This apple themed trail in eastern Switzerland loops around a small farming village, passing by thousands of apple trees and idyllic country landscapes. It’s best to visit either in spring for the apple blossoms (as we did) or in fall for the apples when you can taste the fruit at different farms.
Along the way, there are 24 signboards with interesting information about apple growing, particularly in the Thurgau region. Many of the stations have a fun activity for the kids to help keep them moving along the trail.
There are three sections of this trail, from 2 to 4 km long, which can also be combined into one longer trail. We tried all of them and liked the 4 km one the best, which we describe in detail below. We did this trail as part of a longer bike tour, which I describe in more detail in this post.
| Location: | Thurgau, northeast Switzerland |
| Address: | Altnau train station – Freietstrasse 2A, 8595 Altnau |
| By car: | Metered parking at Altnau train station 1hr from Zürich |
| By public transport: | Altnau train station 1hr25 from Zürich |
| Trail: | 4 km by foot, about 2 hours (shorter and longer options below) 28 km by bike, about 4 hours (details below) |
| Elevation: | highest point 500m, 80m up, 80m down |
| Condition: | paved, bikes and strollers ok |
| Skill: | easy |
| Open: | best April-May for apple blossoms, Sept for apples |
| More info: | thurgau-bodensee.ch • webcam |
Overview of trail
This trail is located in northeast Switzerland near the Bodensee (aka Lake Constance).
This trail has three sections as shown on the map below – red “Lisi” 4 km, green “Emma” 3 km and yellow “Fredi” 2 km. We did all the sections (research!) and overwhelmingly preferred the red “Lisi” section. Those sections are fine if you want to walk longer, but not at all necessary.
Here is the trail map for the red “Lisi” section, almost 5 km including the exta bit to to the train station. Since this trail is on a hill, I recommend starting at the top and walking downhill. Your best option is to ride the bus from the Alnau train station to the Altnau, Kirche bus stop. Then follow the red Lisi trail, ending back at the train station. The bus from the Altnau train station to Altnau, Kirche runs once an hour on the xx:36, but not on Sundays or holidays.
Longer option: If you miss the bus or prefer not to take it, then you can add the green or yellow trails to the red one to make a loop (see a trail map of this). I prefer the green trail over yellow, because it is mostly on the edge of the village near the orchards. The yellow trail follows streets through the center of the village, not the best in my opinion.
Bike version: The flyer for this trail suggests that it can also be done by bike, which makes sense because the Thurgau region is an extremely popular area for cycling. So I decided to combine the apple trail with a bike ride around the region, which ended up being a great choice. We started in Kreuzlingen, rode to Altnau and rode down the red Lisi trail, then rode back along the lake to Kreuzlingen, about 25 km round trip. See details for the bike trip here.
Getting to the trail
Either by car or public transport, your destination is Altnau train station. If you came by car, there is metered parking at the train station (Freietstrasse 2A, 8595 Altnau) or at the nearby boat dock (Hafenstrasse 4, 8595 Altnau).
You can simply walk to the trail from the train station, about 500m to the start of all three trail versions at the junction of Bahnhofstrasse and Zeigli (see on map). However, I think this is a wasted effort, particularly with kids. Plus I think it’s more enjoyable to walk downhill.
So I suggest starting by riding the bus to Altnau, Kirche and walking the trail backwards, which makes no difference to the enjoyment of the trail. From Altnau, Bahnhof, the bus runs hourly on the xx:36 to Altnau, Kirche, about a 4 min ride. It does not run on Sundays.
If you prefer to walk first (uphill), you can catch the bus at the end of the trail at Altnau, Kirche. The bus runs Mon-Sat hourly on the xx:12, a 7 min ride. It does not run on Sundays, so you’ll have to walk back to the train station, a 2 km walk, about 30 mins.
When to go
If you want to catch the apple blossoms, best to go between late April and mid May, but of course the season can vary with the weather. For apple harvest, best to go in September, when you can sample fruit grown right here.
Food along the trail
One fun part of the Apfelweg is the farm stores along the way. In May, everyone is selling locally grown strawberries, which are very flavorful and super delicious. Definitely get some of these.
I got a yummy fresh apple bread from Eberle’s Hofladen near the Altnau, Kirche bus stop (Riggenlohstrasse 1, 8595 Altnau). This farm store has lots of apples, fresh veg, cheese, dried meats, syrups and other farm products. You could pay with cash or card and a worker was in the store to take your payment.
