My wife and I are doing the Rick Steves Southern Italy next year starting October 4. We would like to come over early and do 5 days in the Mosel river area in Germany. Thinking a local river cruise and tasting some white wines. Any suggestions? Would probably fly into Frankfort.
Posted by
Paradise
7072 posts
The best area for river cruising at that time is probably between Traben-Trarbach and Bernkastel. It's a lovely stretch of river, and Bernkastel is stunning. The schedule box in the bottom left corner shows October options.
https://www.moselrundfahrten.de/cams/clients/kolb/media/downloads/file_1.pdf?1713965549
Traben-Trarbach lies on the Mosel southwest of Koblenz on an off-shoot railway from Bullay. Map:
https://www.mobiregio.net/fileadmin/mobiregio/pdf/DB-Netz%20Rlp-Saarland.pdf
Traben-Trabach's underground wine experience:
https://en.visitmosel.de/cities-culture/poi/excursion-into-the-underground-of-traben-trarbach
Do a search for this year's October events, narrowed to the Traben-Trarbach area, to get an idea for now on what will likely be going on next October (which I doubt has been finalized yet for most events.) There should be some wine events in this area:
https://en.visitmosel.de/cities-culture/events/calendar-of-events/events
You can reach Trier, Cochem and other Mosel River towns from the T-T train station.
Posted by
Bellingham, WA
428 posts
I just did this in July (admittedly very different weather). Get a car. Don't drink and drive, obviously. The area is so beautiful, and the driving was very easy. We stayed in Enkirch, which only had German tourists, as far as I could tell. We were in a 2BR AirBnB, but there is a small hotel there that looked very nice. Charm-tacular half-timbered town with no crowds. Very close to Traben-Trarbach. We never managed to get out on the river, nor on bikes (which are very popular there), but we still had a fabulous time. We visited a castle (not Burg Eltz) and had an amazing meal at a restaurant at the end of a road that we were pretty sure we shouldn't have been driving on. You can PM me if you want specifics.
Posted by
Alsenborn, Germany
1488 posts
Don't bother with the cruise. Travel upstream from Cochem to Trier. Plan on using a car. Stay in Krol, or Bullay, or Zell. bookmark this : https://www.rheinhessen.de/weinfest/
Posted by
OP
Raleigh NC
7 posts
Thank you all for the information, great suggestions
Posted by
44 posts
If you like to rent a car
Hotel Fährhaus in Koblenz (River Mosel) would be my destination to start tours. Koblenz is a nice town between River Rhine and Mosel. Winningen, Cochem ….. with an easy drive by car to visit.