Camping in the Black Forest

Camping in the Black Forest ranges from the five-star site with a sauna world and indoor pool to the plain tent meadow at the edge of the forest. On this page the sites are shown on a map and in a list – along with what a night costs, where legal tenting is possible and why wild camping here is not a good idea.

This page starts with the map, because with a campsite the location is the information; “List” shows the same sites as a row. Type into the search field whatever interests you – a place such as Titisee, a region such as Hochschwarzwald, a kind such as tent site or a facility such as motorhome or dogs allowed. If you share your location, the nearest site comes first. A click on a site leads to its page: address, opening times, facilities and how to get there.

How many campsites the Black Forest has depends on who is counting: camping.info lists 93, PiNCAMP by ADAC 59. The official statistics give 398 campsites for the whole of Baden-Württemberg, but only record businesses with at least ten pitches – small tent meadows fall out by definition. I count campsites and tent sites, filtered to the outline of the Black Forest. Not included are pure group and youth tent sites, which you cannot book as an individual traveller anyway, and the trekking camps – they run through their own booking system, more on that below.

The location data comes from OpenStreetMap and is checked editorially. Two examples of why that is necessary: Camping Bankenhof in Hinterzarten has been closed since a fire destroyed it on 23 May 2026 – the main building, reception and sanitary facilities are affected – and is therefore not in this list, together with its youth tent site; nor is the Müllerwiese in Enzklösterle, which has taken no holiday guests since 2025. If a site is missing or one no longer exists: write to me.

Six special campsites in the Black Forest

The whole list is too much for a decision at the kitchen table. I picked these six because each has something the others do not: the altitude, direct lake access, the wellness facilities, the national park behind the fence. Two lie in the south, two in the middle, one in the north, one in the High Black Forest. Not a ranking – a selection with reasons you can follow.

Naturcamping Weiherhof, Hinterzarten – right on Lake Titisee

The site lies at 860 metres directly on Lake Titisee, with 400 metres of its own shoreline and three bathing areas. 160 pitches on around 20,000 square metres, boat and pedalo hire, restaurant with a lake view. Pitches in the first and second row right by the water cost 6 euros extra per day. The season runs from 1 May to 31 October. And for dog owners, the rare sentence: dogs may go into the lake here.

Camping Kirchzarten – open all year, just outside Freiburg

A five-star site in the Dreisam valley, 380 metres up, with 130 tourist pitches out of 488 in total. According to the site itself, open 365 days a year – with heated mobile homes, winterproof rental caravans and an indoor dog shower with warm water. Certified with the EU Ecolabel and through EcoCamping, and with the broadest base of reviews in the region: 4.6 out of 5 from more than 1,400 reviews. Anyone who wants to visit Freiburg without a car is in the right place here – the KONUS guest card is issued at reception.

Ferienparadies Schwarzwälder Hof, Seelbach – camping with a sauna

The wellness site of the region: five stars, 195 tourist pitches, indoor pool and sauna world, and from one overnight stay the sauna is included in the price. Open all year, with its own winter season from November to March. At around 65 euros in high season it is also the most expensive of the six – in return you get something no other campsite in the Black Forest offers.

Natur-Camp Tannenfels, Baiersbronn – at the national park

A year-round site in Baiersbronn-Mitteltal, right on the river Murg, with the national park adjoining. Modernised in 2020, with log cabins and motorhome pitches with electricity. Dogs cost nothing here – in the Black Forest that is the exception. A practical note for winter camping: the water and waste station is out of service in winter.

Camping Herrenwies, Forbach – the small one at 780 metres

Only 25 tourist pitches on three hectares, forest all around, 780 metres up at the national park. The site warns about its own altitude: “Because of our altitude of ~780 m, low temperatures are to be expected here, especially at night.” From October to April it stays closed. If you are looking for small, cool and unexcited, you will find it here – if you are looking for entertainment, you will not.

Campingplatz Kirnbergsee, Bräunlingen – natural beach on a bathing lake

800 metres up, directly on Lake Kirnberg, with a natural beach and lawns on the shore – from the tent meadow it is a few steps into the water. 40 tourist pitches out of 132 in total, the rest long-term camping. Season 2026: 10 March to 31 October, making it one of the first sites to open in spring. Tent plots come in three sizes from 6 euros.

Prices and season dates come from the sites' own 2026 price lists, retrieved in August 2026. Please confirm on the site's website before you travel.

Which kind of camping suits you?

