Baumholder, Germany

I visited Baumholder very briefly once. Like most small towns in the Rhineland-Pfaltz, it seemed clean and pleasant enough, although there probably isn't much there of touristic interest. Towns by US military bases in Germany have plenty of guest houses and small hotels. You should not have trouble finding a place to stay.

Because the Rhineland-Pfaltz lies far from Germany's main tourist attractions, most guidebooks do not devote much space to the region. Your best source of information for local attractions will probably be the USO office at Baumholder. You will likely need a car if you intend to do much sight-seeing. Some possible daytrips include Heidelberg, Luxembourg City, Trier, etc. Baumholder is close to the Rhine River, and many of the old towns along the river are quite charming.

Enjoy!

There are a lot of gems to visit from a Baumholder base. They're all very popular sights among Europeans, maybe not as well-known to the "average" American but certainly known to the US military personnel in Baumholder, Ramstein and Co. The sights are: 1) The Saar river valley between Mettlach and Konz. The river takes a one-of-its-kind 360° loop just South of Mettlach which can be perfectly overseen from a hill. Watch for "Saarschleife". Following down the river towards Konz there are hundreds of beautiful little castles and chateau's, some come with their own vineyards. At Konz the Saar river flows into the world famous Mosel river. Do the Mosel from Trier to Cochem in a separate day.You can visit the beautiful French city of Metz and some of the WW1 battle fields. Also you could take a tour to Reims in the French region of Champagne where you can visit the Moet&Chandon, Taittinger, Cliqout and other compounds. Quite impressive!Another day trip would be...

... along "Weinstrasse" (Wine Road). Start in Edenkoben, stop in every little village, esp. "Roth unter Rietburg" and Deidesheim, where in the Deidesheimer Hof restaurant Helmut Kohl, George H.W. Bush, Condoleeza Rice and others had a historic meeting during the German reunification process. Pres. Bush hates broccoli so they kept an aspargus field alive just for him (white aspargus season ends on June 20th normally).You can do the famous rhine river valley from Bingen to Koblenz as a day trip and also visit the French region of Alsace (esp. Strasbourg and Colmar) in a day. So there is so much to do around a Baumholder base provided you rent a car. You'll love it!

First, you might ask your son if they have a military guest house in the community. I visited Baumholder years ago but not for an overnight.

If no guest house, will you have a car. Hotel.de has some listings within 15 km of Baumholder.
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http://www.hotel.de/
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I remember Idar Oberstein as a nice town in the area. BTW I quite enjoyed the area when I was stationed in Landstuhl.