prepar

Hi, I am going to be Black Forest region in the 1st week of May for about 4 days. 2 days I will be exploring the Balck Forest Region. 1 day I will be going to Colmar and 1 day to Rhine Falls. Can you please tell me the best way to reach these two places. Also instead of Colmar should I go Stratbourg. Any suggestions what to see here.

nytraveler

The best way to explore Black Forest is by car - will let you see lots of small towns and make it easy to get from place to place quickly and conveniently. Colmar is cute - but Strasbourg has much more to see/do. IMHO they are much more worth seeing than Rhine Falls.

Russ

The Rheinfall is pretty but also pretty far from the Black Forest.

Actually, you can use the train to get around to many interesting places quickly and conveniently in the Black Forest. The whole place is criss-crossed by passenger train routes connecting dozens and dozens of towns - not every one that's worth visiting, of course, but you have just a couple days anyway. Just check out the rail line sketch on this page (in German.)

http://www.schwarzwald.com/karte/bahnlinien.html

The three major lines of greatest interest are probably #2 (Rhine Valley Railway), #4 (Black Forest Railway), and #5 "Hell's Valley Railway.

Route description and towns on/near #4:
http://www.black-forest-travel.com/p...t-railway.html

Also on/near #4:
Gengenbach (terrific old walled town): http://www.black-forest-travel.com/gengenbach/
Villingen: http://www.tourismus-vs.de/en/views-...villingen.html
Schiltach: http://www.schiltach.de/ceasy/module...hp5?cPageId=83


Towns on/near #5:
http://www.black-forest-travel.com/freiburg/
http://www.black-forest-travel.com/hinterzarten/
http://www.black-forest-travel.com/l...e/titisee.html
http://www.blackforesthighlands.info...wns/Loeffingen

Where to stay? Gengenbach is an ideal location for train outings along #4 and also for outings to Strasbourg and to Freiburg. If you stay there (or in about 130 other Black Forest towns but NOT in Freiburg or Baden-Baden) you will receive a "Konus Card" which allows FREE train, bus, and tram travel within the Black forest region for the duration of your stay. See link to English flyer on this page:

http://www.blackforest-tourism.com/konus

ON route #5, Kirchzarten is a good base for outings to Colmar, Freiburg, and the towns to the east. Buses to St. Peter and St. Märgen are available from there too.

The Konus card will get you to the French border for free.

Colmar: train from Freiburg to Breisach, then the Südbadenbus; pay only for the bus:

http://www.suedbadenbus.de/suedbaden...olmar-2012.pdf

Strasbourg: Take the train (free w/Konus) from Gengenbach (or wherever you're staying) to Kehl, the border town. From there, you'll need a paid ticket to Strasbourg to cover the French part. You don't have to get off the train in Kehl - you just have to have a ticket in hand, one you can buy in Gengenbach or Offenburg (connecting station near Gengenbach.) There's a special 6€ daypass to get you from Kehl to Strasbourg and back:

http://www.ortenaulinie.de/tgo_datei...11%20final.pdf

Russ

You can use the German railway site to bring up all train (and bus) connections; you'll find that trains run pretty much day and night:

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

You can have a look at trip reports that include lots of details on the BF here:

http://www.bensbauernhof.com/germany...ndbus2011.html
http://www.bensbauernhof.com/russ2011.html
http://www.bensbauernhof.com/tenthst...rsary2009.html
http://www.bensbauernhof.com/germanyaustria2010.html

prepar

Thanks for all the information. I am going to be based in Hinterzarten. I think instead of Colmar I will do the Strasbourg.
My husband and daughter are very keen on spending a day in Switzerland and hence have put Rhine Falls as an option.
Also I will have two days in Blackforest. One day I am planning to do some parts of the Clock Route (using public Transport) and 1 day explore the Titsee region.