Whenever anyone says ‘Black Forest’ to me, I’m instantly transported to my childhood memories of Germany and the police arriving to my mum and Granny in a complete panic as my Dad had gone off on a hike and not returned 8hrs later. They had assumed he was dead in a ditch or had fallen off a mountain, but as soon as the Polizei arrived, he of course appeared in the distance, completely fine.

My other awful memory of this Forest is jam making with my Granny. Now, I adored my Granny, but oh my goodness. We went berry picking in the forest to make some home made jam – but there were maggots in the fruit. It didn’t matter, we made it and ate it anyway for the protein, much to my disgust.

So with police calls and maggot infested jam my overriding memories, I decided it was time to make some new ones 30ish years later. I almost felt like the area might be cursed for me as my husband had an asthma attack half way up but thankfully no Polizei were required!

Panormaweg is one of the most picturesque long distance trails in the Black Forest, Germany. Totalling 44km, it’s a circular route in the forests and mountains around Baden Baden, split in to 4 sections. We only completed section one as we didn’t have time to do multiple, but you could easily split it up across days and all are accessible from Baden Baden itself.

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Hike Information

Location: You start the hike in the town of Baden Baden, at the Kurhaus just off Lichtentaler Allee – you can park in any of the public car parks available in the town.

Hike distance and time: The full length of Section one is 10km, plus the walk back down in to town at a further 2km. There are a number of quite steep climbs so you need to be at least of moderate fitness. Overall the hike took us 5hrs, but that was with a food stop and lots of photo stops.

Terrain: Very hilly, lots of hard ups and downs. The ground can also get very muddy and slippery so it’s important to wear proper hiking shoes, which I didn’t as I forgot to pack them and regretted it.

You can find the route HERE.

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The Route

A. Kurhaus to the Terrace of the New Castle

The walk starts at the Kurhaus just outside of central Baden Baden in its beautiful park. Stroll through the old town towards the Marktplatz and stop off to see the glorious Stiftskirche. It’s then time to head on up the steps behind the church until you reach the New Castle viewing platform terrace. The New Castle is currently closed for renovations, but the terrace is pretty beautiful – we managed to capture it in the early morning winter light. Wow.

B. New Castle to Old Castle (Hohenbaden Castle)

Following the road curving around the New Castle, head off in to the park. Here you will get a wonderful view up to the Old Castle and across to the mountains surrounding the town. The park quickly becomes forest and it’s a steep climb up through the trees to the end point – Hohenbaden Castle. The entire way is really well signed (just follow the Panoramaweg green circle). You’ll also pass a lovely little church on the way up as a bonus breather spot.

C. Old Castle to Restaurant Wolpertinger

Arriving at Hohenbaden Castle is quite amazing. The Castle comes in to view and you can’t help but pause and say ‘wow’. Built in the 1100s, this castle was a residence for 400 years until the family moved in to the New Castle. Today it’s a ruinous pile which was fun to explore – we had it all to ourselves.

After exploring the Castle, we then headed on to Ritterplatte for some of the most beautiful views of the hike, along with the lower Batterhütte, before finally hitting the peak and starting our descent through the forests down in to the village of Ebersteinburg which is home to a couple of restaurants. We didn’t stop for lunch as it was only about 11.30am so continued on.

D. Restaurant Wolpertinger to Merkur Bergbahn

It was time to head in to the woods again, and follow the Panormaweg signs in the direction of the Merkur Talstation. This section of forest was really beautiful and it was one of the most enjoyable sections of the walk.

E. Merkur Bergbahn to Kurhaus

Arriving at the Merkur Talstation is the end of the section 1 of the route. However, we couldn’t resist going up! Merkur is Baden Baden’s resident mountain, and there’s a funicular railway up, or you can walk. With 10km in our legs and a flight to catch, we took the funicular. At the top people were paragliding off, there were more beautiful views and there was a cafe where we had lunch – Gulasch soup and apple strudel for me!

After a delicious lunch, we rolled ourselves back in the funicular and down. From here you could either do section 2 of the walk with your afternoon, or just head back down in to Baden Baden – you can get the bus, or walk the 2km straight down the road to get there. We walked to finish off what had been a truly wonderful hike.

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Thank you so much for reading – what do you think of this beautiful hike? We had the best time in Baden Baden and the Black Forest and would recommend it to anyone looking to go somewhere a bit off the beaten track.