Hi all! I'm interested in planning a 3-4 day trip on the Mosel River from Trier, bernkastel-kues, Cochem to Koblenz. I don't need an expensive tour company. I can book hotels. I just want bikes and luggage transfers. I know they exist, but I haven't found any in English. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
"I'm interested in planning a 3-4 day trip..."
I have no knowledge of luggage transfers. But I do know that the entire Mosel has an admirable bike transport system that is used by local biking enthusiasts, who book in 2-3 strategically-positioned base towns, then bike upstream one day (train or bus back to base) and downstream the next (same return strategy.)
Colored lines are bus routes with bike carriers; black lines are trains:
https://www.radbusse.de/media/uebersichtskarten/map-radbusuebersicht-2021.png
Bikes travel for free on trains within the VRM zone (roughly from Bullay to Koblenz) anytime on weekends and after 9 am on weekdays.
In the VRT zone (roughly Trier to Bullay) I think there's a small fee for bike transport.
Train cars with room for bikes are well marked:
Bike-accommodating lodgings often advertise as such. Or you can choose from accommodations that belong to associations like Bett + Bike. Their listings on the Mosel route:
Thank you, Russ!!! I was getting frustrated because I know it’s a common biking path. If I looked at companies, they were charging €180 a day for just the bike, but if you rent from Trier train station it was €30.
Bike Rental shops: As you can see from this list, they exist in many towns:
I suppose it might be possible to arrive "bikeless" by train in a Mosel town like Bernkastel or Kröv or Traben-Trarbach for 2 nights, then rent and drop off in the same town before catching a train on to the next stop downstream (Cochem? Treis-Karden?) and biking that area for a couple of days.
I've rented bikes previously in Alf and in Cochem. I generally find 2-3 hours on a bike very enjoyable - and to be more than enough biking on the whole - so I've never done a multi-day tour like you're proposing. I know 1 or 2 others on this forum who have - maybe they will pipe in and share their experiences.
A new rental location in Alf popped up a few years ago where the ferry docks, just across the river from Bullay (a Mosel railway hub.) See photo:
https://img.oastatic.com/img2/13071361/834x417r/alf-faehre-blick-auf-bullay-.jpg
This is the main rail line for Trier > Koblenz with all train stops shown:
https://assets.static-bahn.de/dam/jcr:c3b41a1d-30c0-4d71-98b9-34f8fe093d50/190970-258769.pdf
Here you can see the offshoot rail line from Bullay to Traben-Trarbach:
http://www.alpenbahnen.net/assets/images/autogen/k-IMG_2375.png
Thank you so much. I will follow up on your links.
Lisa
Wow - so glad I came upon these posts! I'm planning the same bike trip on the Mosel and am happy to see the links to help me!
Let me know how your trip went! What did you love? Any advice? We're going in a few weeks.
Thanks,
Melany
We’ll be going in July. I’ll let you know.
