Cochem and one other city??

Riverfront Koblenz has a castle and a lot of other points of interest. Koblenz is about 45 minutes by car or train from Cochem.

I like Boppard along the Rhine. Cute town with lots of shops and restaurants. The train tracks are set back a little, unlike some other towns where the train seems to run right through your hotel. There is a beautiful promenade along the river, with lots of restaurants offering outdoor seating. You can take the somewhat sketchy chair lift up to have some wonderful views.

We stayed in Bacharach in July 2023 and it was too small. And the train track is RIGHT in town. Many shops were closed, surprisingly since it was summer. Our hotel was right on the Main Street, and cars driving on those cobblestones are LOUD. So we had loud cars on one side and the train on the other. We had a car and drove to Braubach to visit Marksburg castle, which we thoroughly enjoyed. But I would not base in Braubach. It was pretty dead also.

Frankfurt is not worth your time. It is a busy, modern city with very little charm. If your flight is not too early, it’s not a bad drive or train ride from Boppard.

Loreley isn't a town where you can book a room. It refers to the cliffside just south of St. Goarshausen where boat captains once had trouble negotiating the river because of the current and the rocky outcroppings below that lie below the surface there. The legend goes that it was a fair maiden atop the cliffs that distracted them and wrecked their ships... visitors often stop at the clifftop visitor center to view the gorge and the statue which explains the sailors' distraction.

I am glad you were able to work out some nights on both the Mosel and Rhine rivers. Your choice of Rhine town should depend heavily on your flight time and on the availability of a DIRECT train ride that gets you to the airport at the proper time. (Do not take a trip that requires connecting trains if you wish to be there when you need to be there.)

What time is your flight? The west-bank towns (from north to south, Boppard, Oberwesel, and Bingen) have the greatest numbers of direct morning trains to FRA and can get you there as early as 6:30 am. Subsequent direct trains from these towns arrive at around 7:30, 8:00, and 8:20

All three of these towns are within the scenic Rhine Gorge. I would recommend Boppard (the longest ride to the airport, but a superior choice for several reasons)... then Bingen (which would mean the shortest train ride) or Oberwesel as second choices. Each town has its own vibe, but Boppard and Oberwesel each have some good old-world charm.

The east-bank towns would all require changing trains to reach FRA. I would avoid them for this reason.

Look at a town on the Lahn River. I like Limburg

Spend a couple of days in Eltville, a charming waterfront village. Kloster Eberbach is up the hill and has a good restaurant.

Close by is Rudesheim (you can walk on a nice day). Up the hill from there is St Hildegard Abbey.

Eltville is about an hour's train ride from the airport.

Re Cochem. You might have enough time to combine Zell with Beilstein. Most people appear to pop in and out of Beilstein quickly.

I much prefer Bernkastel-Kues to Trier.

Bernkastle-Kues is nice, but becomes overcrowded with tourists off the boats, much like Cochem. Trier is much more interesting, and not to be missed if you're interested in the history of Germany when it was Roman. I'd seriously consider making Trier an overnight (instead of just a day trip), and from there moving from the Mosel over to the Rhine Wine Road region which in April/May is very pretty with lots of flowers and trees and many attractive towns that are somewhat different than those along the Mosel. Consider Bad Kreuznach, another good town to explore, easy to reach by train, and at the Bad Munster/Kreuznach exit a very nice castle up on the hill. It's also a straight shot by train to Frankfurt.

Other small places to consider are Idar Oberstein, which was the center of the gem trade 1500-1800, Saarburg, which has a nice castle and a large waterfall in the middle of the old town, or Homberg, which has a huge cave under it's castle.

You want a scenic town for 2 nights, with FRA airport as your destination on your last morning... right? The east-bank towns of Rüdesheim and Eltville are nice towns, but you will have to change trains on the way to FRA airport from either town. If your first train happens to be late (a frequent occurence these days in Germany,) and you miss the second train, then you will be left waiting at that mid-point train station for an additional 10, 20, or 30-minute delay for the next train to come along. Fly-home day is no day for that kind of problem, IMO. I would only recommend staying in a town where you can get to FRA directly. Mainz of course makes that trip very easy and quick, but it's not the kind of town you are now asking about, and it is not within the scenic Rhine Gorge (neither is Eltville, by the way.) Within the Rhine Gorge, I would select from those west-bank towns I previously mentioned.

