[lagerstarfish]

so, looking for a good way to have fun next summer with my wife, two kids aged 7 and 9, plus my parents in their late 70s and not very mobile

my dad speaks German pretty well and would like a holiday where he can use his fading skills (he recalls German words more readily than his native English at times). My wife and I can get by with half remembered school German and would enjoy being somewhere a bit foreign.

my mum is fairly immobile and feels the cold - she likes warm weather - which is why we have been to Tenerife for the last 2 summers

everyone likes my cooking - especially barbecued dead animal - so self catering with outdoor space would be good 

swimming and rocks and trees appeal to all of us

ideal would be a self contained villa/chalet which is part of a bigger holiday complex in a really nice location

not too far from an airport would be a bonus

my ideal place would have fishing on site

any ideas/experiences?

[fried]

No idea, but I once stopped in Bavaria en route to somewhere; it was fantastic. I went into a bar, managed to order a schnitzel, which was the size of a plate, accompanied by another plate of chips, plus 2 very large beers for about a tenner.

If good food can be measured by the quanity and number of additional chips (which I'm sure it can) you'll have a good one.

I recommend buying little packets of mini-sausages from service stations to snack on while driving and listening to Neu! or Can or something.

[kelvin]

Carinthia? There are cheap direct flights to Klugenfahrt now (I think). Near the Italian border and Slovenia too, both less than 10 miles from Villach and we popped across the border to have pizza one evening. There are lots of gorgeous lakes for swimming and I guess fishing. We caught some brown trout for the bbq at a friend's mountain hut last summer.
There is some bouldering, nasty limestone shizzle but it was after I'd rolled the van and I wasn't up to climbing so just spotted for the day. Looked like a few nice problems but definitely in the esoteric category. There's a bolted crag just around the corner from the boulders.
Seems a bit like Austria's version of the Lakes.

[Snoops]

 Don't know Bavaria but if you go Black Forest...more west...had 3 family holidays there...fantastic. Camping, cottages, great swimming...beautiful and always been gorgeous weather...sunshine capital of Germany

[duncan]

We've stayed here, which meets some of your criteria. The hosts, the Brüttings, couldn't be more hospitable.

It's near Pottenstein in the Frankenjura, 45 minutes from Nuremberg and 2 hours from Munich airports.

There are three buildings with five apartments of various sizes. Self catering or bed and breakfast. There is a barbecue in the garden.

There are forests, rocks (not sure about bouldering) and rivers (boats, swimming, not sure about fishing) nearby. It's 20 minutes stroll to the pub/restaurant at Kirchenbirkig. There are some small castles nearby but no major picture postcard sights. Nuremberg, Bamburg and Bayreuth are more conventionally touristy if you fancy an afternoon of that sort of thing. Mostly we just ate, drank, swam, walked in the forest (and went to the opera). All very pleasant in a low key fashion.

[lagerstarfish]

Klugenfahrt

tee hee

[lagerstarfish]

Black Forest

my wife has good memories of camping there as a kid - I'll include that in my searches

[richieb]

I was going to suggest the Black Forest too. We went this August and had a great time, camping near Titisee. Weather was great and the lake swimming, walks, bike riding, general sightseeing and food were all great. Tourists get a free travel card for public transport, which was a nice bonus. Possibly the only drawback for us was that it would have been nice to feel a bit more in the mountains proper, but you can still get up above the treeline and get some views down towards the Alps.