The best things to do in the Black Forest with kids (+ our family itinerary)

Last updated on September 15, 2026

If you’re looking for an outdoorsy family holiday in Europe, the Black Forest deserves a place on your shortlist. This beautiful region in south-west Germany is filled with dense woodland, mountain lakes, storybook villages, and an impressive number of attractions designed specifically for families.

Austria, Switzerland and the Dolomites tend to get more attention for this type of trip, but the Black Forest offers many of the same ingredients, often at a more accessible price. There are mountain coasters, treetop adventures, sensory trails and family walks filled with stories, play areas and interactive activities. It’s the sort of place where exploring the outdoors rarely feels like a hard sell to children.

It’s also home to some brilliant family accommodation. During our trip, we stayed everywhere from an off-grid wooden igloo on a working farm to a facilities-packed family resort and an impressive theme park hotel. There are also stylish lakeside hotels, traditional farm stays, treehouses and glamping options, making it easy to build the accommodation into the experience.

One of the other reasons the Black Forest works so well for families is its proximity to Europa-Park. Located in Rust, on the western edge of the region, it has become one of our favourite theme parks (and we’ve visited a lot!). Its sister water park, Rulantica, is equally impressive. Combining them with a few slower days in the Black Forest creates a wonderfully varied holiday: nature, culture and outdoor adventures followed by a high-energy finale.

In this guide, I’ve brought together the best things to do in the Black Forest with kids, our five-day family itinerary and some alternative activities if you have more time. I’ve also included a selection of our favourite places to stay, plus practical advice for planning your own Black Forest family holiday.

Our Black Forest family itinerary at a glance

This is a five-day itinerary, arriving via Zurich and flying home from Basel. It moves from the higher Hochschwarzwald around Feldberg, through the farms and valleys of the Kinzigtal, and finishes in Rust at Europa-Park.

Day 1: Arrive from Zurich, forest walk or cable car, hotel water world

Day 2: Morning at Fundorena, travel to Vollmershof igloo, optional dinner at Hotel Munde

Day 3: Vogtsbauernhof museum, sensory walk, summer toboggan run, arrive at Europa Park

Day 4: Europa Park

Day 5: Rulantica and home

Our day-by-day Black Forest and Europa-Park itinerary

This is how we spent our time in the Black Forest, but you can easily adapt it to suit your taste and style by picking and choosing from the things to do and accommodation sections below.

Day 1: Arrive early and explore Feldberg

For this version of the itinerary, choose a flight that lands in Zurich by late morning. Pick up a rental car and drive to Feldberg, allowing roughly two hours once you include collecting the car. Check in at Feldberger Hof and then head straight outside.

Option one: walk the Wichtelpfad Feldberg, a 1.8km family trail designed around a gnome story. Allow around two hours with children because the play elements and story stops are the point, rather than something to rush past.

Option two: take the Feldbergbahn cable car towards the summit, visit Feldberg Tower and play at Anton’s wooden ball track. This is a good choice in clear weather if you want big views and a playful activity without committing to a full forest walk. Make sure to check the final cable-car descent before setting off!

Return to Feldberger Hof for an afternoon session in its water world or simply to enjoy the play areas. The current pool was a big hit with our kids, and the family sauna even shows cartoons.

Have dinner at the hotel and keep the evening easy after the journey. If you want to eat at the Tic Tac floating restaurant, be sure to book in advance.

If you arrive later in the day, make the water world your first-evening activity and move your chosen Feldberg outing to the next morning.

---

Day 2: FUNDORENA and the journey into the Kinzigtal

Spend the morning enjoying the facilities around Feldberger Hof before moving west into the Kinzigtal. This gives the kids a high-energy start and leaves the late afternoon for a slower farm-stay experience.

Start at Fundorena, the hotel’s enormous activity centre, including a trampoline park, climbing wall and high-ropes course. You could also feasibly fit in the forest walk if you didn’t do that the day before.

