Tag Archives: resorts

Schwarzwald

Ten things I learned in Bareiss style Baiersbronn…

Now that my latest blog series about Hotel Bareiss is complete, here’s my usual “ten things I learned” post. I find that these top ten lists tend to get read more than my “blow by blow” posts. Let’s face it! People don’t necessarily care about the minutiae of someone else’s vacation. On the other hand, sometimes including the small details is useful for some readers, or even just to myself, as I get older and duller. 😉

Anyway, here’s my list, even though we’ve done Baiersbronn before. I see that I didn’t do a ten things I learned list for our first Baiersbronn trip, so maybe it’s good to do one now. Here goes!

10. The Hotel Bareiss experience reminds me a little of being on a cruise ship.

The first time we visited Baiersbronn for more than a couple of hours, we stayed at Hotel Engel Obertal, which is a perfectly nice hotel that offers half board. But that hotel didn’t seem to be nearly as structured as Hotel Bareiss is. Yes, lunch was included in the daily rate there, but we didn’t feel like we HAD to eat lunch there. Although we didn’t HAVE to eat dinner at Hotel Bareiss either, the very heavy service component and knowing that we were paying for the food, anyway, made us feel obligated to eat there. And while it wasn’t a bad thing at all to dine at Hotel Bareiss, that aspect made me feel a little like I was on a cruise ship. The resort offers a lot of activities, too, like a cruise ship does.

9. Hotel Bareiss is very expensive, but offers an extremely high quality product.

When I compare Hotel Bareiss to Hotel Engel Obertal, I see some obvious similarities. However, Hotel Bareiss is an institution in Baiersbronn, and people come from all over to experience it. Service is mostly top notch, and they put a lot of effort into presenting a very pleasant experience for guests. That experience will cost you, of course! But if you have the means, and you just want to relax without worrying about anything, Hotel Bareiss might be just the place to go.

8. I wouldn’t call Hotel Bareiss a very “romantic” place for couples…

Although this is a five star resort hotel with a three star Michelin restaurant, it’s also a very family friendly place. There are lots of activities available for children, and they aren’t specifically prohibited from going into places. That means you might see them in the bar, or even in the sauna area. However, I did notice that visiting in late September/early October meant that most kids were in school, so their population was at a minimum during our stay. I would not book Bareiss in the summer if I was wanting to avoid running into families with children, though.

7. Baiersbronn and the Black Forest offer a lot to do outdoors. But maybe there are not as many things to do inside. Planning for the weather is a good idea.

We suffered some rain during our visit, which made us not really want to venture out so much. A lot of the things I was thinking I’d like to do were strictly outside activities. There are some museums and other indoor activities for the resourceful, and the hotel offers excursions to nearby places like Strasbourg, France or Baden-Baden. The hotel also offers classes sometimes. For instance, they have culinary and wine courses that can be booked. I didn’t mind the rain so much, since we had such a hot, dry summer. Next time, maybe I’ll look for more inside opportunities, in case of inclement weather. Or, at the very least, I would bring clothes and shoes for wet weather. Baiersbronn is kind of a sleepy town, but there are other areas nearby that are well worth a visit.

6. Bring an extra bathing suit!

Hotel Bareiss has an AWESOME pool area, and it’s usable all year. If you like to swim or relax in the water, you may want to bring an extra bathing suit. They also have a dryer in the locker room that will wring most of the the water out in eight seconds.

5. You can bring your dog!

Although I tend to relax more when I travel without our dogs, I did miss them while we were at the Hotel Bareiss. I think Noyzi, in particular, would have loved the hotel. So many people brought their beautiful pooches with them, and there were a lot of amenities for them, including dog sitting! But bear in mind, if you do bring your dog, there are steep extra charges involved and not every room will be available to you.

4. Pack a nice outfit or two.

The Hotel Bareiss requests that guests dress nicely for dinner. That doesn’t necessarily mean putting on a dress or a suit, nor does it even mean they’ll turn you away at the door. But if you happen to be at the hotel on gala night, you will want to be dressy, as most people do put on their gladrags for the occasion. If you wear jeans and a sweatshirt, you might feel quite underdressed.

