Black Forest

The Black Forest cake (Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte) you can buy at a bakery in Triberg is a genuinely different thing from what is sold under the same name most of the world. The original is made with specific local Schwarzwald cherries, Kirschwasser (cherry schnapps) from the region, and a whipped cream proportion that looks architecturally improbable. The commercial versions exported everywhere else taste of the idea of it rather than the thing itself. This small distinction applies more broadly to the region: there’s a version designed for tourism and a version that is actually there.

Freiburg

The most useful base is Freiburg im Breisgau on the western edge of the forest. The medieval old town survived World War II significantly better than most German cities; the Gothic Munster cathedral took three centuries to build (completed in 1513) and has a tower that 19th-century Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt called “the most beautiful tower on earth.” The pedestrianised centre has a system of small channels called Bachle running along the streets: medieval drainage that now serves mostly as a tourist hazard. Falling into one is reportedly considered good luck and is genuinely common.

Freiburg is a university city with 30,000 students, which means the nightlife and cafe culture are better than you’d expect for a city of 230,000 people.

Triberg and the Cuckoo Clock

Triberg calls itself the Black Forest’s heartland and leans hard into the cuckoo clock heritage. The House of 1,000 Clocks is exactly what it sounds like. The Triberger Wasserfälle, at 163 metres total drop, is Germany’s highest waterfall and worth an hour of the day; the walk through the forest to the upper sections is better than the main viewpoint at the base.

The mechanical cuckoo clocks made in this region date from the mid-18th century, when clockmakers combined woodcarving skills with imported mechanism knowledge. The original clocks didn’t use cuckoos; the cuckoo mechanism became standard later. The craft workshops in villages around Triberg still produce hand-carved versions; the factories in the valley below produce machine-made ones at a different price point. The difference is visible and significant.

Baden-Baden

In the northern forest, Baden-Baden is what happens when a town has been a spa resort since Roman times. The Caracalla Therme is the modern thermal bath complex (around EUR 18 for two hours); the historic Friedrichsbad next door follows a 17-step bathing process in elaborate 19th-century rooms that require you to be naked throughout. The town is expensive and self-consciously elegant; the thermal bath experience is genuine and worth the cost.

Hiking

The Schwarzwaldsteig is a 168-kilometre marked long-distance route from Bad Säckingen in the south to Pforzheim in the north. Walking it takes nine to twelve days. Day-section hiking from towns like Titisee (near the glacial lake of the same name) and Triberg is well-organised with marked routes from every town centre. The Black Forest is reliably green and can be reliably rainy; waterproofs are worth packing regardless of the forecast.

Cash is more useful here than in Germany’s major cities; smaller restaurants and accommodation often prefer it.