Rhine Valley - is Koblenz the best base town
 

I'm trying to figure how best to spend 6 days/nights in the Rhine Valley in July. We'll be flying into and out of Dusseldorf. This is actually an add on to a Greece trip, I found good airfare on Air Berlin so we start our trip with 2 nights/2 full days in Dusseldorf, then off to Greece for 15 days, then have 6 more days at the end to spend in Germany.

At the front end of the trip I plan to spend the first two days (arrive from NYC at 7am, have another full day, then leave at 6:30 am the following day for Santorini) seeing Dusseldorf and possibly Cologn and/or Aachen.

At the end of the trip I'd like to base in one place and take day trips by train up and down the Rhine and Mosel valleys. I figured Koblenz would be a good base as it's central. But I'm not finding great hotels at budget prices (want to stay under 70€ , this trip is getting expensive due to the length of it).

So questions - is Koblenz my best bet or would you suggest one of the smaller towns. And can anyone recommend a good hotel/pension/B&B. Thanks

On the surface of it Koblenz is more likely to be under budget than the smaller touristy towns in July. But never say never.

You need to bring up the map and google all the smaller towns up to Rüdesheim, chances are that they are more expensive than a nondescript all-round (business and tourism) hotel in and around Koblenz, because the little towns are more picturesque, but if some establishment is running specials, why not? Trains stop in all little places, see www.bahn.de and they are awefully cute towns.

So you have work to do - good luck!

We used St. Goar as a base. There are small, decent hotels there at reasonable prices. Since St. Goar is not very big, the train station and dock for the Rhine boats (IMO the way to go rather than the train) are an easy walk from almost all parts of the town. There is also a car ferry that will take you across the river if you like. If you are driving, there is a free parking area.

Twice I have based at Boppard (15 minutes train ride from Koblenz) one week for touring along Rhine and Mosel by train or boats. I much perfer the small town than Koblenz-more a city.

Both times I have stayed at Hotel Garni Gunther, a nice,clean family owned hotel facing the river, within your price range, please check: https://www.hotel-boppard.de/

What I consider the most scenic section of the Rhine has Koblenz as its most Northern point. If you want to be in the middle of the most scenic section St. Goar and Bacharach would be better spots. But being in the center of the touristy section those places are more expensive for accomodations and meals. Also, if you are driving parking can be a major headache.

We use Koblenz as the endpoint of our Rhine excursions when we travel. Then use it as the starting point when we head up the converging Mosel River. I'm more a beer guy than a wine snob, but I much prefer the sweet fruity wines of the Mosel over the drier Rhine wines. Along the Mosel there are numerous tiny wineries willing to offer samples and great deals on these sweet treats. And Trier is just an awesome town for seeing Roman ruins.

We stayed 5 nights in Cochem (from where we visited by train Koblenz, Beilstein, Luxembourg, Trier,Burg Elz and two nights in Bacharach (we visited St. Goar, by boat).
We stayed at pensions - very clean, good breakfast,large rooms and paid not more than 50 euros per night.

I used Koblenz as a cycling base one year. You have the Mosel, Rhine and Lahn rivers that are nice to explore

Thanks for the replys. Judy, I checked the hotel in Boppard and it looks good, we're seriously considering it. I had really thought Koblenz made more sense since at least two days we know we want to go down the Mosel, and we need to get to Dusseldorf for our flight at the end of the trip. But Boppard is only 15 min further so not that big a deal I guess. It does look nicer than Koblenz.

If we did decide on Koblenz I have only found a few hotels that I'd consider - the Ibis, the Hotel Jan von Werth, and City Partner Hotel Krämer. Does anyone know of any of them?