Hi everyone! New to WineBerserkers, so please don’t be too harsh on my formatting
I am planning a trip to the Mosel with my girlfriend in early April, and was looking for any advice! Happy to hear anything from restaurants, places to hike, river cruises, spa, museums, etc.
The bulk of my trip is already scheduled (hotels & winery visits), but we have quite a bit of freedom to decide what to do in the plenty of fragmented time we have. So far this is what we have:
Day 1 (Tuesday 7 April):
Fly into Hahn airport in the afternoon and get a taxi to Burgblickhotel (Priwitzer quoted me 85 Euros?)
Visit Rieslinghaus and wander around Bernkastel-Kues
Any recommendations for dinner? (Saw online that Burg Landshut is nice)
Day 2 (Wednesday 8 April):
Any recommendations for breakfast?
Try and get a bike rental in the morning at funbiketeam (does anyone have any advice on e-bikes vs normal ones?) Wander around Bernkastel-Kues and go to the tourist centre to ask for advice
Maybe explore some of the vineyards.
Lunch somewhere in Zeltingen-Rachtig (Zeltinger Hof or Donh Kunh Thai Imbiss?)
1PM Tasting at Selbach-Oster
3PM Tasting at Dr. Hermann
Are there any river cruises open from Erden/Zeltingen/Urzig back to Bernkastel?
Day 3 (Thursday 9 April):
Wake up early to get a bus to Wittlich then train to Trier (hopefully arrive 10-ish)
Recommendations for things to do in Trier?
2PM Tasting at Zilliken
Day 4 (Friday 10 April):
9AM early morning tasting at Willi Schaefer (I adore their wines!!!)
Lunch at Waldschenke in Graach?
1PM tasting at Otto Pauly
3PM tasting at Joh. Jos. Prüm
Day 5 (Saturday 11 April):
10AM tasting at Max Ferd Richter
Lunch in Mulheim or Lieser?
1PM (not confirmed yet) tasting at Schloss Lieser
Spa in the afternoon at Schloss Lieser hotel? Maybe explore the area? If possible, river cruise back to Bernkastel.
Day 6 (Sunday 11 April):
Completely free morning
Taxi to Hahn airport around noon
A few extra questions:
Does anyone have advice on good scenic sites to hike?
Is there a policy to buying wines? Unfortunately we cannot bring too many wines back with us because of a measly 10kg checked luggage…
Would it be a nice gesture/normal to give gifts to winemakers?
Day 1 - Check Rieslinghaus is open - they close for winter and only reopen fully around then. Not many options in Bernkastel - the ‘asian’ at Dienhart is ok.
Day 2 - Assume you are using the bike for transport the whole week? Taxis and buses are difficult to say the least. ebike vs normal - well depends if you are fit!
Day 3 - Depends what you like - lots of Roman things, ampitheatre, Porta Negra. Also Karl Marx Haus - Rieslinghaus opposite is ok for lunch. Zilliken in Saarburg is quite far from Trier.
Day 5 - The Schloss Lieser hotel is not connected to the winery - I’m sure you know this but…
Thanks for the reminder about Rieslinghaus—it seems they don’t have opening dates posted yet but I checked Booking.com and their rooms will be available from 9 April. I might have to postpone a visit to Rieslinghaus until later in the week then… Is Dienhart a restaurant? I couldn’t find it on Google maps.
I will be trying to use bikes/e-bikes the whole week. Only taxi trips will be to and from Hahn airport, and bus/train only to get to Trier and Saarburg. I think I might get an e-bike for day two since Erden looks a bit far, but other days a normal bike would do.
Yes, I do realise that Schloss Lieser hotel is unrelated to the winery. I have been seeing some mixed comments about the hotel, so will probably decide based on what my girlfriend thinks… After all there seem to be some other hotels in the area which have spa
For gifts, I was thinking of interesting wine glasses or tea from UK, but I guess I’ll see
Thank you so much for the advice! Will be keeping tasting notes + travel diary and posting on here next month
Definitely visit Zeltinger Hof for the wine. We like to go for lunch and just eat something simple Asparagus and soup and a couple of old bottles of wine.
You are so close to Molitor I would recommend a visit if you can.
