Southern Black Forest / Freiburg im Breisgau area

[TattiePants]

We’re renting an apartment about 20 minutes south of Freiburg for a week in August as part of a longer holiday. We’ll spend some time in Freiburg, definitely want to visit Colmar or Mulhouse and take a cable car up a mountain (Feldberg?). Does anyone know this area well and can recommend some activities or places to visit? We’d ideally like to visit a lake we can swim in but the reviews suggest Titisee isn’t great. DCs will be 11 and 16.

We drove down through the Black Forest, taking all the little back roads. Loved it. There is an open air museum full of old houses which we really enjoyed. I think there is a steam train there too

www.vogtsbauernhof.de/en

My DH is from that area (his family still live there, about an hour south of Freiburg). It's absolutely beautiful and I love our visits there.

He says any of the cable cars are good.

The Ecomusee (over the border into Alsace) is lovely: www.bonjour.alsace/que-faire-en-alsace/que-faire-a-ungersheim/ecomusee-dalsace/billet-dentree-ecomusee-dalsace?gclid=Cj0KCQjw8O-VBhCpARIsACMvVLOSHtbGlPlb47OYceMR6L0QwqgqOdx5VCt7uz2fKdKZvr7H6_BLYKkaAn0yEALw_wcB

Staufen is a pretty little town with a castle ruin at the top.

For lakes, you could try Kleiner Opfinger See or Fluckigersee.

Have a great time!

Also, there's a lovely restaurant at the top of Kaiserstuhl, with a beautiful walk up to build up your appetite for lunch eaten on the terrace, with fabulous views over both the Schwarzwald and Les Vosges.

Thank you both, off to look up those suggestions. We’re actually not that far away from Staufen so we’ll definitely visit there.

DS used Freiburg as a case study for his GCSE geography so he’s looking forward to visiting there.

Used to live in the Basel area so not too far. We often took our children to ride the cable cars up to Wasserfallen in Regoldswil. They enjoyed riding the scooters back down after the cable car ride up. There are walks and restaurants at the top and, 4 years ago when we were there, there was a rope walk up in the tree tops. Not sure if it's still there but it looked great fun. www.region-wasserfallen.ch/en/angebote/trotti-plausch/

Colmar is very pretty and I would also recommend the wineries at Eguisheim.

Love Freiburg, we have been 4 times!
Titsee isn’t really a swimming lake and it’s a bit touristy up there for us to be honest, although it is pretty. We usually go in winter so unfortunately I can’t suggest any other swimming lakes or rivers, sorry

It's stunning, went 4 years ago, obviously Europa park for the day. There is a superb spa pool on way back from Colmar which we stopped at, heated by the springs. One day it rained and there is a huge indoor pool complex, near titsea, it was amazing, nothing like UK pools, big slides in separate area, swim up cocktail bar, and out side area if the sun came out. And a quiet area it was fabulous. The toboggan run down the mountain was also huge fun. Cant remember all the exact names or places but you will find all the above with google.

Those scooters look great. I’m really looking forward to Colmar and I’ll add Eguisheim to the list.

The reviews I’ve read say Titisee is quite touristy and close to a main road so we might give that a swerve. There seem to be quite a few outdoor swimming pools so we’ll stick to them.

The Ecomusee and the Black Forest open air museum look quite similar so we’ll definitely give one of those a try.

If you are into theme parks or rides, don't go Europa Park unless you love a good queue.

Try Steinwasen Park - smaller & quirkier, we went a few years ago in August, it was busy but not overcrowded.

www.steinwasen-park.de/en/

Or Hasenhorn - great fun for all the family!
www.hasenhorn-rodelbahn.de/en/

Just a note - do be aware that because many of the roads go up and down and round mountains, you may find it takes you much longer to travel distances locally than you might expect! It's certainly caught us out a few times

DS has SEN and doesn’t like theme parks so we’ll be avoiding them but I do fancy trying one of the mountain coasters. @BettieSpaghetti we found that out in Austria a few years ago. Really short distances took forever!

@MumOfNowGrownupKids i wonder if you can answer another question? We arrive in Switzerland on Swiss National Day. Will we be able to get food anywhere (either a shop or restaurant) or does everything close? Also, will transport still be running if we wanted to go into the city centre just to wander around?

If you plan Colmar, a bit of a detour but really worth it is Chateau du Haut-Koenigsburg
www.haut-koenigsbourg.fr/en
It's a medival castle but very well reconstructed.
This swimming pool is absolutely great and nothing you would find in the UK.
www.badeparadies-schwarzwald.de/en/
Titisee is very touristic. Nearby is a tree top GoApe style parcours. There may be more around now, this things are quite popular.

If your DCs are getting car sick easily, stock on travel sickness tablets, the road are cury in the area.

@TattiePants Where will you be on Aug 1st? Supermarkets at train stations will be open, as will food outlets. Its a bit hit and miss for city restaurants - some will be open, a lot wont. Mountain village restaurants will mostly be open (touristy places that the Swiss would go to).

@AbleCable we'll be leaving Metz in France after breakfast on the 1st and had planned to drive to Lucerne City Centre, have lunch and spend a few hours there before checking into our apartment around 6ish (about 30 mins away to the west of the city). Ideally we would have picked up some food shopping on the way to the apartment.

We could always get some things for lunch before we leave France and call in at a train / petrol station for a few basics to tide us over till the next day.

I have never been myself, but friends with kids have enjoyed this place, a little north of Colmar - Monkey Mountain
Your kids might be a little old for it.
Basel public transport will be running a Sunday service - so a little less frequent but certainly up and running.
Just to note, the Basel main fireworks event for 1st August is around 10pm July 31st - though a lot of the smaller towns around will have them on Aug 1st.

I've just been looking at Monkey Mountain. A pp recommended Chateau du Haut-Koenigsburg and the Ecomuseum so it might be worth buying the Alsace card which gives free entry to them all.

You will have no problem finding an open restaurant in Lucerne. There are two fair sized supermarkets in Lucerne train station (in the underground section) - France will be cheaper though!
Rigi makes a nice day trip from Lucerne - boat to Vitznau, cog rail to Rigi Kulm (theres a restaurant there), walk around etc. At Rigi Kaltbad theres an outdoor pool and spa. From there you can either take the cog rail back down or take the cable car to Weggis from where you can pick up a boat back to Lucerne.

Thank you, that's great advice.

Swiss National Day is a national holiday so I would expect most shops and restaurants to be closed. Public transport will probably be running a Sunday service. Shops over the borders in Germany or France will still be open though. Will you have access to a car? If so cross border shopping is pretty normal. Just be aware that Switzerland is not EU so has strict limits on things like meat and fruit juice (!) as to what can be brought back over the border.