Good Black Forest guide?
 

We are planning to spend a couple of weeks in the Black Forest in the early fall (with a possible crossover to the nearby Vosges mountains in France) and would like to find a good guidebook to the area. From our many trips to Baden-Baden, we're fairly familiar with the northern BF, would like to get some in-depth info on the central and southern BF. We will be traveling by car, not train, although we will probably do a train day trip from Freiburg down to Basel (which I know fairly well). Any suggestions? Michelin doesn't do a BF guide; web searches turned up the Landmark Visitors Guides, but their BF guide dates back to 2001 and we'd like something a little newer if possible. (Two to three weeks may sound like a lot of time just for that region, but our preference is to spend our vacation poking around the nooks and crannies of one area rather than exploring a few different regions.) We plan to start in Baden-Baden as usual, spending about a week there, then drive down to the Freiburg area for the remainder. We've found some good resources on the web (online articles from various newspapers and DW TV's site), but would like to find a guidebook if one is out there.
Thanks!
P.S. Still planning on Oberstdorf for Christmas/New Year.

There isn't much in English, I'm afraid. You have to rely on general Germany guide. If you read German, ADAC has a 144-page guide to Black Forest at 4.95 euro http://www.adac-verlag-gmbh.de/buech...sbn=3899051211

We will be spending several days in Gengenbach in the BF in May. I'd be happy to see if I can find a guidebook in English and send it to you if you can't find it elsewhere.

Thanks, Alec! We'll pick up that one. My German skills are only moderate, but my husband is half German (half East Prussian to be exact) and knows the language pretty well.
BettyK, that's very kind of you. If you do find a good guide, could you please pass on the name and we'll order it? This past Christmas, we received a nice big online gift certificate for Amazon, so we could order it from there.

Hi, We will be going over to Germany for the World Cup, and would also like to take some time out to explore the Black Forest. Did you find a Guide in English? Thankyou for your assistance.

We'll probably get one or two German language guides, like the Adac guide Alec recommended and also the following two HB Bildatlases:
http://www.hb-verlag.de/detail.asp?a=266&k=BA
and
http://www.hb-verlag.de/detail.asp?a=247&k=BA

For English, though, it looks like we'll be assembling our own from various online resources. For example:
Walking tour of Gengenbach: http://www.badenpage.de/gengenbach/e...trundgang.html
The (London) Sunday Times has an excellent article on Freiburg (from Sept. 2005)--go to http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/sect...,10209,00.html then enter Freiburg in the travel section search.
It's more time consuming, but in the end we'll have a travel guide that's customized for our itinerary.

I forgot to mention that you can order a free guide in English from the Black Forest tourism department:
http://www.blackforest-tourism.com/i...iew/full/20990

I would actually drive from Freiburg to Basel because it would give me an opportunity to visit the Vitra Design Museum in Weil, which is probably a little difficult to reach otherwise.

Here are a few other websites I found:

http://www.traildatabase.org/schwarzwald/

http://www.schwarzwald.de/e/fr_info.htm

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

http://www.tompgalvin.com/places/de/...ack_forest.htm

bettyk,

I'd be very interested on your experience in Gengenbach. We are considering staying there a couple of nights on a drive between Meersburg and Lux City in 2007.

Curious

Curious:
I spent one week in Gengenbach September 04...loved it! Don't miss the Narrenmuseum--7 floors of Karneval history in a spiralling tower.
The town square is beautiful, tours in english are available (ask at the TI).
Walk above town to Jacob's Chapel for a grand view to France...
Try the many wines, eat outdoors whenever possible. There are many delicious ice cream parlors..and Konditoreien (bakery-cafes). The town symbol is the witch (Hex).
Alsace-Lorraine, France is fairly close, and I heartily recommend Colmar, Strassbourg if you have a chance, for the varied culture and cuisine.
I hope to return this summer myself.

ME!!! I am a wonderful guide for the Black Forest!
TAKE ME!!!!
:)

rachw,

Thanks for the info on Gengenbach. It reinforces my plan.

Regarding Alsace: Been there, done that. Frankly, I wouldn't go back. I wasn't impressed at all with that part of France. To each their own.

Curious

Curious, I'll definitely be filing a trip report when I get back.

rachw, thanks for your input on Gengenbach. I'll add it to my notes.

Just topping so I can have this in my Fodor's folder. Thanks for the great information! Peace, Robyn :)>-