Should I visit both the Rhine and Mosel

How much time do you have for this trip? Are you a scenery- and castle-focused traveler who doesn't care so much about city museums? What time of year do you plan to travel?

I am big on both castles and scenery so the river that has the best of both, coming in the summer, and would like to see some Castle museums.

Car or train? If you have a car, then doing both would be fairly easy. You could leave the car parked at your hotel for a day and explore along part of the Rhine using the river boat and train. If you are really into castles, don't overlook Burg Eltz ( more easily reached by car).

Both Bacharach and Beilstein are tiny and sleepy - as in not a lot to see or do there. If you're focused on the rivers, I'd suggest St Goar/Goarhausen, or Koblenz at the confluence of the Rhine and Mosel, for better connections. Just my opinion.

You've tipped your hand by mentioning both Bacharach and Beilstein, two prominent places mentioned in Rick's guide books and are stops on his package tours.

What time of the year are you looking at? Mosel is more rural and laid back. Its especially nice during the grape harvest season with weekend wine festivals in various towns.
https://www.mosellandtouristik.de/en/

I would also ask how long you are planning on staying. I really enjoyed Bacharach and while it is a small town I preferred that to St. Goar. We took a day and did the train to St. Goar, Rheinfels Castle, Rhine River Cruise back to Bacharach, town walk, and some wine! It was great! You could also visit Koblenz and Beilstein from Bacharach, and do a longer river cruise with more castles to see. Depends on how much time you have. We only had the 1 day 2 nights.

We stayed in Bacharach for two nights and Cochem for two. Loved our time in both and they were different. We did it all by train, coming from Amsterdam. First, Bacharach: we rented bikes and rode north on the riverbank to st. goar where we locked up the bikes and caught a ferry across the river. On the other side we took a train for a few stops also north and hiked from the train station to Marksburg castle for a tour, stopping at a sandwich shop on the way. Such a great day. Returned in the same fashion. Upon return hiked around Bacharach hillsides. We rode the next day to st. goar and explored and went to the other castle (ack, starts with an R). Then took the train to Cochem. In Cochem we rented biked again and biked west to the ruins of a castle in a village I can't remember the name of (opposite side of the river from Cochem and West toward Trier), then the next day we caught the train east to the stop for Reichsburg castle and walked/hiked from the train station to the castle (90 minutes). Such a beautiful walk. Ate lunch at the cafe there, took a tour, and then returned the same way. The difference/comparison in castles was so good to have. Marksburg was my favorite. Reichsburg was so different. We also spent time in Cochem walking all over town. Bikes were an excellent way to see a lot. Glad we didn't take a boat tour on the Rhine as we'd intended. Glad we saw both. Quick and active visits. 4 days total, with travel between them and departure from Cochem. Perfect amount of time (this was 5 years ago. I was 46, traveling with my 13yo daughter)

I spent a week on the Rhine a couple of years ago and debated on whether to stick with a single Rhine location or to split time between a Rhine and a Mosel location. I ended up staying at a single Rhine location. I spent one of my days on a Mosel excursion -- train to Moselkern, pleasant walk to Burg Eltz, walk back to Moselkern, train to Cochem, train to Winningen for dinner. Because I am a WWII history buff, I made another excursion by train north to Remagen to see the town, to view the towers of the former Ludendorff Bridge (used by US troops to cross the Rhine until it collapsed into the river about 10 days after its capture), to visit the Peace Museum inside the towers (currently closed due to renovation), to check out the Peace Chapel that commemorates US camps in the area that held German POWs, to catch the ferry to Linz am Rhein, and to enjoy the 16th century architecture of Linz am Rhein (and dinner!).

The Mosel is o.k. but I prefer the Rhine. I’ve stayed a total of about 3 weeks over the years in Bacharach. I really like it. I stay at Irmgard Orth’s small ( 3 room ) b&b. Great price, nicest lady imaginable. All the places to stay in Bacharach can be found on its town website www.bacharach.de

Try to make time for both rivers.

"On the Rhine I am thinking of Bacharach and on the Mosel I am thinking of Beilstein? If there are better places to stay, where is that?"

These are Rick's two favorite places in the Rhine/Mosel area, I believe. Rick is a gifted and persuasive communicator, and his effusive descriptions steer a lot of his readers/viewers into these hamlets. They are nice places - I'm certain guests like them very much.

But your choice probably should be based on some additional factors as well. How convenient is public transport from Town X to Marksburg Castle? How do I take a nice river cruise from Town Y and then get back? Does Town Z have rooms with air conditioning (a scarce feature, btw.) or a nice river view? Which town has a bike rental shop?

You can probably stay in almost any town and enjoy yourselves. But each town has different strengths/weaknesses, and each of us has different priorities, so I would encourage you to look carefully into what matters to you most and what you will see and do before booking your base town(s).

Personally, I've visited pretty Beilstein once on a car-based trip, but as a train guy, I would never choose to stay there - too inconvenient for me - and it's way too small IMHO as well. This is it. On the Mosel I've stayed previously in Bullay, Cochem, Bernkastel, Kröv, and Trier, and while I love them all, I've found Cochem to offer the best combination of charm, convenience to other places of interest, activities/sights, and services. Beilstein is an easy 1-hour river cruise from Cochem, by the way - and a lovely boat ride it is.

