Black Forest for the family

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This article titled "Black Forest for the family" was written by Isabel Choat, for The Guardian on Tuesday 16th August 2016 05.30 UTC

Ruddy-faced tourists in beige shorts, cherry gateaux and lots of trees. Those were my, admittedly limited, expectations of the Black Forest. What I didn’t anticipate was hurtling down a hillside on a go-kart. Just getting to the Hasenhorn Coaster is an adventure. A chairlift transported us to the top, and while my partner took selfies in the chair behind, I was focusing very hard on trying to enjoy the scenery and not think about my six-year-old son slipping under the safety bar and falling to the ground below. Speeding down the coaster’s 2.9km looping track on a go-kart was much less alarming than dangling 30ft above it, so much so that when I got to the bottom I wanted another go.

A rectangle of land about 200km long and 60km wide in the south-west corner of Germany, the Black Forest region isn’t a huge area, but the diversity and beauty of its landscape have made it one of the most popular holiday destinations among Germans. Many come for the hiking – this is the place that claims to have invented hiking for pleasure, when Philipp Bussemer from Baden Baden opened the first tourist information centre in 1864. A century and a half later, 23,000km of walking trails are signposted across its forests, meadows, vineyards and lakesides.

The 2.9km-long Hasenhorn go-kart coaster. Photograph: Alamy

In another sporting precedent, it established the first ski club in central Europe in 1891, and now boasts 250km of downhill slopes and 1,700km of cross-country trails. In summer the hills and forests are alive with the sound of mountain bikers on its dedicated 8,000km of trails. Then there are the activity parks and climbing. The lakes, including the largest, Schluchsee, and Titisee, offer yet more ways to enjoy the natural environment - from Schluchsee’s lido with a giant slide into the lake, to kayaking, canoeing and sailing. In short, the Black Forest is a giant adventure playground. Active fun is in its DNA.

Despite this giddy array of activities, the region’s reputation in the UK as a walking destination means it’s not a natural choice for British families. Yet you’d be hard pushed to find a better-value family activity holiday. For one thing, more than 350 hotels, campsites and apartments in the region offer guests staying two nights or more a Hochschwarzwald Card giving free access to over 70 attractions. Second, Germans are the masters of the child-friendly hotel. We stayed at the Feldberger Hof at the base of Mount Feldberg, which, while not part of the well-known kinderhotel.de network, could not have been more kinder-oriented. Some might argue that it is too kinder-oriented. My partner took one look at the swarm of small children milling about the reception on our arrival and said he needed a drink. At 11am. Further exploration of the hotel – with its indoor play area, buffet meals, daily programme of fun games and singalongs, and staff with their Happy Team badges – made it feel like we were trapped in a giant soft-play centre.

The writer’s son on a bug hunt. Photograph: Isabel Choat for the Guardian

But other guests weren’t as cynical. Most parents we spoke to – both English and German – were booked in for a full week, many on repeat visits, and raved about the place; and naturally our son thought it was brilliant. He loved the play area, the pool and waterslide, and the fact that there was a ready supply of kids his age to play with. Not speaking the same language was no barrier to instant friendship. For us, the best thing about it was what lay outside.

Prime hiking country… Photograph: Alamy

The hotel is located in the Hochschwarzwald, or the High Black Forest, at the foot of the region’s highest peak, the 1,493m Feldberg. A cable car takes you to the top for views across the Feldberg massif and, on a clear day, the Alps beyond. Directly behind the hotel is Kletterwald, a sprawling treetop obstacle course. Sadly, driving rain and fog meant that this was closed. Instead, we ducked in to the House of Nature opposite the hotel, with displays about the local wildlife and culture, and a virtual hot air balloon ride. There we met head ranger Achim Laber for a guided walk of the Witchelpfad, a new trail where children follow clues along a mile-long forest path bordered by blueberry bushes in search of the capercaillie bird, via displays of gnome-like creatures and their dwellings. A keen hiker, Achim devised the path while remembering how difficult it had been to motivate his own children to go on walks. It worked for our son, who was happy to skip through the damp forest in search of tiny doors built into the trees, fairies and a model fox in his den.

The next day we headed to Spasspark, where little kids can ride giant tyres down a fake grass slope and jump on a large, bouncy dome. That afternoon we walked from picturesque St Blasien-Menzenschwand – a traditional village of slopey-roofed, timber-framed houses sprouting red geraniums under every window, and famed for its domed cathedral – to a waterfall, past fields of wild flowers, a goat farm and hillsides thick with fir trees. Again we were grateful for a distraction for my son, in the form of a rucksack hired from the tourist office (€5) and packed with everything a mini explorer might need. He threw himself into trapping insects in his plastic jar with such vim he barely noticed he was being made to use his legs.

The Witchelpfad Naturpark. Photograph: Hochschwarzwald Tourismus GmbH

If the Black Forest was forward thinking when it came to outdoor tourism, nowadays the focus is on preserving its past. The entire area is so steeped in tradition it almost feels frozen in time, with barely a modern blot on the landscape. The Hirschen Gasthof, a restaurant with rooms 3km from Lake Schluchsee, is a classic example. While the wooden interior is arguably more modern than most, we were greeted by a woman dressed in a dirndl. Its designation as a “nature park inn” requires it to offer at least three regional dishes and use local ingredients, so the menu is heavy on rich, meaty dishes like pork fillet rolls stuffed with ham and cheese, venison medallions and smoked duck. Those 19th-century hikers might never have predicted that the tourists of the future would be squealing down hillsides on go-karts, but they would have surely approved that they refuel on such traditional hearty fare.

• The trip was provided by Hochschwarzwald tourism office. A two-bedroom family apartment at the Feldberger Hof hotel (feldberger-hof.de) costs €262 per night half-board for two adults and one child. Ryanair flies to Basel from Stansted

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