I've taken a Viking boat down the Rhine and hired bikes for the afternoon along a fair bit. The towns are pleasant, if you can combine visits to each town when it is having a wine festival then that can add a certain je ne sais quoi to the trip.

For me, much as the wines of Rhinegau are famous, I prefer the gentler wines of the Mosel.

We cannot advise you which is the best river we can only tell you which we like.

I missed the part about coming from FRA Airport - no I agree go right to your base and chill. And yes if you like The Rhine on a cruise day - it is easy enough, especially if you have a car - to day trip there again from Cochem. But yes if planning several days in this compact area split the time into two bases - Boppard is not recommended by many but I agree after seeing it several times this is a nice stop.

I love this blog. Ya'll are so helpful. If I don't get reservations made soon, I won't be doing any of it!
Ok. Tell me what you think of this plan:
Fly into Frankfurt - train to Boppard. Stay there and do the Rhine for 2 full days, but that does not include the day we get there which is beer and sleep!
Day 4: Then train to Cochem (unless I drive, then Winnegen) From Cochem we will do the castles, etc. but also the bike trail. We may stay here 2 days, then move on down the Mosel to Trier for a another couple of days of biking that trail, wineries, etc

Then it's on to Bavaria for what, 4 days?
Where to base. If I don't have a car, I'm not sure I want to do the Romantic Road Bus thing. Not a fan of gobs of bus people.

Ok, here we go peeps, Bavaria suggestions. Thank you so much for the Rhineland suggestions. I can actually plan now with some knowledge

Sorry, I'm not done yakking about the Rhine/Mosel details yet!!

I see no problem with your plan for Boppard + Cochem if you are OK with moving and with two different base towns.

If you are moving to Cochem - and don't need to commute there from the Rhine - then your choice of Rhine town is less critical; if you can't find anywhere you like, try another town. St. Goar, Oberwesel, Bacharach, or Bingen would also be feasible. The towns are all close to each other and easy to visit no matter which you stay in. All except St. Goar (which would require one change of train at any hour) are accessible by direct train from FRA (though perhaps not at the exact time you wish to travel; 7:21, 9:24, 11:24 from FRA are all direct, others in between require a change.)

About the long trip from the Mosel to Bavaria... If you do visit Trier, instead of moving there, I suggest you make day trips there and keep the Cochem base through your final night in the area. It's a pleasant 1-hour ride each way by direct train into Trier and back. Do that outing on 2 days if you like. But the main advantage of Cochem in this case is that, besides not moving, you will be closer to Bavaria when you do leave the area. There is one extra-good train connection from the Mosel to Bavaria in the morning that takes 4 hrs. 50 minutes from Trier to Würzburg (the train gateway of sorts through which trains pass on to most Bavarian destinations.) That train leaves Trier at 8:41 a.m. But that same train stops in Cochem at 9:41, so you'll have one hour less on the train for that long trip, and another hour for a more leisurely breakfast in Cochem before check out.

oh, ok. Well I guess I was just thinking in terms of being able to bicycle if I didn't have a car. But, I guess I can bicycle to Trier and train back to Cochem?

As far as finding one I like...I don't know!

Also... about train transportation on the Rhine and Mosel...

Your outings can be done by day pass. You can use regional trains all day long (after 9 am weekdays actually, anytime on Sat or Sun.)

Rheinland-Pfalz Ticket: €28/day for two, good through the whole region from Mainz to Boppard to Cochem to Trier - all the towns mentioned for your outings in this thread, I think. Just buy them on the day of travel.

VRM mini-group Ticket: €21.80/day for two, good for a smaller area. OK for Boppard to other Rhine towns (but no further south than Oberwesel, so not Bacharach or Bingen.) Also OK for Boppard - Braubach, and for Boppard - Cochem when you move there.

The daypasses are also good on the St. Goar - St. Goarshausen ferry (NOT the cruise boats!) for crossing the river, and for any bus connections you might choose to use.

Read about both passes here: http://www.vrminfo.de/en/tickets-and...eisure-ticket/

RHINE CRUISE: Bingen-Boppard is a good 2.3 hour cruise. Or do Bingen-St. Goar in 1.5 hours. You get a discount at the KD kiosk in Bingen if you arrive using a train ticket (like the day pass above.)

KD 2014 schedules: https://www.k-d.com/en/kd-scheduled-cruises/

Bicycling on the Mosel is nice, but you probably are NOT going to be bicycling from Cochem to Trier in one day, not unless you have 100+ miles in you! I would suggest renting bikes in Cochem for tooling around there. I've biked along the Mosel between Bullay and Reil, very, very nice. You can take a train to Bullay in 10 minutes and bike around the gigantic horseshoe loop that takes you to Zell, Pünderich, and Reil. If you rent an apartment your place might have bikes available - that's happened to me previously, and they are often advertised as an amenity. Here are some bike rental listings for the entire Mosel:

http://www.mosel.de/index.php?id=77&doc=119&ov=00

You can also rent bikes in Boppard.
Fahrrad-Studio Lüdicke
Oberstraße 105
56154 Boppard (Zentrum)
Tel. 0049 (0)6742 4736

This photo shows the bike path north of Boppard near Brey, I believe, just across from Marksburg Castle:

http://www.gastlandschaften.de/filea...a52eb71b8e.jpg

"Then it's on to Bavaria for what, 4 days?
Where to base."