“Camping in the Black Forest” means three rather different things. Each entry says whether it is a campsite or a tent site – so that you do not end up on a tent meadow if you drive a motorhome.

Tent site

Some of the sites are pure tent sites, and there are tent meadows on the large campsites as well. In terms of price this is the cheapest option: at Kirnbergsee a tent plot costs 6 to 12 euros depending on size, plus the price per person; at Natur-Camp Tannenfels two people with a tent pay 27 euros in high season. Anyone camping in the High Black Forest should pack a warm sleeping bag even in July – more on that below.

Motorhome and caravan

The pitch alone costs between 8.50 and 15.50 euros a night at the sites checked, plus prices per person, electricity and visitor's tax. Some sites calculate differently and quote a flat rate including two people – then you are at 24 to 35 euros. Electricity is charged either as a flat rate (3.50 to 4.50 euros a day) or by consumption (0.80 to 0.95 euros per kilowatt hour). My tip: if you travel in winter, ask beforehand whether the waste station is in operation – in frost it is regularly shut off.

Glamping and rental accommodation

Log cabins, mobile homes, rental caravans, barrels: many sites have fixed accommodation, noted at the entry as rental accommodation. The Schwarzwälder Hof in Seelbach was honoured at the 2025 CampSiteAward in the category “Fixed accommodation glamping”, Camping Kirchzarten has heated mobile homes for winter. If you want to camp without camping, this is where you start.

Tenting and trekking: the trekking camps in the Black Forest

The trekking camps are the best the Black Forest has to offer anyone with a tent: designated single pitches in the forest that you walk to. At present 24 camps are listed by name, twelve in the northern and twelve in the southern Black Forest; the organisers announced 25 in total for the 2026 season. They can be booked from 1 May to 31 October. They are not in this directory – they run through their own booking system and can only be found after booking at all.

The rules are short and unambiguous. One night costs 15 euros per tent and night for a maximum of three people. Each camp has up to three tent pitches, so at most nine people. You may stay one night, not two. Booking is exclusively online via trekking-schwarzwald.de, payment is immediate – and you only get the GPS coordinates of the pitch with the booking confirmation, because the camps and their approach paths are not signposted. Arrival from 5 pm, departure by 10 am.

On site a dry toilet awaits you and usually a fire pit – but no water. The operators recommend taking four to five litres per person and day. Fire is out of the question as soon as the German Weather Service's forest fire danger index reaches level 4 or 5. Dogs may come along, on a lead. Arrival is meant to be on foot; the booking page itself now also names the bicycle, and the rules explicitly forbid only arriving by car.

How sought-after this is can be seen in the organisers' figures: in recent years more than 1,000 bookings came in on the first day of booking, and in the 2025 season around 7,000 tents stood in what were then 21 camps. If you want to go in summer, book early. Behind the project are Naturpark Schwarzwald Mitte/Nord, Naturpark Südschwarzwald, Nationalpark Schwarzwald and ForstBW – started in 2017, with the southern Black Forest joining in 2020.

Not to be confused: the One Night Camps are a second, independent offer – a pilot project in the district of Waldshut, explicitly for motorhomes as well, booked through a different platform.

Is wild camping allowed in the Black Forest?

No. Tenting outside designated sites is forbidden in Baden-Württemberg, and by two laws. In the forest, § 37 (4) no. 2 of the state forest act (Landeswaldgesetz) says: “Without special authorisation the following is not permitted … tenting and the placing of beehives in the forest.” In the open landscape, § 44 (1) of the nature conservation act (Naturschutzgesetz) says that the right of access does not include “tenting or making fire”.

The wording “without special authorisation” is the interesting part – it is exactly what the trekking camps rest on. So it is not an absolute ban, but one subject to permission. It is just that nobody who simply puts up a tent in the forest is going to get that permission.

What it costs if you are caught: the environmental fines catalogue of Baden-Württemberg gives standard rates for tenting of up to ten days of 10 to 275 euros outside protected areas, 15 to 350 euros in landscape protection areas and nature parks and 50 to 700 euros in nature reserves and national parks. The statutory maximums lie considerably higher: up to 2,500 euros under the state forest act, up to 15,000 euros under the nature conservation act, up to 50,000 euros under the national park act. Two restrictions, for honesty's sake: according to the environment ministry the catalogue was valid until 30 November 2025, and no successor is publicly documented – and it does not cover the forest act offences at all. The “up to 1,500 euros” for a tent in a nature reserve that circulates online cannot be reconciled with the official catalogue.

