Germany to Belgium, advice please

The options are not "rental car" versus "rail pass". In fact, "rail pass" is rarely the best option.

The options are basically "drive yourself" or "use other transportation". That can be train, or a flight. If you choose to travel by train that does not imply you need a rail pass.

I would not get a car for Berlin. Best maybe to take a train from Frankfurt to Berlin, spend some time there. Then fly to Brussels, rent a car, and use that in Belgium, and to drive to Normandy. In Normandy if you want to explore the D-Day sites (I suppose that is what you want) you need a car, really. Then drive back, drop car in Brussels, and fly back. That avoids having to pay extra for a cross border rental.

my daughter would like to see a 'real' castle, I like outdoor hikes, beautiful views, nature.

9/3: I'd arrange for two nights in the Middle Rhine Valley, just 1-1.5 hrs. from Frankfurt. Count on 1 hour getting out of the airport, with arrival in the town of your choice by train at around 11-12. Strongly suggest the old-world town of Boppard for convenience on this day. Train service to Boppard is easy and frequent. No need to pre-purchase the local tickets that will get you there. Fit in a day cruise down the Rhine past castles, vineyards, old-world towns this afternoon.

9/4: Hike the Rhine Castle Trail along the cliffsides of the Rhine Gorge this morning. Take Boppard's chairlift ride to the clifftops for a unique view of the gorge, and take a tour of Marksburg Castle, an entirely intact medieval Rhine Castle in the old-world town of Braubach, in the early afternoon. Boppard is small and easy to negotiate on foot. Getting to Braubach from Boppard is also easy by train or possibly by cruise ship. Boppard has numerous nice places for wining and dining in the evenings, some right along the waterfront.

Boppard is unique in that innkeepers there issue a free pass for local train travel which is handed to all guests upon check-in.

9/5: Strongly suggest a very early departure for Berlin (6, 7 or 8 am) so that you can arrive by 12-2 pm, drop bags, and accomplish some sightseeing this day. Some tickets at DB for these hours are currently priced in the €18 - €30/each range. Purchase asap to ensure the low saver-fare price and observe ticket conditions at DB: https://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

9/6 & 7 in Berlin, using public transport system

9/8 Train to Mechelen (See DB)

I do not know how/when you would fit in Normandy unless you accomplish that after arrival in Mechelen. Wee took the train to Caen and picked up a car there. But there are other strategies. See page below for train info:

https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Brussels.htm

I like Russ's plan but would also add in Burg Eltz castle as well. I really loved this castle, which is still owned and maintained by the original family. https://burg-eltz.de/en/homepage There are some people on this forum who like it better than Marksburg, but obviously everyone's tastes are different.

It's easy to get to Burg Eltz from Boppard by public transportation. I stayed in Boppard, and took the train to Hatzenport, then got on the 365 bus, which takes you straight to the castle car park. It's in a beautiful setting and there are hikes around there if you want to take advantage of that while you're there.

I like Burg Eltz very much as well. I didn't suggest it mainly because of the time factor, as it requires most of a day to get there, tour, and get back from Boppard - and also because if by "real castle" you mean one that really evokes the feel of castles in the Middle Ages, then Marksburg would be a better choice, IMO. Burg Eltz is very spiffy inside, a bit decadent with its furnishings from later periods, as it's been continuously owned/occupied by numerous generations of a single family which has decorated to their taste for many, many years. Perhaps if you could find an additional day, there'd be time for both.

I'm not familiar with castles near Berlin or along the route. There are a lot here in Bayern. Some websites to check out:
https://mitvergnuegen.com/2022/schloesser-burgen-berlin-brandenburg/
https://www.berlin.de/tourismus/brandenburg/schloesser-und-kloester/
https://www.burgen-schloesser-impressionen.de/uebersicht/brandenburg-berlin-schloesser-burgen.html
https://burgenarchiv.de/die-schoensten-schloesser-und-burgen-um-berlin

What time is this wedding to take place? Is it on Friday, or is it on Saturday?

Can I assume you are using miles, otherwise why fly into Frankfurt when you want to go to Berlin?

Thank you all!
@Russ - this detail is what I was looking for! It gives me a place to start, looking for hotels and tickets. Would it be worth it to rent a car at Frankfurt airport, drive to Berlin and turn it in there? We like to drive along and if we see something interesting to do stop and check it out. Not sure how that would work out for us in Germany but we have discovered so many fun and interesting places that way in the U.S.

