There are many ways to visit Germany and it’s an oft visited country when people travel to Europe. But have you
considered the guided tours on bicycle of the famous and beautiful Black Forest of Germany’s Bavarian region. Bicycling
only gets you so far in one day but it allows you to see a side of the old time Germany that few people get a glimpse of.
Perhaps the best news about taking one of the guided tours of Germany on a bicycle is that you don’t need to be a world
class cyclist to do this tour. The tours generally start at a village at the top of one of the Black Forest’s mountains and
the ride is all downhill from there. You needn’t take your bicycle or even a helmet. The tour guides have all of that for
you, although you are welcome to bring some of your own gear. Bringing your bicycle, however, would be a challenge, as
you’ll soon see.
You won’t likely be flying directly into the Black Forest as it’s relatively isolated from that sort of travel. Instead,
most guided tours of the Black Forest will have you fly into Frankfurt Airport, take the subway to the train station and
hop on the nearest train headed south. As you can see, hauling your bike just this far is a little bit cumbersome, don’t
you think? Other guided tours will fly you into Strasbourg, just across the border in France.
Your train ride either way will likely lead you to Offenburg, the nearest big town to where you’ll begin your ride.
Some guided tours of the Black Forest will pick you up there while others will have you take a taxi or smaller train to a
village like Lossburg. Lossburg is truly a representative sample of small town Germany, with Bavarian style homes, some
of which are bed and breakfast homes that you’ll stay in.
Most guided tours really get started after a healthy, filling breakfast in your home-style dwelling. Don’t count on your
hosts to speak English so a little German learned beforehand will come in handy. Your tour guide will bring the bikes and
helmets and, while some will bike with you, others will just give you a map-all in German. Either way, soon you’ll be
sailing along a paved or dirt-packed trail, deep within the magnificent forest.
Perhaps you’ll be on one of the guided tours of the Neckar Valley or one of several other valleys in the great, untouched
forest. Every few hours or so, you’ll reach a little village that will make you feel you’ve gone back in time. Your
luggage will be transported to your next overnight location so you can enjoy the monasteries, breweries and little shops
with souvenirs you can pack in your backpack. There’s at least one small, hometown restaurant in every village where the
food is cheap and authentically Bavarian.
Back on your bikes, you can’t get lost because, if you’re not going downhill,you’re headed in the wrong direction.
Over a four to five day period of time, you’ll find yourself back in Offenburg where you’ll give up your bikes and perhaps
take a train ride over to Strasbourg for some French cuisine and more
The guided tours of the Black Forest often offer such a trip as a nice way to round out your tour. In the end, you’ll have
seen a rare gem in the Black Forest of Germany and you’ll be more physically fit in the process.