St Gallen tourist information & hotel reservations.

We warmly welcome you to visit St. Gallen and wish you a wonderful vacation.

Sankt Gallen is located 85 kilometers east of Zurich, 156 kilometers east of Basel and 15 kilometers south-west of Rorschach. The resort is situated at 660 meters elevation and its belonging valley is among the most popular places in the north-eastern part of Switzerland. From St. Gallen you can easily explore Lake Constance, Mount Säntis, and the Appenzell countryside. The first settlement in the place of today’s St. Gallen was founded by the Irish monk Gallus in the beginning of the 7th century. The village became an important cultural centre during the 13th century as well as a free imperial town. Sankt Gallen became part of the Swiss Confederation in 1454 and now has a population of around 75 000 people and is the capital of a canton.
Saint Gallen is popular in Europe for the production of embroidery and lace. The dressmakers in the town needed a year and a half in order to make the lace gown of Empress Eugénie – the wife of Napoleon III. There are still some hand-made items in the town.
From there you can also visit Freudenberg (3 kilometers away), where at an elevation of 900 meters you can enjoy some perfect views of Mount Säntis, St. Gallen, and Lake Constance.

St Gallen Old City

The Old City is perhaps the place you should definitely not miss in Saint Gallen. You will walk along narrow streets from the middle ages and see half-wooden houses with lithe towers and oriels.
The Benedictine monastery at Klosterhof was not affected by the successful Protestant Reformation in St. Gallen. There you can still visit the bishop's residence, the abbey library, and the canton's government offices. In the area you can also see the Domkirche. Some of the walls of the buildings are ruined, but the still preserved ones date from the 17th and the 18th century. The best view of the monastery is from the yard of the abbey – Klosterhof. You can reach it from Marktplatz in St. Gallen’s centre by walking along Marktgasse, after the St. Lawrence's Church.
For the sport-lovers there are numerous facilities in Sankt Gallen, including tennis courts and swimming pools. If you like golf you can go to Waldkirch Golf Park, only 4 kilometers away. You can reach it by following the signs to Gosau. The region is relatively flat and you can hire a bicycle from the train station. From the tourist office you can learn some good trails for riding it.
Experts in climbing usually don’t go Saint Gallen because the area around it is rather flat. But those who are not in shape or are simply beginners can take the 8 kilometers trip, which will show them all the beauties of the curvy lands around the town. You should start by taking bus number 5 from the centre of Saint Gallen to the nearby village of Reithüsli. From it you will climb atop a hill, called Bernegg with a great view of the Bodensee. There you can have lunch in the nice Falkenburg Restaurant with its famous dried beef and stews. From Bernegg you can walk to Drei Weiher (a mile away), which consists of 3 lakes, suitable for swimming. From there you can go back directly to St.Gallen or return back to Reithüsli. The whole trip is going to take from 4 to 6 hours depending on your pase.

Stiftsbibliothek (Abbey Library)

The library is located at Klosterhof 6 and offers around 130 000 books. Some of them are from the 8th to 15th century and contain well-preserved illustrations from the Renaissance period. The hall of the library is in rococo style with beautiful paintings on the ceiling and wall decorations. You can also see a plan of the Abbey from the beginning of the 9th century.

St Gallen Domkirche (Cathedral)

This cathedral is located at Klosterhof and with its twin towers represents a perfect sample of baroque architecture. It was built in 1756 in the place of a gothic abbey from the 14th century. Don’t miss the east side of the cathedral with the altar – probably its most amazing architectural feature.

St Gallen Transportation

Sankt Gallen is located on the train connection between Zurich with Munich. There are many trains from both cities and the trip from Zurich lasts about 75 minutes. From St. Gallen you can take other trains to several places in the area.

In addition to the train connections, there are many buses travelling across the region. By bus you can get also to remote places like Rorschach and Appenzell and many others nearby villages.
If you are driving from Zurich you should go east along N1 (known also as E17).

Visitor Information
You can find the Tourist Office of Sankt Gallen at Bahnhofplatz 1A. It's open from 9am to 6pm during the week and on Saturday from 9am to noon.

For flights, trains and car-rental reservations as well as for buses, coaches and taxi ski transfers refer to the general Switzerland Transportation page!