We also stopped at the Feierlenhof Hofladen, which is self-service. You can pay with cash dropped into their cash box or with Twint. They had ice cream, which all the kids were having as they stopped by. I got Sussmost (apple juice) and strawberries. They had cold drinks, a coffee machine and farm products like dried apples, teas, syrups, honey, jams, etc. You can enjoy your refreshments on the picnic tables where hikers and cyclists were taking a break.
Photo story of the trail
Starting the trail
We rode our bikes here and started the red trail near the Altnau, Kirche bus stop at the top of the village.
The trail is marked with color coded signs as shown below and colored stripes around poles that you also see here. More often you’ll just see the color stripe, which is a little confusing because it doesn’t point in a direction, just indicates you are going the right way. I was happy to have the trail on my phone, otherwise we would have gotten lost a few times.
Just as we started there was this farm shop, selling fresh hand-made apple bread. Sorry I didn’t take a pic but it was so delicious, I ate before I could photograph it.
They sell apples of course.
Now on the trail, with our first activity stations. Each has an educational signboard then sometimes an activity to go along with the theme.
Here you learn about different apple varieties grown in the area and sort the pictures of the life stages of an apple.
Here we learn that this area also grows mini kiwis. They had a selfie station with a stick to hold your phone so you can set a timer. We happily obliged.
A memory game to learn all the fruit produced in this region.
Feierlenhof – Farm Store
After about 10 mins walking, you reach Feierlenhof, another farm store.
They have a self-service coffee machine, cold drinks including Sussmost, fresh bread, and lots of farm products like honey, apples tea, and biscuits. You can pay with Twint or put cash in the cash box. It’s the honor system.
We were excited to have the first Swiss strawberries of the season. My son had ice cream.
There’s a slide for the kids.
Walking by the apple orchards
We were there in the middle of May. Some trees were fully green and done flowering, some were covered in blossoms, others were just starting. The blossom season varies but generally goes from late April through mid May.
My son enjoyed this paddle game, trying to get the ball to drop straight through the hole.
The trail turns into the forest briefly.
Nice to cool off in the shade.
A little picnic area on the edge of the forest. There was wood to use for the grill.
Such nice paths along the trees.
Great views down to the Bodensee, aka Lake Constance.
We were glad to be on bikes. There are some long stretches on the road without any trees.
The rapeseed fields were bright yellow and maybe my favorite part of the outing.
Snowcapped mountains in the distance.
Let’s get a close up!
In this activity, you configure the movable pieces to look like a crazy apple tree.
So many pretty flowers.
Here you have the other person guess which tree form you are making.
Farms are so pretty when you don’t have to work on them.
End of red trail, start of green trail
Here we reach the “start” where all three trails meet up. See the yellow, red and green on the sign. Although it was rather quiet on the trail, this intersection was strangely busy, passing quite a few bikes and walkers heading in different directions.
The green trail start on this long straight road leading to more orchards.
Activity matching the fruit to the dessert.
The green trail passes by lots of trees, but somehow not quite as pretty as on the red trail. More of the green is through then village as well instead of on open land.
At the top of the hill, you meet the bike path, which we took to get here. At this station you learn how much fruit is produced in the Thurgau region – a lot!
There’s a nice shady picnic area.
On the left you see how high you can stack the “apple” rocks, surprisingly fun. On the right, you combine colors tomake your own unique apple shade.
The green trail ends back at the Altnau, Kirche bus stop where we started the red trail. From here you can catch the bus or walk on the yellow apple trail down through the village on this road shown here. Since we were on bikes, we rode through town to join the Route 2 by the lake.
Well, I hope you do this trail and enjoy it as much as we did. I think we’ll go back in fall for some apple tasting.
6 responses
Hi,
At the end of this September, I’m traveling. Any info on Apple picking permission?
Can we still see Apple at the end of September or early October?
Hi. Usually Altnau hosts a two week apple festival in the second half of September but I can’t find any current info on what might be happening. You might email the Altnau tourism office. https://www.altnau.ch/altnauer-apfelwochen
This is very interesting. Thank you so much for sharing this. Is picking apples permitted while on the Trail?
Hi. Last time I went, apple picking was not allowed in the orchards, which are privately owned. I would contact the local tourism office to ask where you can pick apples in this region.
Thanks for your detailed research. This sounds fun and yummy. Is this trail all paved? Could we walk it (downhill) pwith a stroller?
Sorry for the late response. Some of the paths are paved but some are dirt. An all terrain stroller would be fine on all of it.