Freiburg or nearby for 2 Nights?

what sort of an experience do you want to have. By smaller, how small? Freiburg im Breisgau is a fairly large city, like Bern.

My suggestion would be Gengenbach, which is about a 40-minute train ride from Strasbourg, and it's just a wonderful place to stay. The town is lovely with beautiful half-timbered houses (it's frequently called a "chocolate box" village) and has a charming Altstadt, with quite a few restaurants and cafes to choose from. And for its size, it has a decent amount of hotels. Gengenbach makes a good base as it is right on the main train line, and gives you the options of some interesting day trips, and also makes it very easy to get to Strasbourg.

One nice benefit if you stay there is that you receive a KONUS card, which entitles you to free public transport throughout much of the Black Forest region (you don't get that same benefit in Freiburg). There are many charming villages in the region that you can visit along the Black Forest Railway, and there is also the Vogtsbauernhof (open-air museum) that is a joy to visit and easily accessible by train.

The town church (Saint Marion) is quite beautiful, and the medieval gates to the city are really interesting. The Benedictine Abbey is also worth a visit, and behind it are some cloistered gardens that were lovely to wander through. This was one of my favorite places. It was peaceful and inviting and I could have stayed for hours. There were little signs of inspiration scattered around, and some children from a nearby kindergarten playing on one side.

Also don't miss a walk through Engelgasse and Höllengasse streets (near the TIC). Here you will find cobblestones and half-timbered houses, flower pots and cats resting on doormats and quaint dolls in the window. I felt like I had walked back in time when I strolled through these quaint and narrow streets. There is also a nice hike you can take that will get you above the town with some absolutely beautiful views of below. The hike ends up at a church called St. Jakob auf dem Bergle that sits above town. The TIC in town will have maps showing you how to get there. it was a really nice hike and as I said, the views are just lovely!

Gengenbach is a really good choice for all the reasons mardee has provided.

Additionally, the KONUS card, which is valid on your day of departure from Gengenbach, will provide you with free rail travel as far as the border town of Kehl. For the Kehl to Strasbourg leg, a special cross-border ticket - the Europass 24h mini - is available to cover two adults; buy it online, on the DB app, or at the train station from a ticket machine in Gengenbach for Kehl > Strasbourg:

https://www.cts-strasbourg.eu/en/buy/our-tickets/occasional-tickets/europass-mini-24h/

The same train that takes you to Kehl will continue on to Strasbourg - you just stay seated on the train and show your ticket if asked.

Personally I like Freiburg. The Kunst (Art) museum is very nice, and the Archeology Museum has a really good prehistoric to Celtic collection. Plus I've had some very good meals in that city.

I also recommend Gengenbach if you’re looking for a smaller town.

We are looking for a smaller town experience and thank you for the recommendation. If you have any smaller hotel/guest house/non chain recommendations, that is appreciated as well as I continue my planning. We do enjoy small towns in Germany. Thank you.

"non chain recommendations"

That pretty much describes everything in Gengenbach.

Location is a good consideration. The station is close in to the old town, but not all of G'bach's accommodations are, and if you'll be using the trains during your stay, it's wise to avoid those accommodations which are too distant.

You can get a good look at the options at the official G'bach tourist page. Click on Hotels, Pensionen, Ferienwohnungen (apartments) and or Privatzimmer (rooms in private homes) at this link:

https://www.gengenbach.info/uebernachten

Places with "Gengenbach - XXXXX (a second place name)" are located in some small settlement that lies outside the main town.

Thanks to everyone for the excellent information!

I studied in Frieburg for a year and it is a marvelous and charming small city. The charm of small cities in germany are the accessible Altstadt and for Freiburg in particular the network of Baechle or small streams imbedded in the walkways. The Dom Platz hosts small wineries and local farmers markets. Freiburg is also know to have the most bike friendly options for a small city. Public transport is also accessible to the mountains for a short day trip to hike. I would not miss the opportunity to stay in Freiburg again.

After reading about Gengenbach on this travel board, I stayed there for one night in Sept. 2024. I absolutely loved it and declared it my new favorite small German village (Bacharach on the Rhine had been my favorite for many, many years)! I thought all the half-timbered buildings were so cute and charming. I just got back from another trip where I took my adult daughter and adult granddaughter. I thought we would all enjoy a night there, but it was very disappointing for us. There were so much of the buildings that were covered with netting and scaffolding!!! Certainly takes away from the charm. We also had trouble finding somewhere appropriate for dinner. On both of the trips I/We stayed at Gasthof Hirsch, which was convenient, clean and about as affordable as to be expected.

