Cologne to Burg Eltz / Mosel, then to the Rhine, how would you spend 3 days?

Cochem: spend the night the afternoon and evening there. The town is quite lovely at night. Sightseeing priorities would include Reichsburg as well as the Bundesbank Bunker. There should still be a shuttle bus to the Reichsburg if you don't wish to do the hike, a small journey that's worthwhile even if you aren't touring the castle and only wish to take in the views (the "Burgschänke" pub/restaurant there has a patio with a great view BTW.) And of course you should just wander around the town for the purpose of losing your way among Cochem's tangle of cobblestoned streets. There's no shortage of nice places to dine, some with river views, alfresco if you like too.

Reichsburg:
https://www.german-way.com/travel-and-tourism/germany-for-tourists/castles-and-palaces/cochem-castle/

Bundesbank Bunker:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g198637-d10195864-Reviews-or5-Bundesbank_Bunker_Cochem-Cochem_Rhineland_Palatinate.html

In your case I can't recommend Bacharach as a base town for 2 nights...

definitely take the Rhine K-D cruise downriver (interested in catching
the paddle-wheeler Goethe), possibly from Rudesheim, or maybe just
from Bacharach.

The best Rhine cruise does NOT start in Bacharach. It's best from Bingen or Rüdesheim downstream to St. Goar or Boppard. The Goethe is the only boat that travels the full route to Boppard and beyond in 2022. If you board in Bacharach you miss 50% of the best scenery, so don't...it's far better to catch a Bacharach > Bingen train and cruise downstream from there to Boppard. If your home base is Bacharach, then you're forced onto a 2nd train to return to Bacharach. But if your base is Boppard, you're HOME when you step off the boat. (A cruise from Ruedesheim works too - Bingen and R'heim are right opposite each other on the river - but if you left your car in R'heim, what do you do then???)

I would like to do some wining and dining at scenic restaurants along
the river...

Then Bacharach is definitely not your place. There are none. Boppard however has a developed waterfront with just what you're looking for and the widest variety of food and drink establishments of all the Rhine towns.

http://schnuggel-elsje.de/upload/Bilder/IMG_0131.JPG

Nice wine garden in town too:

https://www.deutschlandgourmet.info/bilder/gross/5710-Restaurant-Weinhaus-Heilig-Grab-Boppard.jpg

Boppard's chairlift gets you here after a short walk from the top:

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/02/a0/b5/90/cafe-overlooking-rhein.jpg

Marksburg is excellent - unlike Eltz, which is gussied up with a lot of furnishings from later periods, Marksburg strikes a completely MEDIEVAL vibe, as it should. Don't miss it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izJ383tD6XA

Bacharach SHOULD be visited however - its old-world buildings are wonderful. Make the short drive south to see it when you visit St. Goar.

Cable car/chairlift. My favorite is the one at Boppard. The view on the way down is terrific. The one to the fortress in Koblenz is very nice with good view of the Rhine and where the Mosel meets it. In Ruedesheim you can do two. .first over the vineyards to the monument, Then you can walk a way to the chairlift down to Assmannhausen. But you would then need to take the train back to Ruedesheim to get your car

I would also recommend Boppard as your base on the Rhine. Plenty of lovely hotels and restaurants right on the river. Bacharach is a seriously adorable town, but it’s not really ON the river. The main street is a block from the river.

There is a chair lift at Boppard, not a cable car. Big difference, especially for those afraid of heights! We’ve done it twice. It’s a bit sketchy, but we survived both times! The views from the top are great. There’s a restaurant at the top with a lovely patio to enjoy the view.

We’ve based in Boppard twice. Take the train to St.Goar, visit the castle ruins, then take the train to Bacharach. Tour the town. Then take the boat to Boppard. Make sure you understand the boat schedule. The stops in each town are not frequent. Get off the boat and have dinner on the river. Quite a lovely way to spend a day!

We drove all the way along the Mosel to Trier. It’s beautiful. So many picturesque towns along the way.

Russ, Stephen, and Travel4fun, thx so much, and your advice will be translated into action in a few weeks. I'm so excited to be in the Rhine Valley!

Yes, thanks to all who have commented so far! Pat - I am excited for your trip! I just saw your most recent thread. I don't leave until July, so I still have lots of time to collect ideas! I'd love to hear what your experiences are like once you return :)

This is an oversimplification, because Koblenz actually is a pretty spot, but in terms of your proposed itinerary, there is "nothing to see" on the Rhine other than the Scenic Middle Rhine, boating downstream from Bingen to Boppard. We could also give better advice if we knew where you are going after the middle-Rhine. I personally would boycott the Koblenz cable-car because they put it up with the promise they would remove its (forbidden) intrusion on a UNESCO-WHS vista after the special event (maybe a Bundesgartenschau) for which it was built. Naturally, the tourist-industrial complex abrogated that pledge just like they would in the USA!

I happen to love Cologne, so I hope you have enough time there. And the car route to Burg Eltz seems direct enough. But I would have used one of the Rhine-side trains to go from Cologne to either Bingen or one of the towns I wanted to sleep in, and then gone to the Mosel via Koblenz, after finishing with the Rhine. Having been there, I would say that the Mosel is a lot more pastoral and under-developed, compared to the Rhine. In that sense also, the car exposes more attractive landscapes (say, driving to Trier) along the Mosel than it does the Rhine.

So yes, I'm making the tedious argument that you are making an American transport error by jumping into a car. What is the value of driving from Cologne to Burg Eltz? I agree that a car is useful for the Mosel, although its a big bicycling locale. But let that go. I personally would not take a Mosel boat ride, I don't think it's remotely as rewarding as the Bingen->Boppard boat trip.

It strikes me that your itinerary includes some large jumps: Amsterdam-Bruges, Bruges-Cologne. They both require a train change in Antwerp or Brussels. That said, the train connections are frequent and "good".

I am not terribly interested in spending a lot of time on newly restored/rebuilt castles.

Just FYI, when we saw Burg Eltz (which is gorgeous on the outside), it was clearly the current residence of the well-off family that owns it, and the modern furnishings (including AFAIR, an authentic Elephant Leg wastebasket) a bit off-putting.

Hi Tim,
After the Rhine, we head east to Rothenberg ob der Tauber and end up in Munich.

We wanted to have a car in Germany so we have more flexibility. I know it’s not a necessity.

Karina, I will post Trip reports!