Germany Trip Review: Baden-Baden, Black Forest, Strasbourg, Heidelberg, Maulbronn Monastery, Kayaking

Our travel company was very courteous, responsive, and helpful to work with. We went to Baden-Baden, Black Forest, Strasbourg, and Heidelberg over 5 days and enjoyed ourselves. Looking back we would have liked a trip a bit more off the beaten path - these places are quite touristy and crowded. We stopped at the Maulbronn Monastery which we loved b/c it's a beautiful structure and grounds with very few visitors. We had 3 tours - one guide was great and the other 2 were pretty good. The rental car that was arranged for us was a nice vehicle but the logistics were poor - to their credit our travel agency said this was the first time they used this company and wouldn't use them again. I wish our travel team had asked more questions about the level of hotel we wanted to stay in (we had to change both of them to better fit our preferences; our travel company was helpful in finding new hotels) and whether we preferred touristy vs. off the beaten path experiences.