One small village I really do love is Staufen im Breisgau. I have stayed there about 5 times now and find this village very walkable with a pedestrian zone and the bachle running along it. If is a bit more pricey, but our accommodations were much nicer as well and we all loved the huge variety of foods for breakfast. I love to walk/hike up through the vineyards to the castle ruins. From there one can see approximately 15-20 villages. It is spectacular! We stayed at Goethe Hotel for 2 nights. It was literally 2-3 blocks from the train station, right on the way into the main part of the village. After our disappointment with Gengenbach I was concerned that my family would find Staufen too small and boring, but they both LOVED it! They declared it the village they would love to make a home base for at least 4 nights. If and when I go back in a couple of years I just might do that! Staufen is a bit less convenient to travel to by train, but so very worth the extra effort.

Nothing against Gengenbach, but Freiburg is much more convenient along the route, and is a wonderful town. Gengenbach requires going most of the way to Strasbourg, then back tracking. Freiburg is along the way, bit over halfway. If you are heading to Strasbourg from Bern, then you might as well just go to Strasbourg rather than Gengenbach. I will not debate small vs medium vs large. it really makes no difference, But Freiburg has a wonderful culture, a vibrant market town, some unique features, lots of hiking and beer halls, great food, It would be my choice.

I like Freiburg as well, Paul. But it's a city of a quarter million inhabitants - there's nothing to debate here, the only question being how the OP chooses to define the "smaller German town experience" - guess I'm just repeating Nigel's comment, actually. Gengenbach has a mere 11,000 inhabitants.

"If you are heading to Strasbourg from Bern, then you might as well just go to Strasbourg rather than Gengenbach." Well, that would mean dropping the idea of a small town stay in Germany entirely, right?

Getting to Gengenbach is not difficult. From Bern, you can get there in 2.75 hours. One train to Offenburg, change there for the 7-minute ride to Gengenbach. No "backtracking" in the direction you came from is required - that 7-minute train ride takes you a few miles along the Black Forest Railway, one of Germany's most scenic routes. Of course, Freiburg is closer to Bern - one hour closer - but if you stay in Freiburg, your trip to Strasbourg will still require you to travel that same stretch of railway to Offenburg, just as you would for Gengenbach, and to transfer to another train for the final 30-minute trip to Strasbourg. A Gengenbach stay will of course mean that your trip afterward to Strasbourg requires a return to Offenburg (again, it's 7 minutes) but that is the only "backtracking" I can conjure up here.

Also want to mention, since we have no dates to go on... Gengenbach has a wine festival September 19 & 20, should you want to get in on the local viticulture. This area has produced wine for around 1,000 years.

You all have provided us with some great options and they are very much appreciated. Thank you!

My nephew spent a year in Freiburg and our family visited a couple times for a few days. I'll add my opinion that Freiburg is a great medium sized university city with a nice core. But it's not a small town either actually or vibes-wise. Again, that's not a knock on Freiburg, but I'm not sure it's the vibe that the OP is looking for.

Rather than Freiburg we stayed in Staufen im Breisgau at Hotel-Restaurant Die Krone, but we had a rental car.

STAUFEN has come up on this thread as a good base town, which it might in fact be for some. A couple of comments...

Rick Steves recommend has recommended the town for decades; I visited on a day trip a number of years ago and found it less impressive than expected. It did not seem like a place to return to, but I did not take the walk that Joy describes (and which Rick mentions in his book) so I think I'd like to stop in there again sometime... The town has had an interesting 21st century... 20 years ago, the town tried tapping into a geothermal pool beneath the town for the purpose of heating their newly-remodeled town hall. Bad choice, as the earth underneath them began to move... After many years and many millions of Euros, efforts to fix the problems they created have slowed but not yet stopped the shifting and cracking of the town's buildings.

While some people choose to drive to Staufen, a car is not necessary. The train line to Staufen (known today as the Münstertalbahn) has been there for over 130 years. This short railway connects to the main Rhine Valley Railway at one end and terminates not far from Staufen in Münstertal at the other end.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Krozingen%E2%80%93M%C3%BCnstertal_railway#/media/File:M%C3%BCnstertalbahn.png

Staufen is a KONUS town, so just like guests in Gengenbach, Staufen's guests can take day trips by train or bus to other places in the Black Forest region as well as to Basel for free:

https://www.schwarzwald-tourismus.info/planen-buchen/konus-gaestekarte#googtrans(de|en)

A day trip from Staufen into Freiburg takes only 25 minutes by train.