Mosel day trip from Trier

Berg Eltz is wonderful. Not the easiest to find and I’m certain I’m not the only one to make a wrong turn getting there. It isn’t right on the river so I’m not certain how you’d get there if there is a hop on/off boat. We had a rental car to get to it. Trier is also very nice.

Do you have Rick's Germany book? The Mosel chapter has a lot of transport details and map of the river on p. 511. Moselkern is the closest train station to Burg Eltz.

The K-D Line has scheduled service from between Koblenz and Cochem on weekends in summmer, with 7 stops where you can disembark, but then you'd catch a train for the next leg, or it takes 5 hours if you just stay onboard.

The Kolb Line (www.moselrundfahrten.de) covers the other, "most scenic" half of the river with several boats per day in summer.

Looking Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the Deutsche Bahn train schedule link and tips for using it.

The problem with going from Trier to Burg Eltz is that the Mosel River has a large number of lock and dams, each one taking a half hour to get through, and the river meanders like the Mississippi in Louisiana. a train, on the other hand, bores through tunnels at the meanders, cuts on and off the river in a relative beeline. It is 1 hour and 19 minutes from Trier to Moselkern on the hourly Regionalbahn. You can buy a Rheinland Pfalz ticket and leave on the 9:41 train and be there by 11:00. It will take about an hour to hike up to Burg Eltz, or a bit longer if you are a geeze like me. There is a nice terrace restaurant there, and English guided tours at certain times, listed on their website. Probably 3 hours there is plenty of time there, then hike back to the train station. Walk back is quicker, its all down hill. Trains back to Trier go at 57 past the hour.

Do not attempt this on a rainy day, it'll be miserable and the second half of the trail is a dirt path through the forest, uphill all the way.

The Rheinland-Pfalz ticket costs 24 EUR for the first person and 5 EUR for the next passenger up to 5 people traveling together. Good for all regional trains (and buses) in the Rheinland Pfalz (State) from 9 am on til 3 am the next day, Don't stay out too late. It is good anytime on Saturdays and Sundays. So maybe you'll want stop off in Cochem on the way back. No problem.

The disadvantage of getting the train is that the ride isn't particularly scenic until you get to Cochem, since the railway line goes directly across country instead of following the river.

Just want to piggy-back some additional info onto Sam's excellent comments...

It is 1 hour and 19 minutes from Trier to Moselkern on the hourly
Regionalbahn. You can buy a Rheinland Pfalz ticket and leave on the
9:41 train and be there by 11:00. It will take about an hour to hike
up to Burg Eltz, or a bit longer if you are a geeze like me.

That's with a start from Trier Hbf (main station.) Cochem (if you go there first) to Moselkern takes about 15 minutes.
Here's a guide to the walk from Moselkern:
http://www.bensbauernhof.com/burgeltzfrommoselkern.html

The Rheinland-Pfalz ticket costs 24 EUR for the first person and 5 EUR
for the next passenger up to 5 people traveling together. Good for all
regional trains (and buses) in the Rheinland Pfalz (State) from 9 am
on til 3 am the next day, Don't stay out too late. It is good anytime
on Saturdays and Sundays.

Leaving Trier on a weekday at 9:41 seems like a pretty late start. You could in fact have a longer day outing if you use the R-P ticket for this outing on a Saturday or Sunday. There are 2 trains every hour from Trier to Cochem, beginning around 6 or 7 am (not that you must leave THAT early!!) The thing is that Cochem and Eltz will require some time - and if you want to squeeze in a cruise as well (Cochem is the best spot for that) you will need extra time.

The cruise to Beilstein is popular and the schedule is pretty generous (See "Schiffausflug nach Beilstein" bottom left, page 2 of this flyer:

https://www.moselrundfahrten.de/files/moselfahrplan_cochem_2018.pdf

Thank you everyone!!