For our first Targa road trip to the Black Forest over Christmas 2025, we set out with that familiar mix of excitement and calm anticipation that only a winter drive can bring. Leaving behind the routine of everyday life, we point the nose of the Targa towards Germany’s deep, tree-covered valleys and winding forest roads.
The Black Forest in winter feels almost storybook: quiet villages wrapped in frost, towering evergreens dusted white, and long, empty stretches of perfect driving roads.
This trip was our chance to slow down, breathe in the cold alpine air, and experience the landscape at its most peaceful and magical, just the two of us, the car, and the road ahead.
Usually, our road trips involve routes with many one night stops in transit. But this trip is a little different, with a focus on winter hiking and photography. We're basing ourselves in Freiburg im Breisgau for six days with two transit days either side of the week.
We hope to find some snow and test and compare our Porsche 911 to our previous Taycan.
High-level route
Fuel log
| # | Date | Location | Litres | €/litre | Total € | Fuel Type | Octane |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 27 Dec 2025 | Abergele, Wales | 54.74 | €1.890 | €103.46 | Shell V-Power | 99 |
| 2 | 28 Dec 2025 | Oirschot, Netherlands | 59.60 | €2.439 | €145.36 | Shell V-Power | 98 |
| 3 | 29 Dec 2025 | Freiburg, Germany | 57.99 | €1.969 | €114.18 | Shell V-Power | 100 |
| 4 | 31 Dec 2025 | Freiburg, Germany | 44.35 | €2.009 | €89.10 | Shell V-Power | 100 |
| 5 | 2 Jan 2026 | Freiburg, Germany | 54.50 | €1.989 | €108.40 | Shell V-Power | 100 |
| 6 | 3 Jan 2026 | Düsseldorf, Germany | 53.60 | €2.600 | €139.36 | Shell V-Power | 100 |
| 7 | 4 Jan 2026 | Market Drayton, England | 48.32 | €1.910 | €92.29 | Shell V-Power | 99 |
We consumed 373.10 litres for a total of €792.16, averaging €2.115 per litre. We could have saved around 30% by choosing the more economical 95 octane fuel.
AutoRoute
This trip will also give us a chance to give our new open-source iOS app, AutoRoute, a test run before it's officially released. The app's main idea is to automatically log the routes we take and create maps that we can share in our daily trip reports.
Join us
We hope you'll join us on this 3,500 km journey over 9 days – through three countries as we road trip across beautiful Western Europe.
This relatively short trip over Christmas is only a practice run for us as we prepare for a much more epic trip to arctic Scandinavia in February 2026.
If you would like to be notified of each update to this travel blog – you can subscribe on the top right of this page to follow along.
