Texassherry

There will be 8 of us traveling to Frankfurt at the end of July.. We are departing from Bruseels 2 weeks later. Would like thoughts on best places to visit, possible routes during tghe 2 weeks. We've dirven in Italy and France before and will likely rent a van and we are active, ususally moving locations every 2-3 days. Any suggestions and Must See's appreciated. We've thought about Brussels and Amsterdam as poits of interest as well.

scigirl

Well, the Netherlands is quite small and you can see a good portion of it in the time that you have. Make it up to the much more rural north and check out schiermonnikoog island and the various beaches. You definitely do NOT want a car in or around Amsterdam. It only takes about 4 1/2 hours to drive from the most southern tip of the Netherlands to the most northern tip. If you haven't been to Amsterdam it is worth 3 or 4 days because there are many things to see there. If you enjoy biking the Netherlands is the place to do it.

sparkchaser

Pick five:

Köln, Aachen, Hanover, Hamburg, Bremen, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Ghent, Brugges, Dunkirk, Ypres, Brussels.

Travelforbeer

Hi Sherry- I would add the middle Rhine river and Mosel river to Sparky's list if you are interested in castles...Be aware that it may be pretty warm that time of year.

Have a great trip!

PalenQ

How about a loop -

Frankfurt
Rhine/Mosel area - Cochem is your dream town on the awesomely scenic Mosel Valley - Burg Eltz one of Germany's most famous castles is nearby
Rhine Valley

Mosel Valley via Trier to Luxembourg (the tiny Grand Duchy has one of the more bucolic countrysides in Europe - castles, neat towns, etc.

Luxembourg thru the Ardennes to Brussels

Bruges

Antwerp

Amsterdam

Cologne - return car and take short train ride back to Brussels.

You often have to return a car in the country you picked it up in or face steep STEEP drop-off charges.

The dreamy Mosel Valley one of Europe's finest drives!

https://www.google.com/search?q=mose...=1600&bih=1075

Picture-postcard Cochem - the type of place most folks dream of staying in but rarely get to:

https://www.google.com/search?q=coch...=1600&bih=1075

Fussgaenger

The Rhine and Mosel Valleys make very good sense on the way to Belgium. So do the Ardennes mountain towns and WW II towns and villages there (if you have a car at all, which will be VERY expensive for 8 people.) I'd suggest a visit to Bruges over anywhere else in Belgium; Antwerp and Gent are interesting too. (All 3 cities are easy to reach by train, BTW.)

I would dedicate 2-3 days to the Middle Rhine (between Rüdesheim and Koblenz, roughly) and the same to the Mosel Valley using separate base towns on each - Cochem on the Mosel, and Bacharach, Oberwesel, St. Goar or Boppard on the Rhine. Marksburg Castle and Burg Eltz Castle are tops.

http://www.marksburg.de/english/frame_nj.htm
http://www.burg-eltz.de/en.html

Active folks will like the walk to Burg Eltz (take train to Moselkern to begin the walk.)

http://bensbauernhof.com/burgeltzfrommoselkern.html

Because both rivers are so easy to explore by train - and economical as well using group day passes - and because of heavy fees when you drop off in a second country, I strongly recommend using the train in this area of Germany. Most of your travel between Frankfurt and the Luxembourg or Belgian border is covered by the Rheinland-Pfalz Ticket, a daypass that costs just €35 per day (per group of 4, so €70 for your entourage) for nearly unlimited travel:

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

The Rhine/Mosel towns mentioned above all have train stations with regular and frequent service throughout the day and the towns are all smallish and easy to manage on foot - getting from station to hotel or apartment should be very easy if you stay in own.

Once you finish with Germany, you can catch a train across the border into Belgium and get your car (if you decide you need one) and drop it in Brussels at the end. That said, rail fares in Belgium tend to be very reasonable.

PalenQ

Note that those Lander Cards also come in first class for a ridicucoulsy cheap price and on regional trains in Germany IME there can be a world of difference - 2nd class can become very crowded at times - esepcially during commuting hours or when school kids swarm aboard as has happened to me several times as some regional trains serve also as school buses taking kids from small villages to regional towns and schools. The few extra euro for first class could be a great investment - always have most of the seats to myself - not all regional trains may have first class however so check before.

PalenQ

To see what are regional trains and accept the Lander Cards - any other faster express train will not - go to www.bahn.de/en - the German Railways schedule site and anything with an R noted for it is a regional train that you can use the Lander Card on and you can also find out if it has 1st and 2nd class on the train.