Car rental in Mosel River area

On numerous visits I have spent many weeks on the Mosel, and although I had a car there once for two days when my in-laws accompanied us, I have used the trains and the occasional connecting bus. A car is good for certain small towns, but generally speaking, unnecessary for most destinations you might want to visit within a 7-day period

"...would really like to visit Burg Eltz castle and the Rick Steves book recommendation is to rent a car."

Did he say why? Several years ago, access to Eltz without a car WAS tricky, but it's not now. Eltz is not on the river, but tucked away in in the hills near the town of Wierschem. Public bus service from the Mosel River town of Hatzenport is frequent and takes just 25 minutes. Scroll down on this page from the Burg Eltz website for the public bus schedule:

https://burg-eltz.de/en/homepage

The German Railways (DB) page will give you a personal travel schedule for a trip to Eltz starting from towns other than Hatzenport, a schedule which includes the bus trip. Just type in whatever town you wish to start from and Burg Eltz, Wierschem as your destination:

https://int.bahn.de/en/

This map shows the towns served by train on the Mosel:
https://www.vrminfo.de/fileadmin/data/pdf/2017/RLP-Ticket_streckennetz.pdf

Beilstein and Bernkastel-Kues are not shown, but they are both easy to reach by bus. For B-K, it's train to Wittlich + bus to B-K. For Beilstein, it's bus only, about 20 minutes from Cochem, buses run hourly. OR, a 1-hr boat cruise from Cochem; use Fähre, Beilstein (Mosel) as the destination to find hourly bus schedules at the DB site above.

If you are into river cruising, I'd recommend taking one of the Kolb boats to Bernkastel, at least one way. It's a lovely float of a couple hours from Traben-Trarbach.

It would be wise to pick a convenient base town (or two) for your stay. Did you have one in mind?

Renting a car only to visit Burg Eltz seems not necessary for me when you can live with the bus schedule
Good connection

I agree with the first two replies, but because we visited the Mosel in May, 2011 with a car, I will respond to your OP. The Mosel does not have the "problem" of major city train usage, in that there is only one train line, making it easy to visit multiple towns in one day, if your plan is to do that. You could say that we chose a dull town to stay in, because we selected a luxury hotel with private parking, to facilitate starting and ending each day like Americans, in our mighty steel steed.

So parking in Mulheim was easy. And it wasn't hard at Burg Eltz, although in season I would expect to be directed to a meadow because gravel parking is full. But in a place like Bernkastel-Kues, you have to roam around the public parking by the river, waiting for a space to open up (just like big malls in the US on weekends, especially if you are willing to drive around an extra 15 minutes to park near the mall door you want to use.) I think we parked on the street in Trier, but that was just a matter of luck. I think our most enjoyable visit was Traben-Trarbach. No matter where we were, the most common instruction from our Garmin was "turn right on Hauptstrasse."

Note that serious wineries in this area only accept visits with appointments. We actually found a sign in four languages listing local retailers, and asking those without appointments to go away. Our hotel made an appointment or two for us.

Wild horses could not impel me to drive from Nuremberg to the Mosel, especially with a major rail hub like Frankfurt in the middle. Are you skipping the Scenic Middle Rhine? Even testosterone and a new, overpowered BMW (no interest from me) could get me to make that drive. But it tells me that you will, in the end, be renting a car. Have you read here about highway traffic in Germany?

I'm here in favor of the car. My friend and I flew into Frankfurt, rented a car, spent a night in Wiesbaden and then drove up (?) the Rhine and then down (?) the Mosel. We stayed in a small, non-touristy village and drove all over the place, once or twice just identifying something on the map and heading there (e.g., Burg Landshut, mostly free, no lines, incredible views, really not accessible without a car--highly recommended). Driving in that area was a delight and definitely a highlight of the few days we had to spend there. And we were in a little tennis-shoe of a car. Now, my friend is sober, so I was able to imbibe and not give it any thought. If you want to visit the wineries (and swallow the samples), then having a car may be a poor choice for you.
P.S. I agree that driving there from Nuremberg is not something I would take on.

I typically do not rent a car in Europe, though have depending on the trip, and usually only for part of the trip (Portugal, Sicily, UK, Ireland, Belgium). I have been to the Mosel several times, both by public transport, and by car; and I would say that the Mosel is a place where a car is a good option.

Yes there are trains and buses, but service is infrequent, buses seem to run late, it is perfectly fine for relocating from town to town in a longer itinerary, but not for trying to hit multiple spots in a day. A car over several days will give you the freedom to explore the towns, visit places like Burg Eltz, plus many more small stops in between. It really opens up the entire valley from Koblenz to Trier.

Maybe look at a rental starting and returning in Koblenz, unless you larger itinerary takes you elsewhere.