Limburg is also nice, but it shares the same change-of-train problem, and it is a 1-hour train ride from the Rhine Gorge.

Your Mosel stay: your stated outings were...

Burg Eltz Castle (1h30m), Beilstein village (14m), and Trier (1h).

Cochem will indeed permit you to do these outings very easily. You might want to cruise to Beilstein one way (1 hr) and use the bus to return to Cochem.

You have overestimated the time to Burg Eltz. It's only about 55 minutes for most journeys.

A Trier base would be problematic for these outings. From there you would probably need at least 2 separate day trips to the Cochem/Beilstein/Burg Eltz area of the Mosel, and as you already know, it's an hour one way just to Cochem, which is 4 additional hours of backtracking for the two outings.

Koblenz
offers

• Festung Ehrenbreitstein (Fortress Ehrenbreitstein) to reach with a nice cable car ride from
• Deutschen Eck ( german corner where River Rhine and Mosel flow together)
• Schloß Stolzenfels (Castle Stolzenfels)
• Fort Konstantin
• short River Cruises 1-2 hours or
• River Rhine Cruise with Raddampfer (Paddle steamer) from Koblenz to Rüdesheim (half day and this year was beginning this tours 09.00 am) BUT I don‘t know, if possible in april 2025.
• Nice Oldtown

https://www.visit-koblenz.de/en/region/river-cruises

Thank you all for your information and recommendations!

Russ - I appreciate the idea of staying somewhere that we can get a direct train to FRA on May 6th, so we don't need to stay in FRA - our flight leaves at 10:45 am, so that sounds doable per Russ's info. I'm leaning towards Boppard as it sounds lovely and has a direct train in the early morning.

Thanks everyone!

Tracy

This area is best seen with a car. I don't know what makes a castle "good" in your book. I recently visited Burg Landshut, a mostly ruined castle across the river from Bernkastel-Kues. Incredible views, not crowded and free (unless you want to go to the very top, which we didn't bother to do). There are LOTS of other castles in the Mosel Valley. We stayed in Enkirch, where the only other visitors appeared to be German and most people we encountered didn't speak English. Gorgeous half-timbered village, very quiet and restful. We were in an AirBnB, but we did see a small hotel there. Zell would also be a great option, as it's very central and has all the services. We had an early flight to Ireland and drove out the "back way" to FRA, about 90 minutes. Another gorgeous drive with the sun coming up.
We showed up there with basically no plans. We saw Burg Landshut on Google Maps and went there. We found a great restaurant way up the hill close to Enkirch and had a great meal. Our main activity was driving and enjoying the views along the river--village after gorgeous village. Don't limit yourself to Cochem. Add the two "extra" nights to the Mosel Valley. You won't be disappointed.

Of course, check the schedule for direct trains from Boppard for the exact date of your transit to FRA.

Also, Boppard offers the free VRM Guest ticket for free local outings by regional train (which you might need since the 1-month Deutschland Ticket won't cover all your travel days, which I think number 35???)

https://www.vrminfo.de/fileadmin/data_vrminfo/PDF/Gaesteticket/Infoflyer_Gaesteticket_englisch_2022.pdf

These are the awesome historic towns in Germany folks should see!

Cochem and Boppard are very close to each other, and very similar. After 4 days in Cochem, if you want to see something different, I highly recommend you consider traveling a bit further, which is why I suggested making your day trip to Trier an overnight, and then going back to FRA via the wine road. The trains from that area also go direct into FRA and the area is quite different from either the Rhine or Mosel River valleys. Neustadt is more like Napa Valley with castles, where Boppard is like going down the Columbia Gorge with castles. Boppard will be considerably more crowded with international tourists.

