p Making order out of the mess! A huge, detailed post. Probably only for people already planning a trip to the Black Forest, because why enjoy alone?
p Have you tried looking up details about the Black Forest? What a mess, right? A nightmare. So much data! So many websites! So many groups!! Even for an information junkie like me, it was too much. So I thought I'd put a little order into it. At least try :) Because why enjoy alone?
p (Come enjoy London, Greece, Madrid, the Seychelles or even a desert inn in the south with me too.)
p Why enjoy alone??
p A practical, precise day-by-day description, plus a spreadsheet with all the links at the end of the post!
p You know when you dream about something, but the dream seems so far away and impossible? And yet it sits deep in your head? The Black Forest was one of our biggest dreams. The way you fantasize about what you'll do and how you'll live, alongside a camper van trip in New Zealand, we dreamed of a long trip in the Black Forest. And sometimes dreams suddenly come true, and we got there. We enjoyed it like no other trip, and I really want to share all that happiness. Because why enjoy alone?
p If you don't have time and want a summary of the trip, you can find me on mako. The secret was two main things: careful planning plus adjusted expectations. (I'll send the plan to anyone who wants it.) So my post is split in two: preparing before the trip, and the trip itself. We're a couple + 3: an 11-year-old boy, an 8-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl (perfect ages for a trip like this, by the way).
p Preparing for the trip: to me, the most important part of traveling with kids is the planning. Especially on a trip like this. We bought the book The Traveling Family (sometimes called the bible), joined a Facebook group, relied a lot on Kliko's Black Forest website, and started gathering information at a relaxed pace about a year ahead. The reason is that we're very busy in this life, and it's better for all this information to sink in slowly, a little every day, than to do crazy hours of planning right before.
p In short, a war room.
p I realized pretty quickly that the Black Forest is huge, that there are endless sites and endless posts about it, and it's easy to get lost. Planning a trip is hard, because people are all different, and what suited Udi from Holon might really not suit Roni from Givatayim. Hannah from Or Yehuda's kids don't like the same things as Shirly from Givatayim's kids. So how do you make order in all this mess? You can.
p Before the trip:
p Flights
p We flew to Baden-Baden, rented a car and drove straight to the first hotel. If you land in the evening, sleep at a hotel near the airport. Same on the way back: if your flight is really early in the morning, sleep at the airport. You'll save a day of car rental and hours of sleep.
p Low-cost flights are known to be really cheap if you book ahead, and accommodation there is relatively cheap too. We're talking a third of the price. When you're 5 people, that's critical! We booked through Ryanair. Okay, I went a bit overboard and set myself a daily reminder in my calendar with a link to their site (and the competitors'), and every day I clicked the link and checked whether the routes had opened. Yes, yes, I overdid it, but when I succeeded, nobody was prouder than me :) Of course, you have to browse in private mode, plus lots of other rules, otherwise the price jumps.
p Choosing a route
p My goal was for us to drive as little as possible from the hotel to the attractions, so I chose two main places to stay. One in the south of the Black Forest (5 nights), one in the middle of the Black Forest (8 nights), and one at the airport (1 night). I took into account constraints like the red and black cards (explained below), and what we enjoy most as a family and what suits us.
p Accommodation!!
p Wow, do I have recommendations for you. What fun. The amazing thing is there are hardly any reviews of these places; I got the recommendations from a friend who'd been there herself. In the south, around Titisee: Bierhäusle Feldberg. A perfect location, first of all. The red card is included. Close to lots of attractions on the red card and in general. A cute breakfast. I'm not sure the owner is a big fan of Israelis, but it didn't bother us. Cost: something like 90 euros a night including breakfast, I think; we took 2 rooms. In the middle: Lucia und Hans-Georg Eble Streckerseppenhof. An a-m-a-z-i-n-g farm! There's nothing like it. Acres of nature and animals: horses, sheep, rabbits. Everything! Videos below. Lucia and Hansi, the owners, are the most amazing people. They hosted us like family. We milked cows, fed and brushed horses, and walked across their huge land to see the sheep. Lucia called them by name, and they ran to her from far away and jumped on us and on her with joy. It was really moving. Looking after animals is a calming experience, and there was a kind of magic in the air and pure joy of life. We dedicated two half-days just to the farm, to feel it and enjoy it, and of course every morning we went out for a little walk. The farm is basically a full apartment with everything inside! Everything. A washing machine, an equipped kitchen, a shower, a bathtub, bedrooms, a living room, Wi-Fi, everything. Outside there's a lovely little playground. Lucia doesn't have a Facebook page; I offered to set one up for her, because the world needs to know about them, to help them and help the universe :) In short, it was so perfect we didn't want to leave. Lucia und Hans-Georg Eble Streckerseppenhof, Föhrentalstr. 26, D-79286 Glottertal. Tel. +49 (0)7684 / 313. Email: info@streckerseppenhof.de. Website: www.streckerseppenhof.de. Cost: 80 euros a night for the whole apartment.
