I'm taking my first trip to Europe this year...along with the family. Our four children are 10-16yo. We are renting a vehicle and driving From the north.
We're planning to visit the open air museum in Gutach, visit Staufen and Baden Baden and leave some time for hiking.
Does 2.5 days sound appropriate?
I'm thinking of spending one night in Baden Baden (Hotel am Markt, maybe) and the 2nd night airbnb in Staufen (if we can find a safe building). Any suggestions?
I personally think it would be good to pick one town as a base for the Black Forest instead of staying in 2 separate towns (eliminates one round of packing and unpacking). Further, I would encourage you to think about staying in a town that offers the Konus Card, which allows free use of the regional trains and buses in the Black Forest. The kids can ride in a car any time; this is there chance to experience the Black Forest like a German -- by rail! Most smaller towns participate; Baden-Baden does not. If you click on the link to the Konus Card above, the resulting page has a link to the most recent English Konus Card flyer (2014) at the bottom; the flyer lists the towns that participate.
I would recommend Gengenbach as a base. It's a 27-min train ride (with one transfer) to the open air museum at Gutach. It's a 33-min ride without stops to Baden-Baden (though I personally think there are better places to go in the Black Forest unless you have a special reason to go there). There are other interesting places nearby like Schiltach. It's about an hour to Freiburg bu train.
A few questions to help with further advice...
Thanks! You've given me some new places to look into. I haven't heard of geggenbach or Shiltach.
All of my Black Forest destinations came directly from a Rick Steves episode.
We'll see about the train. Great idea...esp in beautiful country like that. I think the family may be over trains by then, though (it will be ten days into a 14 day trip). However, I do like the idea of driving to one base town and taking trains from there.
Very helpful!!
Dave
Earlier in the trip we will tour the towns and castles along the Rhine and Moselle. Then we head to Paris and Amsterdam.
After the Black Forest we are considering driving to Zurich for a day. Then head up to Stuttgart or Frankfurt where we'll catch our plane home.
I used Gengenbach as a base and really liked it. I think you'll find it a nice change of pace from Amsterdam and Paris. It's a small, quiet town with a great central square (more of a triangle, actually) across the street from an Italian restaurant that has a gelato window. My friend and I ended all of our days there relaxing on the square, eating gelato and people watching. There is a Wednesday morning farmer's market on the square. There is a hike that can be done through wine fields up to a chapel that sits above the town.
As for Gutach, the open air museum (Schwarzwälder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof) is great and has a train stop directly in front of it. Next to the museum is a summer toboggan run (Sommerrodelbahn Gutach) that your family would probably enjoy (here is a YouTube video by a German kid on the Sommerrodelbahn). You could combine a visit here with a visit to Schiltach to see the attractive town and the reconstructed water-driven timber saw at the Schüttesägemuseum. There is a nearby zipline course, but, unfortunately, the minimum age is 12.
Other options in the area:
1. Baden-Baden if you want to hit the spas or the casino -- you can be like Rick and drop the kids off at a pool.
2. Go to Freiburg, a college town in the south with a variety of sites to see and with good hiking around it
3. Go to Triberg -- not for the touristy town, but for hiking. The train ride there is nice. The town itself is terribly, terribly touristy -- it's the cuckoo clock capital of the Black Forest. I like going here for a nice hiking trail (the Schwarzwaldbahn Erlebnispfad) that starts at the train station, which is at the opposite end of town from the touristy part. The trail takes you through the forest to sites related to the Black Forest Railway (Schwarzwaldbahn) -- and (sigh) past the world's largest cuckoo clock. The path has 2 loops -- I would just take the first one (stations 1-8 on this map), which is the more forested part of the trail. It's 6.5 km and takes 2 hours without stops. We did it in more like 3 1/2 hours because we waited for trains at some of the stations (not train stations -- but info board stations) and waited for the world's largest cuckoo clock to cuckoo (disappointing). It's not a bad hike except for a pretty steep ascent on switchbacks after the world's largest cuckoo clock and a fairly steep descent back into town. If you do it, take plenty of water. At the other end of town are the cuckoo clock stores and Triberg Waterfall, which I kind of enjoyed but I like tumbling water.
4. If the kids are tired of old European buildings, find out how Germans do theme parks at Europa Park at Rust.
5. Normally I would recommend a trip to Titisee and Schluchsee -- a short stop at the former to see the hoards of international tourists (and commercialism at its worst) and a long stop at the latter to hang out with vacationing Germans (hiking, biking, swimming, boating). The train to the two lakes take you deep into the forest, but, sadly, the trains are not operating this summer due to work on the train line. So, the trip is by bus, which I'm not sure would be the same (and seems to be more time consuming).
Russ will probably come along and make other suggestions.
Oh... one last thing... one last opinion, actually... do with it what you want... I think that 14 days for the Upper Middle Rhine, Amsterdam, Paris, and the Black Forest is doable, but pretty ambitious (especially if travel days to/from the US are included in the 14 days). You're going to have three long travel days already. I personally would not add Zurich to the mix -- maybe save it for a Switzerland trip later when you can hit Lucerne and the Berner Oberland, too. I would go from the Black Forest to whatever your departure city will be. The extra day could be added to one of the other stops.
I’ve spent 12 days in Gengenbach on my last two trips. Very nice little town. I second the idea of the alpine coaster - sommerrodelbahn. I did 4 rides last time, about 2E per ride. When I have been, the line moved fast.
Thanks, gentlemen!
Gengenbach looks fantastic.
There appear to be some nice, reasonably priced Airbnb in and near town. The fam is into the train and the toboggan, as well!