3. Don’t be afraid to try other area restaurants.

Baiersbronn is home to quite a few excellent restaurants besides the ones at Hotel Bareiss. Most are affiliated with other hotels, to include the ones at Hotel Traube Tonbach, another highly regarded hotel in the area. We ate at Traube Tonbach last year and had a very nice experience. We also tried the Meierei, which has a Michelin Plate, and liked that even more than the Michelin starred restaurant at the Traube Tonbach. But even if you aren’t into gourmet food, you can find really good eating in Baiersbronn. Especially if you like fresh trout, like I do!

2. You don’t have to spend a mint to stay in Baiersbronn…

It’s true that we dropped a load of euros at Hotel Bareiss. This year’s visit was about twice as expensive as last year’s, although we also stayed a day longer and in fancier digs. But if we’d wanted to, we could have easily bunked comfortably in less extravagant lodging and had a great time. In fact, in some ways, I think I might have preferred a less “structured” holiday. I don’t think I’m that into resorts and half board plans. I like having the freedom to try different places and do my own thing. Maybe next time we go to the Black Forest, we’ll try to find a self catering apartment in a different area.

1. On the other hand, I would NOT turn down another visit to Hotel Bareiss…

It really is a lovely hotel, with friendly and mostly professional staff, and magical surroundings. We absolutely did enjoy ourselves, and would heartily recommend that others visit. Just remember that when you book Hotel Bareiss, you’re likely to be committed to going. You may wish to purchase travel insurance, in case you need to cancel. In our situation, I was worried about Arran being sick with lymphoma and needing us to come home to take care of him. However, he has now shown us that he is clearly not ready to leave us yet… so I’m glad we didn’t cancel! In fact, as I write this, he’s visiting the vet. I have a feeling she might be pleasantly surprised by how he’s doing today.

Well, that about does it for this year’s visit to the Schwarzwald. I hope this series has been entertaining, informative, and inspirational. If you’re living in Germany, I highly recommend taking the opportunity to visit The Black Forest. We completely missed it the first time we lived here. I’m so glad we came back and rectified that tragedy! And if you are into good food, especially fine dining, you may want to make a point of visiting Baiersbronn. As I mentioned in 2018, when we first heard of Baiersbronn, there are lots of (Michelin) “stars” in them there hills!

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Schwarzwald

Baiersbronn in the Black Forest– Bareiss Style! Part eight

Here’s the very last part of my series on the Hotel Bareiss in Baiersbronn. I hope it will be short. I’ll try to make it so, as I will also be doing my customary “top ten things I learned” post, for those who can’t be bothered to read the whole series.

Sunday night, after dinner, we found a letter from the hotel management thanking us for our stay. The letter was in English, but it had a couple of rather glaring errors in it. I know this sounds really “uppity” of me to notice, especially since I understood it perfectly. But, I’m afraid I am a bit of a stickler about such things, especially since so many people speak English at the hotel, and the errors were pretty basic (ie; not capitalizing the word “dear”). Also, this hotel charges out the wazoo, and purports to exact high standards in all things. So I wasn’t very impressed by the letter, which thanked us for staying, offered instructions for checking out, and requested us to fill out a survey, which I was happy to do. One thing that was lacking in the room, or maybe I just never found it, was a pen. Fortunately, other hotels were more generous, and I had a couple in my purse. 😉

I didn’t sleep well the last night, because I woke up at about 3:00 am needing the bathroom. When I was finished there, I was wide awake, which prompted me to look at Facebook. That was a mistake, since that was when I saw the comment about my trout looking like it was vomited on, and that irritated me. I probably should book a meditation vacation next. I need to stop being annoyed by dumb things.

