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!