The island of Mainau is one of the biggest attractions at Lake Constance which never fails to amaze. The Botanical Gardens, which are open all year round, a Baroque Palace, one of the largest butterfly houses in Germany and individually designed adventure playgrounds are just a few of the highlights. From mid-March to the end of October, during the so-called Mainau Flower Year, the gardens await visitors with thousands and thousands of tulips, hundreds of rhododendrons, fragrant roses, perennials and colourful dahlias. Palm trees and citrus plants grant the island a unique Mediterranean flair not only in summer. In this blogpost, you now have three options on how to travel to Mainau Flower Island enclosed by Lake Constance near Konstanz in the western part of the Lake. If you are either travelling from Zurich, Lindau or Bregenz or just from Meersburg, there are ideal travel options for everyone. Preferably is, of course, an arrival by public transport.

How to get to Mainau Island in Lake Constance, the fastest journey possible

By car

The most direct way to get to the flower island of Mainau is, of course, by car. Depending on which direction you are coming from, you can either take the car ferry from Meersburg to Constance or drive around the lake. There is a large car park for cars and coaches directly at the main entrance on the land. Of course, parking facilities for electric cars are also available. The address for your navigation system is Mainaustraße, 78465 Konstanz. If you want to be on the safe side, you can find the exact location of the car park here on Google Maps.

The same directions, and address, are also valid if you plan on driving to Mainau by a two-wheeled vehicle (bike, motorbike, …), or even a camper.

By boat

A convenient but time-consuming way to get to Mainau Island is by boat. In the summer months, in particular, various scheduled ships sail from almost all across the Lake to the harbour of the Mainau. There are routes, for example, from Constance via Meersburg, or from Bregenz via Lindau, Friedrichshafen, Überlingen and so on, to the island of Mainau. It is best to buy the tickets for the ship either online or directly at the landing stage/sales point, as there are combined tickets including admission to the Mainau available. This saves you from having to queue and wait at the Mainau ticket office, in addition to a few euros. It should be noted that the boat docks directly below the palace, so you are right in the middle of the action. From the car park on land, you still have to walk about 500 metres to arrive at the famous flower island. So, an arrival by ship is certainly more convenient.

Further information on prices and departure times can be found on the website of the BSB, Bodensee-Schifffahrtsbetriebe (unfortunately there is no default English page available, here the German version of the website offering the cheaper Kombi-Ticket to Insel Mainau).

By bus

Getting to Mainau Island from Constance is fairly easy by bus. Bus line 4/13 takes just 16 minutes from the Konstanz Hafen harbour or railway station to the Mainau entrance on land. Departures are always at :00 and :30. The single-journey fare per adult is 2,50€, and 1,40 € for children (a day ticket is 4,90 Euro per adult and 2,70 Euro per child).

Further information (timetable, possible changes in fares,..) is available at stadtwerke-konstanz.de.

If you are coming from the direction of Zurich or Lindau/Friedrichshafen, it is also advisable to take the bus to Mainau from Constance harbour. From Lucerne via Zurich, the SBB (Schweizer Bundesbahn) connects Switzerland with Constance. From Lindau, it is advisable to travel by train to Friedrichshafen and then either board the “Konstanz Express Bus” or the catamaran Der Katamaran at the Zeppelin Museum at the harbour Friedrichshafen Hafen. All of the above options have Constance railway station (Konstanz Bahnhof) as their final destination, from where the bus to Mainau departs.