Thinking of one of these two areas to explore Rhine/Mosel area in early October. Would like to see the castles in both places. Does one have advantages over the other? We'll had down the Romantic Road when we leave the area, if that makes a difference.

Having been only to St Goar, of those you mentioned, I can say that we enjoyed the castle ruins at Rheinfels, just above the town of St Goar. Also our view of 3 castles across the river from our hotel. We stayed at Hotel am Markt for 59€ incl. breakfast and can recommend it for clean, quiet sleep.

Boppard is a great town to explore for a day, has a good selection of hotels and has a K/D boat dock and train station, and a fabulous chair-lift.

http://www.hotelammarkt1.de/main.htm
http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/desti.../rheinfels.htm
http://www.boppard.de/2001/html/pros...llung_engl.htm

Thanks, Travelnut. The Hotel looks neat. How long ago did you stay there?

St. Goar has a more scenic setting and is a little closer to other visit-worthy towns and best castles than Bacharach. Bacharach has nicer buildings (lots of half-timbered houses) and probably better restaurants. I think I prefer Cochem to the others though overall: more to do and see in town, more dining/shopping choices, terrific location for outings, wonderful ambiance. But you can't go wrong in any of these places.

We stayed in Oct 2003. The price is still the same - I just checked it a few days ago for another post.

Did the hotel price include breakfast, Travelnut?

Still working on my fall plans... I'm thinking of trying to do see at least highlights of the Mosel and Rhine while in the area. How much driving would be involved? We would have two nights and about a day and a half of actual sightseeing time. We'd be open to staying in either St. Goar or Cochem, depending on which makes the most sense.