bacharach to staufen by train

Bacharach and Staufen are both minor towns on regional rail lines, so getting in and out will involve changes. Freiburg is the major station near Staufen, but it will take a change in Bad Krozingen to get there (or by bus from Freiburg to Staufen). Use the German Rail (Bahn) website for schedules. The best I see is just over 4 hours and 3 changes, using a direct EC from Mainz to Freiburg.

Staufen: Not really a destination. It's a nice small town, but there's not much to see or do there and it's not well connected to anything else in the BF, and the BF is so packed with nicer, well-connected, more scenic and more interesting small towns than Staufen that my best advice is to reconsider your choice. Have a look at some of the trip reports to the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) towns on Ben's pages before you decide for sure; Gengenbach, Schiltach, and Haslach are just a few stand-outs. http://www.bensbauernhof.com/tripreports.html

I haven't been to Staufen, although it makes sense if one wants to see Freiburg but doesn't want to stay "in the city" as it were, I would assume. But just going to see Staufen would be a bit silly. That said, I thought Triberg was pretty terrible. I don't know what I was expecting, but that wasn't it. It wasn't even that particularly attractive. I guess the waterfall must be really nice? I was with people with mobility issues so we didn't go. Lizzy, what's the next leg of your trip? There are some northern Black Forest towns that are charming (if not terribly exciting) that might be a better overnight stay if that's your goal from Bacharach. Weil der Stadt and Calw both come to mind, as does Freudenstadt.

We planned to stay in Staufen for four nights, then stay two nights in Tübingen. From Staufen we would see Freiburg, etc. We were interrested in Staufen's small town aspect, and with the KONUS Card we could travel easily.