Western Germany

Western Germany, traversed by the Rhine and Moselle rivers, where Frankfurt, Cologne and the castles and vineyards along the riverbanks make up classic river-valley scenery.

This region is what Chinese-language itineraries commonly call western Germany, divided by whole federal states, and includes North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland; Hesse is counted, by convention, as part of the Frankfurt–Rhine area in the west. It borders Lower Saxony (northern Germany) to the north, Thuringia (the east), Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg (southern Germany) to the east, and the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France to the west.

Highlights: Cologne Cathedral and the Hohenzollern Bridge; in Frankfurt, the financial city on the Main, the Römerberg and the Museum Embankment; the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley (Bingen to Koblenz), with the Lorelei rock, Katz Castle and Rüdesheim’s Drosselgasse; the Deutsches Eck in Koblenz; in the Moselle Valley, Cochem’s Imperial Castle, Eltz Castle and Riesling vineyards; the Roman monuments of Trier (the Porta Nigra); Aachen Cathedral; the Zollverein coal-mining industrial complex in the Ruhr; the Völklingen Ironworks and the Saar Loop in Saarland; and in Hesse, the Old Town of Marburg and the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt (a World Heritage site).

Classic itinerary: fly in and out of Frankfurt, spend 1 day on a boat trip through the Middle Rhine, 1–2 days in Cochem and the Moselle Valley, and 1 day in Cologne, for 4–5 days in total.

Getting there: Frankfurt Airport is a major European hub, and the ICE to Cologne takes about 1 hour; regional trains run along both banks of the Rhine, and KD boats run frequently in summer.

Note: Many castles in the valleys involve a climb, and in peak season the boats and winery towns are crowded.

Destinations

Itineraries