The car v. train discussion is typically tainted by a poster's affinity for one mode or the other. It can be done either way. What's best for you depends on the facts as well as your own inclinations and budget.

The Deutschland-Ticket (€58/month, unlimited travel on regional trains and buses) is going to outperform any car rental option when it comes to price.

In addition to the impressions and generalizations you are reading here, I would just refer to the data to be found at the usual reliable sources. Only then will you be able to judge the merits of our comments. Who's got it right in the two comments below?

The Mosel does not have the "problem" of major city train usage, in
that there is only one train line, making it easy to visit multiple
towns in one day, if your plan is to do that.

...it (train service) is perfectly fine for relocating from town to
town in a longer itinerary, but not for trying to hit multiple spots
in a day.

Check the German Railways (DB) site to see what's possible and what's not: https://int.bahn.de/en

Yes there are trains and buses, but service is infrequent...

I checked with DB to test this statement... The DB schedule for the Koblenz > Trier railway shows 20 departures from Koblenz between 8:06 am and 17:06 pm for this coming Monday. Perhaps it all depends on the definition of "infrequent."

Burg Landshut, mostly free, no lines, incredible views, really not
accessible without a car-

Having reached Burg Landshut without a car, here's what I know... Check with the local tourist office if you can'f figure out the options for getting places. The Burg Landshut Express makes 9 trips per day from the center of Bernkastel to Burg Landshut every day for the 7 months between April through October. It will bring you back down to town as well. Taxis for this short trip are also possible. OR, you can take this walking path up from town, a route I took about 15 years ago, rated "easy" on the Komoot website:

https://www.komoot.com/discover/Ausblick_von_der_Burg_Landshut/@49.9113220,7.0746250/tours?sport=hike&map=true&toursThroughHighlight=3804156

...there is only one train line...

One main train line... but... the Mosel is blessed not only with the Moseltalbahn (Mosel Valley Railway) but also with a little offshoot train line, the Moselweinbahn (Mosel Wine Railway) between rail hub Bullay and Traben-Trarbach. Trips to towns on this railway are of course included at the DB website. Map of the Moselweinbahn:

https://www.traben-trarbach.de/files/traben-Trarbach.de/Planen%20Service%20Buchen/Sonstige/Karte%20MWB%202017.jpg

Note that serious wineries in this area only accept visits with
appointments. We actually found a sign in four languages listing local
retailers, and asking those without appointments to go away. Our hotel
made an appointment or two for us.

You might wish to stay with the winemaker. "Holiday wineries" offer accommodations:

https://en.bernkastel.de/holiday-wineries#/accommodations

In Bernkastel and other towns, the TI office can usually assist you with booking a tasting. Here's Bernkastel's:
https://en.bernkastel.de/tourist-information

There's a walk-in Vinothek in Bernkastel on the Kues side of the bridge:
https://en.bernkastel.de/poi/vinothek-at-the-wine-cultural-centre/poi.html

The Mosel is a great area for hiking and one week on the Mosel without a car should be fine. Cochem, Ediger-Eller and Bullay are on the main train line, though bus service from the smaller villages is fairly decent. If you won't have the Deutschland ticket, look for an apartment which offers the VRM ticket. This site has the list of accommodations, bottom right link:
https://www.vrminfo.de/en/tickets/tickets/leisure-tickets/vrm-guest-ticket/

I'd stay in Bullay, fairly central. From Bullay, within reasonable time you can reach Saarburg, Trier, Cochem, Luxembourg City, Bernkastel-Kues, Koblenz, Zell, Beilstein and Moselkern (for Burg Eltz). Some of the smaller, lesser known villages are also nice to walk around, such as Bremm and St Aldegund.

A bit farther out: Limburg, St Goar, Bacharach, Braubach (for Marksburg Castle). Rudesheim about 2 hours, can be combined with Marksburg for a long day. Cruise on both rivers.

A car will allow you to hit further afield more quickly, though I think you have enough to do above. There's some lovely pastoral land and very quiet driving to the west in the Vulkaneifel area. The Mullerthal area of Luxembourg has some very pretty spots. Vianden is a great visit. One of our favourite days was a combination of Maria Laach (hike and Abbey) and Monreal, a crumbly post and beam kind of place with a ruin high above.

We rode the train/bus from Boppard to Burg Eltz in September. It was easy.

I like using the train. I do it with regularity. But driving along the Mosel is one of my favorite things to do when the weather is nice. The drive along the river (which can be done on both sides) is far and away the best way to visit the area. You can drive from Koblenz to Trier in less than 2 hours. Or you can drive along the river and that can take days, because there's always something going on along the riverbank. Last year I stumbled over flea markets, an antique tractor meet, a MOPAR car rally, a couple of small wine fests that were strictly local, and a old monastery where a band was practicing for a music video shoot. None of that would have been doable by train.