p A night at Baden-Baden airport: it's just very convenient to cross the road and walk to the airport, and not to drive the roads there at night. B&B Hotel Baden Airpark. Cost: about 86 euros a night. We took two rooms.
p The red card and the black card
p There are two cards: red and black. · The red card: you can't buy it. You only get it if you stay at certain hotels or guesthouses. Those places usually cost more. The card gets you into all the worthwhile sites in the south of the Black Forest. Really worth it if you're an active family. · The black card: you can buy it. Each card is good for three days only, and the days you use it don't have to be consecutive. The card can include Europa-Park. There's no saying which is better; it's very personal. Having both suited us, because we don't like dealing with lines and I don't want to keep counting pennies. It's very freeing to just focus on fun the whole time. I booked it through Top Tour.
p Expectations
p Our expectation was that this was a family trip. Meaning, not a couples' trip, not lying by the pool. Yes to lots of quality family time, and yes to creating sweet memories for all of us for life. That's the most important thing in the world. We worked on creating memories. We saw lots of broken, worn-out families, probably because they expected something else. There was a classic case at a place called the Barefoot Trail in Gutach. It's a place where you walk barefoot through mud, gravel, sand and stones, to feel nature, connect, all that. Along the trail there are beautiful, special sensory stations. There are lockers at the entrance to leave your shoes in, but one more minute of thought made me say: no, we (meaning my husband) will carry the shoes. Because sure, it's super cool to connect with nature, but since my kids don't exactly run around in meadows back in Givatayim, I was worried they'd get annoyed when they got a thorn! And they really loved it. We made it sound so special, and how much fun it is, and look at the view, but I think just knowing their shoes were right there calmed them down, and they enjoyed the experience. About halfway, my daughter said: Mom, I'm done connecting with nature, I want my shoes. Hop! Here you go! (I gave myself a medal in the car.) We took lots of cool photos and finished the trail. On the way out, some Israelis asked us how it was, and we all said it was amazing and fun and everything I just told you. The stunned Israeli woman said she'd just asked another Israeli family, and they'd told her it was a nightmare, the kids cried and got thorns and really suffered. I said that what you project to them matters, and so does preparing accordingly. I think that sums up the whole approach. What you are is what they are.
p Preparing the kids
p The kids are part of the route. Obviously not in the small details at all, but keep throwing place names at them and showing them videos and photos. The highlight was when we finalized the schedule and came up with the magical idea of sharing it with them. In my head, picture us telling them while they sit there, all clean and polite, listening to us. In reality, the oldest was choking the middle one, the little one was screaming because they'd fallen on her, and my husband carried on with his description as if he didn't see any of it. But! I was sure they hadn't taken in a thing, and the word "ungrateful" may have crossed my mind, but when we got to places in the forest, we were stunned to hear them say: yes, I remember this from YouTube! And I'm like: how amazing is that? How did you manage, you little creatures, to see this from the angle of being pinned to the floor in a headlock? How, when you were about to pass out, did you notice the mountain toboggan and remember it's the best one in the forest? Amazing. I've raised really talented kids. I couldn't do that. So we prepared them the whole way, in small doses, and mostly got them excited. That's one of the biggest gifts we can give them: that this is a huge privilege and we're going to have a blast. Honestly, when I think about it, we were really pumping ourselves up. ANYWAY..
