Mosel Bike Ride

Bicycles are sometimes an amenity provided by innkeepers - sometimes free, sometimes for a fee. You might include bikes in your accommodations search criteria. For biking I like the area around Bullay very much as its one of the more scenic spots. Bullay is a smaller town with a sister town (Alf) across the river - and about 10 minutes by train from Cochem, or about 30 minutes by car (the river road is very windy.)

Bullay on right, Alf on left: http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/static.panoramio.com/photos/original/27651377.jpg

This photo shows train/car bridge: http://szfoto.de/files/river/2006.07.02_mosel.jpg

A ferry connects the towns as well: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/3_6_Bullay_%28Hintergrind%29_F%C3%A4hre_nach_Alf.JPG

Not sure if bikes will be at the ferry dock during your visit but here are rental outlet addresses for Alf, Bullay and the other towns:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/3_6_Bullay_%28Hintergrind%29_F%C3%A4hre_nach_Alf.JPG

These towns are near the town of Zell and one of the Mosel's best horseshoe bends: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Mosel_Marienburg_Umgebung.jpg

There is a lot of hiking in the area too: https://www.gpsies.com/map.do;jsessionid=3B40C93F6B6875C1539B8A56869ABDFD.fe3?fileId=kqkjdtkkjfibbocg

I have stayed in Bullay (and liked it very much) previously but because Cochem has more to do and more accommodations options, you may want to stay there and catch the train to Bullay for your biking adventure.

From either Bullay or Cochem it's easy to catch a direct train to Trier for the day.

What's great about the Moselle River is the dedicated bicycle path for most of the way. We've taken a self-guided trip along this river and recommend it even for those not particularly bicycle enthusiasts.

Here is the site for the Regioradler bus with bike trailer. You can also take bikes on the trains.
https://regioradler.de/pages/en_en/start.php?lang=EN

Thanks, everyone!

We were there in September, staying in Sehl-Cochem, hiking as opposed to cycling. Trier is too big for me as a base and it was a bit too far from our main areas of interest. Beilstein is a little gem (nice lunch at Gute Quelle with decent house wine) and I believe there is a bike rental shop in the village. Cochem is nice, Bernkastel is splendid. The area is very pretty and a lot of the lesser known villages are worth a quick stop. The cycle trail by the river is flat on the whole but there are more strenuous offshoots if you so desire.

As far as I know, there are also organized bike tours that will transport all your luggage while you enjoy pedalling with a light daypack only. That way, you won't have a home base to return to every night, you will get to see new towns and new parts of the river valley every day, you will basically be going downstream (and downhill) only, and you won't have any hassle with relocating every night because it's all pre-organized. Might be something to look into.

bettundbike hotels will transport your luggage to the next hotel. www.bettundbike.de

Might be worth adding that these are not group tours where you are stuck with the same 20 people for the whole time. Possibly other travelers have booked the same tour, but it's completely up to you to determine your pace, just as long as you arrive at the hotel at night.

So you may meet some of your fellow travelers at night or along the way, but it's up to you to decide how much you want to socialize.

We are doing an 8 day self guided bike tour of the Mosel next year through Velociped. They have one tour called - free as the wind in which you choose your own starting place, stopping place, stops along the way and how many nights. Even if you don't want to use an organized tour company you might peruse their website to get some ideas

http://www.velociped.de/en/