Home base Cochem or near by?

Cochem is pretty small, so look into train connections from it to places you want to visit. I speak no German and have had no trouble getting around with a rental car. If you’re going to small towns with few train options, don’t rule out a rental car. Parking in cities is a pain, but in smaller towns it’s not much of a problem. Most parking is paid parking. If you want a base for taking day trips via train, it may be better to be in city with plenty of train connections; perhaps Koblenz or Wiesbaden. To me, you need to figure out what you want to see and where you want to visit, then determine the best mode of transportation.

"...we get off the boat, Cochem. I was wondering what a good home base of interest and then train rides to destinations."

I'm guessing that 40 years ago you and Arthur Frommer's travel guide didn't make it to Cochem. It is a place you would probably remember, a very picturesque place surrounded by vineyards in Germany's Moselle Valley, one of my favorite parts of Germany. Your previous forum posts tell me that Cochem and its neighbor towns will probably not disappoint you either. And it's a great place to do outings by train.

Cochem:
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4565/38662298236_f50bae3391_k.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/5297/5442746388_b296d576ca_b.jpg

What to see/do in Cochem

Some daytrip destinations for you to research:

Burg Eltz
Trier, part of Ancient Rome, UNESCO World Heritage
Traben-Trarbach
Beilstein, 1 hr. away by local day-cruise boat
Bernkastel
Marksburg Castle (in Braubach on the Rhine.)
Bullay - another wine town just 8 minutes by train from Cochem - is situated in this scenic area with good hiking and biking options nearby, either along the river or through vineyards.
Or take a bike ride - or a hike - from Alf (across river from Bullay) to the Prinzenkopf lookout tower for a view and/or to Burg Arras Castle for its small museum and some refreshments.

Trains from Cochem get you out of town to these places and the scenery from the window is great (Note: use train + bus for Burg Eltz and for Bernkastel.) On this regional railway map you can see the rail connections as well as routes to larger cities like Mainz, Frankfurt, Bonn and Köln (Cologne.)

There are several other fine places to spend a week or so all around Germany. If you want to travel from Cochem to Berlin by train, you'll need about 7 hours.

You may get slightly better advice if you say more about the pre-cruise. Since the Mosel is narrower and shallower than the Rhine, I want to check whether you boat or bus to Cochem. Sometimes when people write "cruise", they actually mean a daytrip on K-D boats, for example. And if we know some nearby towns you will have seen on the boat, we can give better answers.

As far as the quality of your German, I can tell you that every waiter in a German restaurant (with the possible exception of the former East Germany) answers my food inquiry in German with flawless English. But (referring back to your OP) that does not mean you should rent a car. That would depend on your desired destinations, and how many you want/insist on doing in one day.

One good reason for not driving in the Mosel region, is that it is a region where they make great wines, and the alcohol limit for driving in Germany is very low. You might want to sample some of the wines at lunch; not a good idea if you are driving.

There is really only one rail line on the Mosel, and it takes a more or less straight line from Koblenz to Trier. Due to the extreme "looping" nature of the Mosel, the rail line just kind of skirts the western edge of the loops, and it is therefore a ways away from towns like Bernkastel (ground-zero for Riesling wine) or Zell on an eastern loop. However, there is good bus service from the stations on the rail lines to these other towns. Use the website of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Mosel, www.vrm.info, to find rail and bus routes, schedules, and fares. (Hint: click on the British flag at the top or the home page for info in English).

Bernkastel is outside the VRM. Use the Bahn Query website for information on how to get there.

For unlimited travel in a day, use a VRM Tageskarte (for one) or a VRM Minigruppenkarte (for up to five). For travel outside the VRM, use a Rheinland-Pfalz Länder-Ticket.

I think a few visuals will be helpful.

Here's a railway map showing all the stops on the Moselle Valley Railway (Moseltalbahn.) It puts to image Lee's description of the route. The train follows the river all the way from Koblenz to Cochem, after which it dives into a tunnel and emerges near Ediger-Eller, then follows the river to the Mosel towns of Neef and Bullay. It then veers away from the river between Bullay and Trier.

To visit Bernkastel from Cochem: get off at Wittlich station and catch a bus from there to the Bernkastel-Kues Forum stop.