Have lunch at Feldberger Hof, then check out and drive towards the Kinzigtal and Vollmershof. Check into one of its wooden igloos and leave time to meet the animals, explore the farm and settle into the slower rhythm of the place.

For dinner you could eat locally at Flosserpark or go to Hotel Munde in Biereck, which has a terrace restaurant with epic views and a brilliant adventure playground for the kids. You could also stay here instead of the igloos.

Alternative Day 2: If you’d rather prioritise scenery over indoor activities, skip Fundorena and spend the morning at Lake Titisee or Schluchsee. You could take a short boat trip, hire a pedalo or SUP, follow an easy section of the lakeshore and have lunch beside the water before driving into the Kinzigtal.

Day 3: Open-air museum, sensory trail and a mountain coaster

Wake up at Vollmershof and enjoy the breakfast basket, filled with farm produce and local goodies. Then set out for a full but very varied day around Gutach before driving to Rust.

Begin at the Schwarzwälder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof. The open-air museum brings traditional Black Forest farms to life through historic buildings, demonstrations and hands-on family areas. Highlights for children include the attic of childhood, play barns and the adventure playground. A short activity such as butter making gives the visit a useful focus, but leave time to wander independently too.

Have lunch beside the museum. Webers Esszeit is a convenient option.

Walk barefoot through Park mit allen Sinnen, a woodland sensory trail with textured paths, scents and playful stations. It is an easy way to get children engaging with the forest rather than simply walking through it.

Finish with the Sommerrodelbahn Gutach, a summer toboggan run that was hit with all of us.

Drive to Rust, check into Hotel Colosseo and spend the evening in its theatrical Italian piazza. It’s wonderfully extra without tipping into tacky, with a recreation of the Colosseum, restaurants and evening fountain or light shows depending on the programme.

Alternative Day 3: This is a busy day, so you could skip one of the activities – or even just do one and spend the afternoon in the theme park if that’s your priority. You could also swap the afternoon for Triberg Waterfalls and a cuckoo-clock stop. In bad weather, look at the Schwarzwald Modellbahn in Gutach or glassblowing at Dorotheenhütte Wolfach.

Days 4 and 5: Europa Park and Rulantica

Spend the next two days exploring Europa Park at your own pace. Staying at Hotel Colosseo puts you around a five-minute walk from the park and makes the logistics pleasingly easy.

We used day four as our main park day, and spent day 5 at Rulantica. You can get evening tickets for Rulantica, so another alternative would be to go there on the evening of day 3 and devote all of days four and five to Europa Park.

The nearest airport to Europa Park is Basel (1 hour away).

Our separate Europa-Park with kids guide covers the best rides by age and height, which attractions are dark or potentially scary, queue strategy, food, hotels and how Rulantica compares.

The best things to do in the Black Forest with kids

Follow a story trail through the forest

One of the best things about family hiking in the Black Forest is that children are rarely expected to admire the scenery and quietly keep walking. Trails such as the Wichtelpfad use characters, stories and play stations to pull them along. It makes the forest itself feel like the attraction.

Ride the Feldberg cable car and play at the wooden ball track

The Feldbergbahn carries you towards the highest summit in the Black Forest in enclosed gondolas, so it is an easy way to get a sense of the mountain with children. On a clear day, combine it with the viewing platform at Feldberg Tower and Anton’s wooden ball track, where children send wooden balls around a series of playful stations (like the ones you might have seen in Austria and Switzerland).

Ride a Black Forest mountain coaster

The Sommerrodelbahn at Gutach is an easy crowd-pleaser and works brilliantly alongside the nearby open-air museum. The ride is short enough to repeat, exciting without being an enormous theme-park coaster, and surrounded by classic Black Forest scenery. There are also play areas, trampolines and a casual fast-food restaurant.

