I would value some guidance re Germany and more

"....ungodly hot and humid...." It most certainly can be like that in Germany in August. In Vienna I found the heat oppressive.

If you don't know Frankfurt, I would suggest 2-3 full days visiting it. I go for the cultural and historical sights (Paulskirche , ie, St Paul's Church, the "new" Opera House, since the mid-1980s, Goethe Museum/House, Germany's greatest poet., etc).

Flying into Frankfurt does have advantages. I basically travel solo in Germany on summer trips lasting from three weeks to nine, all the more so since the first post-retirement trip ten years ago.

How much of the tour time is spent at altitude? That usually means cooler weather.

Frankfurt is just as exciting (maybe more?) as any other city in Germany, it has a very long, extremely varied history, but people see skyscrapers and think that is all there is. The city has been a main player on the German stage for centuries. What era are you interested in?

Larry, it wont be as oppressive as southern Europe. Think of it this way: Germany is at the same latitude as Minnesota. It can be hot and humid anywhere anytime, but I wouldn't shy away from August in GAS.

People prefer flying into Frankfurt because it has a large number of non-stop flights from the US, and easy train connections because of the train station, Frankfurt Flughafen, that is located in the airport. If you don't want to spend time in Frankfurt itself, head for any of the destinations between there and Trier. When we took the tour, we went from the airport to Bacharach on the Rhine, for a couple of nights before continuing on to Trier. Oberwesel, St Goar, are other good choices on the Middle Rhine. Easy, and only a couple of hours by train from the airport. I would recommend that as opposed to more time in Trier.

A couple of days on your own in Vienna at the end sounds good. We were exhausted by then and didn't get to see as much of Vienna on the tour as we would have liked.

But based on your post if you want those other countries and places, why not fly into Amsterdam, which also has a lot of non-stop flights and good rail connections? I think that would make for a long trip of mostly cities.

As far as what you see on the tour itself, read the itinerary very carefully. You are staying mostly in larger cities and towns, so even though there are stops to see things like the Black Forest open air museum, and the charming town of Bielstein, you're not exactly wandering through untouristed areas. You'll see plenty of vineyards and all the wine you can manage, but not wineries as in the kind you can visit like in California or Italy. They do things differently in the Rhine area - co-ops and centralized processing.

The centerpiece of the tour is your time in Mürren, and there you will find the peaceful wandering time you might want. Hopefully the weather will be nice and you'll have enough free time to see something different from the cities.

Finally, it seems most people fly into Frankfurt, which I hear is not
the most exciting city to visit. I was thinking of maybe spending 8 to
10 days in stops at Haarlem/Amsterdam, Bruges/Brussels and Luxembourg,
before arriving in Trier a day or two early, then a couple of days
extra in Vienna at the end, none of which I have ever visited before.
Does that make sense, should I skip some of that, or does anyone have
better ideas?

The GAS itinerary is wide-ranging and fast-paced. That means not too much more than a glimpse at the places it stops. Day 2 is spent on a lengthy bus journey to Beilstein and Burg Eltz, with some time in Trier. Yet the Mosel River is a place where many visitors spend a week or longer. The Mosel is ON THE WAY from FRA airport to Trier - so it would be very easy for you to spend a few days (or longer) there prior to Day 1 of your tour - and I would recommend it. What could you see/do there???? Here you go:

Cochem is a very good base town - easy to reach by train.

• Stay at a winery like this one or just enjoy the local wines at one of the wineries or other wine establishments
• Wander the old town zone
• Ride the cool chair lift to the amazing lookout over town and river
• Visit the Bundesbank Bunker
• Tour Reichsburg Castle (right in town, no travel needed)
• Ride bikes along the riverfront paths and enjoy the unique scenery

Possible day trips by train from Cochem:

• Traben Trarbach - another popular wine town - and Bernkastel (awesome half-timbered buildings.) Cochem and Traben-Trarbach are well connected by train. A river cruise is a lovely way to get fromTraben-Trarbach to Bernkastel.

