Black Forest - Train Travel

Day pass for Baden-Württemberg covers Triberg, Freiburg, Titisee.
https://www.v-s-b.de/en/tarife/bw-tickets.html

It's a shame you aren't planning to visit the Vogtsbauernhof open-air museum in Gutach:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1825958-d190955-Reviews-Schwarzwalder_Freilichtmuseum_Vogtsbauernhof-Gutach_im_Schwarzwald_Baden_Wurttemb.html

I would advise you to use a single base town in the Black Forest. Gengenbach (near Offenburg) is gorgeous and works well for day trips to Freiburg, Gutach, and Triberg; it also works ok as a base town if you add Titisee on to a Freiburg visit. And Gengenbach offers the KONUS card.

Gengenbach: https://www.pfeffermuehle-gengenbach.de/files/gengenbach-innenstadt.jpg
Find a room in Gengenbach or other BF towns here: https://www.blackforest-tourism.com/stg/ukv

Then will be travelling Triberg to Freiburg on the Friday - staying 2 nights in Freiburg at an Air B n B,

Then on Sat, we are hoping to get a train from Frieburg to Lake Titisee for a day trip,

Too much redundant backtracking. The Bahn suggest a route from Basel to Triberg that goes through Titisee and Donaueschingen, so you could stop in Titisee on the way to Triberg instead of doing a separate day trip.

Or the same thing for Triberg back to Freiburg (although the Bahn recommend going via Offenburg for that trip). You could come back from Triberg via Titisee.

Whichever route you take via Titisee, if you go the other way via Offenburg, that route goes through Gutach, so you could visit the Vogtsbauernhof open-air museum on that leg.

Thanks for the responses so far,

Our accomodation is all booked & i'm happy with the plans we've decided on, so i'm not looking for any alteration to the itinarary - just looking to find out the prices of the given train journeys, how much more expensive it is to buy on the day (is it worth sticking to a specific time & pre booking them if it means a dramatic reduction in cost), and is there any cheaper options,

It looks like the the Baden-Württemberg-Tickets are not valid for IC, EC and ICE so I don't know if it would be worth us getting this?

"Our accomodation is all booked & i'm happy with the plans we've decided on, so i'm not looking for any alteration to the itinarary... "

I think your accommodations were booked without a full understanding of the transport systems you'd be using - right? IME people who book first tend to be happy with their plans because it took some effort to select and book them. Booked doesn't necessarily mean non-cancellable. And so the advice was offered in the event you might be interested in "the cheapest train tickets possible," as you put it, and in the event you were flexible on the bookings.

"I have heard of the Konus card, but it looks like I only get this on arrival in Triberg & it doesn't count for ICE trains so it will only really cover the Triberg to Offenburg part of our trip to Frieburg on the Friday..."

The KONUS card absolutely would be valid for for Offenburg to Freiburg as well. Just not on the long-distance trains.

"It looks like the the Baden-Württemberg-Tickets are not valid for IC, EC and ICE so I don't know if it would be worth us getting this?"

You seem to be assuming once more that there's no regional train service between Offenburg and Freiburg, or perhaps that there is IC, ICE, and EC service all the way to Triberg and Titisee - which is also a false assumption.

Here is a complete map of the regional train lines that you can use with the B-W ticket:

https://www.bahn.de/p/view/mdb/bahnintern/angebotsberatung/regio/laender-tickets/pdfs/2018/mdb_270079_streckenkarte-badenwuerttemberg_a2-bwegt-look-rz.pdf

The KONUS card would cover the same rails that lie within the Black Forest region - but unlike the B-W ticket, the KONUS card doesn't shut you out of pre-9-am travel on weekdays. It's valid at any hour - a plus for most travelers, I would think.

If you want to know the individual cost of train journeys for comparison with the B-W ticket costs, you can use the DB Railways search page:
https://reiseauskunft.bahn.de//bin/query.exe/en

If you want to isolate the costs of the regional train (exclude the IC, ICE, EC trains, that is) then click on "only local transport" when you do your search.

AFAIR, the Konus card is intimately connected with a hotel stay (that's why it's FREE!) That means that while you are in Freiburg, you will NOT have a Konus card. Since you are not driving, comprehensive use of almost all public transit within the BF is HUGE bonus for you, and you should not "sleep" in Freiburg. (Opinion and advice, I mean ... )

To find out what you would pay buying tickets day-of for maximum flexibility, just use the booking site (bahn.de) and price out the tickets for one day after the current date, not for the date you plan to travel.

I used the regional trains exclusively for getting around the Black Forest during a May 2017 trip in which Gengenbach served as a base for day trips to (1) Freiburg/Titisee/Schluchsee, (2) Triberg, and (3) Gutach/Alpirsbach (including a visit to the excellent open air museum mentioned by Russ above). I found the regional trains perfectly adequate for transportation.

Since the Konus Card is good for your departure journey, I would definitely use it all the way to Freiburg on Friday (on regional trains, of course) and skip paying for ICE service.

Suggestion from my Gengenbach B&B owner as we discussed day trip options: "Skip Titisee. It's where all the tourists go." [Pause] "No, go to Titisee; see the foreign tourists; then hop back on the train and go to Schluchsee and spend the day with the Germans." That's what my travel companion and I did. Titisee is cute but REALLY touristy. Schluchsee is larger and well off the typical US tourist path (though popular with German vacationers). It has much better hiking and has what feels like a much more genuine German town associated with it. My friend and I walked through one of the town's parks and watched real German kids playing a pick-up soccer match, not fake kids, like at Titisee. (Well... maybe I exaggerated a bit on the fake kids).

Simple solution, stay off of ICE, IC, EC trains. Regional trains cover the same routes making more stops. Distances are short, so the mainline trains don't save a lot of time.

Thanks for all the tips about regional trains!

I very naively thought ICE was our only option for certain routes! So happy to know you can get much cheaper trains that are only about 30 mins longer! :)

The open air museum does look lovely. Maybe I can find a way to squeeze it in. If not, I'll just have to go again! :)

Thanks so much for all the information - especially about the regional trains. That's the last time I try and plan a trip based on google maps :D

We've decided to pop to Lake Titisee in the afternoon once we've dropped our bags of in Frieburg so that we get the most out of the Konus card, and then can spend Saturday exploring Frieburg leisurely,

I've also purchased Baden - Wuttenburg tickets for the Basel SBB - Triberg leg, and the trip home,

All feels much more manageable :)

Use bahn.com rather than bahn.de. It is aimed more at Americans. All of the specials are thoroughly explained.

Sorry, I should have been more explicit. The KONUS card is NOT provided for hotels in Freiburg. That was the point of my last advice sentence. I don't have personal experience, but I have read that the KONUS card DOES cover surface transit IN Freiburg.

Edit: I took a few trains (with KONUS card) from my hotel in Hinterzarten, including a day in Freiburg, and another day I went to see Titisee, and walked/hiked back to Hinterzarten. It turned out that there were soft, medium, and strenuous trails for that modest distance. The line at the Titisee TI made it hard to get a trail map at the last minute, so I just followed the street signs for the trails, which led to the forest. I wore good canvas sneakers, which turned out fine. There is much more serious hiking available, to say the least.

Tim is correct. It is honoured in Freiburg but not issued there, nor in several towns or villages just to the south of Freiburg. That's from personal experience.

Thanks Tim, I'm aware it's not issued in Freiburg. It is issued in Triberg where I'm staying mid way, so I'm going to try and get the most use out of it after we check out from the hotel BEFORE we then get to our stay in Freiburg :)