To visit Traben-Trarbach from Cochem: In Bullay, you can change to the Mosel Wine Railway (Moselweinbahn,) which sends off modern little trains like this that connect a few more river/wine towns as far as Traben-Trarbach. See this map.

To visit Bernkastel from Traben-Trarbach, try a day cruise boat: DW and I stayed in a neighbor- wine-town of Traben-Trarbach's called Kröv recently. We took a day cruise from there to reach Bernkastel. But the same day cruise boats begin their route in Traben-Trarbach, where lots of visitors choose to overnight. Here's a map of this part of the river.

Thank you for your kind responses, I am amazed at the detailed responses.

• In response to Lee we are doing a 6 day bike and barge Metz to Cocham. We stop at Rodemack, Thoinville, Nennig, Remich, Nittel,Saarburg,Trier,Schweih, Trittenheim, Piesport, Neumagen, Bernkastel-Kues, Neumagen,Daun, Gillenfeld,Traben-trarbach,Zell, Bullay, Beilstein Many of the spots we pedal through but are always free to explore on our own.We due stop at many hi-lights for lunch, dinner and/or guides.

In that case... You may want to make an abbreviated stay in Cochem to see what you missed or what you want more of.

So after your actual hubs and spokes adventure, you will switch to hub-and-spokes day trips from a train hub...

The Bavarian city of Nuremberg is an extra-nice place and an excellent train hub. It's also the informal "headquarters" for the historically and culturally distinct region of Franconia (which spills out of Bavaria across state boundaries.)

Transport network:
https://www.vgn.de/media/vgn-verkehrsnetz-gesamtraum.pdf

Bamberg, Bayreuth, Bad Windsheim, Rothenburg, Iphofen, Amberg, and even Munich are all possible day trips from Nuremberg's main station. Day passes for all-day regional train transport to and back from these cities (except Munich) cost €20/couple and include any bus transfers you might want; look for the VGN Tagesticket Plus at the Nuremberg station ticket machines.

Rick's somewhat limited coverage for Germany should be supplemented by other sources (Tripadvisor?) as you gather information on things to see and do in these places.

Getting to Nuremberg (or other destinations) from Cochem on long-distance trains: Saver fares are available in advance from German Railways (DB.) Long-distance train tickets include regional train connections you might need as well. Use the following link for schedules and tickets.

https://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Ellen, you can get just about anywhere in Germany by train in a few hours. Since you will have been river cruising in one general area, I'd want to get away from there and see something else besides Cochem and the Rhine. If it were me, I wouldn't go for one base city and do day trips. Rather, I'd head south and east and see the Bodensee area or the German Alps around Garmisch-Partenkirchen, staying in two or more places. Or if you must do one base city - Munich and day trip from there. But that day-tripping eats up a lot of precious time in the back and forth.

While it would be too bad to miss the scenic Middle Rhine, I would think you'd have enough river by the end of that bike trip. (I recall noticing the number of bikes in Traben-Trarbach ... ). Assuming you still want to be outdoors, would you like to hike in the Black Forest, where your hotel gives you a free transit pass so your hikes can all be one-way if you want? And you can take a city-break in Freiburg.

Alternatively, and depending on where you want to fly home from, I love the many museums of Cologne. And Aachen, Duesseldorf, and Monschau are nearby. Another outdoor option (and less touristy and less crowded) could be hiking and bouldering south of Aschaffenburg (nice visit there.) I don't remember the name for this less-visited mountain region, but it includes UNESCO WHS Lörsch and the Felsenmeer in Lautertall.

Your trip may include town-square wine festival season. But note that fine wineries in Germany require advance reservations for premises visits and tastings.

I don't remember the name for this less-visited mountain region, but it includes UNESCO WHS Lörsch and the Felsenmeer in Lautertall.

That's the Odenwald. And SE of Aschaffenburg there is another equally nice forest region, the Spessart.

Website of the Unesco WHS Lorsch: https://www.spessart-tourismus.de/en;
of the Felsenmeer Lautertal: https://www.felsenmeer-zentrum.de/fiz-
uebersicht.html (in German; scroll down for a PDF with English description)