Were staying in Baden-baden and would like to know if we should fly into Zurich or Munich. Also the drive time, we'll be renting a car.

Frankfurt is the closest airport to Baden-Baden; I'd recommend it over either Zurich or Munich. Its less than two hours drive time (166km) from the Frankfurt airport to Baden-Baden, almost all by autobahn; slightly more than 2 and a half hours from Zurich (260km) and about 3 and a half hours from Munich. Another consideration, if flying from the US, I don't think you'll find direct, non-stop flights to Munich; you certainly will to Frankfurt.<BR><BR>If you're interested in some driving itineraries in the Black Forest, drop me an Email.

Check rental rates in Germany vs. CH and I think that will make your decision easier. German rates can be as much as 1/3 less than Switzerland. <BR>Might also consider flying to Stuttgart or Frankfurt as they're closer than either Munich (~220km) or Zurich (~300km).<BR>hth,<BR>

USAir flies nonstop in to Munich (from PHL), and I think that Delta does too - - and probably Lufthansa (United) from Chicago?<BR><BR>The closest international airport to Baden-Baden is probably BSL (Basel) which serves the "tri-corner" junction of France, Switzerland and Germany. There are nonstop flights into BSL from EWR (Newark) on continental or Swissair (or both or code-shared, I forget). And by far, the MOST convenient airport for Baden-Baden is SXB (Strasbourg), served best by AirFrance/Continental.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

United, Lufthansa and American all fly non-stop from Chicago -- O'Hare to Frankfurt.

Kathleen:<BR><BR>Consider Stuttgart (STR). Delta has a daily non-stop flight (DL 116) from Atlanta (ATL) on a B-767 departing ATL 5:55 pm and arriving STR next morning at 9:05 am. Delta's daily return flight (DL 117; also non-stop, B-767) leaves STR at 11:35 and arrives in ATL at 3:40 pm.<BR><BR>Michelin website (www.viamichelin.com) shows distance from Stuttgart Airport to Baden-Baden as 109 km (about 65 miles) and estimates driving time of about 1 hr 7 min (almost all on the autobahn). You might even consider taking a more scenic, back country route (probably somewhat longer in both distance and time) through the Black Forest from the airport to Baden-Baden, depending on how you cope with jet-lag.<BR><BR>Also consider Sixt Rental Car (see their website, www.e-sixt.com) I'm using Sixt at their Munich Airport location for a two-week trip in August to Germany and Austria. The price for a Volvo V-70XC cross country wagon with Sixt (1,576 DM) is much better than for the same car with Hertz, which I normally use.<BR><BR>Enjoy your trip. Rich<BR>

Basel is about 1 hour away, but the rental cars are very expensive there. Stuttgart to Baden-Baden is usually 1,5 hours, but the highway Karlsruhe-Basel is crowded in summer as itīs the main vacation road down south. Iīd consider leaving the A 8 in Pforzheim and cutting short through the Schwarzwald, itīs a nice area. If you fly to Frankfurt why donīt you take the train to Baden-Baden. If you donīt want to stay in Munich then I would not fly there, itīs nearly 4 hours drive, and by train 4,5. Zurich is similar.