Flying_Mom

Hi Travel Friends,
My husband and I are trying to plan a quick long anniversary weekend trip to Frankfurt area the last weekend of September (yes next weekend). We are interested in wine tasting and visiting a few castles. I have read about the Romantic Road area.

We will fly into Frankfurt and are not sure if we should stay in Frankfurt or try to position ourselves better in Rothenburg and use that as our base for the weekend.

Have any of you done a weekend trip here and toured castles? If so, did you go with a tour or did you travel by train my yourselves? We are well traveled but are worried about our short time frame that we will waste lots of time trying to figure it out on our on.

I would appreciate your feedback and tips that you all have learned from traveling through the Romantic Road/ castles, wineries etc.

Thank you,
Michelle

Flying_Mom

We do not want to drive while on this trip so I should have specified that we are interested in castle tours and wine tasting. Also, I should have referred to a Rhine River area tour of castles etc. instead of Romantic Road.

Thank you all for any guidance and experience you can share with me.
Michelle

lavandula

Possibly from Frankfurt with limited time you are better off seeing the Rhine Valley with castles and wine tasting. It's an easy train ride away. Rothenburg is pretty but less accessible, and the Rhine valley IMO offers more.

Lavandula

mokka4

Rhine region is very accesible from Frankfurt and offer just what you are looking for. Numerous wine cafes and tastings in the fall. Highly recommend Bacharach on the Rhein and Winnigen, Cochem or any of the fine villages on the Mosel.

http://www.mittelrhein-wein.com/wein...ndex-engl.html

I hope that you have accomodations set, as Sept 27-29 is the "Rhine in Flames" festival (Fireworks from various sites along the Rhein)....

mokka4

As for castles: a perennial favorite:

http://www.marksburg.de/english/frame.htm

mokka4

Looks like I gave you some bad info--Rhein in Flames was the last two weekends, so booking should be okay...my bad!

Boppard is having a Weinfest 9/27 thru 9/30--great fun!
Booths with foods, wines and entertainment. You purchase a small wine glass and go booth to booth,s electing wines that you would like to sample for a small fee, and purchase a bottle if you like...

http://www.boppard-tourismus.de/48-1-home.html

Flying_Mom

Thank you for your reply and great advice Mokka4. From what I have read we will catch the train right from the FRA airport to the town of our destination to use as our base and sleeping spot.

What town or towns would you suggest that I check for hotels? Is there one that would be best for touring during the day with easy access to the Rhine River Boats?

Is there only 1 Rhine River cruise boat company that offers trips up and down the river?

Are you allowed to get on and off the boat to tour castles/ wineries?

Thank you for your help! It is most appreciated!

amer_can

Asshmannshausen is a rare treat. Excellent red wine and unless things have changed in recent years it is not exported. People come from afar to experience this and buy quantities!. Krowne Hotel was outstanding as we remember it. Up the road is Lorch and has a ferry to Oberweissel with it's castle. Nice area to visit.

mokka4

Mom:
Personally, I would choose either Bacharach or Boppard to stay in. Both are convenient, have lots to do and are close to the most scenic stretch on the cruise.
The KD line of ships is the main (though not only)
player in the area.
I don't believe that the ships run quite often enough that you would want to hop on-hop off,and the upstream current can be slow, but a train runs on either side of the Rhein with more frequent trips to the little towns, so you could cruise the most scenic middle stretch (Lorelei/castle ruins), then hop on the train for your subsequent destinations.
see the boat site for details:

http://www.k-d.com/en/

mokka4

Your trip will still be in the high season for the boats as you can see:

http://www.k-d.com/en/kd-scheduled-c...ine-timetable/

but even so, it runs less than hourly and requires a commitment to run the most scenic stretch.
Ex: leaving Bingen at
9:30/10:30/11:30/14:30/16:30 etc and
arriving Braubach or Koblenz at 12:20 or 13:10 (first trip)--so you can see that this most popular stretch takes up around three hours of your time already (IMHO, it can be a bit boring too!)
Again, Bacharach is quaint and great for vintners, St.Goar has castle RUINS above town which can be investigated, you can even hike up to the Lorelei rock for views...
Have great fun!