Black Forest Help

Have been told Basel however

Not really sure what you mean by this statement. Very expensive place to stay and not on the Konus card. If you are talking about a day trip, easy to do as part of your continuation to Luzern, Morning train to Basel SBB with local train (free with Konus card), store bags in a locker, then a later direct train to Luzern. If you do want to spend a night there, you get a free local transport pass with your hotel stay.

Gengenbach seems to be consensus good location. Frequent trains to Triberg.

Here's a forum discussion with info that you might find helpful...as a starting point.

Gengenbach is indeed a beautiful town and a good base town on the Black Forest Railway AND near the main Rhine Valley Railway. - There are several fine destinations into the Black Forest from there along the Black Forest Railway and it's offshoots:

Gutach (Black Forest Open-Air Museum "Vogtsbauernhof"
Haslach
Triberg
Villingen

Schiltach and Alpirsbach are on the Kinzig Valley offshoot.

The Rhine Valley Railway takes you to nice places as well. Ride from Gengenbach to Offenburg (7 minutes?) and change there for...

Lahr
Freiburg
Basel
Strasbourg (France, so you'll need an additional ticket from the German town of Kehl and back.) Europass 24h Family Mini ticket.

To begin with, welcome to the Forum! I'm sure you'll find the group here very helpful.

I have a few brief thoughts about your proposed itinerary.....

• I haven't checked prices in that area lately, but $125 per night seems a bit "low". It might be a good idea to budget for a higher amount.
• A couple of towns that I've enjoyed in that area are Freiburg and Baden-Baden. The latter has a famous Casino and Thermal Baths.
• You might get some good suggestions by having a look at the Rick Steves Germany guidebook.

Gute Reise!

Gengenbach.info is the website to look at. For some reason today it keeps going back and forth between English and German ! Look at staying at a ‘Ferienwohnung’ ( holiday apartment ). I have stayed and will be staying later this year at Ferienwohnung Kienzler. It is well below your budget and in a great location midway between the teain station and the market square ( both very close )

Using the website listed above, go into the Übernachten area, which means overnight stays, and you can look for something. https://www.gengenbach.info/uebernachten

For what it's worth, when I was there in 2022, I stayed at the Stadthotel Pfeffermühle, which was a lovely hotel sitting in the city center. The prices were very reasonable. In fact, I liked it so much that I am staying there again when I head there in December for the Christmas markets. https://pfeffermuehle-gengenbach.de/appartements/

The Konus Card is offered in more than 100 different towns. Having stayed in 7 or 8 different Konus-towns myself, I would not hesitate to look at other towns if Gengenbach cannot meet your needs. One that comes to mind is Haslach, a very nice town with the normal services visitors might need on the Black Forest Railway, roughly 12 train minutes outside Gengenbach in the direction of Triberg. This apartment has good reviews and would put you within easy walking distance of the station and the center of town. I tested availability for June, and it looks to have good availabilty right now at a price within your budget.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4551255

Steinach is a tiny settlement in between Gengenbach and Haslach. We stayed in a 2-bedroom apartment there several years ago on a small family farm owned by the Schöner family. The upstairs apartment was just right for us; it had a small kitchenette and a nice covered deck with a great view of the countryside. We had 5 nights here and did day trips by train just like the ones you are planning. The walk to the station took maybe 8-10 minutes. The town itself is very tiny. There was one grocery store, 1 or 2 restaurants, a community swimming pooI. I just checked the site below... their availability calendar also shows "green" for June. 5 nights were priced at a ridiculously-reasonable 195 Euros.

https://www.traum-ferienwohnungen.de/13558/

This booking site has an English-language version but that version does not show this listing; I booked this place WITHOUT using the site by emailing the owner directly - you can send me a DM if you'd like me to pass on the email address.

I live near Freiburg and often go exploring in the Black Forest region! I can help!

