Black Forest

The Black Forest is not one place, it is a patchwork of theme parks, waterfalls, mountain coasters, and villages where the clocks are bigger than the houses. For families, the draw is simple: Europa-Park anchors the trip with two days of rides, and the rest fills with outdoor adventures that work for ages 5 to 15 without anyone complaining. Freiburg is the gateway, sunny and walkable. The old town survived the war better than most, the Munsterplatz market runs every morning except Sunday, and the Schauinslandbahn cable car lifts you 1,200 metres above the city in 20 minutes. Europa-Park, 35 minutes north in the village of Rust, is Germany's largest theme park and the single biggest reason most families come to this corner of the country. Triberg has the waterfalls (Germany's highest, 163 metres), the cuckoo clocks, and the cake. Titisee has the glacial lake, the rainy-day water park, and the easy decompression after a theme park day. You drive between them on roads that wind through forest so thick the GPS signal drops out, and you eat Flammkuchen and Maultaschen at Gasthauser where the kids menu is universal and nobody raises an eyebrow at a 7-year-old asking for a second Black Forest cake.