I would highly recommend a trip to Traben-Trarbach to have dinner at Die Mosel and to walk around. You can take taxi’s back and forth but they are expensive. It is about 15 minutes from the area you will be staying.
Personally I could never imagine doing the Mosel without a car.
Winemakers don’t expect you to buy wine.
When I have some more time I will post some more thoughts on restaurants.
Does Markus Molitor require an appointment? Have seen some posts saying that they are quite commercial, so hopefully that means it’s easy to drop by and taste.
I will definitely check out Die Mosel if possible. Just looked at maps and seems that it is too far on bike. I will ask Priwitzer for a quote to see how much a taxi would cost…
It seems for my trip that a car rental might be more expensive than just renting bikes and getting to Trier & Saarburg by train… Regardless I only recently got my UK driving license so it would be difficult to get a rental anyways
We stayed at the hotel a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. I’m surprised by the mixed reviews. If you do stay there, I’d consider a visit to Sybille Kuntz as well. Not only are the wines great–and Sybille and her husband lovely–but it’s within walking distance.
Agree with Robert regarding a car, if possible. We took a taxi from the hotel to Die Mosel… don’t recall how much it was, but it was worth it.
These comments are based on my one visit to the Mosel in 2022, so take with a grain of salt.
Stayed at Schloss Lieser and thoroughly enjoyed it. At the time, there were some snafus due to labor shortages, but I thought the specialness of the property outweighed any issues we encountered.
Spent an entire day on e-bikes riding up and down the Mosel. Really lovely with cycling friendly routes. Capped it off with a wine dinner at Zeltinger Hof (highly recommended). I think it’s feasible to use an e-bike as transportation (minus Trier), but keep in mind the very low tolerance for CUI (cycling under the influence). Also e-bike over road bike, as it looks like you want to travel relatively far distances.
Some of your days seem a little over ambitious for tastings. I found that in both of my pre-arranged tastings (MFR and Lieser), there was a snafu that caused a delay in the proceedings. At Richter, our host was 45+ minutes late as there was an issue in a vineyard (plus I think he forgot the appointment), but made up for it by spending a couple hours with us, pouring a dozen or more wines in the process.
Had an outstanding dinner at Schanz (3 star michelin at the time).
Yes you should make an appointment but it is a large winery so it is easy to make an appointment. You really get a better understanding of the wines if you visit them and it is a beautiful space / winery.
Thanks for the tip about Die Mosel—will check it out
I have actually had a couple of Sybille Kuntz wines and they were all very nice. I got a really cheap bottle of her 2003 Dreistern Riesling last year which was perfect.
Will be staying at Burgblickhotel this time, but the positive feedback here about Schloss Lieser means that I will definitely check it out and probably stay there next time I come back.
I’m a bit worried about e-bike running out of batteries, but then I guess it will be just like a normal bike… I can imagine how good the wines will be and how hard it will be to spit all of them but will keep in mind alcohol tolerance & cycling…
When you say overambitious for tastings, are you specifically referring to MFR & Schloss Lieser or also WS/Otto Pauly/JJP? I am trying to leave at least 2 hours between tastings and also making sure that consecutive tastings are very close to each other so hopefully shouldn’t be too big of an issue?
You should just query the bicycle rental place about charging; they must deal with this all the time. At Schloss Lieser, I vaguely recall that the rental place had a relationship with the property, which meant parking onsite and I’m sure they charged them overnight.
In any case, maybe some days, take taxis and some days rent a bike based on the day’s itinerary (and weather).
WRT the tastings, I mentioned the snafus (and the duration of the tasting at MFR) as an example of what could go derail your plans and make 2hrs seem like a pipe dream. That being said, I was probably unlucky to have 2 out of 2 tasting appointments have issues. Also if you were in a car, that would certainly make it easier for you to make your appointments and not feel harried.
If you’re at Zilliken, let me know if you want to go to Margarethenhof in Ayl, it’s a few minutes drive. I can connect you directly.
Weingut Peter Lauer in Ayl is also great and the restaurant they have as well!! I went a couple of times last year. Alan Volxem is in that area too as well as Von Hövel.
Another of my favorites is Weingut Kilian Franzen, Bremer Calmont. They just opened their Vinothek!
I’ll ask Nicolas from Margarethenhof for some more recommendations for Trier, that’s where he lives.
and we don’t have a car…