I did finally drift off to sleep again, and we got up at about 7:30 am. We packed everything up before heading off for our last breakfast. Then Bill fetched the car key fob from the “mailbox” in the lobby, so he would have it ready for the porter who came to help us with our bags. The same very kind gentleman in the green blazer arrived quickly to load us up and get us on our way. I took a couple of photos of the minibar, which I never managed to look at during our stay. It was pretty well stocked! I didn’t see a price list, but I’m sure nothing in there was cheap. They did provide us with daily waters and fruit. I took the fruit home, since I knew they would be throwing it out, anyway.

Bill settled the bill, which came to about 4800 euros. That was for the room, half board, a la carte dining, drinks, tips, taxes, an energy surcharge (thanks Putin), and parking in a private garage. Yes, it was a lot of money, but it was less than we would have spent on a luxury cruise. We don’t do big ships– we do smaller lines like SeaDream and Hebridean– and if we ever cruise again, we’ll probably do a French barge cruise. We would have easily spent more than that for a week on a boat, plus we probably would have had to fly to reach the vessel. This was a lot like being on a cruise, but having access to our car. I like not being a captive audience!

Thankfully, right now the dollar is in the very rare position of being worth more than the euro is. So actually, we spent about $4700. What a bargain! 😉

Of course, you don’t have to spend that much to enjoy Baiersbronn. The area has a bunch of lodging options to fit any budget. In fact, I was looking at another hotel– four stars– that is rated higher than Bareiss is on TripAdvisor. Because it has fewer facilities, it’s less expensive. And it is important to note that in Europe, five stars doesn’t necessarily mean service is five star. The stars indicate the facilities available and supposed luxuries. So you could stay at a perfectly basic but wonderful one star hotel that just offers a bed and a toilet. Or you could stay at a really shitty five star place that has a big pool and a business center. Keep that in mind.

I do think the Bareiss Hotel is a beautiful property and, for the most part, I was very pleased by the service. Most everybody was very pleasant, and the facilities are very good. My only quibble was that some of the decor was kind of dated looking to me. The color scheme included a lot of pinks, greens, and mauves, with lots of gold fixtures, if you catch my drift. Yes, it’s a hotel with a long history, having been founded in 1951 as the Kurhotel Mitteltal by Hermine Bareiss, and the quaintness is part of its charm. But there were a few areas that looked like they could use a coat of paint or maybe an updated color scheme. Of course, making those changes would result in higher prices.

I did love the uniforms everyone wore. The dirndls were especially pretty, and it looked like they had several styles. I don’t like wearing uniforms, but I would feel beautiful in some of the dirndls they had for the ladies. A dirndl is a rare dress that actually flatters my figure.

Once Bill paid the tab, we got in the car and headed home. Just as we were leaving the valley, the sun came out and there was beautiful sunshine. Figures. It would have been a good day to go to the waterfalls. Maybe next time we’ll make it there. I did get some pictures from the drive out of the Schwarzwald. It’s so beautiful there. I do like Wiesbaden, but it lacks a lot of the landscape and natural beauty of Baden-Württemberg. Since I lived in that area for a total of six years in two and four year stints, it will always have a piece of my heart. I feel like I’m going home when I visit BW, even though my actual home is Virginia.

So now we’re back in Wiesbaden, and it’s time to face the music with our sweet Arran. He survived the Hundepension just fine, and is still chipper at this point. I know it’s temporary, but it’s good to see him, and Noyzi who, just today, is celebrating two years of life with us. We brought him home two years ago today. Who knows what’s in store for us? We could have a rough winter. So I’m glad we took this trip. I don’t think I’ll forget our experience at Hotel Bareiss anytime soon… especially since they sent us home with a parting gift.

It’s not Molton Brown, which were the toiletries in the bathroom… in fact, it’s better.

Tomorrow, I will post my top ten things I learned rundown… Hope you’ll read it!

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Schwarzwald

Baiersbronn in the Black Forest– Bareiss Style! Part seven

Ah Sunday… our last full day at the luxurious Hotel Bareiss in Baiersbronn. Once again, I wondered if we might be able to venture to the waterfalls. Once again, I was disappointed by wind, rain, and the occasional teasing from the sun. Oh well. Now we have a reason to come back to Baiersbronn, or some other fancy resort in the area.

