Base recommendation for Mosel and Rhine

Old Oct 13th, 2017, 10:58 PM
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Base recommendation for Mosel and Rhine

Hi All,

We are planning to spend time in Mosel and Rhine valley towns. We are a family of 4 - 2 adults and 2 children of 15 & 14 years. We will be having time approximately 5 - 6 nights. Is it too must for this area? We would like to take it slow. We will be using public transport. We will be there around first week of May.

What are your recommendations for a conveniently located base town/village like Cochem on Mosel and Boppard on Rhine? We can do 3 nights in each place also? Any other suggestions for base towns? What are the pros and cons. Have read about other villages/towns too but what would you suggest?
Any recommendations for which hotel to stay? Would prefer a hotel or B&B with a good view and close to local eateries, Konditories and grocery stores. Are the railway stations very far from the town center in the villages?

Enjoy eating pork like schwein haxen and schaufele - any specialities for this region which are on the menu. We prefer beer / shandy but are open to having sweet wine. Which wines are sweet? We are clueless about wines so anything that tastes sweet is okay with us. Any particular local drinks to try?

What are the local must eat pastries in this region? Lastly in the Rhineland Palantinate which are the grocery chains? Is LIDL, Rewe present in this region?

Lots of Fodorites love this region. Please let me have recommendations / suggestions. What will the weather be like in first week of May?

Kind regards,
SKPKCP11
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Old Oct 14th, 2017, 12:17 AM
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Some thoughts

1) Some of the villages have the railway station on the top of the river cliff with the village and all other services at the bottom these are normally (but not all) to the west of Cochem. For the rest you'll find Google Maps has them all marked, since many of the towns are long and thin (stretching along the river) and rails came late in the town's development it is worth checking where they run compared to your
2) May; there are some camping faciities in some villages often with outdoor pools and canoe hire, I'm guessing the kids will not be into this but just for interest.
3) Bike hire is in most places and I recommend doing part of the Mosel root. Local trains will carry bikes so you can go out on a bike and back on a train. The Rhine bike routes are less attractive than the Mosel ones.

Cochem and Boppard are where many tourists go for good reasons, they have good motorway and road access with a large number of facilites in place. Since both rivers are pretty long it is worth splitting your bases.

Boppard is certainly my choice along with Koblenz for the Rhine. Cochem..... I might also look at Bernkastel.

Trip advisor, for accom and food, is pretty good as are local village websites, however if you want appartments then probably use google maps and zoom in as there is a lot of hidden capacity along the rivers.

Not sure why the idea of a chain is attractive, I'd recommend buying from little family stores, mainly because that is more normal especially for pastries.

May, I suggest you google the climate for a town or region.
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Old Oct 14th, 2017, 02:50 AM
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Get an apartment ( ferienwohnung ) if you want to save money. Find listings of them on most town websites ( usually www.TOWN NAME.de )
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Old Oct 14th, 2017, 03:18 AM
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"I might also look at Bernkastel." I wouldn't. It too is very attractive but it has no train station so just about any day outing you take will require an outbund and inbound bus ride to the train station. Cochem is your best bet for central location, good connections, and a variety of interesting things to see and do.

If you want a really quiet town with hiking and biking options and good train connections, Bullay is a good alternative - and only 10 minutes away from Cochem:

http://szfoto.de/files/river/2006.07.02_mosel.jpg

Find Bullay on this Mosel rail line map, page 2 of this brochure:
http://moseltalbahn.de/DATEN/Imagebr...seltalbahn.pdf

Bullay is also a train junction town for the short trip on to Traben-Trarbach:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...n-Trarbach.png

A small ferry gets you across the river from Bullay to Alf, where a lot of great hikes begin:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...e_nach_Alf.JPG

Burg Arras and the Marienburg are good hiking destinations:
https://www.die-mosel.de/zell/alf/Burg-Arras-alf.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...g_Umgebung.jpg

https://www.gpsies.com/map.do;jsessi...kjdtkkjfibbocg

Bullay's hometown bakery offers rooms as well:
http://www.cafe-baeckerei-goergen.de...er-zimmer.html

Boppard is a good choice on the Rhine, though St. Goar is more centrally located AND better for train travelers who plan to use trains on the east bank - the ferry crossing there provides easy access to the east-bank towns of Rüdesheim and Braubach via the train station in St. Goarshausen.

http://www.schiffbilder.de/1024/pers...chen-18381.jpg

(Boppard has a ferry as well but once you've crossed it's a bit of a walk into town to get to the Filsen station.)
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Old Oct 23rd, 2017, 06:07 AM
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Thank you all for your lovely insights.
I understand that there are two types of day tickets for families to travel by train. Do Boppard and St. Goar fall in that regional ticket.
What is the area opposite Cochem called? Understand one needs to cross a bridge to get to town centre.