I appreciate EVERYONE'S suggestions and will be checking them all out!

@Sam..
Wedding is Friday at 16:00. We fly in to Frankfurt as it was less expensive and my husband didn't make his desires known until after the tickets were purchased. :)
Normandy will be done with Belgium family most likely.

Note that Mechelen has its own local rail station, but I'm sure your new family will tell you the best place to get off for your wedding accomodations. Local Belgian trains (like from Antwerp or Brussels to Mechelen) are totally unreserved and don't vary in price. No serious luggage racks, usually.

It is hard to persuade a first-time visitor to Europe that you don't need a Chevy Suburban with Captain's Chairs to visit a country like Germany, with an absolutely superb rail system. I personally have found that the idea of responding to a swell city-attraction billboard on a highway takes 20 minutes to get off the highway, then you find a paid garage that might be near your "old-town" (Altstadt) or other attraction. Then you find out how narrow the curved ramps are, and how tiny the parking stalls are. It takes 20 minutes to get back to the main highway.

It's not fair for me to pretend to be reading your mind, but you are not going to run across some wooden village that the U.S. Army just turned back to the locals! Developers have built many reinforced concrete suburbs of two-story single-family houses. On the other hand, a car can make it possible to do three or even four CAREFULLY PLANNED stops in one day, which is almost impossible with radial train lines from big cities like Frankfurt. (I know, you're not going there)

Berlin is a special case. This huge city, good for six nights for any first time visitor is brilliantly equipped with a vast range of public transportation (which, maybe, you NEVER use at home.) Berlin (like NYC) RUNS on busses, S-Bahns, U-Bahns, and longer-distance rail. You can do another week of short excursions from Berlin (I know, not in your plans) after six days to see the city itself.

Railpasses are a thing of the past, in that you are not "a student on a six-week discovery of Europe." If you are willing to lock yourselves in, advance-purchase single-journey rail tickets (print at home if desired) are really cheap, if not changeable, not refundable, and are tied to a single train. Or you can buy cheap tickets that are good on any non-premium train all day long. And if you do some Searching here, top left, poster Russ often writes about dirt-cheap LOCAL or REGIONAL rail tickets for a day, or a few days. I'm just trying to warn you that you may have MORE freedom with public transportation than you IMAGINE you are going to have with a mighty car. (Kindly add your home area to your public profile, so we can guess how you usually travel. No Russian hackers can track you down and steal your retirement money with that limited information.)

I suspect you are going to add Bruges to your itinerary. Please ask your hosts, so they can tell you what a mistake it would be to drive from Mechelen to Bruges and back. While I prefer sleeping in Antwerp, you can visit several cities from either Mechelen or Antwerp without changing hotels. You would like to be able to walk to the rail station, but Belgian cities have excellent tram and bus systems to get there if needed.

Regarding your first trip to Europe, I urge you buy any Rick Steves guidebook, or go to the library to look at an older one. Only the "open-hours" tend to change!

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips

Would it be worth it to rent a car at Frankfurt airport, drive to Berlin and turn it in there? We like to drive along and if we see something interesting to do stop and check it out. Not sure how that would work out for us in Germany but we have discovered so many fun and interesting places that way in the U.S.

I think the train is better here. It is faster, you’ll be tired after a long flight and although I’m sure there is something interesting along the way, you’re already facing a time crunch to see everything you want to see. FRA to Berlin is a 5.5-6 hour drive without stops on the fastest route. Adding in any sightseeing stops and picking up and dropping off the car makes for a very long day.

As others have suggested you can add some Germany sightseeing like the Rhine Valley on the way from Berlin to Belgium (or from Frankfurt at the start of your trip).

Unfortunately I don’t think it is feasible to visit Berlin, a castle, and Normandy while still getting to Belgium for the wedding. I’d drop Berlin or Normandy due to the distance from Frankfurt and Belgium.

