Black forest planning - really need help!

My faves from the area: Triberg, Staufen, and either of the baths at Baden Baden and a walk around the Lichtentaller Allee (at the northern end of the region, but worth a trip). We saved our hiking for time in the mountains--so ask at your hotel or TI about that.

When I went to the Black Forest, the most important things for me were to walk from town to town through the forest, and to see some waterfall-type sights by car. Actually, I found driving annoying (like on small Vermont roads in summer), and was glad to have a free train pass to walk back to my fancy hotel in Hinterzarten. If you're not interested in Teutonic nature-worship, maybe you should stay at the fringe of the forest and visit places like the Vitra Design Museum and Basel, Switzerland. Presumably you have no interest in annoying tourist crowds taking lake-boat rides in Titisee!

On the plus side, I found that (in Titisee, at least) the "official" blazed trails (to Hinterzarten) were available for Easy, Moderate, Intermediate, and Difficult hiking. I walked in penny loafers because I forgot to dress properly, but except on a few downhill slopes, I was never in any danger. Obviously I can't make you any promises about another walk. I believe that a fraction of the "Easy" walk was on paved sidewalks, however at the side of an asphalt road. Hope that helps.

Of course, you wrote Black Forest. Would you consider Konstanz and that huge, gorgeous lake instead? Level terrain, boats, etc.?

First, let me compliment you on planning a sensible trip, staying in a relatively small area, exploiting what there is to see in the area, minimizing travel time.

The nice thing about staying in a town like Gengenbach is being able to use the KONUS card for all public transportation (bus and Bahn) in the BF. From Gengenbach, take a local train (SWE) 18 minutes to Hausach, there change to another SWE train, a 3 minute local shuttle to the Black Forest Open Air Museum (Vogtsbauernhof) in Gutach. It's a collection of old Black Forest houses from all around the Black Forest, depicting life in the area.

The route from Hausach to Triberg above the Gutach River is the Schwarzwaldbahn (Black Forest Railway). If you're not interested in coo-coo clocks, go on from Triberg to Donaueshingen and walk a short distance to the park where two streams come together to form the Donau (Danube), the second longest river in Europe, which starts in the Black Forest and flows through multiple European capitals to the Black Sea.

If you are not shy, there are a number of traditional (I don't mean Baden-Baden) spa towns within a couple of hours of Gengenbach. I think the closest is Freudenstadt (Panorama-Bad).

Thank you! Staufen looks great, looks like it is more scenic and woodsy! But it appears to be a 2 hour train ride from Gengenbach, which I think is too much for a day trip, but this is the idea of what we'd like. I don't think we're interested in spas/baths. . .are we wrong to stay in Gengenbach or are there places more on the order of Staufen but with much shorter travel time?

Does your hotel give you a KONUS card? You could take a day trip to Titisee. Go the "long" way via Donauschingen to ride the Black Forest railway route. Spend the afternoon along the lake, and return via Freiburg and Offenburg. If no KONUS card, you can do it with a Laender ticket for 28 euro for 2.

These are super helpful ideas! A few things in answer to your questions – I have thought about Konstanz but as it’s two hours from G’Bach and we’re ultimately headed for Alsace, I thought it might be better on a future, Southern Germany trip. Yes, we do get a KONUS card in Gengenbach. Here are questions I can’t find answers to on any forum:

If we go to Titisee, how long a walk is the lakefront from the train station?

Can one drop by Triburg for just a couple of hours and feel it was worthwhile? Another popular site with many reviews has a lot of people saying the falls there are no big deal, while many others think they’re gorgeous, leaving me wondering how special they really are versus marketing hype. I’m thinking maybe drop by there and then go on to Donaueschingen – I’m trudging through their German website right now and it sounds like there is nice walking and views. Is that really true? Every town's website makes their town out to be the best.

"...want to get a sense of the forest and not just go to different towns... have beautiful scenery, nice walking paths, etc... I usually love hiking but am recovering from a foot injury so I can certainly take nice walks but can't commit to real hiking on this trip."

Well that's a bit of a tall order because enjoying the forest usually means hiking.

But here are some ideas you can pick and choose from to build your own itinerary.