Is there a link to a map which gives the towns on the Rhine and model? Have heard a lot about Rudesheim? Would you rate it better than St. Goar?

Basically I am not very savvy at using google maps. Would like to stay in a place from where we can get a view of the river. Any recommendations?

Kind regards,
SKPKCP11
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Old Oct 23rd, 2017, 06:33 AM
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Rudesheim is very touristy
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Old Oct 23rd, 2017, 09:12 AM
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What is the area opposite Cochem called? Understand one needs to cross a bridge to get to town centre.>

Cond - a great views of Cochem and its dreamy castle just across the Mosel - bridge to town and train station - short walk from most Cond hotels. For info on trains and generally this area check www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

Fussagaenger is an amazing resource who knows this area extremely well - put great stock in that he knows of what he/she talks.

Yes 3 days in Cochem or Mosel place near it and 3 on Rhine - Rhine hotels check for possible train noise from the main line that goes thru many towns.
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Old Oct 23rd, 2017, 12:22 PM
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"I might also look at Bernkastel." I wouldn't. It too is very attractive but it has no train station so just about any day outing you take will require an outbund and inbound bus ride to the train station>

Well that is just a short bus ride that is a replacement for trains that once terminated in Kues -so just like taking a train really until joining mainline trains just a few miles away.

But Bernkastel-Kues (two twin towns) is a big farther away from main part of Mosel/Rhine area Perhaps the most beautiful larger city on the Mosel B-K makes a definite day trip from Cochem (by train + bus)

The Mosel upstream from B-K tends to lose its dreamy appearance before Trier, which of course makes another great day trip by train from Cochem or Bullay, etc. Trier of course one of the oldest cities in northern Europe - a Roman outpost and formerly capital of the Western Holy Roman Empire - some striking Roman relics reamin such as the huge Porta Negra - or Black city Gate - in very intact state plus an old Roman temple now Christian basilica and Roman stadium - also Karl Marx's House where he grew up - now a museum and study center.
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Old Oct 23rd, 2017, 06:36 PM
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"I understand that there are two types of day tickets for families to travel by train. Do Boppard and St. Goar fall in that regional ticket."

Boppard and St. Goar are only a few miles apart. They lie within the "VRM" travel network - so do many other towns. You can see the VRM zone and towns served by train on this map in light green:

http://www.vrminfo.de/fileadmin/data...ennetzplan.pdf

VRM tickets and day tickets will get you south on the Rhine to Oberwesel and Kaub. You can also travel up the Mosel on a VRM ticket or day ticket to Cochem or to Bullay.

The VRM mini-group day ticket (Mini-gruppenkarte) provides full access to all VRM towns for €22.10. Buy it from a ticket machine. Details:

http://www.vrminfo.de/fileadmin/data...ennetzplan.pdf

The OTHER travel zone, covered by the Rheinland-Pfalz ticket day pass, is MUCH larger. All the towns in the VRM are also included in the R-P ticket. Map of the entire R-P zone:

http://www.vrminfo.de/fileadmin/data...reckennetz.pdf

So if you are traveling from a town within the VRM to a town outside the VRM (but still within the R-P zone) you may want the slightly more expensive R-P ticket day pass instead. Details:

http://www.vrminfo.de/en/tickets/tic...-pfalz-ticket/

(for your family, the R-P price is €34 on any given day - the 14-year-old travels free.)

The R-P ticket/day pass can be bought at any station in Germany from a ticket machine.

The VRM ticket/day pass can only be bought at any station within the VRM zone.

Of course, if you only plan to make a very short journey, like St. Goar to Boppard (both within the VRM zone) you don't have to buy a full-network day pass at €22.10. Buy a cheaper day pass instead... The VRM makes it cheaper for short distances like this. This is a "price-level 3" trip due to the short distance so you pay only €14.90 for the mini-group ticket. This is much cheaper than if you were to buy individual round-trip tickets for each person (that would add up to around €27 for your family.) (Once you input your destination at the ticket machine, you will be able to select single tickets or mini-group tickets and see the different prices.)

