Friedrichshafen sits on the north shore of Lake Constance (Bodensee), about 160 km southwest of Munich, looking south across the water to the Swiss Alps. It has a relaxed lakeside character in summer, with a long promenade and regular steamer connections to Switzerland and Austria.
The town's defining identity is as "Zeppelin City." From 1900 until World War II, Friedrichshafen was the birthplace and manufacturing centre of the great rigid airships — Count von Zeppelin launched his first craft here over the lake in 1900. The Zeppelin Museum, one of the best aviation museums in Germany, traces the full story from those early flights to the Hindenburg disaster of 1937. A full-scale reconstruction of a Hindenburg section, complete with passenger cabins, forms the centrepiece.
Steamers cross the lake to Konstanz and to Romanshorn in Switzerland throughout the day in season. The lake itself is worth time — clean enough to swim in, ringed by vineyards, and backed by the Alps on clear days.