Swimming
in the lake

The Schliersee lies at 777 metres above sea level and is up to 40.5 metres deep, 23.9 metres on average. Even so, the surface water reaches up to 23 °C (73 °F) in high summer. The reason is its position: it is sheltered from the wind between the slopes, and the sun is on it all day.

The same sheltered position that makes the lake warm nearly killed it in the 1970s. More on that below. For you as a swimmer it means one thing first: the swimming season here usually starts at the end of June and lasts until early September, longer in a good summer.

If you come earlier or later, you can still go in if you like that sort of thing. In May and October the lake is clear and empty, the water is cold, and you have it to yourself. The two go together.

The shore path runs 7.4 km around the lake and stays by the water almost all the way. In many places you can get straight in from it, over meadows and gently shelving shores. That is the advantage of a lake where not every plot along the water is built on.

There are also managed bathing spots with a lawn to lie on, a kiosk and changing rooms. Which of them are currently open and officially registered as bathing waters is published by the municipality. We deliberately do not give a list here: opening times, operators and responsibilities change, and nothing is more annoying than a page that promises you an open gate that turns out to be locked. The address is below.

Our four holiday apartments at the Seeheimat have their own access to the water, straight from the garden. If you want to swim every morning before breakfast for a week, that is the place to stay. Stand-up paddleboards and two small kayaks are there for guests free of charge.

From the main house on the Xaver-Terofal-Platz it is four minutes’ walk to the water. That is close enough for a quick swim without making a plan of it.

In the 1970s the water was in a bad way. Despite a ring sewer around the lake, completed in the middle of the decade, the lake remained high in phosphates. The Burgundy blood alga multiplied so much that the water looked blood red.

The cause lay in the lake’s position: sheltered from the wind, and covered in ice for a long time in spring. Together these stopped the water from turning over naturally. A lake that does not mix separates into layers.

So in 1982 a linear compressed-air pipe was laid in both basins. It blows air into the depths, the rising column of bubbles draws cold deep water up, and in this way the whole lake turns over once every three to four days. A machine doing what the wind cannot.

Since then there have been no significant algal blooms and no fish die-offs. When you go in in summer, you are swimming in a lake that was nearly lost forty years ago and had to be repaired to stay what it is.

The lake belongs to the Free State of Bavaria and is managed by the Bavarian Palace and Lakes Administration. The valley around it is a protected landscape covering 17.54 square kilometres. Private motorboats are not permitted.

Rowing boats, sailing boats, pedal boats, electric boats from the hire and stand-up paddleboards are allowed and available. From May to September there is also the passenger boat, whose round trip takes forty-five minutes. Motor boats have been part of the lake since 1897.

In practice this means that when you swim you hear nothing but your own breathing and the occasional oar. That is the real difference from larger lakes an hour away, and the reason many guests who have been here once come back.

Not every day in July is a swimming day. For the others the village has the Vitalwelt, with an indoor pool and sauna, five minutes’ walk from the station and right next to the boat landing.

In our house six rooms have a sauna of their own in the room. No opening hours, no shared relaxation area, no waiting. If you come in October, when the lake is clear and cold, that gives you the sensible order: in the water first, then into the heat.

And if nothing else helps: the shore path works in any weather, and our restaurant is open all year.