The Black Forest – Vacation in New Dimensions

Those who know it have knowledge of its effect: The landscape, the people and the offers are original, contrasty, relaxing and challenging.

Black Forest girl, Black Forest house, Black Forest cake, Black Forest ham, Bollen hat or cuckoo clock – they are symbols in the whole world for a picture-postcard vacation in Germany’s most beautiful epicure area. 

The Natural Landscapes 

The 11.100 square kilometers big vacationland in the southwest of Germany has to offer much more than postcard cliches. About 200 kilometers long and 50 kilometers wide: the biggest upland of Germany represents such diverse natural landscapes like the arboreous north, the middle Black Forest with its broad meadow valleys and the south with its wide and open surfaces that rise to an altitude of 1.493 meters.

The vacationland also includes the fertile Rhine plain and the wine regions Markgräflerland, Kaiserstuhl, Tuniberg and Ortenau in the west. In the east it stretches to the Heckengäu to the rivers Nagold and Neckar and to the plateau of the Baar at the transition to the Swabian Alps.

Nature Experience for the Active Ones 

More than 70 peaks above 1000 meters make the vacationland the most diverse landscape of Germany. The permanent change from mountain to valley is a climatic advantage: There are so many climatic spas in the southwest like nowhere else in Germany. Hikers and Nordic walkers enjoy the wide views over the Black Forest mountains in summer. Winter offers a wonderland for ambitious skiers, winter hikers, snowboarders, snowkiters and snowshoe fans. Whether Rhine wetlands, vineyards, wide valleys, high observation mountains or wooded crests – from spring to fall the Black Forest is a real comfort zone for hikers, cyclists and mountainbikers, “joyriders” and bend-loving bikers. 

Cycling for Each Demand 

There is a dense net of well signposted cycle paths. 16 long-distance bike trails are crossing and traversing the Black Forest. The circular routes in the Upper Rhine plain are especially comfortable. A more sporty cycling challenge are the 8500 kilometers of uniformly signposted mountainbike trails. You can practice your cycling skills in bike parks in Bad Wildbad in the northern, Bad Rippoldsau-Schippach in the middle and Todtnau in the southern Black Forest. 

The Taste of the Black Forest 

The vacationland Black Forest prides itself quite rightly on being „Germany’s most beautiful gourmet corner“. About 350 restaurants in the region between Pforzheim and Basel, Rhine and Nagold River prove this. In the current gourmet and restaurant guides they are decorated with Michelin stars, Gault Millau toques, Feinschmecker F’s, Varta diamonds or Aral cooking spoons. They also show that not only some top restaurants offer an outstanding cuisine in the Black Forest, but you can find in virtually each place an inn or a restaurant with a special relish factor.