Will you be crossing the river by ferry anywhere? The ferries in St. Goar and in Boppard are both covered by the VRM mini-group ticket/day pass AND the R-P ticket/day pass. The ferry in Rüdesheim is NOT covered.

Boppard ferry photo:

http://www.faehre-boppard.de/s/cc_im...g?t=1426781287

Germans themselves get confused in this region about ticket zones and pricing - it's pretty complex. I hope you will feel free to ask all the questions you like.
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Old Oct 23rd, 2017, 06:42 PM
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"Would like to stay in a place from where we can get a view of the river."

St. Goar has the best scenery and nicest view of the river, IMO, of all the towns. The Rheinhotel St. Goar takes good advantage of the setting and gets very good marks.

http://rheinhotel-st-goar.de/?lang=2

Nearby are the Loreley Apartments where we stayed several years ago - very nice view from the living room window in the "Rheinblick" or rhine-view apartment:

http://www.loreley-apartments.de/die...inblick_en.php
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Old Oct 23rd, 2017, 10:28 PM
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A good view of the river; I guess it depends on what you mean, any hotel/ B&B will tell you if there is a view and advertise it. The views are everywhere but there will be a slight premium on river bank non-river views. The rivers are pretty long so there are loads of good views.
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Old Oct 24th, 2017, 03:21 AM
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"A good view of the river; I guess it depends on what you mean, any hotel/ B&B will tell you if there is a view and advertise it."

I'm happy to explain. What I mean is that St. Goar itself is situated within the most naturally scenic part of the river, that the town itself offers many nice views, and that some of the hotels, like the one I mentioned, do as well. Unlike some of the Rhine towns, St. Goar snuggles up to the river very closely.

I really like Boppard as a base town - there is a nicely developed waterfront with hotels there - but the scenery from that vantage point isn't quite as nice as St. Goar's.

Bacharach is a popular town, but the in-town hotels in Bacharach are set back quite far from the waterfront as you can see in the aerial photo below (note also the train tracks running immediately adjacent to any hotel that might provide a distant view of the river!)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...uftbild_01.jpg

In this photo taken from just south of the Loreley cliffs (in foreground) the natural scenery around St. Goar is apparent; it's the steep cliffsides in this part of the river that lead to the phrase "Rhine gorge." The town of St. Goar is hidden by the left bank cliffside that juts out, but you can see St. Goarshausen and Katz Castle just across the river from St. Goar, as well as Maus Castle, on the same riverbank to the north, at the very top of the photo. And if you look closely at the far left of the photo, you can just make out Rheinfels Castle in St. Goar atop the cliffs.

Below are some photos of what you can expect to see as you look right across the river from different points in St. Goar.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3734/...4bb7f642_o.jpg

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/78022484.jpg

St. Goar's "main street" has been turned over to pedestrians and enjoys a view of Rheinfels Castle:

http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/p...m/18794182.jpg

This video gives you a good look at Rheinfels and St. Goar from above town:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-c...FF80wORNQ#t=32
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Old Oct 24th, 2017, 03:25 AM
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Hmm, that photo of the Loreley cliffs and the 3 castles went missing from my previous post. Here is a link:

https://i2.wp.com/herbert-piel.de/wp...?fit=960%2C641
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Old Oct 24th, 2017, 04:56 AM
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don't neglect taking a walk around Koblenz either if in area several days - visit Deutsches Eck - at the confluence of Mosel and Rhine - a monument to German Unity - nice strolling along Rhine Ufer - riverside paths.
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Old Oct 24th, 2017, 09:56 AM
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we enjoyed the hike to Burg Eltz from the parking lot. Spectacular day there
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Old Oct 24th, 2017, 10:45 AM
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we enjoyed the hike to Burg Eltz from the parking

without a car take the train to Moselkern and walk up to Burg Eltz thru forests - few miles and easily ascending. Or take taxi or buses from Moselkern.
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Old Oct 24th, 2017, 11:45 AM
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Well I've enjoyed the K-D tourist cruises thru the Rhine Gorge - get off and on at several neat places en route - anyway did not see on quick glance mention of these: www/k-d/com. Go downstream for quicker few-hour floats.
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