We like to drive along and if we see something interesting to do stop and check it out. Not sure how that would work out for us in Germany

Of course we've done the same back home when making a long trip. When we were younger and used paper road maps, we drove across the USA over 10 days, mostly through no-man's land, detouring here and there for this or that map-designated point of interest. And it's quite natural, if you share this experience, to consider transferring this travel strategy while in Germany, something that in fact CAN be done there as long as you avoid major cities. However, I would never make that choice unless I had several additional days' time. In the first place, Berlin is a huge place for which 4 days is the typical recommended minimum stay. So you are already pressed for time. Some would surely advise you not to bother at all with Berlin, with just 3 nights / 2.5 days (my schedule for you) and the long distances involved getting there and then back to Brussels. (In fact, I almost told you the same thing.)

If you want to just drive around from town to town, there are EXCELLENT options for doing that, but I definitely would NOT include Berlin in that case. The Rhine and Mosel Valleys (where the towns, castles I named and other destinations as well can be incorporated ) are near Frankfurt and can be definitely done by car over several days. There are other routes too.

German Castle Road begins near Frankfurt.
https://www.dw.com/en/german-castle-road-a-scenic-route-to-the-past/g-57775372

German Timber-Frame Road:
https://www.deutsche-fachwerkstrasse.de/en/Homepage.html

German Fairytale Route:
https://www.deutsche-maerchenstrasse.com/en/route/our-route

Why does your husband want to see Berlin? Often, that's about WW II era stuff, and if that's the case, you can surely find some WW II sites, museums, etc. elsewhere in Germany. In the same Rhine Valley, for example, a trip to the Bridge at Remagen museum, or to the Nazi doc center in Cologne, is feasible. Or head up the Mosel Valley... I've visited Patton's Grave in the Luxembourg American Cemetery as well as a German Bunker Museum in Irrel (near the German town of Trier.) And of course there are all the Battle of the Bulge sites in Belgium and Luxembourg, just across Germany's border, which are better visited by car than by train.

@Tim
Thank you for your insight. Firstly, we don't drive a Chevy Suburban here at home, LOL. Not everyone is the U.S. drives huge vehicles. We live in a small village of around 5k people, near a city. (Location added as per your request. My husband and I both work in IT so we aren't worried about hackers, but I appreciate your thoughts regarding them.) We were thinking of renting a standard size car. There is only 3 of us, so we don't need a huge SUV. Plus, that is why I asked for advice on getting around BOTH ways. Again, I appreciate your helpful suggestions however. Secondly, we don't follow the billboards, that isn't the kind of things we want to see. We look more for 'off the beaten path' sort of places that you come across by accident by seeing a local sign or talking to someone at a shop. Totally not expecting a 'wooden village' leftover from the war, but I'm sure there are some picturesque towns along the way. I will look into carefully planning something like that. Lastly, actually Bruges isn't on our Belgium itinerary. Antwerp for sure, but also Haaltert and Denderhautem, where my grandfather was born and relatives still reside.

@Russ THANK YOU! You are so very helpful with answering my questions. To be honest, I don't know what my husband wants to see in Berlin, and I would be happy not going there. He was there for a work trip in the 1990's and just has said he wants to go back. Perhaps I can persuade him to save it for another trip? I will work with your latest suggestions and maybe he will change his mind. :)
I like your plan about staying in the area you previously mentioned. My daughter was thrilled with the river cruise and the castle you recommended. So I think that will be part of the trip!
I so appreciate you taking the time to respond with all the links and ideas. We love meeting locals and talking with them over a beer. We have made some lasting friendships that way!

(Shaker Heights OH, 1981-83) Thanks for your courteous reply to my vigorous suggestions. I'll just mention that you can't always rely on a mention in a shop! We went to the TI in tiny Lorsch (for a UNESCO WHS stop) to ask about the hiking and mountain routes in the immediate area ( "Odenwald Bergstraße Neckartal" and the Bergstrasse Holiday Route.), but the sweet teenaged girl behind the counter had never been there, and had never heard of it!

I agree that my slug "CAREFULLY PLANNED" represents a "travel style" as we call it here, and not an "eternal truth." But my point was that there are so many memorable things around that you could easily miss the best, if you wait to learn about them on the road. I'll give the example of the https://www.museumsportal-berlin.de/en/museums/grunderzeitmuseum-im-gutshaus-mahlsdorf/ Grunderzeit Museum just outside Berlin. (S-Bahn plus really long walk, or better a taxi, guided tour only, English reservation essential.) I wanted to see it because of the Pulitzer Prize winning play, "I Am My Own Wife," but it also serves as a Weimar, WW II, Stazi, and LGBTQ monument as well. I also had not previously heard the term Grunderzeit, despite seeing two productions of the play.

