. It covers such a vast area that the journeys are long which then means you do not have very long at a destination. So it becomes much easier to drive. Especially this time of year when the roads are not full of holidaymakers.

If we return then we would most likely do a boat cruise when the weather is not so changeable and because we have seen a number of the ‘must sees’ on our list.

Limited public transport included

There is only one bus service available with the Bodensee Card Plus. However, we did find out about a card that your hotel should provide you as part of being overnight guests. Which allows free use of the bus network and city buses. Unfortunately, we did not find out about this from our hotel only the bus driver! This is the Bodensee ticket or guest card. I have written about this and other useful tips for holidaying on the Bodensee.

Distance

Lake Constance is huge. The Bodensee card covers all four countries and so trying to squeeze all the excursion destinations into three days is near on impossible. Although there are places and service partners where it can be used in all of them. We wouldn’t have been able to do that even with the limited number of things we did that fell within the tourist cards remit. When working out your own itinerary you need to take the distance between each attraction into consideration.

There were huge areas that we didn’t even get to. If we visit again then we would like to spend some more time on the Swiss side. At this point, I will run the calculations for those attractions and see if the Bodensee Card Plus makes sense. At that point, I will also update this post with my findings.

Personal choice

When we sat down and ran through a list of things to do – 50 Things to do on the Bodensee. The boys were not interested in museum visits. And to be honest not speaking German you do take a bit of a punt on being able to understand what is going on. Some attractions have things in English and others didn’t. I would hope most of the large museums would have something. However, the area is set up for German-speaking holidaymakers predominately.

Family tickets available

One thing to bear in mind when calculating if the Bodensee Card Plus is good value for you is that several of the tourist attractions will offer a family admission ticket. These work out cheaper for example the Vaduz City Train in the Principality of Liechtenstein was €28 for a family ticket and the reptile house €16. Both of these special prices represent savings on the individual prices quoted on the Bodensee Card Plus website.

Conclusions – Is the Bodensee Card Plus for Lake Constance Worth It?

For once I am glad that I was not super organised! It worked out much better for us on this basis for this trip. Do let me know if you have visited Lake Constance. I would love to hear about your experiences in the comments below. Or if you have used tourist cards in the past? Would you use them again?