What are the best villages to stay in for the September 2017 Wine Festivals? Do you need a rental car or can you travel by boat.? How do you get to the Mosel River from Frankfurt International Airport?
Posted by
Paradise
6663 posts
"What are the best villages to stay in for the September 2017 Wine Festivals?"
The September festivals tend to be relatively small in size. One decent strategy is to plant yourselves in Cochem, a larger town with lots of rooms and which lies roughly mid-way between Koblenz and Trier, and day trip to whatever festivals are around when you are there. Plan to be there on a weekend if you want to participate - that's when they happen. Here's a schedule for 2017 of the major Mosel events:
Bullay's festival from the 8th to the 11th might be a bit larger than some. Here's a webpage with photos of the 2016 fest to give you an idea:
http://herbstfest-bullay.de/
Bullay itself is pretty small and surely will be overwhelmed by folks looking for rooms. Bullay is close to Cochem - 11 train minutes close - so you could overnight in Cochem, a major train stop on the main Mosel line. It's also the largest of the wine towns in this area in terms of its ability to accommodate guests. While it's possible to drive, that would take 40 minutes - the roads in this area are circuitous - and then you'd have to fuss around competing for parking spaces. Trains run hourly or better between Cochem and Bullay and drop you off within easy walking distance.
Not all towns have train stations. But there are 23 towns between Koblenz and Wittlich that would be easy to reach from Cochem that way. Find the ones with stations using the train line map for the Mosel.
Note also that while it's less convenient, from Cochem you CAN visit towns without train stations. Bernkastel, for example, would mean getting off the train in Wittlich and catching a connecting bus from there.
"Do you need a rental car or can you travel by boat.? How do you get to the Mosel River from Frankfurt International Airport?"
From Cochem there are cruises that go upstream to places like Beilstein and beyond. Beilstein takes an hour. But generally it's very time consuming to get around this way to othyer places.
Just take the train to the Mosel from FRA.
Posted by
Atlanta
972 posts
Germany has some of the best car rental rates in Europe, and having a car in the Mosel region would be much more freeing, IMO.