I won't bore you with a list of attractions within 30 minutes of central Berlin, because there are so many. It's pompous of me, but you might skim my report of a long Germany trip (partly by CAR, gasp!) that we took. It's not that much help for your specific route, but I do think it has some of the flavor of what you want to do. But Kassel and Munster could easily be on your car route.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/baltic-germany-fachwerke-landesgartenschau

We've slept in Berlin about five times, and have not exhausted it yet. Of course I mean to include our Eastern Europe capitals trip, and that kind of thing. We don't always have "BERLIN" as the target.

Another idea would be to return the car in Cologne or Aachen, because they are so well-connected by train to Brussels and Mechelen. I don't think Cologne is on your radar, because it's a big museum city with few non-church original buildings. But I absolutely love it. (Note that it may cost a fortune to return the car in a second country.) In this area, Monschau is nice substitute for the Fachwerkestrasse. And Dusseldorf has great beerhall culture, with the hidden gem of the Schwebebahn in nearby Wuppertal. (Famous dance company home, and movie with the Schwebebahn "The Princess and the Warrior.") You could return the car along the Rhine, as well.

It should not be controlling factor in your trip, but if you train from Aachen or Cologne, it will stop long enough in Liege (a decaying post-industrial city you may not want to visit) to step onto the train steps and view the award-winning (and quite remarkable) train station by Santiago Calatrava. It also shows what the museum at the NYC World Trade Center area was supposed to look like.

You don't mention Netherlands stops, but if I had your CAR route, I might include the free white-bicycles in De Hoge Veluwe National Park, and the small but important art museum there.

@Tim
Thank you so much for adding more information to your suggestions. The more I hear from people on here, I am hoping to bypass Berlin this trip and save it for a later trip when we will have more time. This trip came up very last minute for the wedding. My husband and I would really like to return in a year or so and visit Scotland and Ireland (he just found out he has Scottish ancestors not Irish as he had been told, thanks to a DNA test. LOL). So perhaps we can take additional time and explore Berlin at that time. Fingers crossed. I really dislike having to rush through things. We just took a month and went from Myrtle Beach, NC (10 days) to Scottsdale, AZ (7 days) to California (14 days - various cities from Oceanside to San Francisco then back down to Fresno). What a great time we had! So many beautiful places to see. My husband travels a lot for work and I can work from anywhere so I travel with him. Kids are all out of the house, so why not?!?

I like your suggestion of just getting and returning the car in Germany. I think once we get to Belgium the family will be keeping us occupied. Fun fact I'll share with you...my grandfather had a ticket on the Titanic. He traded tickets with his best friend for an earlier ship to America so wasn't on the Titanic. His friend survived and they met up in Detroit afterwards. My grandfather stayed in America, his friend didn't, went back home after a year. :)

Thanks again for the additional suggestions. I have some planning to do!

I think I have said enough, but I want to observe that Scotland/Ireland doesn't pair ideally with Berlin. You have to allow for customs and immigration when you leave the UK. (Of course, most of Ireland is not in the UK.) You had the right idea with your Open-Jaw air tickets, but even if you can't fly direct from Cleveland to Berlin (?), we've gotten a second flight in Germany for virtually no extra cost, perhaps because Lufthansa has code-shares with United, our usual carrier. That's how we started one vacation in Cologne, from the NYC airports.

FYI: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/landing-in-london-then-eurostar-to-paris

Clearly you plan more research, but I want to observe that while the exterior of Burg Eltz is beautiful, the interior is occupied by the owning family, and is filled with anachronisms like elephant-foot wastebaskets. If you want to see, instead, a "medieval" castle interior, the Rhine (or on a Bach or Luther pilgrimage, Eisenach) may be better. We did enjoy Burg Eltz, with a car. But you can do it surprisingly easily without a car.

Here are a few more Rick Steves links:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/germany/can-i-see-enough-of-cologne

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/belgium/day-trips-from-brussels-768c7c85-75b9-4374-ad13-ae36967bc521

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/belgium/day-trips-from-brussels-besides-bruges-and-ghent

My husband and I, along with our adult daughter are flying into Frankfurt on 03Sep for our first trip to Europe.

