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The Black ForestBy carGerd Eichmann — CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

The Black Forest

Baden-Württemberg, Germany · Germany

A hundred-and-sixty-kilometre fir forest between the Rhine and the Danube, with half-timbered villages, glacial lakes and a ridge road begun in the 1930s with tourism in mind. And one story that explains nearly everything: here the farmers began carving cuckoo clocks in the 18th century because the snow left them half the year unable to work the land, and they ended up exporting them to the whole world.

4 days3 nights275 km7 stopsBest season: May to October, with green pastures, mild lakes and the high roads clear. September is the best month: the same landscape and far fewer people than in August. And December makes its own case, with the Christmas markets and the Gengenbach advent calendar.
Day 1The ridge roadDay 2Raftsmen and cuckoo clocksDay 3The two lakesDay 4The city of the water channels

Day 1 · The ridge road

The Schwarzwaldhochstraße and Gengenbach · 100 km

The SchwarzwaldhochstraßeGemmaGSB — CC BY 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

The Schwarzwaldhochstraße

viewpoints

Sixty kilometres of panoramic road along the ridge between Baden-Baden and Freudenstadt, begun in the 1930s with exactly that in mind: to be driven. It runs almost the whole way between eight hundred and a thousand metres, with the Rhine valley on one side and, on clear days, the Vosges beyond.

Tip

Stop at the Mummelsee, a tiny dark glacial lake at a thousand metres that gave rise to half the local mythology. And take it slowly: the point of this road is that it does not lead anywhere in particular.

55 min to the next stop · 57 km

GengenbachBaden de — CC BY 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Gengenbach

heritage

A historic half-timbered centre on a medieval street plan, walled and among the best preserved in southern Germany, on the edge of the forest and ringed by vineyards. In December the twenty-four windows on the town hall façade open one a day: it is the largest advent calendar in the world.

Tip

It is one of the few towns on this route where Black Forest cake does not carry a tourist price. And ask at your accommodation about the KONUS card.

Day 2 · Raftsmen and cuckoo clocks

Schiltach and Triberg · 60 km

SchiltachRichard Schubert — CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Schiltach

heritage

A village of white houses with black beams stacked up a very steep slope above the meeting of two rivers. It lived off timber: for centuries logs were lashed here into rafts that went down the Kinzig to the Rhine and on to Holland, where they were sold to build ships.

Tip

The market square, on a slope and with its painted town hall, is among the finest in Germany. And the raftsmen's museum by the river explains a trade that lasted here until the late 19th century, when the railway arrived.

40 min to the next stop · 34 km

Triberg and its waterfallsQwesy — CC BY 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Triberg and its waterfalls

nature

The Gutach drops a hundred and sixty-three metres in seven falls among the firs, and they are among the highest and best-known waterfalls in Germany. But what really explains this town is the cuckoo clock: in the 18th century the farmers around here became clockmakers to have something to sell during the months when the snow kept them off the land, and tradition places the first Black Forest cuckoo clock in Schönwald, right next door.

Tip

The falls have a paid entrance, dearer in summer than in winter, and free with the Triberg guest card. There are three signposted routes, and the ticket includes the Black Forest Museum, which is the best part of the visit.

Day 3 · The two lakes

Titisee and Schluchsee · 115 km

Lake TitiseeUser Christian.maier on de.wikipedia — CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Lake Titisee

nature

A two-kilometre glacial lake ringed by firs, carved by the tongue of the Feldberg glacier. It is one of the most visited spots in the whole Black Forest, and it shows: the village shore is one souvenir and cuckoo-clock shop after another.

Tip

Go first thing or walk twenty minutes along the far shore: once you leave the village behind, the lake becomes a lake again. Parking is paid and it pays to carry cash.

20 min to the next stop · 16 km

Lake Schluchseew:de:Benutzer:Filzstift — Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)

Lake Schluchsee

nature

The largest lake in the Black Forest, seven kilometres long at nine hundred and thirty metres. Unlike the Titisee it is not entirely natural: a dam built in the 1930s raised the level of a much smaller glacial lake and drowned the meadows around it.

Tip

There are no souvenir shops or coaches here. A path rings the whole lake, eighteen kilometres, and there are stretches of shore where you can sit with nobody beside you.

Day 4 · The city of the water channels

Freiburg · on foot

Freiburg im BreisgauSven Puth — CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Freiburg im Breisgau

culture

One of the warmest and sunniest cities in Germany, with the country's only great Gothic cathedral completed in the Middle Ages, tower included. Through the streets of the whole old town run the Bächle, open water channels dug in the 13th century to put out fires and water livestock, and they are running still.

Tip

Tradition says whoever steps into a Bächle by accident ends up marrying someone from Freiburg. And the cathedral square holds a market of Black Forest produce every morning except Sunday.

This getaway is in the app, day by day, with every stop on the map, the drives between them and where to sleep, and the option to save it for when there is no signal.

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