• Braubach and Marksburg Castle (on the Rhine near Koblenz - the area's best medieval castle tour IMHO.)

When you take the train between FRA and Cochem, you will be routed through one of Germany's most scenic spots - the Upper Middle Rhine Valley - a UNESCO World Heritage site which is loaded with castles, vineyards and nice towns like Braubach. Sadly, your GAS tour doesn't stop here. Be sure to keep your eyes open as you pass through. And if you take the suggested day trip by train from Cochem to Braubach, you may wish to explore another Rhine town or two as well - there'll be time for more as it's a fairly short train trip to Braubach.

After Cochem, you could move on to Luxembourg, or Belgium, if that suits you and depending on your time constraints.

One major advantage of flying to FRA is to enhance your connection options, be it Budapest, London, Helsinki, or to Singapore, etc. I have no problems with FRA, the improvements over the last decade have made FRA more attractive. It's not my favourite big airport in Europe but it's fine all the same.

Would you consider the RS Switzerland tour? We did that trip a few years ago , late September, and LOVED it! We had great weather, and two off days to be on our own. The towns were smaller, and the Alps incredible. We did wine tasting, visited a cheese farm, and were primarily outdoors [ minimum museums & churches.]
Safe travels!

Considering climate, prices, and crowds, can you do Boston first, then EU? You are on target in breaking up single travel with social travel (a tour), but consider this. Don't take a US based tour. Take a UK or Australian tour (there is a way to force Goggle to move to their UK or Australian web site so that you can easily search tours aimed at locals of these nations). I'm pretty sure it is goggle.com/UK for the UK, but I don't know what it is for the Aussies.

Many of our 53 EU vacations have used FRA, and we have never gone into the city. The airport is a major transportation hub for train, car, and bus-- land, get out of town.

United/Star Alliance (Lufthansa) have hubs at SFO and DEN. Check routing thru them, and also look going to Munich, a smaller airport.

Finally, it seems most people fly into Frankfurt, which I hear is not the most exciting city to visit. I was thinking of maybe spending 8 to 10 days in stops at Haarlem/Amsterdam, Bruges/Brussels and Luxembourg, before arriving in Trier a day or two early, then a couple of days extra in Vienna at the end, none of which I have ever visited before. Does that make sense, should I skip some of that, or does anyone have better ideas?

Well, if you haven't been there Frankfurt is a perfectly good city to visit, with very interesting towns around it, some even on the S-Bahn. But many people use FRA for PRICE or ROUTE reasons. It's also decent for getting to the Middle Rhine or the Mosel - i.e. Rick's tour start in Trier. Except for Iceland Air, I don't know that Luxembourg City is that big an air hub. Most people consider transatlantic PRICE first.

You sound like a very experienced traveler, so I don't have to tell you that you have a long, time-consuming route set out in the quoted paragraph. I personally prefer Frankfurt to Brussels (although like you, Frankfurt is not my first choice in Germany), although the rest of northwest Belgium is really nice. Bruges is not directly on the way to Trier. We spent five nights in Amsterdam and did not exhaust it, because (like Flanders) there are so many good, cheap, fast daytrips by unreserved local trains. You need to make a decision based on your desired travel style, which I can't do for you.

If you are an experienced traveler, you may know that a two-segment flight on a Lufthansa code-share could deliver you to any city in Germany by noon or 1PM, when your hotel room might even be ready for you. They you can see towns you rate higher than Frankfurt, and end up at your tour departure. (I like Germany very much, and there's a lot to see, in any region.)

I do think that Amsterdam-Antwerp/or/Brussels-Cologne-Koblenz-Trier could make sense, but it is long, in a crowded, hot month. I only take air-conditioned rooms in Europe now during the summer. I also prefer not to change rooms every day.

It is very late to go to Europe this year on miles. Did you read about United's new calculation plan?