Black Forest girls, Black Forest houses, Black Forest gateau, traditional hats and cuckoo clocks – the Black Forest epitomizes picture-postcard holidays in Germany throughout the world.

The Black Forest, measuring almost 200 kilometres from north to south and 60 kilometres from east to west, is not only Germany's most varied holiday region, but also one of its largest and probably best-known areas of Germany throughout the world.

The 13,500 square kilometres in the south-west of Germany known as the Black Forest, in fact includes a number of different landscapes. In the north of the region there is forest, while the deeply dissected southern Black Forest is higher, climbing to 1493 metres before sloping down to the upper Rhine in the south. It would be impossible to give a full description of the hiking routes available, with a total length of almost 30,000 kilometres. There are also a number of well-signposted Nordic walking tracks in 50 places and a wide range of package tours for hikers and Nordic walkers.

The ‘Bollenhut’: The bright red pompons on the straw hats of Black Forest girls indicated to members of the opposite sex that ‘I’m still available! - Married women wore the same type of hat, but with black pompons. Traditional costumes were worn everywhere in the Black Forest until the end of the 19th century – there was, however, a great variety of them.

Wellness has become a fashionable word, but visitors to the Black Forest know what to expect: here you will find classification by "wellness stars". 44 hotels in Baden-Württemberg, most of them in the Black Forest, have met the strict criteria for classification.

Eleven of Germany's 100 best chefs ply their trade in Black Forest restaurants. If you take a look at the menu of a village inn, you will be pleased to note that Black Forest cuisine is of the highest standards. Dishes from Baden and Swabia available in the Black Forest include such delicacies as goose-liver pie (Gänseleber-Gugelhupf), roast venison speciality (Rehrücken Baden-Baden) and Black Forest gateau, making every day of your holiday a culinary experience.  

Facts

• The Black Forest (Schwarzwald) is one of Europe’s top tourist attractions with its spruce and fir-covered mountains, gentle valleys and spectacular gorges carved by the River Rhine. See waterfalls, timber farmhouses, extravagant traditional costumes, the Baden Wine Route, hot spas, cuckoo clocks and of course, try the famous gateaux.
• The Black Forest runs for 160 km north from the Swiss Border and is about 60 km wide from east to west.
• The Black Forest is filled with pine trees whose general dark colour, provide the region with its name.
• The region is famous for cuckoo clocks and its typical black forest gateau.

Where about

• The region lies in the state of Baden-Württemberg.