So what did we do on our last day? That was another pool day for us, and since I’ve already posted my pool photos in part four, I don’t have much to write about that, other than we discovered that the Bareiss has a really cool swimsuit dryer that wrings the water out of your bathing suit in eight seconds flat. I hadn’t noticed it during our first visit. Also, this was the day that I saw the nude lady in the jacuzzi, informing me that the sauna and steam room area at Hotel Bareiss is obviously clothing optional. I didn’t see any signs about that, although it’s well known in Germany that you don’t sit in a sauna or steam room while wearing a swimsuit. You will be properly bitched out for it, if you do!

Bill and I weren’t really interested in the saunas or steam rooms, anyway. After a few more turns in the indoor and outdoor saltwater pools, we just enjoyed the awesome outdoor hot tub in the sauna area, which we had all to ourselves. The sauna world also had a Kneipp walk pool, an icy cold plunge pool, foot baths, and an exit to the outside, where I assume one could walk around au naturale if they wanted to. I’ve heard being nude in public isn’t necessarily illegal in Germany, although it certainly would be noticed and frowned upon. But I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong. 😉

After we came back from the pool area, we decided to walk into town and have lunch at a restaurant at Hotel Lamm, another lodging facility located across the street from Hotel Bareiss. Hotel Lamm isn’t as fancy as Hotel Bareiss is, but it does have a pretty nice restaurant. As we were walking in, we noticed a large group of young folks in Trachten– traditional German clothing– and they were obviously headed to the Volksfest in Stuttgart. Or maybe they were going somewhere else, but they sure looked like they were going to party, and they could get the train and enjoy themselves safely.

The restaurant at Hotel Lamm is called Wipfel (Treetop), and it is staffed by young folks dressed in traditional Trachten. Our waitress switched to English as soon as she heard us speak, then apologized for not having a menu in English. It was okay, as we both speak German restaurant lingo pretty well.

I was still perturbed about the unpleasant reactions to my trout dish on Saturday, so I ordered another one! That one didn’t attract as much attention. Bill had beef with horseradish sauce. We shared a bottle of locally produced Riesling, a bottle of mineral water, and more farmer’s bread. I was impressed by the Wipfel, and the hotel itself looked nice. I’m sure it is a hell of a lot less expensive to stay there, too!

Farmer’s bread, honey drizzled butter, and amuses from the kitchen!
A less surprised looking trout cooked in the Müllerinart style…
Bill’s horseradish covered beef.
I had Black Forest cheesecake for dessert. It was plain cheesecake topped with cherry ice cream and garnished with chocolate.
Front doors.
I’d go here again. Food and service were good.
A view of the weather.
Baiersbronn-Mitteltal is nice.
A shop with classic bikes…
Obviously restored.
I would have liked to have tried this gastropub, but it was only open past 8pm.

We walked around Baiersbronn a bit after a late lunch, then walked back to the Bareiss, gawking at all the Porsches, Mercedes, BMWs, Teslas and Volvos… I never thought we’d stay in such a place. When we married 20 years ago, we never went anywhere for fun, because we were broke. It wasn’t until we were married 3 years before we finally went on a trip that didn’t involve staying with family. We’ve come a long way.

Dinner at Bareiss on Sunday night was a more casual affair. I didn’t visit the buffet, but I believe vegetables was the theme. As it was, I just had one course from the menu, a filet mignon with roasted potatoes, and dessert. I wanted to try another steak, and was pleased that this time, the temperature was right. I also loved the dessert, which was a pistachio parfait.

Delicious pumpkin soup…
Salmon tartar. I tried this and it was good, but I was still full from lunch.
Mushroom encrusted beef for Bill.
A medium cooked mushroom free filet for me.
Perfect roasted potatoes.
Herb butter.
Pistachio parfait with oranges.
The heart signified that it was our last night.

Because it was our last night, and because I was thinking of Arran, who was named after a Scottish island in the Hebrides, Bill and I visited the bar one last time. I drank a couple of drams of whisky, while Bill had a cocktail and a wee dram of scotch. I was glad to see they had Glen Scotia from Campbeltown, but they didn’t have any Springbank!