Experience traditional Black Forest life

Vogtsbauernhof is much more engaging than the words ‘open-air museum’ might suggest. Historic farmhouses have been relocated or preserved across a beautiful site, with animals, craft demonstrations and child-focused spaces breaking up the history. We found that combining a short guided activity (we churned our own butter!) with plenty of independent exploring worked best for our children. Also, shout out to our guide Lucas who was brilliant with the kids.

Walk barefoot through a sensory park

Park mit allen Sinnen translates as ‘park with all the senses’, which describes it perfectly. You follow a woodland route barefoot over changing textures, stopping at scent, sound and discovery stations. It is playful, outdoorsy and distinctly different from a standard family walk. One thing to note: the ‘taste’ sense is experienced through picking berries along the route – we didn’t know that, so our kids were eagerly anticipating the taste station throughout (and a little bit annoyed they never found it!).

Spend a day beside Titisee or Schluchsee

The lakes are one of the biggest reasons to allow more time in the Hochschwarzwald. Titisee is the best-known and has plenty of cafés, boat trips and easy family entertainment close together. Schluchsee feels more spacious and outdoorsy, with swimming areas, lakeside paths and opportunities to hire pedal boats, kayaks or SUPs in season. If I were extending this itinerary, a slow day beside Schluchsee would be high on my list.

Walk to a Black Forest waterfall

Triberg and Todtnau are the two headline waterfalls for most family itineraries. Triberg combines particularly well with a wander through town spotting cuckoo clocks, while Todtnau fits naturally into a southern Black Forest route and can be paired with the Blackforestline suspension bridge.

Explore the Black Forest’s prettiest towns and villages

Schiltach and Gengenbach are filled with half-timbered houses and make lovely, manageable stops with children. Triberg is more touristy, but adds waterfalls and cuckoo-clock culture, and Freiburg is a lively old town where children can float little boats along the Bächle channels. Adding one of these places would give a longer trip more of the storybook Black Forest atmosphere.

Discover cuckoo clocks and traditional crafts

Cuckoo clocks are an essential part of Black Forest culture, and there are several ways to make them interesting for children. Look at the German Clock Museum in Furtwangen, the Black Forest Museum and workshops around Triberg, or Schönwald’s family-friendly Cuckoo Clock Trail. Glassblowing demonstrations at Dorotheenhütte Wolfach are another good cultural stop, particularly when the weather isn’t great.

Walk above the forest

If you’d like to experience the forest from above, you can cross the Blackforestline suspension bridge above Todtnau Waterfall or visit the Baumwipfelpfad treetop walk near Bad Wildbad in the Northern Black Forest. Neither fits neatly into our short route, but both are worth considering on a longer holiday. The suspension bridge is the more logical addition around Feldberg, while the treetop walk suits an itinerary that includes the north.

Choose a hotel that’s part of the adventure

In the Black Forest, accommodation can be an activity in itself. Feldberger Hof provides the high-energy Kinderhotel-style experience, Hotel Munde balances style with family-friendly outdoor space, Hotel Collosseo is a full theme experience, and Vollmershof gives the novelty of sleeping off-grid on a working farm.

Add Europa-Park and Rulantica

Europa-Park is the ideal high-energy finale. Its beautifully themed areas, unusually broad mix of rides and attention to detail make it work for kids and adults alike. It’s one of the best and most impressive theme parks we’ve been to. And Rulantica is a destination in its own right, so give it a full day if you can rather than treating it as a small add-on. See our full Europa Park and Rulantica guide.

The best rainy-day activities in the Black Forest

The weather can change quickly in the Black Forest, but there are plenty of useful backup plans if you don’t want to brave the rain. Here are some good options:

• FUNDORENA
• the interactive Haus der Natur at Feldberg
• the Black Forest House of Senses in Grafenhausen
• the German Clock Museum
• Schwarzwald Modellbahn in Gutach
• Dorotheenhütte Wolfach
• Badeparadies Schwarzwald near Titisee

Where to stay in the Black Forest with kids

The accommodation was one of the highlights of our Black Forest trip. We stayed at the facilities-packed Feldberger Hof, slept in an off-grid wooden igloo at Vollmershof and finished at the wonderfully theatrical Hotel Colosseo at Europa-Park. We also visited the stylish, family-friendly Hotel Munde for dinner (and would love to return to stay!).

