Please help with Rhine & Mosel accomodations

I had a fine stay at the Geissler apt. in St. Goar last March - no balcony but rate is 25 Euro/night w/4 nights, slightly more if fewer. http://www.ferienwohnung-geissler.privat.t-online.de/ It's in the heart of town. Just right for 1 person. A bike is available at no charge. You can hang out al fresco at an outdoor cafe with the savings. Not sure if owner speaks English.

Other apt.s:

http://www.st-goar.de/612-1-host-directory.html
Try calling the St. Goar TI to help with contact problems. http://www.st-goar.de/18-0-tourist-info.html

Russ, thank you so much for your quick reply and suggestions. I'm pretty set on having a balcony. I've found that I enjoy my European travels so much more if I have a personal outdoor space to enjoy in the mornings & evenings. I do like that Geissler Apt. has bikes available as I am planning on doing alot of bicycling both rivers. Thanks so much for that apartment link. It's great! There are numerous ones listed I haven't seen elsewhere. Also, the building photos allow me to see which ones have balconies! Great site. Thank you for suggesting it.

Check out Bavaria Ben's site - www.bensbauernhof.com for some recommendations and ideas from the trip reports. I wouldn't be concerned about not receiving responses back yet. Believe me, the place is dead this time of year (as I discovered first hand last week!).

Pick any town on either of the rivers and then check out the town website - usually www.(town name).de

If the site has an English version, then it is often useful to look at the German version also to get a full list of accommodations.

My husband and I stayed at the Moselhaus in Cochem a couple of years ago,http://moselhaus.de/en/. We loved it. Easy walk to the train station, making it easy for day trips to other areas like Koblenz. If you stay, you have an option to pay extra for breakfast, I would highly recommend this. Best breakfast we had on that trip. The room we had didn't really have a balcony but it had floor to ceiling windows that opened up with just enough room to step out and a view of the river. You just have to pull your chair up and it feels like a balcony. The room below us had a large outside area, but it was unavailable the dates we were there.

bigtyke - thank you for your response. You were there last week??? While quiet, it seems like it might be a nice area to spend holidays. I had checked out Bavaria Ben's site before for the list of accomodations. Nothing really spoke to me but I'll go back & read the reports. That's a good idea. Also a good idea is each town's website for accomodations. I will do that tonight. Thanks!

Grace44, I had seen the Moselhaus recommended before either in a thread or a trip report. Could that have been your posting? Question for you - did you stay in a room or one of the apartments? I like apartment #4. It would be perfect with the balcony & the price is great! Did you find the location in the center of town to be bothersome with noise? If I stay there, I'll absolutely take your advice for the breakfast. I LOVE a great breakfast as it's fuel for all my walking & biking for the day.

We stayed in an apartment. On the website picture, it is the one just above the terrace apartment. It got real quiet at night. We stayed there in October, that year the river was high and the boats couldn't get through to Koblenz. There were a couple of rows of boats docked on the other side of the river from us. They were trying to bus people to the sites they were suppose to see. Even with a lot of people in town, everything seemed to get quiet at night. It was really easy to walk everywhere in town from there.

The Mosel is very quiet in winter - a good number of hotels are closed from end October until March. This could explain why you have had no replies.

We stayed in Beilstein when we went but Haus Lipmann doesn't have rooms with balconies, though it does have a lovely terrace. We opted for their set evening meal too, whihc was great.
We also went by car which made a difference.

grace44, thank you for answering my questions. I was afraid with such a central location Moselhaus might be just too noisey. You've allayed me concerns. I think I'll send a reservation request for #4 and see what they may have available for my time frame.

hetismij2, it's good to hear the lack of replies is due to time of year and not sell outs. I was afraid I was late with my requests and all might be booked up. I won't panic.... yet. LOL. I had considered Beilstein & the Lipmann as I have read so many wonderful things. But, without a car I fear I'm spend just too much time on train transportation.

Please keep all the suggestions coming! I really appreciate the help!

Did you run through the listings at the St. Goar site I provided above? This one in St. Goar Biebernheim caught my eye - B'heim is on the plateau above St. Goar, near Rheinfels Castle, and a starting point for the hike southward along the cliffs to Oberwesel. Has a balcony.

http://www.st-goar.de/586-1-fewos.html?objekt_id=110article_id=586&clang=1

Run the text through a translator if you don't do German.

I meant to say "visit the Gastgeber-webseite link" and then translate.

Some thoughts

1) as well as the Mosel Radweg bike path there is
2) a ferry system operating along its length
3) a high level (up on the cliff side) walking route along the mosel.