If you have a car you can stay back from the river, or at least stay in those towns where the boats do not dock. Someplace like Kastellaun that nobody on this forum has ever heard of but which has a great castle and cheap hotels and you'll be the only American in 10 miles. And that's less than 20 minutes drive from the river.

Someplace like Kastellaun that nobody on this forum has ever heard
of...

Almost nobody. 50 years ago I was in Simmern, Kastellaun and other Hunsrück settlements, thanks to the "Bimmelbahn", as my friends referred to it. The slow but handy diesel-powered trains used to connect local farm folk with "the big city" of Boppard (on the Rhine) back then, but those trains went away long ago; only the smallish Boppard > Emmelshausen segment of the railway is operational today. Want to visit Kastellaun? It's remote. For Boppard > Kastellaun, it takes almost 1 hr. without a car, including the connecting bus from Emmelshausen. By car it's about the same travel time.

My college friend lived near Kastellaun, and when he could afford gas, we would tool around in one of these. (The Bimmelbahn didn't run late into the evening.) If you are approaching Kastellaun from the Mosel, a car will likely be faster and will get you from a Mosel town like Cochem or Bullay in around 30 minutes. But a visit to Kastellaun can still be done without a car these days if you wish. The best approach AFAIK is from Koblenz... there's a direct bus that takes 1 hr. - 1.3 hrs.

But as KGC has often said, there are lots of castles to visit in the Mosel Valley already. Kastellaun is not a destination on anyone's bucket list, AFAIK. I doubt that anyone doing a Mosel visit has ever stumbled upon it while driving around. I'd be shocked to hear that it's been mentioned previously on this forum, or that anyone from Rick Steves Inc has ever thought of including it on the "how-to-see-Germany" pages. It's indeed a real "back-door", a remote place where you will not see other US tourists. (Also... if you speak German, don't expect to understand the local dialect.)

The only prominent tourist destination in the vicinity of Kastellaun that I can think of is the newish **Geierlay Suspension Bridge," which gets a lot of weekend visitors.

https://geierlay.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Flyer-Geierlay-01-2022-EN-web.pdf

If Geierlay is in your sights, I think Kastellaun might be good place to visit as well. If you will be using public transport... Treis-Karden is a Mosel river town only 10 minutes from Cochem... and there is a direct weekend bus - #631 - which takes visitors from Treis-Karden to Moersdorf (near Geierlay) AND to Kastellaun. It's 24 minutes to Moersdorf and 10 more minutes to Kastellaun.

https://www.vrminfo.de/fileadmin/data/pdf/fahrplanbuecher/2025/631.pdf

Thanks for all these ideas! We just booked four nights in Bullay and the accommodations include a VRM pass so it looks like we won’t need a car and can make plans for three day trips. We still have a couple of days so we may look into visiting Nuremberg for a few days before heading to Koblenz and the Mosel area. Let me know if you have ideas for day trips from Bullay.

Bullay is a very convenient travel base. You will be only a few minutes from Cochem by train. It's a very quiet town. Do take advantage of the walks there. The ferry crossing gets you to Alf, where you can hike up to the Marienburg, the Prinzenkopf lookout, Burg Arras (castle.) Lots of great scenery there. Zell is only a couple of miles upstream, a nice walk or bike ride.

Let me know if you have ideas for day trips from Bullay.

You have quite a few already. Give us some guidance on your interests for some additional choices. Biking? WW II period history? Roman Civilization in this part of Europe? Wine tasting?

VRM Guest Ticket: It covers a wide area, but for day trips from BULLAY, it's valid only on trains heading downstream (in the direction of Cochem and Koblenz) and along the Mosel Wine Railway (to Traben-Trarbach.) Upstream destinations that have been suggested previously (like Mülheim, Bernkastel, Saarburg, Trier, Luxembourg, Bremm, St. Aldegund) and certain others (like Bacharach) will take you OUTSIDE the VRM zone and will not be accessible with this pass. See the details and the map on this page to identify all the places the VRM Guest Ticket can take you:

https://www.vrminfo.de/fileadmin/data_vrminfo/PDF/Gaesteticket/Infoflyer/Flyer_GT_englisch_01.pdf

...the accommodations include a VRM pass so it looks like we won’t need a car...

You can of course travel to those non-included destinations like Bernkastel, Trier, etc. WITHOUT a car... you will just need to pay separately for those outings. Most of the destination options can be reached using a day pass that covers a wider area... the entire states of Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland. The Rheinland-Pfalz Ticket permits unlimited train and bus travel for a full day (on weekdays after 9 am) and can be purchased at a ticket machine at the Bullay train station. The cost for two is less than €40/day. The link just above provides a MAP (scroll down on the page and click on "Streckenkarte...") which shows the covered areas for this day pass. (Note that the green RMV area is shown on the far right but is outside Rheinland-Pfalz and is NOT covered by this pass.)