I'm planning for one day for my wife and I to spend early to mid September travelling on the local S Bahn route from Freiburg into the Black Forest. We'd have the whole day devoted to this, so could stop off at different locations on the route like Titisee etc. Just wondering what would make for a nice balanced itinerary. Would probably be staying in Freiburg as I studied there years ago and look forward to seeing it again (but as a clueless young person didn't really take too many local trips while studying there).
Posted by
Karlsruhe, Germany
293 posts
Do you want to hike, or just to make stops at various places?
Posted by
Green Bay
20175 posts
I will throw this itinerary out to start the conversation. To get an early start (before 9:00 am weekdays), you can get a BWTag ticket for 2 people for 40 EUR, good for the whole day for unlimited travel on regional trains, S-Bahns, trams, buses in B-W.
website, use translate function if German is rusty: https://www.bwtarif.info/baden-wuerttemberg-ticket/
about 7:00 am S-Bahn to Titisee, stop for 2 hours
about 9:20 am train to Villingen, change to train to Triberg (bus from train station to town), stop 3 hours for cuckoo clock shopping or hiking and lunch.
about 2:00 pm train to Gengenbach, explore town, dinner.
about 7:00 pm train to Offenburg, change to train to Freiburg arriving 8:30 pm.
Modify as you wish.
Posted by
OP
Greater Sacramento
571 posts
Looking at map and connections, may have to rethink this and make it a less ambitious day, maybe just doing Titisee region and more time for Freiburg that day as well, We may do the section Gengenback Triberg St Georgen another day, from another base. We'd be up for moderate walking but nothing too strenous, so more stopping then hiking. So in this case if we could do a walk around part of Titisee, and go further along the line maybe up to Loffingen? Also, at what point does the Freiburg/Donaueschingen line become less scenic? Maybe we'd go that far and then head back. Definitely a BW ticket day.
Posted by
Wyckoff, NJ, USA
7327 posts
I am not a big hiker, but there is plenty of "light" hiking in Germany and in the BF. When I hiked (alone, in sneakers) back to my hotel in Hinterzarten, from Titisee, there were "low", "medium" and "high" levels of difficulty available for that entire route, although I had trouble finding all the blazes/markings when the paths temporarily overlapped. I would have done better with a map, but the line at the Titisee TI was so slow moving that I gave up. Download trail maps in advance, I guess.
I trust you know that Titisee is considered a hopelessly overrun caricature of German tourist sites, unsuitable for thoughtful Rick Steves readers ... Yes, I said I went, because I wanted to see it. I didn't go to buy a cuckoo clock.
I took the (KONUS-free) train to Freiburg for a city-day, but I don't know if there is a nice trail that will take you back to Freiburg or not. Because I had a car, I went to a few waterfalls (on a weekday, not in peak season) just to look.
Final note, my high-class hotel told me, too late, they run out of BF cake every night at dinner ... ...
Posted by
Sacramento, California U.S.A.
10235 posts
Rob, remind me to tell you about when we went to Titisee.
Posted by
Southeast US
3858 posts
Hey, Rob. I went to the Black Forest in 2017, I think. I stayed in Gengenbach. I mentioned Titisee, and the owner of our B&B told me to go to Schulchsee to see the Germans (it's at the end of the line for the train that goes to Titisee). Then she thought about it and said, "No, go to Titisee first to see the foreign tourists, and then go to Schulchsee to see the Germans." Schluchsee is a big lake -- mostly outdoorsy things to do there, though I thought the town was kind of cute. I think, though, with 1 day in the Black Forest, there are better things to see.
Posted by
Karlsruhe, Germany
293 posts
It is funny that Schluchsee has already been mentioned: This would be my suggestion, actually, if you want to stay in this part of the Black Forest and do some light walking. You could get off the train at the Aha station, and then walk up in the woods to Schluchsee (the town) itself. There are many paths and they are quite easy. I would personally avoid Titisee: it is just packed with tourists all the time, in an unpleasant way.
If you want to make a fuller day of things, you could actually combine this with something on a different fringe of Freiburg, perhaps a visit to Kaiserstuhl? So, Schluchsee in the morning, a train back to Freiburg and then over to Kaiserstuhl in the afternoon/early evening. Depending on when exactly you are there in September, there are lots of wine makers with Federweißer (the new wine) at that time of year in the Kaiserstuhl area. I kind of think that all of the Black Forest near Freiburg (all areas that are are easy for a day trip) look rather similar, so I would personally go for something with a bit more variety.