My husband and I will be flying into Frankfurt in October and plan to rent a car at the airport and spend approximately 6 days in the Mosel Valley. We are trying to decide between staying in Traben-Trarbach or Cochem and taking day trips, hikes, bike rides, boat rides, etc to nearby areas of interest. We normally like to stay in one place for the entire time and prefer the airbnb/vrbo type set up in a town that is walkable to restaurants, a bakery, wine shop, etc. but without the hustle and bustle of a lot of tourists. Any advice on choosing between Traben-Trarbach or Cochem would be most appreciated. Also, any recommendations of restaurants, off the beaten path areas of interests, etc in the respective places would also be appreciated.
Posted by
Schwerin
3514 posts
plan to rent a car at the airport
Check requirements for driving permission in Germany (not license only):
https://bmdv.bund.de/SharedDocs/EN/Articles/StV/Roadtraffic/validity-foreign-driving-licences-in-germany.html
Posted by
Alsenborn, Germany
1755 posts
Between those two I'd take Trauben-Trarbach, just because you can easily go up, or down, the river from there, whereas if you're in Cochem you're pretty much going to be going up river (towards Trier) most of the time. Both of those towns are very touristy; for fewer tourists consider staying in Zell or Bullay.
Based on your plans I wouldn't bother with a car. You can do all the things on your list by train a lot cheaper.
And remember, in October is when the river tour boats close up shop, and then, because they're done for the year, so do a lot of the local businesses. And OCT is the month when the weather really changes, the first week can be great, but come Halloween it's much colder and rainy, and there's only about 7 hours of daylight.
Posted by
NYC area
3030 posts
Hi,
We did a trip to the Mosel in October years back. We loved it. The spectacular fall colors added to the trip. We stayed across the river from Cochem in Valwig at the Hotel Rebenhof.