Lake Königssee: what makes it special and what that means for your visit
A fjord with no lakeside path, and almost everything else follows from that.
Lake Königssee lies like a fjord between high rock walls in Berchtesgaden National Park. No road and no footpath run along its shore. To see St. Bartholomä or Salet, you take the boat, or you walk for several hours over the mountains.
The boats are electric and run all year, except when the lake freezes. Salet at the southern end is served only in the summer months. The published timetable is just a framework: in practice the boats run according to demand, every 30 minutes in bad weather and every 10 minutes on fine days in the holidays. In August up to 19 boats are in service, in January three to four.
Strictly speaking, not everything here is inside the national park. A comparison with the park boundary in OpenStreetMap shows that the lake itself, St. Bartholomä, Salet, the Obersee and the Röthbachfall lie inside the boundary, while Seelände with its ticket office and piers and the large car park lie just outside. That is why there is a village, a car park and a cable car valley station there at all.
Your own boats are not allowed. Because the lake lies in the middle of the national park, inflatable boats, canoes, SUP boards and air mattresses may not go on the water. If you want to row yourself, you can hire a rowing boat from the boat service at Seelände from mid-May to early October.
The famous echo is produced by the boatman playing a flugelhorn at the Echo Wall; the boat stops briefly for it. The boat service points out that this is a voluntary extra and may occasionally be left out.
The national park itself is free. You pay for the boat, for parking and for whatever you eat and drink. The pilgrimage church and the former hunting lodge at St. Bartholomä do not charge entry either.
Königssee boat service: questions and answers ↗
In numbers
- Length
- about 8 km (5 mi)
- Depth
- 190 m (623 ft)
- Obersee
- 1.3 km (0.8 mi) long, 51 m (167 ft) deep
- To St. Bartholomä
- 35 minutes one way
- To Salet
- just under an hour one way
- Boats in August
- up to 19
- Boats in January
- 3 to 4
- Röthbachfall
- about 400 m (1,312 ft)