Do you like castles? Do you like hiking? You can try the Four Castles Trail, which winds through the Black Forest near Freiburg and takes you to four ruined castles. If you don't want to undertake such a long hike (nine hours, apparently! I wouldn't know, I've only gone to the castles one by one), you can take the train and hike/bike to some of the castles individually. Kastelberg, for instance, is maybe only a half-hour hike from the Waldkirch train station.

None of these towns/castles are at all touristy, and they all charming and the castles have amazing views of the surrounding area. The towns of Waldkirch and Emmendingen are absolutely lovely, with a charming square and bakeries and restaurants and so on. In Emmendingen there's a restaurant in the old Rathaus that a friend tried and said was good, and in Waldkirch I've enjoyed Mai Garden if you want Asian cuisine. When my relatives come from the US to visit me, they stay at the Hotel Zum Storchen in Waldkirch, which is very close to the train station and should fit your budget. But, it's oriented more towards the Freiburg area and southern Black Forest than guidebooks tend to cover, so I don't know if you'd want to look elsewhere. The train that runs through Waldkirch goes to Freiburg in one direction and deeper into the Black Forest through the Elz river valley in the other.

If you enjoy bike rides, keep in mind that you are permitted to take a bike with you on the regional trains as long as there's room on the train and you're outside morning rush hour. The trains are even set up for this-- the outsides of the train cars have giant depictions of bicycles on the outside to show you the area designed to stow your bikes. To be completely honest, bike + regional train is my favorite way of exploring since the train usually lets you off near the city center, and then you can ride your bike to more distant attractions down the agricultural roads. And the scenery is gorgeous.

I wrote a mini trip report on the spa town Bad Krozingen, which is accessible by train. It gets some tourism from France and maybe Switzerland, but is mostly a local thing.

You mentioned wine. The Kaiserstuhl is a wine-growing region southwest of Offenburg, northwest of Freiburg which has amazing hiking (the terraced mountains are a wonder to see), charming small towns, and so, so many wineries. Try Endigen am Kaiserstuhl or Sasbach am Kaiserstuhl; they both have train connections. Again, it's mostly Germans who come here. I haven't really encountered foreign tourists.

Hope that helps!

Have been told Basel however

Sam-
Sorry my statement was not clear in my post. As my husband says you think things but don't say them and you expect people to know what you mean... yes, this was one of those times.
To clarify, I was thinking Basel as a stop on our continuation to Luzern. I had not considered we would need to store bags.
Got it on my spread sheet.
Thank you!

That is why I have to edit my posts 5 or 6 times, correcting spelling, punctuation, words I left out, grammar, etc. :-)

Lockers at Basel SBB station are numerous, of various sizes, and work with tap credit cards. Of course, now that they operate like that, they charge more and charge extra for extra time. The initial charge is only good for a set period, like 6 hours if I recall. If you go over you just tap your card again and get charged the extra time.

Here is a site showing the number of lockers, sizes, costs at Basel SBB.
https://www.sbb.ch/en/travel-information/stations/find-station/basel-sbb-station.html
Scroll down and click on "Lockers".

I appreciate all the responses they are so helpful and have me diving further into my research.

I always tend to set the budget "low" for accommodations and soon realize I need to set higher. I am grateful for all the suggestions on accommodations and will look into them.

My hubby is loving all the rail maps!

I am positivewe will have more questions however to start with: Are bikes or e-bikes available to check oo water ut for a day in any of the Black Forest areas? from the train stations? We are light or short distance hikers but will push it if needed to see something we find worthwhile. How is the access to water when adventuring out?

Once again appreciate ALL the responses!

Google ‘fahrrad verleih kinzigtal’ to see places that rent bikes.
www.schiltach.de > Kultur und OPNV > Fahrradvermietung > lists many e-bikes for rent
There is a wide path along the Kinzig which is good for cycling

"My hubby is loving all the rail maps!"

The rail maps I linked to above are for general orientation and do not show all the stops. More rail links with more details for Hubby...

