Help with Germany trip
 

I am trying to decide when will be the best time to do a driving tour of bavaria and also the mosel and rhine areas. DH and I hate crowds and don't drink beer so are trying to avoid oktoberfest, although it seems that the weather is best during that time. Is April I good alternative or too rainy and cold still? Any advice appreciated.

April can be unpleasant. Like here, it is a capricious month.
For higher elevatons, late May is better. But as soon as the weather turns nice, people start turning up.
I think you are in a Catch 22; either gowhen the weather is marginal or accept some crowds. we went to Neuschwanstein in early September during the week and the crowds were tolerable. We did not have a long wait. Roads were not crowded. The number of people at
Die Weiskirche was relatively low.
No one disturbed my indoor photography.
If you go during Oktoberfest in mid to late September, you may find the crowds large.
We were pre fest.

May 15 thru July 16

We went early to mid-June last year and had no problems with crowds in Bamberg, Munich, Hohenschwangau, Rothenburg, Mosel River. There were plenty of people, but no mob scenes, no long lines, no jostling crowds, etc.

The summer months in Germany can go either way.

We did one June trip to Bavaria and had perfect weather. Did the same trip a few years later and had lots of rain.

I think the safer times weather wise are in September/October. May can be cool. I would not do April if you need great weather.

We enjoy the winter time there also during the Christmas markets, but we go knowing it will be cold.

The Octoberfest in Munich should not affect the crowds in Bavaria. Justr go and have a great time. Sad to hear you do not like beer. You will be missing some of the best beer in the world.

We went for 2 weeks in mid to late May last year and the weather was great. Spent several days in Rothenburg (cloudy and coolish), Vienna (hot!), Hallstatt (cool but sunny)and Oberwesel on the Rhine River (gorgeous)! Maybe we were lucky, but had no complaints about the weather at all.

March and April are statistically the driest months of the year. I like April, myself - tourist stuff is open, crowds are thin, flowers abound, and weather is never too hot. There is a festival on the last day of April in the Rhine Valley town of Oberwesel called "Wine witch night"; it involves the burning of a straw wine witch to symbolize the passing season and the crowning of a wine queen to bring in the new - lots of music, wine, and fun. I've been eager to get there at that time some year but have thus far failed.

We did the wine roads in early July and Mid-October - both times were beautiful. If you go after Oktoberfest, you'll run into the wine harvest and all the wonderful little village festivals that go with it - I'd vote for October personally but before the end of the third week.

Bear in mind that the best time for visiting the wine regions is late September - early October, when wine festivals abound and the new wine for that year (what the Austrians call Heuriger) is available.

Autumn also has its own unique scenic delights where you have deciduous forests.
Harzer