On the Rhine, I've stayed in 9 different towns on different occasions, including Bacharach. I have found the same aggregate of desirable features that I found in Cochem in the town of Boppard (which gets only a whisper from Rick; video in German but lots of nice pics.) IME, Boppard outperforms Bacharach on several levels as a travel base. Bacharach's old half-timbered buildings are more awesome and worth a visit, but Boppard's numerous waterfront hotels and restaurants (none in Bacharach,) its particular position on the river cruise route, its proximity to both Marksburg Castle and to Rheinfels Castle (St. Goar,) its access to the east bank towns via the ferry crossing (none in Bacharach) and its livelier ambiance all add up to a better experience.

For me, hiking options and nice views matter too. It's probably no coincidence that Cochem and Boppard, both of which have exciting chairlift rides, are high on my personal list. If you wish to use trains to visit both of these scenic river valleys from one base, Boppard is a very good small-town choice (Koblenz is the train hub - but it's too urban and modern for my tastes.) Here's a map of the VRM travel zone, which includes Boppard and Cochem and other nearby towns. Day passes for local trains (and buses) within this travel zone are quite inexpensive.

https://www.vrminfo.de/fileadmin/user_upload/VRM_Schienennetzplan_2020.pdf

VRM Leisure ticket (day pass) = €20.60 / one or €23.60 / two to five persons
https://www.vrminfo.de/en/tickets/tickets/leisure-ticket/minigroup-ticket/

Bacharach doesn't offer the VRM day pass as it's outside the zone. But you can visit Bacharach from Boppard (or Cochem or other VRM towns) with a VRM day pass + an additional ticket for the stretch of track between Oberwesel and Bacharach (€2.70 p.p. each way.)

For free train/bus travel in the VRM zone: Book with certain innkeepers in certain VRM zone towns that offer guest the VRM Guest Ticket free of charge.

Great information as always, Russ....

Every day is a school day... I didn't know about the VRM guest ticket - quite similar to the Black Forest one.

There is one big difference between the Rhein and the Mosel that is hardly ever mentioned on this forum. There are thirteen locks in the Mosel on German territory, whereas the last lock in the Rhein is near Baden-Baden in the Upper Rhine far away from the romantic Middle Rhine. So the Mosel is very tranquil, whereas the Rhine is a wild, fast flowing river. In addition to this traffic on the Mosel and on its banks is only a fraction of the traffic on the Rhine. There are two railway lines and two roads alongside the Rhine.

I'd like to second Russ' recommendation of using Boppard as a home base. I thought it had a lot more hotel options (especially on the waterfront) than St. Goar or Bacharach, but was centrally located enough for us to see both of those cities and the rest of the scenic parts of the Rhine. We took the boat one night north up to Koblenz and then south the next day towards St. Goar and Bacharach. Try to take at least one trip on the paddleboat Goethe if you can.

Would also recommend taking the chairlift on the edge of Boppard that takes you up to a great view of the bend of the river. We had a wonderful view at lunch from the Restaurant GedeonsEck up there, watching the boats and trains for a few hours.

We had a car and spent perhaps 5 or 6 nights touring along both the Rhine and Mosel. We liked staying in Bacharach but after spending a little time in Boppard it seemed to have much more to offer in terms of hotels, restaurants etc. Were we to return I’d choose Boppard. We also spent a few nights in Cochem and ended in Trier. A lovely area with many attractions. Safe travels.

Rusty writes,

"I thought it (Boppard)...was centrally located enough for us to see both of those cities and the rest of the scenic parts of the Rhine."

Yes - by direct train, it's about 10 minutes to St. Goar, 15 to Oberwesel, and 20 to Bacharach.

"We took the boat one night north up to Koblenz and then south the next day towards St. Goar and Bacharach."

I'm filling in the blanks here and assuming you returned to Boppard by train after your outings.

A Boppard base DOES work well for cruising in combination with train travel. However, to visit St. Goar and Bacharach or other towns to the south, rather than jumping on the boat in Boppard, it's most efficient to take the train to these towns - then RETURN to Boppard by cruise boat. Train time is the same in either direction. But cruising from north to south takes a good bit longer than vice-versa - in Rusty's case, 2.5 hours from Boppard to Bacharach vs. 1.5 hours had he cruised from Bacharach to Boppard. Why that? It's all due to the fast, wild river that demag was describing - the current is very strong.

The general consensus here is that the scenic part south of Bacharach - the Bingen > Bacharach stretch, which Rusty skipped - should be included in any cruise plan. Bingen itself is probably not as interesting to most visitors as these other towns, but if you take the train there and then board a northbound cruise boat, you will add greatly to your castle-spotting and general cruise enjoyment. AND... a cruise north from Bingen will take you through the entire scenic part and drop you "home" in Boppard in 2.3 hours. That's less time than southbound cruisers spend on just the Boppard > Bacharach segment!

Boppard > Koblenz is generally considered less scenic than the rest of the river for cruising - because there is weaker interest in this part, there are fewer boats per day that cover it. However, Boppard > Braubach > Boppard, all by KD boat, might not be a bad idea. The boat Rusty took to Koblenz always makes a stop there - and you can buy a ticket just as far as Braubach. Why Braubach? Braubach is home to Marksburg Castle, a never-destroyed medieval structure with the best castle tour on the Rhine. The cruise takes 30 minutes one way, 55 minutes back - trains go there too, but the cruise is definitely a convenient and pleasant enough way to go if the skimpy boat schedule works for you. The round trip fare was about €12 last I checked. Braubach has a stunning old town with a couple of nice restaurants, including the zum Goldenen Schlüssel.

We stayed in Bacharach several nights and did the Rhine cruise and explored few a towns then on one day drove in our car on day trip to Mosel area. This day trip included Burg Eltz, Cochem and Beilstein. Day trip worked well and was nice not to have to transfer to different hotel.