Black Forest Railway:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Forest_Railway_(Baden)

Kinzig Valley Railway (schedule with stops):

https://www.ortenaulinie.de/site/Ortenaulinie-2022/get/documents_E302355861/ortenaulinie/Dateien/Download/Kursbuch_721_Hausach-Freudenstadt_2026.pdf

Rhine Valley Railway (schedule with stops):

https://www.ortenaulinie.de/site/Ortenaulinie-2022/get/documents_E1060685879/ortenaulinie/Dateien/Download/Kursbuch_702_Karlsruhe-Offenburg-Freiburg-Basel_2026.pdf

For planning rail routes, you should also download the Deutsche Bahn app. It's amazing at helping you get from point A to point B because it not only includes all the rail routes but all the local public transportation systems and their timetables, too...you can put in any two addresses and it will tell you how to take the public transportation to get to the train station, which trains to ride, and how to use the public transportation system on the other end. I often use it for riding the public transit within a city, no trains involved. It will even factor in a generous amount of walking time to get between stops, and it continously updates to keep track of delays, etc., and pings you to let you know if you're going to miss your connection. Highly recommended.

For water availability, you should plan on bringing your own, and buying water from stores/vending machines to supplement (but keep in mind: stores are closed all day on Sundays). Public water fountains and water bottle refill stations more or less don't exist, and hiking trails don't work like they do in the US where there's a dedicated nature park with ranger facilities and restrooms and so on. Instead, you just leave the road or city street and go walking off down a path into the forest. The signage is usually really good, though, and most hiking trails show up on Google Maps. Also, if you really get lost, it is completely legal to go off-trail and just go walking in whatever direction you need to (also unlike the US!)

All this information has been so helpful in our planning. It has presented us with a few more questions.

We are planning five days in the area. As it was pointed out our budget was a bit low...
If we increase the budget to 200-225 a night is there a different area you would stay?
We will not have a car, we will need to be close to train/public transportation.

Thank you for all the help!

Hi there, I am planning a 4 day trip to Black Forest area on my way back to Prague. We will have a car and love to hike, bike and see small villages. Wondering if we should stay where Mardee and Russ suggested or as we have a car we should stay in a different place. Both places that you suggested looks great.

Just returned yesterday from our Black Forest trip including Gengenbach for 5 nights. What a wonderful spot! My husband said he could "finally exhale" in that sweet little town. Info I can share:

• the Stadthotel Pfeffermühle is in a very quiet part of town. With our window open at night, we could only hear birds and a distant church bell ringing.
• the hotel is simple, well kept, comfortable and the staff was so kind.
• the price is a bit more than your low end but since breakfast is included and with the bonus of a KONUS card it really is affordable.
• the walk to the train station is about 12-15 minutes.

If you are looking for a quiet place to relax after exploring villages on the Black Forest Rail line, you cannot go wrong here.

Safe travels!

Dorothy, I'm so glad you like the town and the hotel and the area. It really is one of my favorite places I've been to. In fact, I'm going back there in December for just a couple of nights, but hope to get back to Germany for longer in the very near future.

My husband said he could "finally exhale" in that sweet little town.

Dorothy - your husband's comment really does capture that sense of well-being that a place like Gengenbach provides after doing the day-after-day tourist-trail thing in Germany. Glad to hear you enjoyed yourselves there. Germany is actually blessed with many such quieter places. Setting aside a block of time from the RS (or other guidebook) itineraries for a few days to enjoy places like Gengenbach on their own terms, as you have done, is an important and rewarding part of the travel experience, I think.

By the way, I would be very careful using Gengenbach's accommodation locator. Make sure you know where the property is. Some of the properties are a bit out of town. Particularly under Gasthäuser/Pensionen where three of the places are in Fußbach, which is 3 miles out of town. There are some buses between Gengenbach and Fußbach, like 4 to and 4 from per day from 9am to 6pm, but otherwise, you might have to walk. If you don't have a car, it might be difficult getting to see Gengenbach and back. It looks like there are another 4 or 5 a day to Biberach, which is on the way to Triberg.