Black Forest Cycling Holiday

Great bikes, luggage transportation and well-signed cycle tracks. Good hotels with plenty of breakfast. Route was very varied and scenic, lots to see.

My son, Liam, and I really enjoyed the holiday, but there were a few problems. Liam says it's the problems and how you overcome them that make a holiday enjoyable! Some problems were of our own making, some were just bad luck, and some were organisational. I've described some of the problems which Flexitrek or Radweg-Reisen could take action on, plus some pointers which might help future travellers. There was nothing which should put potential travellers off, which is why I have given 5 stars. The cycle paths were generally tarmacked or otherwise a good surface, and free of motorized vehicles. Often we were cycling past fields of tall grass and a colourful mixture of wild flowers, and we saw some raptors such as Red Kites and Buzzards. We took the holiday in the third week of May in the hope of seeing plenty of wild flowers. The lengths of the rides were OK, although we did have some saddle-soreness. This was caused mainly by the hot weather causing us to sweat, and we might have been more comfortable had we worn padded pants, at least for the first couple of days. Also we should have taken more care to adjust the saddle positions right at the beginning, but they were done up really tightly and I couldn't free them, until, in desperation halfway through the first day, I found a ring spanner in the tool kit and used it to get extra leverage on the hex key. As well as a tool kit, the bikes each had a roomy Ortlieb waterproof pannier and a click-on handlebar box which was good for cameras and lenses. This box had a clear plastic cover into which you could insert the day's map. I tore some pages out of the guide book because the book itself was a tight fit; it would be handy if the pages were numbered and were in a loose-leaf folder. There is no water-bottle carrier on the bike, so bottles have to go in the pannier. The gpx files were very useful, but they didn't lead us to our hotel so we spent half an hour at the end of every day finding the hotel. This wasn't good when we were tired and had been dreaming of a cold beer for the last 2 hours! It took us a while to discover that the town maps at the back of the guide book needed to be fixed on top of the handlebar box for easy reference. We did encounter some obstacles which had not been there when the gpx routes were created, but we worked our way around them. We spent perhaps 2 hours each day looking for and eating lunch; we would have liked a quick snack such as a beer and a sandwich, but there were no pubs and we often ended up in a restaurant. What we should have done is make sandwiches at breakfast time, and carried much more water. I have never sweated so much, drunk so much water, and peed so little! We discovered after a day or so that the water fountains in many towns and villages are drinkable, so we refilled our water bottles from them. It's worth noting that the electrical sockets in Basel (Switzerland) are not compatible with those in Germany (EU). You need to have a narrow flat plug, not a round one. There are some shops (such as cafes) which don't take card payment, so you must get a small amount of Euros. All card payments have a small surcharge, but we tried to pay this way in general.

This was a very enjoyable cycling holiday: not too demanding and lovely, varied scenery. All of the routes were on cycle paths or on very small, quiet roads (most were tarmac, but some stony ones made the cycling a bit trying). Each of the towns/cities that we stayed in were worth visiting in their own right; indeed sometimes we felt we didn't have enough time to do them justice. (It's worth making time in Badenweiler to treat yourself to a long soak in the thermal baths!) The hotels were all friendly and comfortable. As other travellers have noted, the GPS app was absolutely essential - this can't be stressed enough! Even with it, wayfinding was sometimes tricky, as in many places cycle paths were confusingly signposted. The spiral-bound booklet (provided on arrival) was very useful. One suggestion would be to include some recommended cafes and restaurants. The cycle toolkit provided was very good, but a small useful addition would be a puncture repair kit including self-adhesive patches. (Fortunately, we didn't actually need these, but previous experience has taught us that they're a lifesaver when you do!) We followed the advice posted by a previous traveller about taking the coach from Basel airport (the French side) to Freiburg, which we would recommend. For eco-minded travellers, it's also worth noting that it's possible to travel between London and Freiburg by train: we went home this way, leaving Strasbourg at 3pm, changing at Lille, and getting into London St Pancras at 7.15pm.

My wife and I went on this cycling holiday with our three children, aged between 9 and 11. I was concerned that my 9 year old daughter would struggle with the distances, so chose this route as (i) the distances are relatively short, and (ii) some of the days can be shortened by taking a train ride. In the event, the children managed very well, and no shortcuts were needed. Do not use road tyres by the way - some of the off-road sections are completely unsuitable for road tyres. Highlights for us included the cycling on the second day (from Bonndorf to Waldhut Tiengen), afternoons spent at outdoor swimming pools, the lake in Freiburg near Hotel Bischofslinde, swimming in the Rhine, meeting other cyclists en route. All of the pre-booked hotels were excellent.

