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Black Forest Journey by Car?

Posted by (Seattle, WA) on

I'm still working on our Mosel-Rhine-Alsace-Burgundy (etc.) trip itinerary (Sept. 2025) and I am looking at the Black Forest piece. I would love some critique, amendments or suggestions.

I am currently playing with a 4 night itinerary to get us from Freiburg to Geislingen-an-der-Steige, a bit east of Stuttgart. I don't know if the following is either workable or ideal, so once again I seek this wisdom of this forum.

  • DAY 1 - Arr. Freiburg (by train, from Lyon) - Night 1 in Freiburg.
  • DAY 2 - Full day in Freiburg (Night 2).
  • DAY 3 - Rent car first thing in morning and drive through southern Black Forest, incl. a 1-1/2 or 2 hour hike in Ravenna Gorge, a bit of a look at the Titisee, Triberg (lunch; falls after lunch?), Black Forest Open Air Museum (Schwartzwalder Freilichtmuseum), Dine/Stay in Schiltach. (Night 3) -- Is this too ambitious? Drive times all look modest.
  • DAY 4 - Drive to Tubingen, via Burg Hohenzollern. Stay in Tubingen (Night 4). Should we break the previous day's journey a bit earlier, stay in Triberg or Hornburg or Gutach and save the open air museum and Schiltach for this DAY 4?
  • DAY 5 - Tubingen to Geislingen-an-der-Steige (via Stuttgart's Mercedes Benz Museum?). ARRIVE Geinslingen mid-afternoon and not dinner-time or later.

I know that Gengenbach is highly recommended and this potential itinerary does not go there. I am concerned that one cannot rent a car in Gengenbach, hence my preliminary thought to spend a bit of time in Freiburg and skip Gengenbach.

Nor does this itinerary get us to the Black Forest National Park, Feldberg or Schluchsee. Those two latter sights are quite near Titisee and perhaps Schluchsee is a better lake to visit. Further east (DAY 4 or even DAY 5?), this itinerary does not include Schloss Lichtenstein, perhaps an alternative/addition to Burg Hohenzollern? At the expense of the Mercedes Museum? Esslingen vs. Tubingen?

Earlier in this trip, we will have cycled the Mosel, Burgundy and spent a day on the Rhine for a small stretch south from Koblenz. And, we will have spent about 5-days/5-nights in Alsace, plus 2 days/3 nights in Lyon. After this Black Forest to Geislingen segment, we wrap up with a brief visit to Heidelburg (one or two nights) on our way to FRA and the flight home.

And so, how does this look? What adjustments might be advisable?

Posted by
62 posts

If you are going to rent a car for travel through the Black Forest, I would consider what I went through back in September of this year. My wife and I rented a car at Freiburg, things worked out great with the rental company, but we had trouble with the other vehicles and drivers in the Black Forest area. First of all, I could not obey the posted speed limits. There are single lane roads with lots of curves. A car would be speed up behind me, slam on their brakes and then and speed ahead again, coming really close behind me; other times flashing their lights at me to get out of the way. When the speed limits at the small towns were posted, I slowed down to the speed limit, that made it worse. Really dangerous and I wished that I would have never rented the car. So just be aware of that. I was not being a slow driver but just obeying the speed limits!
It was good having the rental for the stops in Triberg and the Open Air Museum. We had no problem finding a parking spots. For the one day that we rented the car, we were down at the rental company at 8 in the morning, got the car and took off, We visited Triberg for about 3 hours, the Open Air Museum for 2 hours, stopped twice for food, and drove around a bit on the Black Forest High Road, until I gave up because of the people speeding and trying to pass on single lane roads. When we got back to drop the car off in Freibug it was almost 7 at night-so I'd be aware of the time too.

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