Mosel & Ahr wine tasting visit for 4 nights
 

Hi guys, I have visited the Mosel a fair few times now and this autumn I want to take 10 friends (nearly all over 60) for a 4 night tour of the region buying Mosel (white) and Ahr (red) wines and tasting as we go. I know the train, ferry and road links pretty well and the majority of our friends will be driving here from the UK.

The advice I'm seeking is where to base ourselves? I want a town/village which offers at least 4 good restaurants, has a few places to walk in the evening and easy access to Ahr as well as the main wine regions of the middle Mosel and the minor wine regions around Trier. We would mainly stay during the week to keep hotel costs down (aiming for E70 a night for doubles) and to ensure access to vinyards etc. My thoughts to date are

Trier; possibly a bit too big and the better hotels are "way" expensive. But they have some fantastic Roman architecture/buildings and some wonderful vinyards

Traben-Trarbach; not such a great walking town (it gets very narrow with large trucks going through it) but the Jeugenstehl movement is great here.

Bernkastel; I've only been here twice on day trips and, of course, the wine library is a major pull here

Klotten; I don't like Cochem with the many tourists, pizza, icecream, silly hats, but I notice that Klotten (next door) is begining to have better facilities as it picks up the over flow of Cochem. Also the main roads from here make Ahr only 40 minutes away (from the other towns it will be 1 hour 15 minutes plus)

Urzig; such a pretty cliff side and it manages to make the 4 restaurants in one tiny village (just)

Assuming I don't want to go to the junction of the Mosel with the Rhine and the likes of Boppard/Rudesheim do not interest me (not for this trip) where would you stay?

Bilbo,

Your post title caught my attention since I will be visiting the Mosel and Rhine in a few weeks. I have no input for you, but I would love some advice on a town to visit for wine tasting. I'm taking a car, but when I do this day or half day, I'll probably use other transportation :-)

Staying in Beilstein on the Mosel and Oberwesel on the Rhine.

It sounds like a very nice trip with your friends. Have fun!

Well you will find every village has something to taste.

From Beilstein it is easy to visit the wine Library in Bernkastel, around 140 wines are yours for E10 to 15 (i assume the price has gone up in the last 4 years, it was 10 last time).

Urzig is on a large bowed cliff facing south so the wines can be very rich

Bremm

Treis- Karden

for your second night Bingen and Rudesheim jump out

Thanks Bilbo!

Not all who wander are lost.

JRRT

Anyone with any German knowledge can they help?

We stayed in Bernkastel with our bike groups for years and nearly everyone loved it - and well situated as you know.

Thanks P, useful to know, Mrs B likes Bernkastel

In the Ahr valley, I'd remommend Weingut Nelles in Heimersheim, certainly one of the best adresses in the Ahr region. They have a hotel too: http://www.weinhaus-nelles.de/de/weingut.html

Thanks sla, I'm pretty useless at Ahr wines so that is a great help.

I think Bernkastel has a wine festival on the first two weekends of Sept which might coincide