There are plenty of other special options throughout the region, including family resorts beside the lakes, traditional farm stays, boutique hotels, treehouses and glamping. I’ve rounded up all our favourites, and explained which area works best for different itineraries, in my separate guide to the best places to stay in the Black Forest with kids.

Getting to the Black Forest

An open-jaw flight itinerary works brilliantly for this route. We recommend flying into Zurich, collecting a rental car and travelling north through the Black Forest before flying home from Basel. Depending on fares and flight schedules, Strasbourg, Stuttgart or Baden-Baden may also work.

A car makes this particular itinerary much easier because the family attractions and special stays are spread across rural areas. Always check whether your rental agreement allows cross-border travel between Switzerland, Germany and France, and whether you need any environmental stickers or motorway charges for your exact route. Note that Basel airport spans both France and Switzerland, so you can pick up/return your car in either country. There are dedicated car hire areas for each, so don’t return to the wrong one (we nearly did this!)

Practical tips for visiting the Black Forest with kids

• Do not overfill the days. Forest walks with play stations take much longer than their distance suggests (in a good way).
• Pack shoes that can get muddy, quick-drying clothes and a light waterproof even in summer.
• Bring a small towel for barefoot trails and check their seasonal opening dates.
• Reserve distinctive accommodation early. Farm igloos and genuinely stylish family rooms are limited.
• Check attraction opening days and times shortly before travelling, especially outside peak summer weeks.
• Treat Rulantica as a full-day experience if it matters to your family.
• Build in unstructured time at the hotels and farm stays. They are part of the trip, not simply places to sleep.

Black Forest with kids: frequently asked questions

Is the Black Forest worth visiting with children?

Yes. It offers an unusually good blend of woodland adventures, playful walks, cultural attractions and family hotels. It is particularly strong for primary-school-aged children, although many activities work for toddlers and teenagers too.

Can you combine the Black Forest and Europa Park?

Very easily. Europa Park is in Rust on the western edge of the region, around an hour by car from many Kinzigtal attractions. It creates a natural finale to a Black Forest road trip.

Do you need a car in the Black Forest?

Not for every possible Black Forest holiday, but a car is the most practical option for this route. It lets you connect rural accommodation, Feldberg, Gutach and Rust without building the trip around public-transport timetables.

How many days do you need in the Black Forest?

For this route, five days is the minimum I would recommend, including two days at Europa-Park. That gives you one afternoon and one morning around Feldberg, a night in the Kinzigtal, a full day around Gutach and two park days.

If you have a week, the trip becomes much more relaxed. Add another night in the Hochschwarzwald for lakes and additional family walks, another night in the Kinzigtal for villages and farm time, or an extra day at Rulantica/Europa Park. With ten days, you could turn it into a deeper Black Forest road trip rather than a highlights tour.

What is the nearest airport to the Black Forest?

That depends on which part you are visiting. Basel, Zurich, Strasbourg, Baden-Baden and Stuttgart can all be useful gateways. For this south-to-west itinerary, flying into Zurich and home from Basel keeps the route efficient.

When is the best time to visit?

Late spring through early autumn is best for the combination of family walks, outdoor attractions and mountain coasters described here. The Black Forest also works as a winter destination, but the itinerary and opening attractions would be quite different and include the ski areas too.

Would we return?

Definitely! The Black Forest gave us so many of the things we love about family travel: time in nature, activities the children were genuinely excited about, places to stay with personality and enough variety that no two days felt the same.

It also felt refreshingly under-the-radar compared with Austria, Switzerland and the Dolomites. Those destinations deserve their popularity, but the Black Forest belongs in the same conversation, especially for families who want excellent value and the option to add Europa-Park.