You may find http://www.mybikeguide.co.uk/Mosel_Guide.php and the links built into it will offer you a bunch of the details you need.

Then hiking at http://www.mosellandtouristik.de/en/reisethemen/wandern.aspx
if you dig into this web site you should find a map or even get the TI to send you the details.

Russ, I did go through the st-goar.de website & checked out all the apartments. Again, thank you for the link. From that list I've emailed 3 apartment requests. I've got my fingers crossed I'll get some replies.

bilboburgler, thanks for the suggestions and those 2 links. There's great information to be mined in both of them. That first one's English site is currently down (my german is virtually non-existant), but I did manage to find a great PDF of hiking trails out of Cochem. I'll be using the sites and the Cochem TI for planning my hikes. Thanks again!

Am loving the suggestions! Keep them coming.... please!

I was in Bacharach Dec 29 & 30. It was dead. The tourist info office was closed for the week. We had a nice dinner at a kebab/pizza place on the 29th. When we went the next day, it was closed until Jan 27.

I will note that Koblenz seemed quite lively

An update... of the 3 reservation requests I just emailed, I received 1 reply. While his apartments are just lovely, unfortunately, he has none with a balcony for my dates. Based upon what bigtyke just wrote, I'm thinking I should just table my inquiries until the beginning of February. I'm one of those people who likes to have all the details nailed down well before the trip. I'm going to be very antsy for the next month or so. I would still welcome other suggestions if anyone has more favorites.

Beilstein is a wonderful little village (my favorite in Germany) but does not have train service. You have to take a bus if you don't have a car. I stayed in Cochem and either biked or took the river cruise to Beilstein. I like Bacharach for a Rhine River stay.

The town of Krov, on the Mosel, has an international folk festival in early July. we stumbled upon it about ten years ago and it was wonderful. Either the first or second weekend of July.

nanaof4 - I've read such good things about Beilstein. I can't wait to visit. I'm planning on biking in one direction & taking the cruise in the opposite as you suggest. Do you have a recommendation for which direction is better to bike - north or south? Also, I had seriously considered Bacharach as a base on the Rhine. It looks more picturesque than St. Goar. But, I thought as SG was more centrally located to all the things I want to do/visit on the Rhine, it would be better. Do you think I'm making the wrong choice????

MichelleY - what a great tip about the folk festival in Krov. I hadn't heard about it. I just google mapped Krov. It's near Bernkastel-Kues which is on my list to visit. Maybe I could combine the two towns. I also just visited the krov.de website. Unfortunately their July Event page must be down. I'm getting an "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" message. I'll continue to check it for dates of the festival. It sounds like an event I would enjoy.

DeeDee: I was doing research for our trip, which was part of a wine conference and saw the festival mentioned on a wine book. It just happened to be when we would be visiting the Mosel. It was so cool. Dancers from Holland, Slovenia, Switzerland, Bavaria, and Mongolia!! The Mongolian women were so beautiful. They entertained in a big tent, then later moved out to a barge/stage on the river.

I saw that last year it ran July 1-4, so not sure if you will catch it. If they have it the next weekend, you may be in luck!

MY

Dee Dee - just topped Peter Weis apartments - this is where we stay along the Mosel.

MichelleY - thank you for the information on the Peter Weis apartments (and topping the other thread). Lovely! And enjoying wonderful wine is certainly a bonus to staying on the grounds of a winery! I still haven't been able to learn the dates of the 2012 folk festival in Krov. I'll keep checking. The dancers sound amazing. Who would have thought there would be a Mongolian troupe? Very cool! Hopefully my dates will coincide with the festival.

Hi, just wondering if your problem with the Krov website is a spelling issue ... I found the info but it's in German, not sure if that's an issue for you. http://www.kroev.de/cms/front_content.php?idcat=103
Post back here again if you need a translation.
It's possible you aren't finding the right page because Kröv is actually spelt with an Umlaut in German (the two dots on the top of the o), and that translates to 'oe' in web addresses. This is the principle for other vowels with an Umlaut: ä = ae, ö = oe, ü= ue. The Esszet is another one: ß = ss.

Lavandula

lavandula - thank you for the link. Even though my German is virtually non-existant, I was able to learn the festival is from 6/29 - 7/2. Unfortunately that means I will miss it. Darn! I had been going to the English page which I guess still doesn't work. Thank you for your translation offer. I may need some help while there! LOL.

german towns with umloutes (spelling) in the name over the o transpose to oe.