"The BF railway might be nice, but which route?"
There is only one - see this map. And yes, it's one of Germany's most scenic routes. Gutach would be a good place to visit. The Vogtsbauernhof outside of town is wonderful with easy walking and in an attractive setting - very special - there are few places where you can walk through rural buildings that are hundreds and hundreds of years old. The Park mit Allen Sinnen there looks different and interesting - it's in town. Also, there's an easy bike path through Gengenbach that follows the Kinzig River. You could rent bikes or walk the path. As you see from THIS CHART the elevation gain is minimal prior to Wolfach. Train stations in Biberach or Steinach will get you back to Gengenbach if you wish. I stayed in Steinach recently. You might enjoy this easy 2 km loop hike there ( in German but with map - click on google translate feature.)

There are plenty of other train lines too, so someone with a foot injury might indeed enjoy exploring them as well. I'd suggest line 5 and line 10 on THIS MAP (Line 4 is the BF Railway.) On line 10 Schiltach is a very scenic town for a cup of coffee (but then again if half-timbered wonders don't impress you...) You may want to visit the glass-blowing facility in Wolfach or the Monastery-Brewery in Alpirsbach on the same line. The Hells Valley railway (line 5) from Freiburg to Donaueschingen is scenic as well.

Triberg: a steep walk up into town from the train station, very touristy, not so worthwhile IMO except for the BlackForest Museum there, but then it's really best if you know German.

The trains from Triberg in that direction go about once per hour. The ones at 44 past the odd hour change at Donauschingen to get to Titisee, the ones at 39 past the even hours change at Villingen.
The water front is about 6 blocks (600 yds) from Titisee train station. There are boat rides on the lake available there.
http://www.bootsbetrieb-schweizer-titisee.de/preise/preise-bootsbetrieb-schweizer-titisee.html

Thank you all so much for the great suggestions! We have been looking at travel times and it seems that the first day we could explore Gengenbach and Schiltach as we will only have the afternoon and evening after we get in from Heidelberg. Then the second day we could hop on and off the BF scenic train as schedules permit, ending in Donaueschingen and allowing some time there. Choosing between the towns might be tough! It looks to me that Titisee is a stretch for a day trip as it will take us about 2.5 hours by train to get back to Gengenbach. It's about 1.5 hours back to Gengenbach from Donaueschingen which would be more manageable. Third day I'm not sure - more of the towns on scenic railway, or Freiburg, either choice looks like fun. Any comments appreciated!

It is very scenic around there.

I am one who was underwhelmed by the falls there. But the overall setting was pleasant.

There is a reason why each of the towns says they are the best. They all work at making their towns attractive and providing activities to draw people in. They don't all do the same thing but work at what they do do.

Depending on what interests you there are walking trails, storks (real ones, in the fields and on rooftops), large model railway exhibits, open air museums, sommerrodelbahn, all sorts.

They all want you to go there.

Gengenbach is a particularly good base. The station is so close to the town and the town is beautiful. Just walk around the back streets for 5 minutes. Bachle washing down the main streets. It is really really good.

Now I'm sorry I mentioned Titisee, it is very, very touristy. I mentioned it because the lake is a very reasonable, level walk on pavement from the rail station, through crowds of pretzel and waffle eating tourists. But the boat ride is low-impact. And I've been there, in the way that many visitors to NYC want to see Coney Island! I haven't been to the northern BF.

I did not mean Titisee as a day-trip from Gegenbach, but as an alternate place to stay near, with access to non-BF sights south of the BF. There is nothing wrong with your original itinerary, if your legs are up to it. I will add that Freiburg is a splendid, level, paved urban visit for whatever number of hours you choose. I found a wine-harvest festival in the square in September some years ago.

Oh, good, thanks for clarifying. I thought you might be one of those early risers who could actually do all that in one day! I’m good for regular walking and easy trails and may be OK for hiking when my trip comes around; I just don’t want to plan a trip that requires hiking in case I’m not yet at 100%. So I think we’ll skip Titisee this time around and do the small towns you all suggested and see how we feel about Freiburg vs, more small towns once we’re there. It looks like we can take a train to Strasbourg or Mulhouse on the French side and pick up our car for Alsace there.