"our first trip to Europe." is the key phrase that explains your preference to rent a car. if you were to stay in Boppard, you would all receive free guest cards to use all the local trains and buses in the VRM district, which includes most of the middle Rhine and lower Mosel Rivers, with the castles and river cruises.

If you have a wedding to go to Friday afternoon, arriving in Mechelen on Thursday afternoon is highly recommended. And yes, save Berlin for another time.

You mentioned mixing it up with locals... Your arrival in Germany coincides with a local 12-day wine festival in the Rhine town of Bingen, the west-bank gateway town to the Rhine Gorge, and the starting point for river cruises on that side of the River. This festival will be underway on the Sunday you arrive and continue throughout the week. I am not seeing a firm calendar of events yet, but typically, Sunday involves live music on the "Wine Mile" of wine venues set up by local winemakers... it winds from square to square through town, where festival-goers do tastings. On Wednesday night (and on a Saturday as well) there is normally a big fireworks show as well - so Wednesday might be a good day to visit if you are in the area.

Festivals like this in small towns like this ARE in fact difficult when you're arriving by car. If you do rent one, leave it behind in Boppard or wherever your base town is.

This map shows Boppard, Bingen, and the other west-bank Rhine towns south of Koblenz that are connected by the same train line and lie only a few minutes from each other. Getting to the Bingen Wine Fest and back again is a snap by train. (Day cruise boat docks are shown as well.)

Hiking The Rhine Castle Trail (Rheinburgenweg, see link on map page) from one town to the next means you can catch a train back to Boppard (or other Rhine base town) no matter how far you choose to walk.

This larger rail map shows the towns and railways available with the free VRM Guest Ticket that you'll receive in Boppard. On the Mosel River heading west from Koblenz, the town of Cochem makes for a very nice visit, especially on weekdays when it's less populated by tourists. On the Lahn River, heading east from Koblenz, Limburg is an especially attractive town. The locations of Braubach (Marksburg Castle) and Moselkern (for the hike to Burg Eltz) are also shown.

There are several other great destinations on this same map of this same small area as well if time allows. I've driven the area previously, but it's been two decades since then, as I "discovered" the convenience of train travel in this area and don't plan to rent the next time we're there either. I wouldn't encourage anyone to use the car here unless there are extenuating circumstances of some kind - and I think you'd probably be just fine without one too.

I am extremely partial to Berlin, but you may want to shelve this one until you have time to do it justice. You will feel rushed as it is, and Berlin really needs several days. Do NOT underestimate the toll jet lag will take on your trip, too. And I say this as someone who was born in and proposed to in Berlin; it is one of the most special cities in the world to me, and I think EVERYONE should see it, if only to better understand how 20th century history is a lens through which we can view all of history and the human experience. There is no city that embodies death and life, oppression and freedom, old and new, the way Berlin does. So you want to do it right.

If you skip Berlin, you can enjoy the Rhein valley--the castles, the pace, the independent exploration. It is certainly the more "German" experience that people expect and enjoy (and yes, it is authentic, just different from much of Germany, which is also authentic). Castles, views, cute towns, and good beer and wine are to be had on this route. Your hiking and nature wish would be fulfilled, but it would be somewhat touristy--but not in a bad way like visiting an overcrowded Venice.

On the flip side, you could do mostly Berlin. Arrive in Frankfurt and spend the day exploring the city--mostly walking, being outdoors--and get to bed early. That would help with the impact of jet lag. Actually, regardless of the route you take, that should be the plan. Then on the 4th, rent a car and drive to Berlin; you can stop at Wartburg Castle, which is pretty amazing, stop anywhere else that tickles your fancy, and have driven the Autobahn. You would spend a lot of hours in the car, though. Then you would have the 5-8 to explore Berlin and get to Belgium. Not quite enough time, but doable.

There was one suggestion by Russ above that gets you a bunch of what you want; if you plan carefully, that could be your best bet.

I know that UK to EU is more of a hassle than it used to be, but it isn't as bad as all that, either. If you are planning that trip and can afford to take the time to do it, add Berlin to that trip. That way you can enjoy two different sides of Germany on two different trips, won't be rushed, and can actually do the things you like most knowing that you will hit Berlin next time.

Finally, I will reiterate that jet lag is a reality, but that being outside, active, and well hydrated on your first day and going to bed early will mitigate its impacts.

Whatever you decide, I am confident it will be magical.