Find Your Next Holiday

leave blank to search all

Black Forest

There are no available dates at this moment, please check back soon.

The Black Forest is justifiably one of the most highly regarded regions in Europe. A wonderful tour in simply superb scenery, with comfortable accommodation, good food and a friendly local population. This tour is certainly not flat with a good number of climbs but the views are simply breathtaking with massive open panoramic vistas to enjoy. The infrastructure is well developed with frequent places to stop and refresh and an absence of motor traffic outside of the main holiday season in July and August. This is one of those places that everyone should see and what better way than from the saddle of a bicycle.

Stunning scenery throughout
Great road surfaces
Challenging but achievable route
Cuckoo clocks and Black Forest Gateau abound!
Comfortable hotels and friendly locals
Fantastic food (good portions!)
Ride the famous Schwarzwaldhochstrasse
Pretty spa towns and villages
Combine with our Alsace tour for a 10% reduction on both trips

Your Next Adventure Awaits

What you need to know...

Start Location
Basel

Finish Location
Basel

Country/Region
Germany

Grading
Difficult

Shortest Day
50 miles / 80 km

Longest Day
72 miles / 114 km

Total Days
7

Total Miles
365

Departure Dates & Prices

There are no available dates at this moment.
Please choose an alternative Tour or check back soon.

Itinerary

Day 1

Arrival in Basel. The city has a beautiful old centre on the banks of the Rhine and owes its prosperity to being the end of the navigable river. In addition it is at the meeting point of France, Germany and Switzerland so has an interesting socio-economic history and culture. Our hotel is in the centre and well placed for exploring. (Dinner included).

Day 2

From Basel it is an easy and flat warm-up along the Rhine before turning north into the spectacular countryside that you will enjoy for the week. Long climbs and long descents are the order of the trip, well broken up with refreshment stops and rest opportunities and plenty of spectacular views. After the pretty Schluchsee lake, a fine place to stop for lunch, the terrain is more forgiving for the run-in to the source of the Danube. 71 miles. (Breakfast, dinner included).

Day 3

The first few miles take a very pretty and quiet route and then you are on a cycle path to the coffee break. After this is a great downhill with fantastic views down the valley, a classic panorama of the region. There are two classic downhills before lunch with the afternoon being predominantly a long gentle up, to the pretty market town where we spend the night in a wonderful family run hotel with a warm welcome guaranteed. 59 miles. (Breakfast, dinner included).

Day 4

From our start in almost the centre of the Schwarzwald, we ride towards the northernmost point, to a pretty spa town and a wonderful hotel in a commanding position. Yet more sublime scenery today and it is becoming clear why this area is so popular with the German population for recreation. You can feel the cleanliness of the air as you breath, with so many wild flowers, pasture meadows and forested sections to bring you closer to nature. 56 miles. (Breakfast included).

Day 5

The Schwarzwaldhochstrasse (Black Forest High Road) features today; this picturesque route on the western edge of the forest gives wonderful views over the Rhine plain to the Vosges and passes the pretty Mummelsee lake – the perfect spot to sample some genuine Black Forest Gateau (German slices tend to be large!). 50 miles. (Breakfast, dinner included).

Day 6

Pretty soon after setting off comes a stiff climb, perhaps the stiffest of the tour – best to get it over with – but it’s only a couple of km long fortunately. Then we continue to Freiburg for the night, one of our favourite European cities. 71 miles. (Breakfast included).

Day 7

Today we return to Basel via some of the best scenery of the tour – you’ll have seen so many beautiful places that you may find it hard to believe that some of the best is yet to come but we are confident that you will agree. As you will be used to by now, there are a couple of good climbs and great descents too, before you come out of the Black Forest and back into the Rhine country with time to explore wonderful Basel. 56 miles. (Breakfast, dinner included).

Day 8

Departure.

Some Tour Photos...

Black Forest landscape

Black Forest town

Freiburg

Historic schloss

Historic Schwarzwald town

Long views in the Black Forest

Long views of the Black Forest

Lovely Freiburg

One of many pretty lakes in the Schwarzwald

Pastureland in the Black Forest

The 'Black Forest High Road' - Schwarzwaldhochstrasse

The Black Forest

View back down the hill!

Wonderful Black Forest scenery

Wonderful scenery in the Black Forest

Travel Information

The best access point is also our start city of Basel. This has an international airport well served by low cost flights from throughout Europe; for those wishing to drive it is on the major motorway network; and for those travelling by train Basel is approximately 3 hours from Paris. Unfortunately we are no longer able to transport bikes to or from the UK due to changed customs rules but can look after bike boxes / bike bags if required.

Click here for our Travel Information page.