APRIL 2023
Yay, I finally visited the Königssee! On our way back from our skiing trip in Austria, we went to this beautiful lake on two different days. However, we did encounter some setbacks. In this blogpost I will explain the good and bad about visiting a natural phenomenon in wintertime.
Practical information
If the weather allows, the boats ride the lake everyday. In wintertime the boat stops at St. Bartolomew’s church. In summertime the boat makes an extra stop at Salet. From St. Bartolomew and Salet you can do several hikes. The boat at Königssee has recently become a popular activity, so ticket prices increased to € 22 per ticket for the ride to St. Bartolomew. When you drive to Königssee, you will find the parking lot along the way, during winter parking was free. In the little village at the docks you will find restaurants and shops, it looks over touristy and it takes away from the beauty of the lake. I am sure this area is chaos in summer, when the boats come and go, but during winter it was agreeable. From the parking lot at Königssee you can also see the Jennerbahn, which is a skiing lift in winter and will take you to the observation platform in summer.
Not everybody does this but you can do a little hike to the lake, it takes about 15 minutes and I would recommend taking the lake in like this as well.
Our experience in winter time
I have heard that it can get really busy in summer time, so if you want to avoid the crowds winter is a good way to do that. We did a little hike to the lake and only encountered a few other tourists. When we wanted to do the boat ride the weather was predicted to be stormy (it was not) and the boat only made a small loop on the lake, instead of stopping at St. Bartolomew. We originally planned to do a hike from St. Bartolomew to an ice chapel, so were disappointed we had to cancel that plan. However, we were still grateful that we were able to get on the boat at all.
From the boat you can really experience the grandness of the lake, you will encounter some surprises along the way that I really liked. The boat ride itself is very pleasant, it is an electrical vintage-style boat and you are allowed to open the windows, which added to the fun. I think our boat was only filled with people for 25%, so that was very relaxed as well. In summertime the boat also stops at Salet, from which you can a hike to Obersee, which I heard is absolutely gorgeous. Obersee is where you will find the iconic tiny boathouse with the mountain backdrop… but it is not possible to go there in wintertime. Despite the bad weather predictions we had, we experienced the Königssee on a lovely day, I was a bit bummed out that we couldn’t do either hike, but it definitely was a relaxed visit.
