Frankfurt as a base

thank you, lee, for your response. yes, perhaps koblenz is a good base. i will research on accommodations, et al in koblenz.

If those are the 2 places that you are most interested in visiting, then no, Frankfurt is not a good base for you. If you were wanting to go south or east more, then it might have been good though. Koblenz makes the most sense, but Mainz or Wiesbaden might fit your travel plans too. Why wouldn't you want to stay in Trier or St Goar? You might want to get out a map, look at where those 2 cities are and then find a place in between them perhaps?

i was hoping you would respond, jo, cuz you're from frankfurt. thanks. only reason i hesitate to stay in bach/stgoar and trier is the packing and unpacking involved in staying only 2 nights. but if worth the stay in bach/stgoar and trier, then, we will. we plan to simulate RS's car itin : from rhine/mosel valley, strasbourg/baden/black forest, munich (with forays into bavaria/tirol and salzburg, rothenburg road, munich. i'd rather stay 1 wk in a place if practical and efficient. i was consulting this helpline piecemeal. thanks.

For your planning, you need to look at the German Rail website. I would agree that Koblenz would make a good "mid" point. There is not much there to see except Deutsches Eck. Koblenz is a pretty big town and should have plenty of accommodations. And it's the change point for trains going between the Mosel and the Rhein, so if you stay there, it's one train to Bacharach or to Trier. Unfortunately, Koblenz is farther from Trier than from Bacharach (37 min), but If you time it right, there is an RE (Regional Express) train every other hour between Koblenz and Trier in about 1h25m, and you can use a Rheinland-Plalz-(Länder-Ticket) for the round trip (€21 for 1P, €24 for two). The ICs are more expensive and don't make the trip any faster, so stick to regional trains. Just plan your times. If you want to see Burg Eltz, the REs don't stop in Moselkern. You need to take an RB (Regional Bahn - milk run). Bacharach/St. Goar will only take you a day. For the second day you might consider taking the train across the Rhein to Braubach and the Marksburg. Rail service on the Rhein and Mosel is very good. I've spent all or part of nine days in that area and never needed a car. Four Rheinland-Pfalz tickets for two will cost €96. You can hardly put gas in a car for that, let alone pay 4 days of rental fees. A car might also be a hindrance in Koblenz.

If you think you must have a car, try staying in Treis-Karden. It's a very small town with not much going on, but it is closer to Trier. I stayed at Gästezimmer Löhr in Treis. He has space for parking and speaks English.

I think if you take a bit of time to explore Koblenz rather than just write it off as Rick Steves does, you may find it has a lot more to offer than what is commonly accepted here on this forum. Koblenz is a 2000 year old city and though it had some extensive bombing, it also has enough sites of interest to make it worth your while to stay here. http://www.koblenz-touristik.de/en/places-of-interest/buildings-and-places/buildings-and-places.html

Yeah, agree with Jo on Koblenz. Its a beautiful, lively city that really surprised me (mainly because I'd been reading comments for years from the Rickniks quoting their master on how there was nothing to see...)

thank you, jo and tom. i did check the website you mentioned, jo, it looks like a beautiful place. you know, am discovering that germany is beautiful....(sorry, i have always been a francophile), so am glad we're allocating 5 - 6 wks in germany. for every european trip, we always pass by france. just like for this trip, we plan to stay 1 wk in strasbourg. it is close enough to baden baden and the black forest, so we can probably just take the train to visit those 2 places. thanks. any other suggestions?

The best place to find accommodations in Koblenz is in the town's own website, www.koblenz-touristik.de/en/accommodation.html.

If you end using Koblenz as your base, walk the promenade along the Rhein, past the Wine Village (Weindorf) until you get to the large restaurant with a beer garden that sits on the bank of the river. We stayed for a month in Koblenz a couple of years ago for our house exchange and watching the barge traffic churning up and down the river each day was one of our most relaxing highlights, especially at sunset.

thanks, lee. the website you gave is the same as the one jo gave - i checked it out and i did see holiday apts for rent, cheaper if on a weekly basis, like 365 euros. that's also another reason i like to stay a week at a place. thanks, mona. these little details are impt to know.