We found this the least favourite of our five cycling tours. Maps to accommodation were too high level which meant we at times spent a lot of time at the end of our cycling day navigating ourselves to our hotel. We met up nearly every day with three other couples on the same tour who had the same experience.

A very enjoyable cycle tour of the Black Forest although weather was not the best but having full set of waterproofs made sure we kept dry for the 2 inclement days. The hotels selected were of a good to very good standard and this included the breakfasts. It should be noted that most places require eating out as the Hotels either didn't have a restaurant or it was closed on the night of our visit but there was always a choice of places in each location. Note that Basel is very expensive so budget a minimum of £25 per head for one course and a drink ,or £40-50 for 2 course and a drink. The bikes provided were excellent for the type of cycling but getting the bikes on the Swiss train was challenging and if you had more then 2 bikes then you would need to split between a number of carriages. If you had a trailer for a baby then I believe you would have issues given space and the need to lift the bikes up the steps into the train. The documentation for the journey was at best fair but lacked details or the level of detailed maps. I had the GPS file which was invaluable and had to be used to prevent any major mistakes which would happen if reliant solely on the documents and maps provided. To use the GPS file you need an App and I used Cyclemeter which worked very well and only costs a few pounds. Other apps are available but Cyclemeter seems to be the most recommended one and works with both Google and Apple Maps but I found google maps the best. The GPS worked well until you leave Basel and at that point it was a challenge given it has alternative routes on it and this can lead to confusion and some incorrect turns to new and unexpected destinations!!! Might be worthwhile providing separate GPS files for the alternative routes. The cycling is very easy with few hills and mainly flat or down hill. The cycle paths are also very good and good signage on most but you need to keep you eyes open as a few signs are easy to miss. If you are allocated Hotel Neuenfels in Badenweiler this is not on the GPS and the signage/documentation is poor but a combination of Apps and maps you will find the place. - be prepared for a long climb but once you are there then the place/views are amazing and the hotel is of a very good standard. If you fly into Basel, rather then get a shuttle bus to Basel train station and then a train to Freiburg, there is a bus than runs from outside the French side of the airport directly to Freiburg and this cost 43 euros return per person. Note, you can buy tickets online or if purchased on the bus, it's cash only. Overall a very good holiday with good cycling routes and the chance to see the less touristy parts of the Black Forest.

really good hotels, everything ran smoothly, bikes were good quality and no problems with luggage transfer

More forest cycling would have been nice.i

there is no shelter on this ride very exposed to sun & rain not really cycling through a Forrest also large runs running beside roads for large distance

We really appreciated the quality of the bicycles, which had excellent gearing to help compensate for their being a little heavy. We had no problems going through the hilly Black Forest. The baby bicycle seat and the trailer were really easy to handle and the 1 year old was very comfortable and seemed to soak it all up. Having alternative access to trains was really useful since there were a couple of times when the baby wasn't up for a full day in the saddle. It was very easy cycling on our own in Germany, but I definitely think that a bicycle GPS is a must have. We had to figure out alternative detour routes a couple of times and it was always confusing bicycling in and out of towns since the main bicycle paths ended outside the towns. I feel that we wasted precious time trying to find the correct paths and experienced unnecessary stress at those times. But in all, the sunbathing on the rocks in the Rhine river while watching the baby splashing in the water and the haunting beauty of the Black Forest more than compensated for the occasional navigational stress. At the end of each day there was an utterly charming hotel where every innkeeper welcomed us, often with beer or wine. If you can handle a little bit of occasional stress with humor and confidence, then I would definitely recommend this trip.

Better than expected-fantastic experience

Great hotels, tour very interesting and took us to smaller towns which were beautiful. The descriptions of the daily rides were not always very clear and the daily booklets had very sparse descriptions for the day's ride.

A brilliant family week cycling. Amazing cycle paths and still can't believe how courteous traffic are to cyclists in Germany. We were initially worried whether our 9 year old son could manage the full distance but he did so with ease. There were lots of opportunities to cut the rides short if needed though. Would thoroughly recommend this holiday and we will definetely be booking another cycling holiday with you next year.

Awkward at the hotels as nobody had heard of flexitreks