Mosel wine region in 3 days
 

Hi, my husband and I will fly into Frankfurt from London on Saturday morning and plan to rent a car and explore the Mosel wine region. I have heard there is an actual wine route you can follow. Does anyone have suggestions as to the towns we should not miss, restaurants that are worth stopping at and any wineries we should visit? Also hotel recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Many thanks!

Dear morocco:

I can't be of too much help, since it has been over 7 years since we visited the Moselle. But with 3 days you could visit Trier, originally a Roman city. Burg Eltz castle should not be missed. We stayed in Trier and also stayed one night in Zell at the Peter Weis winery apartments. Do a search above for the Mosel or Germany to pull up old posts and suggestions.

Other cut towns mentioned here are Bielstein, Bernkastel and Cochem.

The Mosel valley is quite compact (about 125km from Cochem to Trier, though on windings roads). If you don't want to move from hotel to hotel, you can either stay in Cochem or Trier or, sort of in the middle (Bernkastel or Traben-Trarbach) and take day trips from any of these locations. There is an Autobahn roughly paralleling the Mosel (A-1/A48), so if ou don't want to backtrack the way you came, you can get on it and make better time on your way back.

Thanks so much for you suggestions!

http://www.travellady.com/Issues/Issue53/mosel.htm

This is starting from Koblenz to Trier, according to this site. I have visited a lot of the places from Koblenz down to Trier and it took a whole day. I guess it's taking time to visit castles for lunch and wine.

Lovely drive though and Koblenz is a great city right on the Rhein. Don't mess this area.

Blackduff

Hi, travel, I think if you google the german tourist board, and "deutsche weinstrassen" you will probably find more info than you need. I love Germany, though I don't know the Mosel at all, and I'm sure you will have a wonderful time.

My must-see, must-stops would include Trier, Bernkastel, Beilstein, Cochem, and Burg Eltz; fit in Saarburg (on the Saar River, actually) if you have time.

Hotel Haus Lipman in the village of Beilstein is a very nice hotel with a good restaurant overlooking the river.

http://www.hotel-haus-lipmann.de/english/

Keep in mind that there are other members of the Lipmann family in town who have accomodations as well, so don't get the wrong one.

Beilstein is very small and quiet, so if you want some sort of nightlife you might want to stay elsewhere (though none of the towns on the Mosel has been nicknamed Party Central).

After a long day of sightseeing, hiking, etc. we wanted a quiet, serene oasis each night. Beilstein and Hotel Haus Lipmann fit the bill.

Rufus is right on with the Haus Lipmann. We loved our stay there.

((H))

The Mosel Wein Strasse is easy to follow as it goes all the way between Trier and Koblenz along the sinuous river - only one road basically though at points you can chose sides of the gorge to drive on.
I've ridden my bike about 20 times the length of the valley Koblenz-Trier and there is a pleasant surprise at every turn of the ever-twisting valley. Vineyards are mainly on slopes facing southward - the Mosel wine region is amongst the most northernly in Europe and the deep valley and the dark shale heat absorbing earth help make this possible.
Shorting after leaving Trier the valley becomes a very deep gorge with sides several hundred feet high on both sides - the constantly looping river is a pleasure to see from the top of the gorge - you can climb up on paved paths thru the vineyards to get this unforgettable bird's eye view of the snake-like vineyard-clad valley far below. (Note - don't dare actually to walk into the vineyards - owners are very worried about disease - stick to the paved paths made for tractors and you'll be OK.)

PalQ - let's hope travel picked up your excellent tips before she left!