Black Forest without a car

It has been 30 years since we did the Black Forest. Triberg, Friberg and Baden Baden were places that I remember visiting as well as Titisee. I think you need to consider renting a vehicle or find a tour company.

I've spent 23 nights in the northern BF plus three train trips across the southern BF. Never needed a car. The public transportation there is very good. Every place you mention, except Furtwangen, has rail connections. Furtwangen is served by buses. If you stay inside the BF (Nagold, Triberg, Furtwangen), you would get a Konus pass with your accommodations, which will give you free use of trains and buses in the BF.

Freudenstadt would be a good place to base.

The Bahn query page is a good place to find connections and schedules for train or bus.

I agree with Lee. I stayed in the Black Forest for several days without a car and found public transportation to be excellent. The Konus Card would be huge for your group -- free travel around the Black Forest on regional trains and buses as long as you stay in a town that participates, which would knock out Stuttgart and Esslingen as bases because they are not really in the Black Forest.

More about the Konus Card.

The most-recent English pamphlet (2004) listing cities/towns/villages that participate.

{Edit: Fixed broken link to Konus flyer]

Stuttgart and Esslingen aren't good bases to travel the Black Forest without a car. Train travel takes too long with too many changes, especially as far as Triberg and Furtwangen are concerned. Forget busses. Pforzheim can be easily reached from Stuttgart by train, but it isn't a nice town, though it may be interesting for people with special interests. I would second Freudenstadt as a good base.

I am also looking at the possibilities of the Black Forest. I have driven from the Alsace thru Triberg, Gutach and Alpirsbach onto Ulm. It was a great trip and the auto allowed for stops whenever. Beautiful scenery. Six adults in a car ...perhaps a van would work. I currently am looking at staying in Kehl. Taking the tram to Strassbourg and another day taking regional train from Kehl, Offenburg to a Schiltach or Titinsee.

Kehl is really not that attractive a place to stay. It is basically an industrial town. I know because I've stayed there working in one of those industrial establishments. Much better would be Gengenbach. Its only 40 to 50 minutes to Strasbourg by train with a change in Offenburg.

I enjoyed staying in Gengenbach. The owner of the place where I stayed encouraged my travel companion and I to go to Schluchsee instead of Titisee. She initially said, "Take the train past Titisee to Schluchsee. Don't stop at Titisee." Then she thought for a moment and said, "No, stop at Titisee; see the foreign tourists; THEN go to Schluchsee and see the Germans." We followed her advice and had a great day hiking at Schluchsee.

I agree that Stuttgart and Esslingen are not good bases for seeing the Black Forest, not really with a car and definatley not without.

I'm confused about some of your destinations. Pforzheim was bombed and rebuilt in a fairly ugly style, it's not really in the Black Forest, so unless you're a watch or jewelry nerd, I can't imagine wanting to visit. Triberg is fine for the waterfall, but the town itself is a tourist trap.

Freudenstadt is a good base, although there's not much to the town aside from the nice central square. I would consider Freiberg, it's easily the most interesting town in the Black Forest.

I grew up in Germany and will be taking my adult children to see where my family lived. Pforzheim, Stuttgart, and Esslingen were those areas. I am thinking now it might be better to go to different towns for the beauty and where public transportstion will be available. Thank you for the guidance

It's a shame you're not renting a car as the Black Forest is a superb area for driving, excellent winding roads through the forest with numerous panoramic vistas to pull over and take in. We stayed in a Homeaway rental in Schuttertall last October and it was fantastic. I used to take the car out for a spin on my own whilst the rest of the family took their time to get ready in the morning simply because I loved driving in the area so much.

Thank you everyone! I think we will stay in Freudenstadt and take one day train trip to the open air museum outside wolfach and a second day train trip to mummelsee. Any suggestions of other stops on our day trip to mummelsee?

Mummelsee can't be reached by train. Especially on weekends it's a very unpleasant place because of myriads of tourists.

The KONUS card is very convenient (not issued in Freiburg hotels.) It is true that you can't stop at a specific waterfall without a car, but the train rides are more scenic, and the driver isn't stuck paying attention to hills and sharp curves. (Comparable to rural Vermont or Utah.) You also can't hike from town to town as easily with a car. Note that many towns offer easy, moderate, and harder hiking options. I wore sneakers for easy and moderate.