In the Black Forest National Park the situation is clearest. § 9 (2) no. 13 of the national park act forbids “spending the night, tenting or making fire outside the places specially set up for this” – and the park administration puts it this way on its rules page: “Staying overnight in the national park is generally not permitted – whether with or without a tent.” In the core zones you may not even leave the designated paths. Since 1 January 2026 the park has grown to around 11,250 hectares; the 10,000 hectares often quoted are out of date.

And the special case that comes up often: is bivouacking without a tent allowed? In the national park no – there “spending the night” is explicitly forbidden, not only tenting. Outside it the matter is unclear: the state forest act and the nature conservation act both name only “tenting”. But there is no rule permitting tentless overnight stays either, and both nature conservation and local police authorities can restrict access locally. Anyone who wants to sleep safely takes a trekking camp.

Motorhome stopover or campsite?

Since 1 July 2023 there has been a clear legal boundary. The Baden-Württemberg camping and weekend site ordinance defines campsites as places “for putting up and living in more than five camping vehicles or tents” – and explicitly excludes: “Stopovers for putting up to ten camping vehicles on publicly or generally accessible parking areas without supplementary infrastructure are not campsites within the meaning of this ordinance.”

In practice that means: a campsite must have drinking water taps, toilets, showers and washing places, must display site rules and must provide a responsible person who is reachable at all times during operation. A plain stopover without infrastructure need do none of that. How many motorhome stopovers there are in the Black Forest is something nobody states bindingly: Schwarzwald Tourismus lists 26, OpenStreetMap has 147 recorded – an official figure does not exist.

That leaves the question found in every motorhome forum: may you stand for one night in a public car park? The widespread answer invokes § 12 of the road traffic regulations – but it does not say that. The words “overnight stay” and “fitness to drive” do not appear in § 12 StVO. What carries the case is road law instead: under § 13 of the Baden-Württemberg roads act, the use of public roads is permitted “within the customary limits of traffic”, and under § 16 any use beyond that requires a special use permit. Sleeping in the vehicle therefore remains parking; awning, camping chair, table and barbecue leave common use behind. The “one night”, or “ten hours”, is codified in no law but is lived administrative practice.

Away from the road, by contrast, the legal position is clear: in the forest “driving and parking motor vehicles or trailers” is not permitted without special authorisation, in the open landscape the right of access does not cover parking motorised vehicles, and in the national park you may only stand on dedicated roads and signposted parking and rest areas.

Winter camping in the Black Forest

According to their own statements, those open all year include Camping Kirchzarten (“365 days a year”), Camping Schluchsee, Natur-Camp Tannenfels in Baiersbronn, the Ferienparadies Schwarzwälder Hof in Seelbach, the Family-Resort Kleinenzhof in Bad Wildbad, Camping Sulzbachtal and International Camping Schwarzwald in Neuhausen. There is no reliable total – the winter camping filter at PiNCAMP shows 29 sites for the Black Forest, but is technically a winter sports filter and not information about opening times.

Two technical things that count in winter. First electricity: for 16-amp protection, DIN VDE 0100-721 prescribes cables with a conductor cross-section of at least 2.5 square millimetres. Second gas: butane no longer vaporises below 0 degrees, you need winter gas with a high propane share – and should reckon with 3 to 5 kilograms of gas a day. Then the practice: water tanks freeze at their narrow openings, and waste stations are shut off in frost.

What camping in the Black Forest costs

Two average prices are in circulation, and they only appear to contradict each other. camping.info gives 35.45 euros a night for the Black Forest region – calculated for two adults with caravan, car, electricity and local tax. In its PiNCAMP price analysis of March 2026 the ADAC arrives at 47 euros – calculated for a family of two adults and one child up to ten years old in the summer high season. That makes the Black Forest the most expensive camping region in Baden-Württemberg in this analysis, ahead of Lake Constance and Upper Swabia at 46 euros each, with a state average of 44 euros.

More realistic than any average is the calculation from the bottom up: pitch 8.50 to 15.50 euros, adults 7.50 to 14 euros each, electricity 3.50 to 4.50 euros flat, plus visitor's tax. A trekking camp costs a flat 15 euros per tent.

