Holiday home by a lake in the Eifel: possible at just 3 lakes

“By the lake" is not always “by the lake"

If you look for a lakeside holiday home in the Eifel, you almost always end up on booking portals. There, “by the lake" is used even when what lies between the house and the water is a country road and two kilometres. That is not dishonesty, it is filter logic: portals do not know the paths on the ground, only distances as the crow flies.

The difference shows in the morning. If you can walk down to the water before breakfast without getting into the car, it is a house by the lake. If not, it is a house near a lake.

So we prefer to say what can be measured: our homes are around 150 metres from the shore, a good two minutes on foot, with no road to cross. That is walking distance, but it is not “right on the water". If you are looking for a house whose terrace juts out over the lake, you will not find it here.

How rare that really is in the Eifel

This question can be answered without any sales talk. The Eifel has 13 officially monitored bathing waters, seven in Rhineland-Palatinate and six in North Rhine-Westphalia. What matters is what stands on the shore:

The three lakes with holiday homes are the Waldsee Rieden in the Osteifel, the Kronenburger See in the northern Eifel with a holiday park of 160 bungalows, and the Rursee, where individual properties sit within the established villages of Rurberg, Einruhr and Woffelsbach. The Kronenburger See and the Rursee are around 110 and 130 kilometres from here respectively, in other words at the far end of the Eifel.

And one finding that surprises many people: across the whole of the Vulkaneifel, with its four maars, or crater lakes, that you are allowed to swim in, there is not a single holiday home development on the shore. What you find there are campsites and bungalows on campsite grounds, but no detached holiday homes.

Why that is

This is not chance, it is law. In Germany there is hardly any scope left for building next to water:

• Riparian buffer strips: under the Federal Water Act, a five-metre strip along the bank applies outside built-up areas, with restrictions on how it may be used.
• Consent required near the shore: under the Rhineland-Palatinate State Water Act, structures need planning consent if they stand less than 40 metres from the shoreline of larger bodies of water.
• Nature conservation: the land around the Laacher See is the largest nature reserve in Rhineland-Palatinate at around 21 square kilometres, and it is a Natura 2000 habitats and bird protection area as well. At the Rursee, a national park and drinking water protection come on top.

So where holiday homes do stand by a lake today, they either date from before those rules or rest on a local development plan drawn up specially for them. Rieden is a case of the latter: the holiday village has been under construction since 2005, the council has around 100 houses planned, and a good 70 were already standing a few years ago.

For you as a guest, that means one thing above all: what is there is all there will be. No new holiday home areas will be created by a lake in the Eifel.

The big neighbour where you are not allowed to swim

The Laacher See lies around 13 kilometres away. At 331 hectares and 51 metres deep it is the largest lake in Rhineland-Palatinate, and it fills the crater of a volcano that last erupted around 13,000 years ago. Maria Laach Abbey, a Benedictine monastery, has stood on its shore since 1093.

Something guidebooks rarely spell out: swimming in the Laacher See is allowed only from the grounds of the campsite. The state bathing water portal puts it plainly, and so does the district authority in Ahrweiler. If you come to the water without access to the campsite, you can walk there, but you cannot swim. Dogs are not allowed into the lake either.

The same pattern applies to the maars: at the Gemündener Maar, the Pulvermaar and the Meerfelder Maar, swimming is limited to the campsite area, and at the Schalkenmehrener Maar to the council-run Maarbad lido. In the Weinfelder Maar and the Ulmener Maar swimming is banned altogether.

That makes the Riedener Waldsee one of only two bathing waters in the Rhineland-Palatinate part of the Eifel where swimming is not tied to a campsite. The other is the Waldsee Kruft, around 20 kilometres away, which has no accommodation on its shore.

What the Riedener Waldsee offers

The lake covers around four hectares, is eight metres deep at its deepest point and was created in 1982 by damming the Rehbach stream. The state monitors it as an official bathing water and rates the water quality as excellent, the best of four grades.

At the bathing area you will find lawns in sun and shade, changing cubicles, toilets, a children’s playground, a barbecue area, two bathing jetties, a floating platform, a restaurant and kiosk, and boat hire. Access is free; there is a charge for the car park.

Two things that go with all this and are rarely mentioned: there is no lifeguard, and visibility in the water is often less than a metre. If you are coming with children, you should know both.

We describe the lake in full, with parking charges, boat hire prices and paths, in Riedener Waldsee at a glance.

The questions to ask before you book

When is the swimming season? The official swimming season in Rhineland-Palatinate runs from 1 June to 31 August. During that time the water quality is tested regularly. Outside those dates the lake is freely accessible, but unmonitored. Official readings in summer were mostly 17 to 23 degrees, and the highest value in 2026 was 25.5 degrees on 1 July.

Can my dog come into the water? No, and dogs may not enter the bathing area and its lawn either, at any time of year. On the lakeside path and the walking trails, dogs on the lead are welcome. If you want a proper dog beach, the Freilinger See near Blankenheim has a designated area, around 53 kilometres away. More on that in Dog-friendly holiday home in the Eifel.

What does it cost? From 195 euros per night. If you park at the lake, you pay 6 euros per day, correct as of January 2026.

How do I get there? Take the A61 to the Wehr (Eifel) exit, junction 33, then around seven kilometres along the B412 and K19. By train, travel to Mayen Ost, served by lines RB 23 and RB 38, and from there take bus 820 to the Rieden (Eifel) Waldsee stop, 20 to 25 minutes. At weekends the bus runs only every two hours.

What 150 metres means in practice

The path from the house to the water leads downhill, which means the way back leads uphill. That is the honest part: after a day at the lake with a cool box and children, you feel the climb home.

Everything else, though, falls away. You do not have to look for a parking space or pay a parking charge if you walk. You can be at the water at seven in the morning, when nobody else is about, and back for lunch. And when the weather turns, you are indoors in six minutes rather than half an hour.

The first Traumpfad starts around 100 metres from the front door, which for a holiday by the lake is worth at least as much as the lake itself.

Booking direct instead of through a portal

We let our homes with no portal in between. That is not an end in itself; it has three practical consequences for you:

• Special cases do not go through a form. If you are arriving with an old dog who can no longer manage stairs, you ring us and find out which of the three homes suits.
• Whatever you ask is answered by someone who lives here. Whether the lake has algae at the moment, whether the boat hire is open, whether the path is muddy after rain.
• No portal commission built into the price.

What you do not get in return: the sheer weight of reviews on a large portal, and its cancellation terms. If you need both, you are better off booking there.

The lake outside the summer

This is honestly our favourite time of year. From mid-September the woods turn colour, the lake often lies under mist in the morning, and the paths are almost yours alone. With an outdoor sauna and a wood-burning stove in the house, autumn by the lake is more pleasant than high summer, when the car parks are full and the lawn is packed.

In winter the lake is freely accessible, but with no facilities at all. If you come then, you come for the quiet and for the sauna, not for the water.

What is within reach

Driving distances from Rieden, worked out with a route planner, correct as of August 2026:

FAQs

Our three homes

We let three homes on the Sonnenterrasse above the lake: Susi for two to four guests, Annika and Tommy for up to six. Each has its own outdoor sauna on the terrace, a whirlpool bath in the bathroom, a wood-burning stove with firewood ready to use, free Wi-Fi, an EV charging point and a fenced terrace. From 195 euros per night.

Annika and Tommy are identical in layout and offer three bedrooms and two bathrooms across 100 square metres, so even six people have somewhere to retreat to. Susi is the smaller house, for couples and small families.