Ideas for family holiday in the Black Forest and Lucerne

[TattiePants]

I've booked most of our accommodation for a 3 week family holiday this August. We're driving through Belgium to Luxembourg City, the Black Forest in Germany, Lucerne in Switzerland before finishing off in Center Parcs in France. Tripadvisor is great, as are some of the guidebooks but I'd love some suggestions from families that have stayed in these areas.

We have 6 nights near Freiburg im Breisgau then 6 nights in Lucerne. We want to go up some mountains, do boat trips, swim in lakes or outdoor swimming pools, easy hikes and bike rides, nice towns to wander round and visit a couple of good museums. Oh, and eat Swiss chocolate!

I'm also wondering about Europa Park, 9yr old DD would love it but 14 year old DS doesn't like fast rides so not sure if there's enough for him to do.

Europa Park is amazing and there’s loads of good shows and other attractions besides thrill rides.

There are two peaksvery close to Lucern: Rigi and Pilatus.
To get toRigi, takea boat from to Vitznau (directly across from the train station, Bahnhof Luzern). When you arrive in Vitznau, you will then get on a trainthat takesyou directly up the mountain.
To get to Pilatus, take a train to Stansstad and then the funicular up to the top. Like Rigi, it has stunning views and the dc will enjoy the steepest railway in the world (a 48-degree angle!). Often in the summer, there are alphorn players and yodelers at the top.
At Aeschbachs Chocowelt you can watch chocolate being made (weekdays only), taste samples and then make and decorate your own too. You should book your visit online. Take the S-bahn 1 from Lucerne main train station to Root D4 (about 10 minutes).

That’s great info @ricekrispie22, especially the chocolate suggestion so thank you. I like the look of Mount Rigi, going by boat and train. If we are going up one of the mountains is it also worth going up a glacier (Titlus?) or will it be a similar experience?

That sounds absolutely lovely!

The DCs might like the transport museum in Luzern/Lucerne. Are you staying in the city or at one of the resorts on the lake?

Rigi and Pilatus are both great trips.

Just looked at the museum and it looks great @Ellmau, very interactive and looks like you could spend a whole day there. We're staying in an Air bnb a few minutes outside the city. DS has SEN and won't fly so we have to get a bit creative with holidays but we love our European road trips now!

Titlis is very different, revolving cable car, glacier with a walk above the ravine etc. Engelberg itself is a very nice village with a monastery with cheesemaking. Lucerne itself is a small city, but well linked.

We spent last year a week at the Black Forest and tbh I wasn't impressed. It is great as an outdoor holiday but we had quite mixed weather unfortunately.

The area is great for hiking, we did some nice ones though..

The Titisee is a lovely area despite full of pensioners and Asian tourists. There is a Go-Ape style tree adventure just off the lake.

You need to go to Badeparadies Schwarzwald, www.badeparadies-schwarzwald.de/en/

It is amazing, you are restricted how long you can spend in there but according to DD and DH it is sooo worth it.

The best thing we did was going to Haute Konigsburg in Alsace, www.haut-koenigsbourg.fr/en/

You need to be there when it opens, it is an amazing medival castle. We went from there to Colmar, a medival city, just wondering around. Strasbourg would be another alternative but it is bigger and worth a full day on its own

@reluctantbrit thanks for those suggestions and fingers crossed we have good weather! The DCs will love the pool. I had planned a visit to Colmar on our way from Switzerland to France but doing it as a day trip from Germany and including the castle looks good.