Handpicked experience · Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland
Seven hours from Zurich taking in the Rhine Falls and crossing into Germany for Lake Titisee — a taste of the Black Forest's edge rather than its depths.
The Rhine Falls from the established viewing platforms, with a riverbank walk for closer photographs
A crossing of the Swiss-German border to Titisee-Neustadt and a traditional cuckoo clock showroom
Free time at Lake Titisee to walk the shore, browse local crafts or sit in a café
Return transport by air-conditioned coach with live commentary from a local guide
A compact seven-hour schedule returning to Zurich the same day
The forest is enormous, running for well over a hundred kilometres down the German side of the Rhine. A day trip from Zurich that also takes in the Rhine Falls reaches its southern edge and one lake within it. That is a fair thing to offer and an unfair thing to mistake: you are getting a representative afternoon, not the deep interior of dark valleys and isolated farms that the name conjures.
The lake is small, pretty and thoroughly geared to visitors, with a shoreline of shops, cafés and boat hire rather than silence and pine. Some travellers find that a let-down and others are delighted to sit by the water with something sweet. Knowing which you are beforehand makes the stop much better.
There is no point being coy about it. Coach tours through this region stop at a cuckoo clock showroom because the region makes them and because the buses have always stopped there. The mechanisms are genuinely interesting and the demonstration is worth watching, nobody is obliged to buy anything, and it is perfectly acceptable to walk out the other side and go for a coffee.
This is the part of the world that gave its name to the cherry and cream gateau, and the versions in the lakeside cafés bear little resemblance to what the name means elsewhere. It is the most straightforwardly enjoyable thing you can do with the free time here.
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The southern edge and one lake within it. The forest runs for well over a hundred kilometres, so a seven-hour day that also visits the Rhine Falls gives you a representative slice rather than the deep interior.
It is pretty but firmly a resort, with shops, cafés and boat hire along the shore. Expect a pleasant lakeside town rather than wilderness and you will enjoy it.
Not at all. The showroom stop is a retail visit and everyone knows it. The demonstration of how the mechanisms work is genuinely worth seeing, and walking out empty-handed is entirely normal.
Yes, bring it. The route crosses from Switzerland into Germany and back, and although the border is usually straightforward, checks do happen.
A substantial part of it. Two countries and two stops in seven hours means the coach covers real distance between each.