7 Black Forest Hotels With the Thermal Water and the Stars

Baden-Baden's thermal water falls as rain on the Black Forest hills, sinks around two thousand metres through the rock, is heated to about 68 degrees at depth and comes back up through a fault under the town. Twelve springs deliver roughly 800,000 litres a day.

The Romans found it in the first century and built baths for the Legio VIII Augusta; the ruins of the soldiers' bathhouse sit under the modern town and can be visited. It became fashionable again in the nineteenth century when the casino opened, and Dostoevsky, Brahms and most of European royalty came for the season.

Two bathing complexes still run on that water. The Friedrichsbad, opened in 1877, is a sequence of seventeen stations — showers, hot air rooms, steam, soap and brush massage, thermal pools, cold plunge — done in a fixed order, unclothed, with mixed days. The Caracalla Therme next door is the modern version with swimsuits. Which one you want is worth deciding before you arrive.

Baiersbronn, and a statistic

Twenty minutes into the forest sits Baiersbronn, a village of about fifteen thousand people spread across several hamlets. For years it held two separate three-Michelin-star restaurants simultaneously, plus more stars besides — a concentration that no city of comparable size anywhere has matched.

Both are attached to hotels that have been run by the same families for generations, which is the reason: they are not restaurants with rooms but hotels where four or five generations have invested in one kitchen.

The forest

The Black Forest runs about 160 kilometres north to south. It is not wilderness — it is worked forest, cleared valleys and farms, with the highest point at Feldberg at 1,493 metres.

The north, around Baden-Baden and Baiersbronn, is the spa and gastronomy end.

The middle, around Triberg and Gutach, has the waterfalls, the cuckoo clock industry and the open-air museum.

The south, around Freiburg and the Feldberg, is sunnier, closer to Switzerland and has the vineyards on the Kaiserstuhl.

The seven below are grouped that way.

Baden-Baden

The spa town.

Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa occupies a building in the Lichtentaler Allee park, family-owned since 1872, with a medical spa, a pool and a level of discretion that has kept the same clientele for a century and a half. It is the grand hotel of German spa culture.

Roomers Baden-Baden sits in a former Grand Duke's palace above the town with a design-led interior, a rooftop pool and a much younger tone than its neighbour.

Baiersbronn

The forest gastronomy village.

Hotel Bareiss occupies a large family hotel with a three-star restaurant, a spa across several buildings and a children's programme that runs alongside it. It has been in the same family since 1951.

Hotel Traube Tonbach sits in the same valley, run by one family since 1789, with a three-star kitchen, a wine cellar of considerable depth and a spa that was rebuilt after a fire.

The middle and southern forest

Waterfalls, clocks and the Rhine valley.

Hotel Dollenberg occupies a hillside at Bad Peterstal with a spa, several pools and a starred restaurant, in a quieter valley than Baiersbronn.

Schwarzwald Panorama sits at Bad Herrenalb with a panoramic spa, a pool and views over the northern forest.

Parkhotel Wehrle occupies a house in Triberg beside the waterfalls that has been an inn since the sixteenth century, with a garden and the clock museum nearby.

What we have left off

The Gasthöfe and forest guest houses across the region are excluded, and they are where most German visitors stay, at a fraction of the price, with excellent food. They are inns rather than hotels.

What to do

Decide which bath you want. The Friedrichsbad is unclothed, sequenced and over a century old; the Caracalla is a modern swimsuit spa. The Roman ruins beneath the town are a separate, quick visit.

Eat at one of the Baiersbronn kitchens, and book months ahead. The hotels take their own guests first, which is an argument for staying.

Walk the Westweg, or a section of it: a 285-kilometre trail from Pforzheim to Basel, waymarked since 1900 with a red diamond, which was one of the first long-distance paths in Europe.

See the waterfalls at Triberg, the tallest in Germany, and the open-air museum at Gutach for the farmhouses with their vast hipped roofs.

Drive or take the train down to Freiburg, which is a university city with a medieval minster and small water channels running along the street gutters.

Practical notes

Baden-Baden has a small airport; Stuttgart, Strasbourg and Basel are all within ninety minutes. The forest needs a car, though the train reaches Baden-Baden, Triberg and Freiburg.

May, June, September and October are ideal. Winter brings snow to the higher forest and cross-country skiing. The spa towns work in any season, which is largely the point.

Book the Baiersbronn restaurants when you book the room, not after.

Questions people actually ask

What is the Friedrichsbad like?

Seventeen stations in a fixed order, unclothed, in an 1877 building, with mixed days. It is not a swimming pool and it is not for everyone.

Why is the food in Baiersbronn so good?

Two family hotels invested in kitchens across generations, and held three stars each simultaneously in a village of fifteen thousand.

Spa town or forest?

Baden-Baden for the water and the architecture, Baiersbronn and the valleys for the food and the walking. Twenty minutes apart.

How many nights?

Four. Two in the spa town and two in the forest.

If you only book one