Need Help Planning Trip to the Rhine
 

My husband and I have 6 days (five nights) at the end of a tour that we plan to spend on the Rhine. We will be coming/returning to Frankfurt and I need to know if it would be better to take the train or rent a car. Also, should we go down to Bacharach first and then back up or the other way around. If we wanted to add the Mosel area too what would be a good itinerary? I'm not opposed to the train but I do not want to haul my luggage around with me during the day. Any ideas?

If you like using a car go for it. The trains are punctual and on the mosel there are both trains and boats which make for a great visit. The rhine also has boats doing cruises which might be fun (when we went everyone was over 65 and went to bed at 9pm)

The great things about the mosel and to a certain extent the rhine are the view, the food and the wine. It is worth looking out for the wine festivals (normally 2 a year in every wine town) and honestly if this strikes a cord you do not want to drive afterwards.

We tend to find the local area web site, eg pfalz, mosel etc and look at the diary. Then travel accordingly. The biggest tasting in the world is at Bad Durkheim in August/Sept takes about 2 weeks so you could hit it.

Once you know what you want to do then plan how to get there etc

We like the Mosel better than the Rhein. So I'd spend 2 days on the Rhein and 4 on the Mosel.

We enjoyed Hotel Haus Lipmann in Beilstein on the Mosel River.

I'd drive--it's easy and, if you are interested, you can get to places not as conveniently served by public transport, expecially on the Mosel.

But what time of the year--it makes a difference

Dear Rufus,

We are going the middle of April.

April is OK on both the Mosel and the Rhein.

Hi portia12,

We also prefered the Mosel to the Rhine. We rented a car from Frankfurt airport (arrived at 6:30am) and drove along the Rhine (stopping in Bacharach and St Goar) plus we took the ferry across the Rhine from Boppard to see Marksburg castle and wound up in Cochem (Mosel) around 3pm. Our trip report (with photo's) may be of some help to you:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35089110


Paul

Another vote for the Mosel and Haus Lipmann

Do you plan to have one base and do day trips? then I suggest using the train and picking a place with good connections.

Although I love German trains, for this region, I prefer exploring by car. There are so many lovely villages to discover. If I were going, I'd go against standard Fodor's recommendations and stay in at least three different locations -- one on the Mosel, one on the Rhine and Koblenz.

My new favorite place on the Rhine is Eltville and the Gästehaus Offenstein-Erben.

Have fun!

Thank you all for your responses. Paul, I enjoyed your trip report and pictures. It seems you all liked the Mosel better than the Rhine. Why? Is it more authentic or just more relaxed? Would you go to the Rhine or the Mosel first? We plan to do both but don't want to do any back tracking.

Hi again,

We liked the Mosel area for it's more "realaxed" feel. While there seemed to be a lot of barge traffic on the Rhine river along with more car traffic along side it, the Mosel just seemd more peaceful to us. As far as which to "do" first, the Rhine would seem most logical to me due to it's being "in between" Frankfurt and the Mosel. As for not back tracking, I can't be of help as we did. it's not the worst thing you can do in this area of Germany, meaning we didn't mind at all driving along the Rhine twice in a week.

Paul