Hi,
We are a family of 3 (including a 10 + daughter). We are planning to visit Mosel Valley in Germany in mid July 2019. We have 2 days coming in from Brussels and heading to Paris. Please suggest : (i) best way to get from Brussels to Mosel and Mosel to Paris (II) Must not miss things to do in Mosel in 2 days (iii) recommendations for mid range yet experiential places to stay in Mosel.
Thank you.
Rental car is definitely best. 99% of the fellow travelers I've met agree that the Mosel Valley (Trier to Koblenz) beats the Rhine Gorge. Thanks to Germany's high speed expressways, it is doable, but its not a good idea as most of your time will be spent traveling instead of sightseeing. The high points along the Mosel are the steep river hills & vineyards, Bernkastel, Trier (once the capitol of the Roman Empire and the oldest German city. See the giant basilica (which was the office of the Roman Emperor), Berg Eltz, and Cochem. The road from Trier to Luxemburg crosses the Mosel at Renmich where there is a fine Roman villa on the German side of the river. Just upstream from Remich is the small town of Schengen where the famous treaty was signed on a boat in the river where Germany, France, and Luxemburg meet. General Patten is buried in the military cemetery on the way to Luxemburg City.
A Michelin Green Guide-- Germany is more than useful. It tells what to see and where to zig zag across the river for the best scenic views
I'm pretty sure that what I'm going to describe next happens in September as well as in the summer, but you might want to try to check it out although I don't know how as I have never seen it listed in any tourist info or guide book, but there it is. There are a lot of little towns on the Mosel that have brass bands. On Sunday afternoons, the bands set up along the river and play German marches and umpah music while the natives gathered in the park to drink beer.
We hit this once in early October on a Mosel river cruise where we sat on the sun deck and heard 4-5 of these concerts as we slowly went down the river at 14 mph.
Cochem is the most central town along the Mosel.
Assuming without a car:
(i) You can view train schedules at www.bahn.com. Looks like the fastest way is an ICE train from Brussels to Cologne, then IC train to Koblenz, then RE or RB train to Cochem. About 4 1/2 hours, a little longer going through Luxembourg. Fastest way to Paris from Cochem is Re train to Saarbrucken, then ICE or TGV to Paris. This can also be done via Luxembourg.
(ii) Best experienced over a weekend when most village festivals occur. Look at the website https://www.mosellandtouristik.de/en/ for ideas of things to do and where to go during your time frame. The castle Burg Eltz is well known, again buses from the valley train stations are only on the weekends. Requires about a 1-hour hike through the forest at other times if you do not have a car. https://burg-eltz.de/en/
(iii) Use village websites to locate small guest houses that may have only a few rooms, but offer breakfast, bicycles for rent. These can be in the 50 EUR/night range. Your hosts may not speak English, so be prepared. We stayed in one and it was the highlight of 3 weeks in Germany.
"We have 2 days coming in from Brussels and heading to Paris."
This is a very vague request for help. The German Mosel is a large area and has dozens of interesting places to visit. What towns interest you? What are you interested in seeing and doing? How do you define an "experiential place to stay?" Do you have two FULL days for your time on the Mosel? How many nights do you have planned for the Mosel? Three nights? If you have only 2 nights on the Mosel, it may not be wise to go there at all, as these are not short train or car trips. If you have 48 hours or less between departure from Brussels and arrival in Paris, this trip could be a supreme waste of time and €'s, IMHO.
I think it's the traveler's "job" to have done a small amount of "homework" and to nail down at least a few specifics so that the helpful people here have a reasonable shot at providing suitable advice. Here are some reading resources, in case you don't have any.
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/slowing-down-in-mosel-valley
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/germany/mosel-valley
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/historic-trier
https://classroom.ricksteves.com/videos/germany-s-mosel-river-eltz-castle-and-feudalism
Trier is a must see. We loved Vianden, Luxembourg as well.
My husband and I are planning a trip next spring. We plan to travel by train from Trier to Bruges. Suggest looking at Loco2 website for train ideas of time and expense. I would think it would take around 4 hours to go from Brussels to Trier. There are several car rental companies including Hertz in Trier. Also Trier is a fantastic city to see, very old going back to the Romans with a good number of historic sights which Rick details in his guidebook. There is a sightseeing boat from Trier as well, so another way to see the Mosel.
4 hrs Brussels to Cochem, 6 hrs Cochem to Paris, and a nightmare to return car in city traffic in Paris. 10 hrs on the highway is 1/5 of your two days (48 hrs.) Is this the best use of your time? Would you consider Alsace region, or Strasbourg instead?