Visitor's tax and the KONUS guest card

Visitor's tax is levied on campsites quite normally – the by-laws name the campsite operator explicitly as being obliged to report. In the Black Forest it typically lies between 1.60 and 3.50 euros per person and night: Schluchsee 3.50 euros from the age of 16, Baiersbronn 3.30 euros from 18, Hinterzarten 3.00 euros, Bräunlingen and Schömberg 2.00 euros, Staufen and Sulzburg 1.60 euros. Long-term campers often pay an annual flat rate.

And now the part that earns the visitor's tax back: the tax includes the contribution for the KONUS guest card – 47 cents net in Baiersbronn, 52 cents in Freudenstadt. With it you ride buses and trains as often as you like, free of charge, in around 150 Black Forest holiday towns, across nine transport associations from Pforzheim to Basel and Karlsruhe to Waldshut. This explicitly applies to camping guests as well: Camping Kirchzarten and Naturcamping Weiherhof issue the card at reception. Not included are ICE, IC, EC and – important in the Black Forest – the mountain railways. Anyone arriving by motorhome and then staying put for a week genuinely saves money with it.

The best time for camping in the Black Forest

The Black Forest is not one climate but several. Between the Rhine plain near Kehl at around 140 metres and the Feldberg at 1,493 metres lie a good 1,350 metres of altitude, and in summer they make the difference between bathing weather and a windproof jacket.

The German Weather Service's figures for 1991 to 2020 are unambiguous. Annual mean: Feldberg 4.3 degrees, Freiburg 11.0 degrees, Kehl 11.6 degrees. In July: Feldberg 12.2 degrees, Freiburg 20.1 degrees. It shows most clearly in the summer days above 25 degrees – Freiburg has 65.6 of them a year, the Feldberg 0.8. Conversely the Feldberg counts 144.6 frost days and 70.3 ice days, Freiburg 64.0 and 9.0. As a rule of thumb from these station values: around half a degree of temperature difference per 100 metres of altitude.

For anyone with a tent that means: in the high areas the nights are cold even in July – Camping Herrenwies warns about it itself at 780 metres. On the Feldberg snow lies on around 144 days a year in the long-term average, with the maximum not in January but in March. In the Rhine plain it is around 12 days.

What I cannot claim, even though it sounds plausible: that sites in the Rhine plain are open longer than those at altitude. The evidence says the opposite – Camping Schluchsee in the High Black Forest is open all year, while the Gräßelmühle campsite in Obersasbach at the edge of the Rhine plain is open only from 1 May to 20 September. The season depends on the operator, not on the altitude. Where a season is documented, it is stated at the site.

Campsites in the Black Forest directly on a lake

Five sites really are on the water, not merely near it. On Lake Titisee it is Naturcamping Weiherhof with 400 metres of shoreline and three bathing areas. On Lake Schluchsee – at 7.5 kilometres long and 60 metres deep the largest lake in the Black Forest – Camping Schluchsee lies terraced on the shore. On Lake Kirnberg near Bräunlingen there is a natural beach and lawns right at the site. The Campingplatz Achernsee has its own bathing lake of around 10 hectares with a beach, and Riedsee-Camping in Donaueschingen-Pfohren has its own lido on a natural lake.

Not on the water, even if the name suggests it: the remaining sites around Lake Titisee lie within walking distance or on the slope above – Terrassencamping Sandbank, for example, has the view but no lake access of its own.

Camping with a dog in the Black Forest

The Black Forest is dog-friendly: according to camping.info, more than 70 per cent of the region's campsites have a dog-friendliness rating of four stars or better. In my research I found no site with an explicit ban on dogs or on listed breeds; where there are restrictions, they are limits on numbers – Schluchsee and Altensteig allow at most two dogs per pitch.

Particularly well equipped are Camping Kirchzarten with an indoor dog shower with warm water, the Family-Resort Kleinenzhof likewise with a dog shower, and Höhen-Camping Langenbrand with its own dog meadow. The dog may swim at Naturcamping Weiherhof: “Dogs are warmly welcome with us. They are also welcome to swim in the lake.” The fee is usually between 2 and 5 euros a night – at Natur-Camp Tannenfels dogs are free. In the national park dogs must be kept on a lead.

More from the Black Forest

Camping in the Black Forest is therefore above all a question of altitude and of kind: sites between the Rhine plain and the High Black Forest, from the five-star site with a sauna to the plain tent meadow. Wild camping is not an option, legal tenting is, thanks to the trekking camps. If you would rather have a roof over your head, you will find my recommendations under accommodation; what else makes the Black Forest what it is can be found under places, people and highlights. And if you are interested in the other kind of lawn care: golf in the Black Forest.