This was nice, and reasonably priced.
Bill joined me in a toast.

The bartender, who had been a little aloof, was genuinely kind when we said we were going home. It was nice to hang out in her bar for a few days. But going home is better for the wallet! And, to be honest, as much as I enjoyed our visit, I was ready to come home. I think long trips are kind of hard for us, especially when things are structured, as they tend to be in resorts. I don’t know if or when we’ll be back to the Schwarzwald “on holiday”, but I would love to find a really nice self-catering house with great views of the mountains and the freedom to try different places for dinner.

On the other hand, of course I would also love to go to the Bareiss again. Stay tuned for part eight, which will close out this series.

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Schwarzwald

Baiersbronn in the Black Forest– Bareiss Style! Part one

Those of you who regularly read my travel blog might remember that in August 2021, when it came time for Bill and me to visit our dentist in Stuttgart, we decided to book a stay at the Hotel Engel Obertal in Baiersbronn. We spent four pleasant nights at that luxury property and mostly really enjoyed ourselves. While we were staying at that hotel, we visited a restaurant owned by the Hotel Bareiss called the Forellenhof Buhlbach. I noticed a number of guests who were enjoying fresh trout there were also staying at Hotel Bareiss. I didn’t know much about the place, other than it’s where one of the two Three Star Michelin restaurants in Baiersbronn is. I also knew that Hotel Bareiss is considered a pretty swanky place to stay.

In August, Bill rescheduled our dental appointments, to accommodate the Hundepension taking care of our dogs, Arran and Noyzi. Since we moved to Wiesbaden and COVID-19 has been less of an issue, we’ve been combining our trips to Stuttgart with “mini breaks”. Last year, we did Baiersbronn, for instance. In the spring, we went to Sessenheim, France, and stayed in a beautiful little boutique hotel with a gourmet restaurant. I was considering staying in another nice place we haven’t yet been, when I remembered the Bareiss Hotel, and how curious I was about it. So I checked their availability for our dates…

Sure enough, they had room in their “Landhaus”, which is where some of the hotel’s suites and apartments are. After talking about it with Bill– especially given the steep price of the room– we decided to book it. And, because of the steep cost, and the contractual obligation to pay soon after we booked, I also bought travel insurance. It made sense, since the original quote– just for five nights in the room, parking in a garage, and half board, was about 3700 euros. That may seem like a lot, and it is. But you get a lot for your money at this hotel. Besides offering a comfortable place to stay, the Bareiss also has daily activities and many facilities, an awesome spa and sauna world, a huge pool complex with several pools, most of which can be used year round, walking trails, a petting zoo, and lots of child friendly attractions. It’s also an extremely dog friendly hotel, although there is a daily 35 euro charge for each dog.

Having just left the hotel this morning, I can say that the high price was mostly worth it. I liked the Bareiss more than Hotel Engel Obertal. The food was exceptional, especially considering that we mostly ate from the board program, rather than a la carte. The staff is mostly excellent, too. I did have a few quibbles about a few things, which I’ll get to as I write the blow by blow account of our trip. But– overall– I can say that we did enjoy ourselves very much.

I just wish we’d had better weather, because there were some outdoor activities I wanted to do while we were visiting. However, not doing those activities meant that we got to enjoy a couple of fabulous mornings in the pool and sauna world. They were not at all crowded, and were on par with some of the best public mineralthermes/spas/quellens we’ve been to. Imagine going to your favorite pool based spa with almost no one there, competing for resources. That’s what it was like for us at the Hotel Bareiss at this time of year, when most children are in school. I think if you’re a couple or a bunch of ladies who want a relatively quiet and less child populated experience at this property, definitely book in late September or October! In the summer, I’m sure it’s a hell of a lot more crowded and expensive! But then, the weather is also sunnier.

I’m going to start from the beginning of our five night stay and give a very detailed account, then do my usual quick and dirty top ten things I learned post, for those who want to skip the details. I hope you’ll come along with me on our latest Black Forest journey!

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