p A contract with the kids before the flight
p Yes, a contract (a link to the template is in this post). We had the kids and ourselves sign a funny, cute contract, which basically says: We appreciate the trip, which shows in saying something nice if you enjoyed it. We don't buy souvenirs we'll never use. 1 or 2 souvenirs for the whole trip. Every kid and parent has a job on the trip: for example, one daughter is in charge of safety, making sure everyone's buckled up. Mr. Food and Drinks helps find restaurants and makes sure there's enough water in the car and everyone drinks on hikes. It's brilliant! Shared responsibility: everyone checks we took the chargers, and if the fuel tank is empty, reminds us to fill up. Quiet when getting into the car: the moments when you get into the car to leave or come back from somewhere are critical. Miss one GPS instruction and we end up in Italy. Forget something important at the hotel or an attraction, and it's really hard and annoying to go back. It's important to be quiet for those two minutes. I bought them a Simon Says game, and they just played it until we said: have a good drive!
p Booking ahead
p The places it was critical to book ahead: Hotels or farms. Flights: to Baden-Baden, Stuttgart or Munich in Germany, or to Switzerland. The Feldberg rope park, Kletterwald. Booking the black card is worth it, simply because why deal with it there. I booked through Top Tour. A restaurant here and there, just to be safe.
p A car: better to rent in Germany. It's cheaper.
p About a month before the flight
p We opened a war room. A real war room. We set up a folding table in the living room, a big real map to understand directions, a laptop with a spreadsheet, the list of sites open on the laptop. We went down to day-by-day detail, tailored to our family. Down to the parking :) At first I'd planned the trip on my own, slowly. Every day I read just a little, because who really has time, but a month before the flight my husband and I opened the war room together.
p On the trip itself: 1. Put 3 reusable bags in the trunk: warm clothes to change into; swimwear, quick-dry microfiber towels and flip-flops; summer clothes to change into. 2. Always keep in the car: dry food and water. 3. Every evening my husband was in charge of showers, and I was in charge of unpacking and getting ready for the next day: clothes for the morning, food we could prepare ahead in the cooler, sorting out the car, and personally, I also kept a travel journal. 4. You have to be flexible. As I said, the forest is huge, you won't see all of it, and the trip isn't about how much you manage to see, but about how you travel and the memories you make. 5. Flexibility also applies to rainy days. Have ready-made days for rain, and move them if a day turns out sunny, but watch out for constraints. For example, some places are closed on Sundays, and some places you have to be at on Sundays. 6. Grocery shopping: Germans are very precise. If the supermarket closes at 9:00 pm and you walked in at 8:50, there's no wandering around the store looking for groceries after 9:00. They'll yell "raus, raus!" at you. My son ran from the supermarket to the car in fear and nearly got run over. 7. Europa-Park! Very important tips. They say it opens at ten. We arrived at nine and there were already lines and the rides were open, so maybe you can even arrive at eight. Two extra hours in this dreamy place are critical. There's a card called the Baby Switch: if you have one or more kids who aren't tall enough for a ride, they give you this card and you can do the ride a second time with no line. How it works: say a family of 5 arrives, a couple + 3 kids. One of the kids doesn't meet the height requirement. Everyone gets in line together, asks the attendant for the card and shows them the short kid :) Dad and the two kids who can ride wait in line. You check the estimated wait time (amazingly accurate). Mom and the short daughter :) use the time for another ride, come back to the exit of the first ride at the stated time, and Mom goes in with no line, with the kids again. It's just brilliant. Book parking ahead. 8. Recycling
p Recycle the bottles you buy: at the entrance to supermarkets there's this cool machine that swallows the bottles, and you get money to use in the store. Educational and nice.
p Here's a general breakdown of our days (below is a shorter schedule with a link to the spreadsheet):
p Day 1: The hotel (Bierhäusle Feldberg), the Todtnau toboggan (Hasenhorn Rodelbahn), the Todtnau Waterfalls (Todtnauer Wasserfall), Steinwasen Park and Badeparadies (Badeparadies Schwarzwald)
p Toboggan: you have to be in line by quarter to nine. It saves hours. The Todtnau Waterfalls: we really loved them! Steinwasen Park: magical, fun and worth it.
