One can­not deny it – becau­se of its pro­xi­mi­ty to Switz­er­land and its sta­tus as a tou­rist city, the city of Con­stance has a lot to offer when it comes to shop­ping. In addi­ti­on to the big fashion giants – H&M, Esprit & Co. – the­re are also many small and incon­spi­cuous shops with a gre­at atmo­s­phe­re, inte­res­ting con­cepts and exci­ting stories.

1. The LAGO shop­ping centre

The best known for shop­ping is pro­bab­ly the lar­ge shop­ping cent­re „LAGO” direct­ly at the sta­ti­on on the out­skirts of the old town of Con­stance. No mat­ter what you are loo­king for – here you will get ever­ything your heart desi­res. From ladies’, men’s and shoe fashions over food and drugs­to­re to a hair­dresser, restau­rant or cine­ma visit, here’s ever­ything. What’s the grea­test thing about LAGO – here you can spend a won­der­ful rai­ny day without being bored or wet. And the best of all: from the Gästehaus Centro you have reached the LAGO in just 3 minu­tes.

More infor­ma­ti­on about the LAGO shop­ping cent­re can be found here.

2. Dad­dy Cool – Find the right jeans for sure!

When it comes to jeans, we all have the same pro­blem – we only want the ones that fit and look good. But that’s often not easy. We ladies often have spe­cial requests and the gen­tle­men usual­ly just want to be quick, right? You can get both here at Dad­dy Cool.

As a real Con­stance backy­ard busi­ness – a litt­le incon­spi­cuous from the out­side – opens up a who­le world of jeans insi­de. Picking yourself a pair of jeans is pro­bab­ly impos­si­ble here – becau­se the­re is a huge selec­tion in all shapes and colours. For this, the con­sul­tants know every pair of jeans in the assort­ment and offer you, after a nice wel­co­me and a short con­ver­sa­ti­on, a selec­tion that is exact­ly tailo­red to your needs. You will be ama­zed how easy and satisfy­ing the other­wi­se annoy­ing jeans purcha­se is here!

You can find more infor­ma­ti­on about Dad­dy Cool here or in the­se two fun You­tube vide­os: Part 1 and Part 2

From the Gästehaus Centro, you’ll walk to Dad­dy Cool in 6 minu­tes.

 

3. Das Bücher­schiff and Osi­an­der – just right for bookworms

Sin­ce 1958, the fami­ly-run books­to­re of 290 squa­re meters is loca­ted in the his­to­ric Con­stance „Haus zum Affen”. This small, per­so­nal books­to­re invi­tes you to brow­se, but also con­cre­te wis­hes can be ful­fil­led here.

Alt­hough Osi­an­der is not a fami­ly busi­ness in Con­stance, it’s worthwhile to stop by Osi­an­der in the Kanz­ler­stra­ße. This is one of the three Osi­an­der bran­ches in Con­stance. The win­ding old town house has been exten­ded by a gla­zed new buil­ding and offers on three floo­rs many books, games and all sorts of inte­res­ting arti­cles on various cur­rent topics (for examp­le, on the the­me of „coo­king” or „gar­den”). The­re are also nume­rous small sit­ting are­as for com­for­ta­ble brow­sing and a nice café. In sum­mer, you can even make yourself com­for­ta­ble in the small gar­den behind the house.

More infor­ma­ti­on about the­se two books­to­res can be found here: Das Bücher­schiff and Osi­an­der Kanzlerstraße.

The Osi­an­der is a 4‑minute walk’s away from the Gästehaus Centro and 5 minu­tes from Das Bücher­schiff.

4. The chacha stores – fair fashion for men and women

The two chacha stores in Con­stance, one for men and the other for ladies, offer you a per­so­nal shop­ping expe­ri­ence. The boutique’s cha­rac­ter and the almost mini­ma­list deco­ra­ted stores with rela­xed-friend­ly ven­dors are won­der­ful­ly plea­sant if you want to escape the hust­le and bust­le of the LAGO and the lar­ge shops.

In addi­ti­on, chacha reli­es on fair brands such as „Arme­dan­gels” or „Skunk­funk” and also has many bags and access­ories from „Cir­cuit Trai­ning” in their assort­ment. It is only worth taking a look at the stores for the­se fasci­na­ting indi­vi­du­al pie­ces made from recy­cled gym­nastic mats and truck tarpaulins.

