First Time to Europe

Thank you all for the valuable feedback. I did check out the k-d line website before posting for the river cruise. Just was hard figuring out their timetable and which town to start from but all the info I've found said most of the castles were between Boppard and Rudesheim so there you go. It bogged my mind a little that we would be going against the current traveling south but it's alot like the Platte River here in Colorado! Planned to take a night train from Munich to Paris, and I know we would miss seeing a lot of beautiful scenery but we can always go again and visit what we do miss. May pick your brains later on when we get closer to actually booking. One thought, how far out should we make hotel reservations?

Ken, I do have 'Europe Through the Back Door' but it's amazing how much information I have gained Googling! Folks on Trip Advisor and Fodors have some really good inputs, just have to wade through them. Some days I feel like my heads going to explode doing this, but I'm amazed at all the little things I have found out. Here's an example: Trafalger and Globus both say "Breakfast" included every day but when you start looking at hotels yourself well low and behold they all offer a Continental Breakfast daily! Have a great day!

Lee or Tim will post soon, I'm sure, with detailed and excellent advice on how to do the Rhine cruise & train from Amsterdam. (Rick covers this in his books as well...buy the 2011 edition of the relevant book when available). My only comment would be that Munich is rather out of the way, given your other destinations and only 14 days. London-Amsterdam-Rhine-Paris would work just fine, but Munich will take up precious time getting to and from. If I may, I would suggest an alternative itinerary as follows:
London-Brussels-Amsterdam-Rhine-Strasbourg-Paris, flying open jaw US to London/Paris to US. Have a great trip!

Our plan except in Brussels and Rhine Valley, to spend 3 days London, 3 in Amsterdam, one over night in Frankfurt, 3 in Munich and 3 to 2 in Paris. Really want to go to Neuschwanstein and Salzburg from Munich so may have to adjust something. Thanks a bunch.

I wouldn't discourage you from Munich. Depending on how much you want to spend or how far in advance you want to commit, Munich is only 3½ hours from Frankfurt. As long as you are not planning a stopover in Köln, you should be able to go from Amsterdam to Boppard in a day - ICE to Köln, then IC or RE to Koblenz and regional train to Boppard. Boppard would be a nice place to spend the night before your boat trip to Rüdesheim. There are a number of nice hotels along a "river walk" in Boppard, including a Best Western. I would recommend the Rheinlust. Use the K-D website, www.k-d.com, to find boat schedules. The boats have scheduled runs from the beginning of Apr to the end of October. Boppard to Rüdesheim takes 4½ hrs against the current. If you book well in advance (as much as 92 days) on the Bahn website, you can get tickets from Rüdesheim to Munich, most of the way by ICE, for as low as €29 pP. You can also get Munich to Paris for as low as €39 pP (ICE to Stuttgart, TGV to Paris).

Barbara, To add to the other great replies you've received, as this is your first trip to Europe I would highly recommend pre-reading the Guidebook Europe Through The Back Door before you leave. It will provide you with a lot of good tips on "how" to travel well in Europe. Cheers!

The Rhine rises in Switzerland with water from the Alps and flows downhill (North) to south of Rotterdam in the Netherlands where it eventually joins the North Sea. Going with the current shows you the same scenery but quite a lot more quickly.

Adding to what Nigel said, going downstream also gives you a longer look (not longer by time, but from a greater distance) at what's coming up due to the way the bends fall. I know it doesn't look that way on a map, maybe it's where the channel runs or their inland waters rules of the road, or the relative heights of the buildings. Also, the Loreely is more impressive from the north, in my opinion. (This observation only applies to the Mosel/Koblenz to Bingen stretch, I've never seen the rest of the Rhine from a boat.)

I did a trip similar to this last year. However, I was departing and returning to the US from Frankfurt. I went from Frankfurt to St Goar on the Rhine, Amsterdam, Brussels, Bruges and Ghent, then Paris. I stayed in St Goar, at the Hotel Hauser for 2 nights, Then to Amsterdam for 2 nights, stayed at the Ibis at Schipol, then to Brussels and stayed 2 nights at the Holiday Inn Near Louisa Plaza, made a day trip to Bruges ,then Ghent and stayed at the Best Western Charmade for 1 night, then Paris for 2 nights at the Best Western Hotel Paris Est at Gare d Est. , and returned to St Goar at the Hotel Hauser for about 3 days and took the KD and went to Boppard, Koblenz, Rudesheim, Bacharach, and Braubach.,Oberwesel on different days, then returned to Frankfurt the day before leaving for the US, stayed at the Ibis in Kelsterbach. This is an idea that worked for me. This was all done by train, with a railpass for a month. The other times I was in other parts of Germany, Austria, Italy and France. I know you will enjoy your trip where ever you go, and as you said, you can always return. There are so many places to see. I have made 6 trips in the last 7 years, and see something different everytime, even in places I have been to before. Take care.

I love this site and all the information is most appreciated from you experienced travelers! :o) Nigel & Ed I rather take it slow and actually see, thanks for indepth on the Rhine! Jerry C: Wow that sounded like a real whirl wind trip! Thanks! Tim, thanks. I don't care if it is double posted, your information about going to Paris then on the Brussels is something to well consider. That is something I'm trying to figure out, the best routing to save time.

If you have not booked your trip yet, I would recommend looking into "open Jaws". We did it 2 summers ago. Flew into London and spent some time. We actually flew to Southern France on a local airline that trip and took trains and ended up in Paris and flew home from there. We did the "open Jaws" non-stop on USAirways out of Philadelphia. I did alot of reseach and it had the best prices for us at that time. I had looked into flying into Brussels (was a little bit cheaper, but then we would have had to get to London and from Paris, so it was cheaper in the long run)

Barbara, thanks. It was a whirlwind trip, but one that was enjoyable and I had a lot to see. But within a month, I did it. Now for about the first 12-14 days, I was able to travel to those cities in Belgium, France, Netherlands and return to Frankfurt. Maybe one of these days, I will just stay in one country, but it is hard to do, with family in Italy and friends in Germany. Take care. Enjoy your trip.