I am just not sure how long to spend in these cities. it is my husband & I and our 14 year old grandson. We want to hike and sightsee. So far, this is our itinerary in Germany:
Cochem - 3 nights
Bacharach - 2 nights (don't have a hotel nailed down yet)
Alps - 3 nights, and not sure of Garmisch/Partenkirchen,
Mittenwald or Fussen, they all sound lovely
Munich - 3 nights

Should we spend more or less time in the Alps and Munich? We're pretty flexible with the number of days in these 2 areas. We could shorten or lengthen the time here. Fodors people mention Garmisch as having more to do, but when I look at the pix of Mittenwald, I just fall love with it.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Sounds about right to me. I'd probably be happy with just 2 days in Munich myself cause I don't care too much for big cities, but I think your itinerary looks good.

Some people might say that you could do both the Mosel and Rhine from just one base but I always feel like I get more of a feel for an area if I stay overnight. There is certainly enough to do to occupy your 5 days in the area.

In Bacharach, we stayed at the Rhine Hotel and enjoyed it very much. Nice owners, great restaurant and location. The Pension Lettie also gets very good reviews and is reasonably priced.

3 in Cochem is one more than I would do - it is a small town.
That would leave you with 4 nights in 2 separate places on the Mosel and Rhein, 3 in the Alps, and I would add the extra night to Munich to make it 4 there.

I think your grandson will have much more to do, and be happier, in Munich than in Cochem. For the same reason, I suggest Garmisch for your 3 Alp nights. You get the same scenery and activities but there is more to keep a young adult interested than you will find in Fuessen and Mittenwald.

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check out bavaria Ben;s site for a recent trip report by grandparents.
www.bensbauernhof.com

I don't think that the OP means to just see Cochem. We always use a town as a base for traveling to other towns in the area.

In Sept. 2007, we stayed in Bernkastel-Kues for 3 nights and did day trips to Trier, Tarben-Trabach and Echternach, Lux.

On a previous trip, we stayed in Beilstein, which is really small, and visited Burg Eltz and Cochem.

I believe there is a lot to do in the Mosel River area and Cochem makes a good base.

First, thank you all for answering my question. I know that Cochem might not warrant 3 nights but we thought that after flying from the US, it'd be a good start for us. We could relax and then sightsee for the next 2 days. I have thought that Bacharach might be overdoing the area so I'll look into maybe not staying there. My husband seems to think that there's a big difference between the Mosel and the Rhine River Valleys, hence the 2 nights in Bacharach. We haven't any reservations set in stone for that city so that won't be a problem although I do have an e-mail in for the Rhine Hotel. And I will definitely look more closely at Garmisch. This is our grandson's first trip to Europe...we don't want him not looking forward to returning someday. I wouldn't worry quite so much if it was just my husband and me but with a young "European newbie," we want him to fall in love with Europe as much as we did. I know I'm overthinking all of this.

I would reconsider Bacharach and stay in St. Goar. After flying into Frankfurt we stayed 2 nights in Rudesheim which I loved and then drove on to Bacharach. I wasn't that impressed with the town so we chose to stay in St. Goar which was lovely.

Oh nancy, I can't believe you didn't like Bacharach. We LOVED it. But we weren't that impressed with St. Goar!

Of course, we were there during a local celebration which enhanced the vist for us.

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/204...11574650hDvwTU
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/236...11574650YeVSly
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/203...11574650Aoexhk

Oh well, we all have different tastes don't we?

While some of the towns on the Rhein are lovely, the river setting itself was a huge letdown for me. A wide noisy barge way lined with rail tracks on each side with trains running several times an hour that left little chance of imagining days gone by when it's history was more romantic and storied.

Your husband is correct in noting that the Mosel is very different from the Rhein. It is peaceful, cozy, and what I think a lot of people imagine the Rhein was going to be.

I would return to the Mosel again and again, but I will not make any special effort to be near the Rhein again.

The most interesting thing about the Rhine River is all the castle ruins that dot the landscape. More castle in one small stretch of river than I have ever seen before!

Also, in Boppard you can go up the chairlift and get a great view of all the surrounding area.

Thank you. I think we're going to stick with the 3 nights in Cochem & 2 in Bacharach as my husband really wants to stay on the Rhine. I hope we can get a hotel, haven't heard back from anyone yet.

Next we have to find a place in Garmisch, since I keep reading from many of you that it's a better base for us than Mittenwald or Fussen, mostly because there will be more for our grandson to do. Then we'll be on to Munich which is where our grandson most wants to go (well, other than Italy). Finally the Baltics, I haven't a clue about those yet. I'm trying to get the German hotels out of the way before I tackle Oslo, Stockholm & Copenhagen.

Hi,
We drove to Cochem after landing in Frankfurt ourselves.
We loved Cochem and 3 nights is not too many in my opinion. We spent 4 nights there 2 years ago and simply loved the Mosel. With 3 full days we visited Trier, Bernkastel, Zell and Beilstein. Oh, be sure to visit Burg Eltz while you're there! Talk about a fairy tale castle!

www.burg-eltz.de/e_index.html

While on the Rhine, we can highly recommend a visit to Marksburg castle. We took a car ferry across the Rhine to reach it.

www.marksburg.de/english/frame.htm

Just an opinion... we didn't care too much for Garmisch. We loved Mittenwald and have stayed there twice recently. Beautiful! It's only 20 minutes or so from Garmisch, so spending time in Garmisch is very convenient. There's an excellent cable car ride in Mittenwald called the Karwendelbahn.
Also, on the road from Mittenwald to Garmisch you'll see a sign for "Sommerrodelbahn" as you enter Garmisch. It's a "luge ride" which is a blast!

If interested, we have some pic's at:

www.worldisround.com/home/pja1/index.html

www.worldisround.com/home/pja1/travel15.html

Hope this helps.

Paul