Black Forest - Favorite towns

"...quaint towns, easy hikes, scenery, cuckoo clocks and easy to get to via rail."

Titisee is really nice in summer - lovely lakeside setting, surrounded by mountains and forest. It's a short rail ride from Freiburg, with an easy walk around the lake and also some more demanding hikes in the area, cuckoo clocks, and plenty of other tourist come-ons. The beach and lake are clean and tidy but crowded. The whole rail route from Freiburg through Titisee and inland toward Donaueschingen is very scenic.

Triberg is another popular town with good rail access - higher in elevation with more cuckoo clocks, but not as naturally beautiful, and diesel-spewing tourbuses are permitted to plow through town; I much preferred Titisee and have returned several times.

thanks! any help on lodging with "atmosphere" in titisee or triberg? <100 euros, mom&pop local owners,etc.

k.

http://picasaweb.google.com/DanFranPics

Hi Kathy,
... the above is a Picasa web site of Dan and Franciska who live in Riehen, Switzerland. A quick look on your map you will note it is very near the German border and the Black Forest. Train service from Riehen to Black Forest locations is great.
... We hope you enjoy these photos. Because of these photos we would consider using Riehen as a base of touristic operations. Gute Reise!... P

What part of the Black Forest are you thinking of? There are some pretty neat places in the northern part. Bad Wildbad (www.bad-wildbad.de) is cute. It has some nice pedestrian zones with restaurants and shops. The major attraction there, however, is the spa, the Palais Therme. But don't go in it if you are shy. Like all "traditional" German spas, it's coed and "textilefrei".

Probably my favorite town in this area is Bad Herrenalb (www.bad-herrenalb.de). It's a nice place for hiking and only about 45 minutes by streetcar from Karlsruhe.

Also, there is Freudenstadt (www.freudenstadt.de), sometimes called the capital of the northern Black Forest. It has a huge town square surrounded by a covered arcade with lots of shops.

I once spent two nights in Alpirsbach (www.alpirsbach.de). It very pretty and there is an old monastery there and a major brewery, Klosterbräu.

For any trip, you should go on the Schwarzwaldbahn, a very scenic ride up a narrow river valley from Hausach to Triberg, which is mentioned by Rick for its cuckoo clocks. From Triberg you can procede down to Donaueschingen, the headwaters of the famous Danube (Donau) river. From there, I like to follow the Donau down to Sigmaringen (www.sigmaringen.de). Sigmaringen is actually in Schwaben, not the Schwarzwald, but it is home to a very impressive Hohenzollern castle.

Kathy - just got back last week from visiting my daughter in France. We decided to do a short break in the Black Forest and stayed in Staufen. It was a GREAT cute small town with a castle on top (short hike). We stayed at the Hotel Kreuz Post and loved it - they only have 4 rooms so it was very cozy. Had a very gourmet dinner there as well. I highly recommend them (and the town).

We drove through Freiburg and Triberg and liked Freiburg very much - it was much bigger than Staufen. Also drove by Titisee and we must have missed it because we really didn't see any reason to stop. It must be that there is great hiking in the summer but since it was snowing slightly when we were there we did not stay. Thought Triberg was too touristy and didn't get to BadenBaden.

Titisee accommodations:

Go to www.titisee.de, click on "Tourismus" then the English option (British flag.) Under accommodations you'll find several private B&B's in your price range; Haus Irma for example is 20 Euros each per night double and has a good location.

I agree w/Karen that Triberg is overly touristy and that Staufen is a nice small town as well with an old world feel to it, a good alternative to Freiburg. But Staufen's on a cul-de-sac train line that goes nowhere and you'd need to head back to Freiburg if you planned to explore the BF by train. I think Titisee with its lake/mountain setting and position on a cross-forest train line excels in the other ways you are looking for.

I neglected to mention the free use of trains in this region; Titisee is one of the towns where hosts issue a "Konus-Karte" to guests which permits free use of regional trains and buses during your stay in the BF.

This map shows you the area where Konus is valid:
www.konus-schwarzwald.info/service/konus/was_ist_konus/uebersichtskarte

You could use it to explore the Freiburg - donaueschingen line and the train line Lee mentions (roughly between Donaueschingen and Offenburg on the map.)

Perry, I enjoyed those photos on the link you provided. He is an excellent photographer. Thanks.

Thanks all of you for the great info!

When you visit the black forest dont forget to visit the town of Waldkirch its about 15 kilometer north east of the great city of Freiburg

I would suggest a quick trip through Freiburg. My husband and I took a quick overnight trip to that area and really enjoyed Freiburg. The city's cathedral is stunning and everyone was so polite!

Where would you recommend as a home base if we have a car for transportation. Prefer a town or a village that has some life to it and does not close up at 8PM but do not want a large bustling city.

thanks,
Orrin