11 day trip - Black Forest worth it?

The Alps are nothing like the Black Forest. I was there for 5 days/4 nights in May and loved my stay there. I based in Gengenbach at the Stadthotel Pfeffermühle and then made day trips to some of the surrounding and charming villages, but also did a day trip to Strasbourg, France. It was only about a 30-40 minute train ride from Gengenbach and was such a gorgeous city with so much to see and do! I highly recommend a trip there if you decide to visit the Black Forest.

And I absolutely loved Gengenbach - it deserves its reputation as a "chocolate box" town. The people were friendly, the scenery was beautiful and it was truly a wonderful place to stay in Germany.

I should also add that one of its advantages is that the tourists there are mostly Germans. I think I spent the entire time there without hearing English voices (other than my own and the Germans who spoke English, although I tried to speak in German as much as possible). But it's nice to visit a place that is frequented more by Germans than other nationalities.

I was not overly impressed with the Black Forest. I don’t know where you live. I am from Florida and traveled extensively in the US. The Black Forest scenery was not that unique.

In 2017, I did Berlin - Gengenbach (Black Forest) - Bodensee (Lake Constance) - Berchtesgaden (Alps). I was really, really, really glad I took Rick's advice to hit the Black Forest before the Alps. I enjoyed the Black Forest, but I think it would have been a bit disappointing if I had already been in the Alps.

If time was limited, I’d skip the Black Forest. Maybe it’s too similar to where I live, but it never “wowed” me like the Berchtesgadener Alps

The Black Forest seems be car dependent more so than I would have liked. We stayed in Baden Baden and hiked the surrounding mountains from town. There are a lot of trails. It was just fine. Once in the forest it is all trees. Which is nice for us as we live in western US. The vistas of the alps are a whole other thing.
I am sure the little towns in the Black Forest are worth a visit if you have a car.

I like the Black Forest, more a region for relaxing and hiking than sightseeing, but I think you are going too far out of the way. The Munich-Salzburg-Fussen triangle can easily eat up eleven days.

If you want to add a different location, look into Bodensee: https://www.bodensee.eu/en

For different scenery (before you set off to the alps) choose a region in Franconia closer to Munich, which I presume is where you are flying in and out of: https://www.frankentourismus.com/

Thank you everyone! You have been so helpful, I'm going to make a new post to get your ideas on our itinerary :)

I lived in Germany for four years and loved the Black Forest. I have visited Baden-Baden, Triberg and Titisee.
It is worth a 2-3 day visit at most. Add Strassbourg, France for another day.

You can do Munich (3-4 days), Salzburg, Berchtesgaden (near Salzburg) (2-3 days for that area) and Fussen/Garmish (2-3 days). That probably doesn't give you enough time to cross the whole of southern Germany.

Instead, I suggest visiting The Romantic Road, that is filled with Medieval walled cities, well preserved (unlike Germany's larger cities that where bombed out in WWII).
https://www.romanticroadgermany.com
The first visitors were friends and families of the American soldiers stationed in the large bases in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg but the idea of the trail from Würzburg to Füssen soon became wildly popular.

It's not too hard to see the reason for the popularity - despite the modern roots of the idea, the tour combines the historic cities of Würzburg and Augsburg with the three medieval walled towns of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Dinkelsbühl and Nördlingen, and then finishes off with the tourist highlights of Neuschwanstein Castle and the Alps.

Augsburg is over 2000 years old and worth a day. Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a must see. Dinkelsbuhl is similar to Rothenburg without all the tourists. Nordlingen is a walled city built in a meter crater with its walls on the edge of the crater.

You can do the Road in 3-4 which ends in the Fussen/Garmisch area.

While at Garmisch, consider going up to the top of the Zugspitze (highest mountain in Germany).