Some holidays are about ticking off landmarks. This one, as recounted by a frequent US-Germany traveller writing for Live and Let's Fly, is about the opposite: repeat visits to the same corner of southwest Germany where his in-laws live, and where the programme rarely changes — bike rides through forest paths, coffee stops, döner, ice cream and unhurried family time. This time the family flew SAS into Zürich and drove about an hour across the border into Germany, a routine trip that still managed to deliver new discoveries.
One new find was in Switzerland, just over the border: a coffee shop called Mantila Coffee in Basel, now the writer's favourite in the city. When he returned the next day with his son Augustine, Mantila turned out to be closed on Saturdays, so they tried Tinka instead — cortado for dad, cappuccino for the kid, and a sparkling blood orange drink to share. Basel turns out to be an easy coffee-hop destination if you're staying in the German border region.
Food highlights leaned local and low-key. A family favourite is Gasthaus Krone in the hamlet of Lehnacker, deep in the Schwarzwald — the Black Forest — where the traditional cooking gets a firm thumbs-up. Elsewhere, the small frictions of German travel get an honest airing: restaurants and cafés generally won't serve free tap water, so bottled water at €5–8 adds up fast when supermarket bottles cost 50–80 cents. The family's workaround is a stop at DM, the German drugstore chain, on arrival day — it's cheaper than US equivalents for many everyday products, even with the strong euro, though the store's once-free water dispenser has been broken for two years.
The quiet standout moment had nothing to do with food or coffee: the writer's daughter finally cracked riding a bike on her own. That's telling. The family doesn't feel safe cycling at home in the US because of fast traffic, but Germany's cycling culture and infrastructure made it possible — and ice cream followed as the reward. The trip also came with free entertainment in the form of a dramatic thunderstorm, watched from the patio.
Why does this matter to you? Because it's a case for the 'third-place' holiday — returning to one region you know well rather than cramming in a new country every time. Southwest Germany, with Zürich as a handy gateway, Basel and Switzerland within cycling distance, and the Black Forest on the doorstep, works especially well for families who want low-stress days outdoors. Practical quirks to plan around: carry bottled water from a grocery store or DM rather than ordering it in cafés, and note that some small coffee shops close on Saturdays. For anyone with school-age kids who wants a trip built around bike rides, playground-adjacent kaffee und kuchen and forest air rather than itineraries, this corner of Germany makes a strong repeat case.