Here's an excellent castle: https://hambacher-schloss.de/

And these are major fests in your timeframe:
Wein am Dom 2025 - https://www.pfalz.de/de/veranstaltung/wein-am-dom-2025
Maimarkt mit Weindorf - https://www.pfalz.de/de/veranstaltung/maimarkt-mit-weindorf
Bad Dürkheimer Stadtfest - https://www.pfalz.de/de/veranstaltung/bad-duerkheimer-stadtfest

"We’re not interested in wine or wineries, but like castles (if they are good ones) and historical sites."

• Rheinfels Castle (ruins and museum) in St Goar (about 10 minutes by direct train from Boppard) is a good bet.

• Marksburg Castle (completely intact medieval castle... quite different from Burg Eltz) is just across the Rhine and a few miles north of Boppard in the very handsome old-world town of Braubach:

https://www.marksburg.de/en/circuit/#/

Getting to Marksburg from Boppard:

• By direct K-D cruise boat: 30 minutes. This year and most years there's a convenient 10:15 boat, which gives you time to visit Braubach on foot and have lunch before heading up to the castle.

• By train to Koblenz (15 minutes) + train to Braubach (10 minutes)

• By ferry crossing + train: The Boppard ferry boat operates all day long. Cross to the east bank, walk 15 minutes into the town of Filsen and catch the next train to Braubach. Time your crossing thoughtfully to catch the hourly train from Filsen to Braubach.

Places of historical interest in Boppard: see this flyer:
https://www.boppard-tourismus.de/media/was-ist-wo-broschu__re_en_190218.pdf

Thanks to all for all your great info & suggestions! I really appreciate all the good information.

Tracy

We just spent five nights on the Rhein, and took a day trip to Burg Elz and Cochem, both of which I had visited briefly and loved.

Note of caution: this time we found ourselves there on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in October. Big, big mistake. Burg Elz was packed and so was Cochem. There were cruise boats all lined up in Cochem and you could hardly walk around. We basically turned around and left, I found it so unpleasant. Too bad, I had really enjoyed Cochem when I was there in 2015, but perhaps I was only there during the week.

Bike along the Mosel to Beilstein if you can. There is not much to do in Beilstein itself, but the bike ride is lovely.

Bistoa, Oh my! that sounds terrible. Where did you stay on the Rhein? So much for going in shoulder season...that's so disappointing to hear, but it is happening so often now it seems. Thanks for the warning and info.

We will be in Cochem for Tues, Wed, & Thurs, leaving on Friday - maybe that will be better than a weekend (I hope).

Tracy

Weekdays in Cochem will undoubtedly be much better, as perhaps, is the time of year you are going. The first two weeks of October, we learned, are when a lot of German people take vacations. First there is German Unity Day, on October 3, which this year fell on a Thursday, and a lot of workers get the bridge day for a long weekend. Also, they have school holidays in early October. And maybe because the tourist season is supposed to be over, that is when German people get out to see Germany? And on a nice day after a terrible summer, watch out.

We also noticed quite a few of what I would call weekend party boats on the Rhein and Mosel. That's one of the things that hits Cochem, I bet. For a lot of reasons I am going to take better notice of how I plan to spend my weekends.

Cochem is the only place where we found crowds to be a bother. On the Rhein it was fine. Of course, the weather was really marginal, though it didn't stop us. We stayed in Boppard at the Bellevue Rheinhotel. Recommendations from the forum convinced me to stay there. It was good middle location, and more lively than the smaller towns. Bacharach is absolutely adorable and we enjoyed our day there, but it was pretty deserted. We took a spur of the moment trip to Koblenz and enjoyed the Deutsches Eck, the Seilbahn ride across the river, and walking back along the riverfront towards the train station. Then we went to Braubach (adorable but also really tiny) and then to Marburg castle. We bought tickets for the 4 p.m. tour in English and ended up being the only people on it. So we enjoyed an extra-long private tour given by a very knowledgeable young man. It was a wonderful tour and we learned a lot about castles in the middle ages. I wonder if that late afternoon slot works other times or places.

