Favorite towns on the Mosel ??

We stayed in Beilstein, a tiny village of maybe 200 people at the Hotel Haus Lipmann. Lovely 'fairy-tale' atmosphere, quiet and this became our base. We made day trips to Trier, Cochem and Burg Eltz.

Well, I found the famous Deutsche Schleife (The German Loop - google it for a wonderful picture of a perfectly round loop in the Moselle river) in the town of Leiwen, sort of in the direction of Trier - and could not believe, on the most beautiful day - on June 13, 2016, there were only 20 people at the Hotel Zummethof, Panorma Wegmanstrasse 1-3, 54340 Leiwen - it was jawdropping. Giant lovely salads for 12 Eu, schnitzels, good old German cooking, etc, not touristy, but - just- wow. So that gets my vote: Leiwen, towards the direction of Trier.

The previous replies sound better, but we liked Traben-Trarbach, including the rather light-duty hiking. We slept in Mulheim, which was pretty dull. But there was a high end winery walkable from the hotel, reservations by the concierge required.

We staid in the little town of Briedel in a Weingut, B&B with just 2 guestrooms, rental bikes, wine selections from the basement winery. Couldn't beat the price. Frau Reis doesn't speak English, but we got on fine. Key is to find out what is going on as far as festivals in the nearby towns on the weekends.
http://www.mosellandtouristik.de/en/wine-cuisine/wine-events/wine-festivals/
Nearby town of Zell has some bigger hotels with restaurants. Bike path along the river is disused railroad bed, semi paved, pretty level.

Thank you for the responses ! Was it easy to find rental bikes if you wanted to do some easy biking ?

Our B&B had 2 rental bikes. Otherwise, Cochem certainly has places to rent bikes.
Edit - Click on the link I posted and click on "Cycling" then "Hire Stations". 11 pages with 5 locations referenced on each page.

Bernkastel is my choice for the best small town on the Mosel. There are great restaurants throughout the town, many with views/terraces overlooking the river. One in the center of town is called the Kartoffelhaus Jaqueminshof (located at Hebegasse 2), and yes, you guessed it, everything on the menu is some sort of a potato dish! Neat place for a lunch ...

Thanks all !!

I think Bernkastel, which is ground zero for Riesling wine, or Zell, with its famous Black Cat would be good places to stay. Beilstein was too small, even for me. After an hour I had seen everything and was ready to leave.

I stayed in Beilstein at the Hotel Gute Quelle and it was a very nice hotel with good breakfast and dinners,our room had a balcony.We used Beilstein as a base so the size of the town didn't bother us,short drive to Cochem,but we took the boat that stops in front of the town square.Easy drive to Burg Eltz.
Mike

Cochem and Bernkastel both rank #1 IMO. Beilstein is a good place to visit for a couple of hours but for a multi-night stay where you might like some time to wander on foot, or where you might want a variety of cafe/bar/restaurant choices, you can do much better IMO... Beilstein is only a few car lengths long:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Beilstein_(Mosel),_2012-08_CN-01.jpg

Thank you for all the replies !

Question - If one leaves the river to pop down to Trier and out of the Valley area for other areas south, what towns would you not miss ?

Depending on where we can find lodging, is Bernkastel not to be missed as we tour down the river ? Zell ? Traben-Trarbach ?

Zell, with its famous Black Cat

Which, however, cannot compete with the Kröver Naked Ass ("Kröver Nacktarsch"), at least from a linguistic perspective. ;)

I don't feel that Bernkastel is NTBM, but maybe that's because we were turned away from the top winery for lack of a reservation! I also thought the small Fachwerk street was kitschy and inferior to almost any other I've seen in Germany. It seemed a polished-up tourist town. (Note that you asked for an OPINION.)

The value of T-T to us was getting so much from a single parking place, without elbowing anyone the whole day. (I don't mean we saw no other tourists!) We hiked (exaggeration) to the top of Gravenberg, saw some Jugendstil architecture, clambered up to a modest wine cafe (with hotel rooms) in the middle of vineyards, and finally decided to skip the Bicycle Museum. I hear you can walk to B-K from T-T, but that was too ambitious for us-plus we had a car to consider.

You have not said when you are doing this trip and what time of year.
What not to miss? Anywhere that has a weekend "Strassenweinfest", (wine street festival). Bands, especially ones from Holland. The Dutch can always be counted on to show up for a good party. Local wineries will have booths with there wines for sale as well as "Federweis", unfermented grape juice.

From a linguistic perspective that's also unverblümt und unverschämt

We are going October 6 - 16 ! We hopped on some very inexpensive flights and decided to drive around the Rhine and Mosel.

Looking at the website from this posting, I only found one actual wine festival in Zell, although this is harvest season and we can just enjoy the wine region.

I just didn't want to miss a great little town because we pull ourselves off the river to motor on down to Trier - so opinions are great !

Unfortunately, the harvest season is over by late September. Zell is definitely worth a stop to see what goes on. The Restaurant Schloss Zell is a very good place for dinner. The bike path is right along the river.

I was in Cochem in early November, and they were having their Federweiss (kind of like Neuewein) festival.