My family of five. 21, 18, 16 and two parents. We are traveling over Spring Break in March. We land in Brussels and leave from Frankfurt. Should we drive or train? It sounds cold. Are most of the sites along the Mosel and Rhine closed. How can we fit some memorable sites in?
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
I found that everything of interest on the Mosel and Middle Rhine are easily accessible by train, or occasionally, by bus - except Burg Eltz, and it is closed in March. Rheinfels in St. Goar is open every snowless day from the middle of March. The Marksburg in Braubach is open, with slightly reduced hours in March. However, the K-D boat cruises don't start until April 10 this year.
Of all of the castles on the Mosel and Middle Rhine, only Burg Eltz and the Marksburg were never destroyed. All of the others have been rebuilt from ruins. I wasn't very impressed with the Reichsburg in Cochem. It was rebuilt as a "chateau" by a Berlin businessman, and doesn't really resemble a castle inside. A lot of the Rhein castles are private residences and not even accessible. Several castles are either rebuilt as hostels (Stahleck in Bacharach) or luxury hotels (Schönburg in Oberwesel). Rheinfels in St. Goar is a ruins; it's great to explore. All of the towns along the Rhein (Bacharach, St. Goar, Braubach) are picturesque and can be visited year round.
Posted by
OP
Austin, Texas, USA
16 posts
Wow that is great information.
Do you suggest a train pass or a van for the trip for our family of five.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
In the United States it is almost impossible not to travel by car. That is not true in Europe, particularly Germany, and often, going by train is much less expensive than going by car. Avoid the knee jerk reaction of, "I have to have a car".
Once you are in the Mosel-Middle Rhein region, you will be in the state of Rheinland-Pfalz. A Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket, for €27 Euro (~$36) allows five adults to use the regional trains and buses for unlimited travel for an entire day (after 9 AM workdays). If you are between Oberwesel and Remagen on the Rhein and Cochem on the Mosel, you can use a local transit ticket (Verkehrsverbund-Rhein-Mosel) for even less. There are rail lines up the Mosel and on both sides of the Rhein.
I think you should check out all of your options. Get the price of a rental vehicle and the cost of fuel from ViaMichelin.com. Carefully explore the cost of rail tickets from bahn.de, including all of the discount tickets and Länder-Tickets (like the Rheinland-Pfalz-Tickets) you can get. I do this before every trip, and I have never found a rental car to be cost effective.