Our experience with Rüdesheim: We decided to continue down the east side of the Rhein to see Rüdesheim, but never got there. We trained down, but it's a hike from the train station to the Drösselgasse, and to get back to Boppard, we would have to take a ferry. With the lateness of the hour we got cold feet. I think there is a ferry that goes train station to train station across the river, but that one was done, so we went straight across and ended up having to walk about an hour to the Bingen train station to get back to Boppard.

You have gotten a lot of really good advice here! It really is all in the details and what you like, but you have time to figure it out.

I have been to Germany several times and would love to hear about your 35 days!

Bistoa:

Such great info! Thank you! Are you Americans (we are)? Did you have a rental car or were your using trains/buses? It all sounds so lovely and I'm excited for it all! Thanks again.

Tracy

For those who are planning a Rhine visit, I want to clarify a couple of logistics issues, using bistoa's visit as an example.

bistoa wrote,

We took a spur of the moment trip to Koblenz and enjoyed the Deutsches
Eck, the Seilbahn ride across the river, and walking back along the
riverfront towards the train station. Then we went to Braubach
(adorable but also really tiny) and then to Marburg castle...

The castle in Braubach is Marksburg. Marburg (a nice city to visit) does have a castle, but it's not on the Rhine and is a much longer trip from Koblenz than Braubach ( which is only 10-15 mintues by direct train from Koblenz Hbf.)

We decided to continue down the east side of the Rhein to see
Rüdesheim, but never got there. We trained down, but it's a hike from
the train station to the Drösselgasse, and to get back to Boppard, we
would have to take a ferry.

The ferry that bistoa took to Bingen was the Autofähre, or car-ferry, which does indeed drop passengers a long way from the Bingen train stations.

Previously there was a second ferry - the Personenfähre or person-ferry for Rüdesheim > the Bingen boat docks (which are located in between two train stations. ) This ferry is out of commission right now, but the company (Bingen-Rüdesheimer) also operates cruise ships on the Rhine, and they will still sell you a "ferry ticket" that puts you on their cruise ships whenever their scheduled cruise ships are traveling between the Rüdesheim docks and Bingen docks. These ships put you much closer to the railway stations, but they stop running in the late afternoon - an inconvenience for sure if you are in Rüdesheim in the evening and have to get to Bingen or to a Bingen train station, as bistoa discovered, resulting in a short ferry crossing + a very long walk + a final 40-minute train ride.

However, ferrying across to Bingen is unnecessary... returning to Boppard from Rüdesheim can be done by using any of the hourly northbound trains leaving Rüdesheim. The train crosses the river near Koblenz and drops you at Koblenz Hbf in one hour; then it's a 15-minute ride on a connecting train to Boppard, the only walking being to switch platforms, perhaps. One can leave Rüdesheim as late as 21:00 and still get back to Boppard this way.

Thanks, Russ, I sure meant Marksburg Castle, and did not mean to confuse anyone. (Marburg is a town I keep thinking I'm going to get to when I visit a friend in Kassel.)

Our days on the Rhein were at the tail end of a six week trip to Slovenia and Germany, and even though I did a lot of research on trains and towns and ferries before I left (and thank you again Russ for your input on those), it was just too much to try to plan it all in detail before we left. We really wanted that final leg to be relaxing, and it was. Fortunately it worked out fine to plan each day as it came, since we had a better lay of the land once we were there. We obviously did not have the full scoop on Rüdesheim ferries, but such are the adventures of a plan-it-yourself trip.

The KD schedule at least was much easier once we were there, because there weren't many sailings at that point and they were posted right in front of our hotel.

Tracy, we're from California. Our travel in Germany was completely with public transportation. We thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful and relaxing mix of hikes, castles and charming towns on the Rhein.

Plenty of great options shared here. I will only add that I travel to and from FRA several times per year, and almost always book my last night at one of the on-site airport hotels to catch a morning flight. You can still spend most of your final day in a town of your choosing, then take a late afternoon or evening train to the airport.

Considering this is a 35-night travel experience, I bias towards a less hectic departure day over a final night on the Rhine. The airport hotels are reliable international brands and are reasonably priced. You are then only a skybridge away from check-in.