More infor­ma­ti­on about the chacha stores can be found here.

Wit­hin a 6‑minute walk from the Gästehaus Centro you will find the chacha-store MEN and 7 minu­tes to the chacha-store WOMEN.

5. The See­troll – the­re must be had a litt­le fun

If you don’t feel like shop­ping clothes and would rather have a bit of fun, the best place to go is the See­troll. Sin­ce 1993, this small games and comic shop in Con­stance and Fried­richs­ha­fen is at home and offers in con­trast to Mül­ler, Schi­nacher and Co. selec­ted by the employees them­sel­ves and exten­si­ve­ly tes­ted ran­ge of exci­ting games for all ages and all tas­tes. Here you get a very per­so­nal con­sul­ta­ti­on and will defi­ni­te­ly find some­thing that suits your interests.

Even if you are on table­top games or role play­ing games, you will find a wide selec­tion here. In addi­ti­on, the­re are always game events and the See­troll team have even desi­gned games by them­sel­ves. You see – here are real con­nois­seurs at work!

More infor­ma­ti­on about the See­troll can be found here.

In just 6 minu­tes, you’ll walk the­re from the Gästehaus Centro!

6. Zwi­cker Herrenausstatter

For the men among us (and accom­pany­ing ladies), it’s worthwhile to visit the oldest fami­ly-run fashion store in Con­stance in any case. In 1797 the com­pa­ny was foun­ded as a hat fac­to­ry, and in 1872 it beca­me the pro­per­ty of the Zwi­cker fami­ly. In 1972, the hat shop beca­me a men’s out­fit­ters and is still in the hands of the Zwi­cker fami­ly today.

Here’s still set to tra­di­tio­nal values: Each gen­tle­man is advi­sed indi­vi­du­al­ly, whe­ther his desi­re is „only” a simp­le white shirt or even a tailor-made suit. Of cour­se, the assort­ment its­elf always offers clas­sic and modern styles.

As a long­time local com­pa­ny, some anec­do­tes are also ent­wi­ned around the Her­ren­aus­stat­ter. For examp­le, the staff are said to have hel­ped a Ger­man pri­so­ner of war during the Second World War to escape. The trucks from Fran­ce with the pri­so­ners in the back of the truck stop­ped on their way to a wareh­ouse on the mar­ket place and a pri­so­ner, who ori­gi­nal­ly came from Con­stance, jum­ped out of the truck and ran into the shop. In no time at all, he was noti­ced and equip­ped by the employees and was thus able to walk out of the back door in a rela­xed and dis­gui­sed way.

Find out more about Zwi­cker and visit the ori­gi­nal shop in the Markt­stät­te – just a 2‑minute walk from the Gästehaus Centro.

7. The Eng­lish Bookshop

From the out­side very incon­spi­cuous and insi­de some­thing very spe­cial: the Eng­lish Book­shop in Con­stance. The owner Hil­le Cook and her col­league Ulri­ke Moser take care of your requests for Eng­lish-lan­guage books. They have approx. 15 000 tit­les in stock and you can order much more. From children’s books to the books on astro­phy­sics: there’s ever­ything. And the win­ding shop­ping area invi­tes you to brow­se through the books that you can­not get any­whe­re else in Constance.

Visit the web­site of the Eng­lish Book­shop – the­re are also reviews of new works to read!

In 4 minu­tes, you will be the­re from the Gästehaus Centro.

8. The Wine House Tree

Final­ly, some­thing for the gour­mets among us: the Wein­haus Baum is a local fami­ly busi­ness in the 5th genera­ti­on and advi­se you in terms of wine and spi­rits with uni­que exper­ti­se. Whe­ther you are loo­king for a wine, whis­key or grap­pa, for yourself or as a gift – here you are well and indi­vi­du­al­ly advised.

Inci­dent­al­ly, we recent­ly had a gre­at whis­key tas­ting with Katha­ri­na Baum at the Gästehaus Centro, which deligh­ted us with her exper­ti­se and the tas­ty whis­key varieties!

Take a look at the Wein­haus Baum.

You will be the­re in just a 5‑minute walk from the Gästehaus Centro.

 

Come to visit us and explo­re the many shops in Con­stance! We are loo­king for­ward to your visit.