p Day 2: Ravenna Gorge (Ravennaschlucht), Lake Titisee and a boat ride, mini golf and Badeparadies
p Ravenna Gorge: magical (a word that comes up a lot), calm. Watch out for the heights, it can be dangerous. Mini golf: we had a great time! Badeparadies: perfection for kids. There's an insanely noisy wing and a quiet wing for adults. We split up for a few minutes to see what was there, and it's like a scene from a movie, going from total chaos to paradise. Funny :)
p Day 3: The Todtnau toboggan (Hasenhorn Rodelbahn), the Feldberg rope park (Kletterwald), the Feldberg cable car (Liftverbund Feldberg), a restaurant in Feldberg, Anton the Rooster's trail (Der Wichtelpfad) and Badeparadies
p The Feldberg rope park: a gorgeous place! You have to book ahead. Arrive half an hour early, otherwise it'll hold you up. The owner is lovely; he told us about the place and how thanks to Shlomit from The Traveling Family, he makes a great living :) Anton the Rooster's trail: if you bring The Traveling Family book and act out the story for the kids, it's a magical experience. On the way we happened on a playground, and the kids spent a lot of unplanned time there. All their playgrounds are so well made that even the simplest ones are fun.
p Day 4: Mount Belchen, the sculpture trail (Schlühüwana Park Schluchsee), Lake Schluchsee, the Hüsli house, Tannenmühle restaurant
p Mount Belchen: we loved it. Lake Schluchsee: we went in! An experience we'll remember for a long time, so much fun. Tannenmühle restaurant: one huge WOW! A must. Not only is the restaurant good (and there aren't many like that), but there are all the activities around it.
p Day 5: Moving to Lucia's farm: driving to Glottertal, the treetop walk (Baumkronenweg Waldkirch), Schonach, the town of Triberg and the Triberg Waterfalls
p The treetop walk: ALERT! A very hard climb. Prepare yourselves mentally. I don't think it's suitable for strollers, unless you're Iron Man or Hercules. But so worth it!! Also because there's a cute rope park and a view, and cute, interesting stations along the way, but mostly because there's an insane slide!! Schonach: embarrassing. Don't even think about going to see the cuckoo clock :)
p Day 6: The Rhine Falls, Stein am Rhein and Mainau, the flower island. The flower island: wow!!! There's a garden with swings, a raft on the water, a rope park and more! On top of all the flowers, the palace and the rest... Set aside half a day for it.
p Day 7: Europa-Park
p Again, arrive before 9, use the Baby Switch and enjoy more. Don't skip Arthur, Blue Fire, Silver Star and Voletarium. That's for my older ones. There are millions of suitable rides for the little one. Book parking ahead.
p Day 8: The Witch's Hole (Hexenlochmühle), the Gutach toboggan (Sommerrodelbahn Gutach), the Gutach sensory trail (Park mit allen Sinnen) and the Höhengasthaus Landwassereck restaurant. The second half of the day was for resting and walking around the farm with Lucia. Resting matters too.
p The Witch's Hole: just because we had time; basically, skip it. The Höhengasthaus Landwassereck restaurant is magical, with a perfect view and amazing food. The sensory trail (the Barefoot Trail): lovely stations along the way. Don't miss it.
p The sensory trail (the Barefoot Trail)
p Day 9: Strasbourg, France
p A great restaurant in Strasbourg, with a lovely view and a great atmosphere: La Corde à Linge, 2 Place Benjamin Zix, 67000 Strasbourg, France, +33 3 88 22 15 17
p Day 10: The Eagle and Monkey Park (Vogelpark Steinen), the car museum in Mulhouse (Cité de l'Automobile), Badenweiler and the Cassiopeia spa (Cassiopeia Therme Badenweiler)
p The spa: the parking is a little far (it's in the book). Badenweiler: a stunningly beautiful town.
p Day 11: Alsace: Colmar, Haut-Koenigsbourg castle, Ribeauvillé and Riquewihr
p Very important: it took us a long time to find a restaurant that was open and had food suitable for kids. In the end we found one, called L'Ami Fritz, Ribeauvillé, Alsace.
p Day 12: Europa-Park
p Day 13: Moving to the airport hotel: the northern Black Forest: the Lynx Trail (Luchspfad), Lake Mummelsee and Mehliskopf park
p The Lynx Trail: lovely. It took two hours. Start with the park, because the rope park ticket office closes at three, I think.
p A spreadsheet with all the details here.
p A short day-by-day description (the links are in the file here):
p So that's it. I kept it short and to the point :) Have a wonderful time! It's the trip of a lifetime. Go make yourselves new, good memories.
p Feel free to ask questions, because why on earth should I enjoy alone?
p And come visit my new Instagram and my Facebook group, where you can share your own good times too, because why should you enjoy alone?