Königssee is technically in Germany, but only about a 45-minute drive outside Salzburg, Austria and we decided to make a day trip to see the beautiful lake. Königssee or the “Kings Lake” is a stunning alpine lake with steep mountainous walls. There are no hiking trails that circle the lake, so the best way to explore is via electric boat. Our Königssee day trip took us through beautiful countryside, across a clear blue alpine lake via electric boat, and to alpine beer garden. Keep reading for my recommendations of which dock to get off at first, where to sit at on the boat and more.
Getting to Königssee from Salzburg
For our Königssee day trip, we headed straight to the lake in the morning. Try to get there before 10 am, because it was already very busy when we arrived at the dock. It took us about 45-minutes to drive there from the Villa Von Trapp. It is possible to visit the lake by bus, which you will take one to Berchtesgaden (a nearby cute small town) and then board another bus to Königssee. The drive was gorgeous and not too difficult as it lead us into the mountains along a creek and through some smaller towns.
There is a giant parking lot that you can park for the day. Definitely get an all-day ticket if you are going to be riding the boats because there may be lines to get on the boat on the way back. Day tickets for parking are about 6 or 7 euro. To get to the main docks, it is about a 5 or 10 minute walk through a vendor-filled street.
At a Glance:
- Rating: 3 (out of 4) stars – would definitely do it again, but would also like to check out other lakes in Germany and Austria.
- Intensity: Cute outfit with walking shoes
- Location: The Southeast corner of Germany, 45 minutes from Salzburg
- Cost: 21.50€ round trip boat trip price, 6€ for parking
- Timing: 4 – 6 hours
Highlights:
- Brilliant blue lake with steep mountains surrounding it. Church looks like it’s floating on the water and beer garden available.
- Crew member plays the trumpet, so you can hear the echo from one side of
- Beautiful and short 45-minute drive from Salzburg
Lowlights
- Popular destination for local tourists and families – most understood the jokes our boat tour guide was saying (only in German).
If you are doing the boat ride (highly recommend!), there are two stops along the route – St. Bartholoma and Salet. It takes about 30 minutes to get to St. Bartholoma and another 20 minutes to get to Salet. St. Bartholoma is an incredible baroque church that looks like it is floating on the water and this stop is also where you can grab a traditional German lunch and enjoy the beer garden. Salet is the second stop with another restaurant and a 30-minute round trip walk to a second lake – Obersee. Obersee is much smaller, but beautiful in its own right and allows you to see more of the surrounding area. I recommend going to Salet and stopping at St. Bartholoma on the way back.
Electric Boat Ride
Buy tickets at the well-marked ticket counter. There is one more ticket counter at the St. Bartholoma stop, but it was easiest to get our round trip ticket to both stops all at once. Your ticket will have you dock number for your boat. Use the restroom before buying your tickets because unless you specify, they will assign you the soonest departing boat. We went straight to our boat had had our pick of seats and waited for probably another 10 minutes before departing. I recommend sitting on the right side of the boat, so you can get a really great picture of St. Bartholoma.
The boats hold about 60 people and there were a lot of boats on the lake! The busyness and crowds surprised me because it was mid-October when we went, but it was also a beautiful day for locals to get outside. When we took off, the boats were silent. We were gliding effortlessly across the lake in no time at all.
Part-way across the lake, the boat stops and one of the crew members plays a trumpet for everyone to hear the echo against the tall walls surrounding the lake. I have never heard 60 people so silent when the trumpet played. There is a rumor that you can hear 7 echos of the trumpet, but I only hear maybe two. It was still great! The trumpet player walked around with a hat for donations afterwards. I think we gave some change…? Another crew member described the lake and joked, but only did so in German, so we did miss out on a bit of fun.
Walk to Obersee
Three quarters of our boat’s passengers got off at the first stop of St. Bartholoma. We continued on to Salet and a walk to Obersee. The tall ridge-line and late time of year meant that much of our path and part of the lake was already in shadow at 12:00 pm. It was unseasonably warm for the time of year that we went, but still chilly in the shade. I wore regular city boots and a blouse, which turned out to be perfect because the trek was much more of a walk with gentle rolling hills than a hike. Obersee is cute, but also crowded as there are a limited number of places for people to go.
During the walk, I got a better view of surrounding mountains and scenery. Personally, I enjoyed the opportunity to stretch my legs and see more of the area, but if you are short on time, you can skip Obersee and still feel like you got to see most of Königssee.
Biergarten at St. Bartholoma
We were quite parched and hungry by the time we got to St. Bartholoma, so we decided to have lunch at the restaurant and biergarten. It was a HUGE biergarten and packed! We made our way to far side of the area, where we could have a view of the green grass and alpine peaks. I had spinach dumplings (vegetarian, but not vegan), which were delicious and filling – both of which surprised me for being a busy tourist attraction.
The Biergarten is also where I discover the Radler. Since beer is not my favorite beverage, I was a little nervous going to Germany. But there was no need to worry because the Radler is available at nearly every establishment. It is a mix of light beer and a sparkling lemonade like Sprite. Sounds gross, but it was refreshing and amazing! I loved it and my mom loved sneaking portrait mode on me drinking a beer – LOL!
You can also bring food and enjoy a picnic on one of the lawns at this stop or take a walk along the shore. This stop is also where some of the ridge line bigger hikes begins or return as we saw some people outfitted with hiking/camping gear getting on the boat. Check out the St. Bartholoma, a church built in the 1100’s and remodeled in the 1500 – so impressive!
Pairing Königssee with the Eagle’s Nest.
We originally hoped to pair our Königssee day trip with the Eagle’s Nest, which is was one of Hitler’s outposts. Unfortunately, we did not pay enough attention to the timing. To get to the Eagle’s Nest, you have to take a special shuttle from a parking lot. This would not be an issue, except that at the time of year we were visiting (mid-October) and the shuttle ends it services at 4:00 pm. The electric boats are not fast and we did have to wait about 15 minutes to catch a boat back to the starting dock from St. Bartholoma, which put us back at the car around 4:00 pm – whoops.
Instead, we headed to downtown Berchtesgaden to take a town walk. The town of Berchtesgaden is darling and we found a bakery, where we had a late-afternoon slice of cake and did a bit of souvenir shopping. We also found a pizza place that sold us a 12 euro pizza that we could take back to our place. It was great to stay in and relax after long and beautiful day.
Overall thoughts: Königssee Day Trip
Our Königssee day trip was lovely and long. I loved that we got to explore more of the Austrian/German countryside and see a beautiful lake. Though I do wish we would have started our day earlier, we made the best of it by enjoying our time at Königssee and Berchtesgaden. Königssee is a taste of what kind of gorgeous lakes are in the region and I know in my heart that I will go back to the Lake District of Austria and go lake-hopping the next chance I get!
What alpine lake do you think is the most beautiful? Let me know in the comments, because I am always down to search out alpine lakes around the world.
Happy Travels,
Hanna
