Looking to rent an apartment/home somewhere in the Rhine Valley or close by in approximately August, 2015 for about 30-60 days. Looking for advise on: travel from SFO to this area and back; travel agents with whom to deal based upon your experience; tips; car rental/travel, etc. Do not speak German.

The Rhine Gorge is plagued by noise from two train lines and two busy highways along its narrow width - a recent NY Times article pointed out the noise problem and hotels - so something to check on that your room will not be bothered by trains especailly day and night.

travel agents... no need

What are your interests, wine, car racing, hiking, old buildings? The Rhine is pretty long (1200km) so we need a bit of help as to which bit.

Try
www.live-like-a-german.com
(really).

"Looking to rent an apartment/home somewhere in the Rhine Valley or close by in approximately August, 2015 for about 30-60 days."

I wouldn't concern myself at all with train noise for the moment... What you have in mind is going to be next to impossible for short-term vacation-type rentals unless you arrange to move from place to place. It's prime vacation time for Europeans too, and many of them also want to stay 2 weeks or longer in nice areas like the Rhine Valley in August.

You can start by checking places for availability at this commercial site for the area:

http://www.vacation-apartments.com/e...palatinate.htm

The availability charts will be handy for seeing whether you can piece something together - maybe a week here and a week there...

There are in fact many other resources (TI offices for example) but no matter who you go to, your problem is one of limited supply - and high demand.