Bavaria is simply huge. 4 days is OK for one small part of Bavaria. You will need to do some more independent research to figure out what region interests you most. Franconia is wonderful - and not so far from the Rhine. Much further south are the Berchtesgaden/Königssee/Salzburg region and the Garmisch/Mittenwald region. There are other options too, but you might start there.
Franconia: http://www.frankentourismus.com/?setLanguage=true


If I don't have a car, I'm not sure I want to do the Romantic Road Bus thing. Not a fan of gobs of bus people.

"If I don't have a car, I'm not sure I want to do the Romantic Road Bus thing. Not a fan of gobs of bus people."

The RR bus is a very bad choice for other reasons besides crowding - a VERY limited schedule that permits far too little sightseeing time in these nice towns.

You can see most RR towns by train if you're interested. Rothenburg, Weikersheim, Nördlingen, Harburg, Donauwörth, Augsburg and Landsberg are all quite easy to get to. But there are SO many other fantastic places that are not on the RR that there's no sense trying to do the whole RR. Check out Iphofen and Ochsenfurt, near Würzburg... but NOT on the RR at all!

Iphofen photos: http://www.stadtbild-deutschland.org...&threadID=2985

Ochsenfurt half-timbered towns: http://www.wasi-online.de/Bilder/Pos...erkhaeuser.JPG

Thanks again Fussgainger!

Yes Trier to Cochem is too far for a bike in one day unless you are uber tough.

Trier, ex captial of Roman Empire and birth city of Karl Marx is a whole extra story. Well worth a double day of walking including access to three mini-wine regions well supported by good public transport.

This link might interest
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...al-from-uk.cfm

Plus the Mosel starting about ten miles or so downriver from Trier is not the pretty river valley it later becomes and it is ho-hum biking - concentrate on biking from say Cochem to Beilstein - maybe take boat one way - bikes usually allowed on board.

I'm wondering if I should skip Berlin this trip. Seems like there is more than enough to keep us busy, but not overloaded so as not to enjoy it all, just in Rhineland and Bavaria regions. I'm still apprehensive about a car, which I know is ridiculous considering we put 20,000 a year on our cars here, but the language, signage, insurance, etc. Plus I don't want to be stuck with a car I don't really need. Do ya'll think I can have a fab vaca without it?

What about basing in Bamberg? Day trips to the south and beer tours? Skip Berlin and fly back out of Frankfurt

What do you think:
Day 1-2 Fly into Frankfurt
Rent car drive to Wurzburg check in/beer/sleep
Day 3 - Wurzburg
Day 4 - day trip to Bamberg
Day 5 - day trip to Nurenberg
Day 6 - Drive Romantic Road - stop village, castles, etc
to Garmisch? Or too much for one day?
Day 7 - Garmisch/Mittenwald and Dachau
Day 8 - Drive the castle road to Heidleberg
Day 9 - Drive to Boppard
Day 12- Drive to Cochem
Day 15- Drive to Frankfurt - fly home day 16

Seems fine but Day 6 will be a long long day - the Romantic Road itself is not very romantic - a two-lane road loaded with trucks and traffic when I have taken it by bus - the towns along the road are great but don't worry about missing much by taking fster roads to Garmisch (the Romantic Road goes to Fussen not Garmisch).

"Do ya'll think I can have a fab vaca without it?"

Of course you can. Würzburg is a fine place with some good sights and a good base town for day trips by train if you can find a place you like near the main station. DW and I stayed at the IBIS last year and did day trips - a bit of a walk but we like to walk. There are closer places.

There's no need for a car because there's no need to follow the Romantic Road exactly. You could easily fill day 6 with Rothenburg, Marktbreit and Ochsenfurt - then return to W'burg for the night and travel to Garmisch by train (apparently with a stop in Dachau?) the next day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLUgpoQIFHI

The place you're really overlooking is Iphofen, between W'burg and Nuremberg:

Iphofen photos: http://www.stadtbild-deutschland.org...&threadID=2985

Iphofen doesn't take long to see. Maybe a couple of hours. You might fit it in somehow.

Garmisch needs another day.

Heidelberg is OK. Not a big deal IMO whether you see it or not but you need a night to break up the long trip to the Rhine from Garmisch. If you put the Rhine/Mosel first, you wouldn't have such a long drive to the airport after Garmisch at the end.

ok. Actually I've been to Heidelberg. Ijust though it would be a stopping point if I drove. So if I don't take a car, but travel by train, should I go straight from Cochem to Garmisch (that is if I do the Rhine/Mosel first). Day trip from there, then train to Wursberg and day trip from there. Am I missing a lot in between Cochem and Garmisch? I don't know why I'm going there, just everyone says it's beautiful and I do want to see Dachau. Should I go to Munich and base there before Wurzberg?

Dachau of course is in suburban Munich - not Garmisch as it sounds you may think.