Rhine visit

"...will it be inconvenient to be based in Cochem when I want to visit castles on the rhine?should I do 2 nights in koblenz..."

Koblenz and Cochem are dramatically different. Cochem is a fairy-tale town and a great Mosel base for visiting Trier and Burg Eltz Castle. Koblenz is a largish modern city. From Cochem you'd be a long distance from Bingen, at the southern end of the scenic section of the Rhine. I would suggest the 2-town solution you've come up with, but instead of Koblenz, use St. Goar instead, which is more central to the best part of the Rhine and has a very scenic location (here's the view across the river.) Also, Rheinfels Castle is right there in town - if you stay in St. Goar, you just stop in there for 1-2 hours whenever it's convenient.

From St. Goar, Oberwesel is 5 minutes south by train, Bacharach 10. Boppard to the north is also about 10. All 3 of these towns are on the same river bank and easy to visit.

St. Goar also has a ferry to get across the river, which makes a visit to the excellent Marksburg Castle in Braubach and to other "right" bank towns (like Rüdesheim and Aßmannshausen) that much easier. (St. Goarshausen on the other side has Burg Katz castle, which you see in the photo above, but like several others on the Rhine, this castle is in private hands and cannot be toured.)

One more thing... St. Goar is very cruise-friendly because it lies at the northern end of the most scenic section of the river - see this map. From St. Goar, if you want to see the castles and towns from a river boat, you can catch a train south to Bingen and take the popular river cruise north (1.5 hours) - then when you step off the boat you are "home". If you stay in Bacharach, Oberwesel, or the other towns in between Bingen and St. Goar, you'll need to catch a second train back to your base town. (Staying in Koblenz btw makes cruising much more problematic.)

Thank you so much.I really liked it and will stay 2 nights in st goar then 2 in cochem.I fly into frankfurt,I read you can get a 3 day pass for rhine area,is this true?when I leave cochem,I plan on traveling to mannheim there I can get lander pass to stuttgart,right?I will spend 2 nights in there then 3 in munich and get another lander pass to fussen then another to salzburg. After that get bus to cesky krumlov for 2 night and train to Prague for 5 nights.I would appreciate any help with these plans.take care linda

"I really liked it and will stay 2 nights in st goar then 2 in cochem.I fly into frankfurt...I read you can get a 3 day pass for rhine area,is this true?"

There's a 3-day pass for €37.60 that covers Oberwesel-Koblenz on the Rhine and Koblenz-Bullay on the Mosel. (it covers other lines too, but those are the ones you've mentioned thus far.) See the light green area on this map:

http://www.vrminfo.de/fileadmin/data/pdf/2015/Schienennetzplan.pdf

Read about the 3-day pass on this page. Note that you can use this pass at any hour of the day during any 3-day period.

(It doesn't cover your first trip from FRA airport-St. Goar on Day 1, however.)

So you could use this pass for sightseeing on Day 2, the trip to Cochem on Day 3 + any sightseeing, and Day 4 sightseeing as well.

To reach St. Goar from FRA, just buy a normal DB ticket for the regional trains (S, RE, MRB, RB trains, not IC, ICE OR EC trains.) That costs €18.30 from a ticket machine at the airport's Regionalbahnhof station. Another option is to cruise your way in 1.5 hours from Bingen to St. Goar that first day - that's a nice way to see the area for the first time. To do this, buy a RMV train ticket from FRA to Bingen(Rhein) Stadt station (€8.25; change of train in Mainz on the way.) Once in Bingen, walk to the KD boat dock and buy your cruise ticket (show your train ticket to get a 20% discount.) There are normally 5 boats per day (9:30, 10:30, 11:30, 14:30, 16:30) from Bingen to St. Goar, the most scenic part of the river.

"...when I leave cochem,I plan on traveling to mannheim there I can get lander pass to stuttgart,right?I will spend 2 nights in there..."

For travel from St. Goar to Stuttgart you may want to pre-purchase a ticket for use on high-speed trains on the DB site as it's a long trip.

IF you want to do the local/regional trains, you'll want a Quer durchs Land ticket or a Happy Weekend ticket depending on the day of the week. Buy it at the station in St. Goar from a ticket machine. Unlike Länder tickets, these are day passes that can be used ACROSS state lines.

"...then 3 in munich..."

Stuttgart-Munich also takes you across state lines. Same options as above.

"...and get another lander pass to fussen then another to salzburg."
Bavaria Tickets

For all the day passes I've mentioned you can find the right trains by clicking on "only local transport" under "means of transport" at the DB itinerary search page:
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

You're awesome.thank you so much for all the help.
I would like to see the castle in Heidelberg, is their a way to squeeze that in? Hope you like beer because I owe you a few.
Stay safe,linda

"I would like to see the castle in Heidelberg, is their a way to squeeze that in? Hope you like beer because I owe you a few."
I do. But probably not as much as you like castles. Heidelberg, eh? On the way to Stuttgart?

It's probably not what I'd recommend but possible depending on what time you need to arrive in Stuttgart.

Your train ride alone that day, using the fastest train options, will take roughly 3.5 hours for Cochem-Stuttgart. Using the QDL day pass or the Weekend day pass on the regional trains, it takes 4.5-6 hours, depending on when you leave Cochem. So you would need to look at a stopover in Heidelberg of maybe 3-4 hours minimum, I would think. You can try the DB itinerary page and see how it works for you. Heidelberg-Altstadt is the name of the station that gets you to the old town and closest to the "castle" - so use at that DB page click on "enter stopovers" and insert that name and the time you want there. When the results appear, click on the white-on-red arrow at the left to see your itinerary details - changes of train, specific time in H'berg, etc. An issue might be your luggage - lockers are located at the main station (Heidelberg Hbf) not the Altstadt station, so you will have some stopover time coming and going at the main station as well. (It's possible to walk to the Schloß from the main station as well.)

Heidelberg's castle was destroyed and rebuilt as a "Schloß" or palace. I think the best Schloß to see on your trip might be the one in Ludwigsburg (10 train minutes from Stuttgart) or maybe Nymphenburg (right in Munich.) Nymphenburg offers up a lot to see, including satellite palaces, the porcelain museum, and the carriage museum.

Another option is Cochem's Reichsburg Castle - also a "Schloß" now but on the former castle grounds and with a super falconry show 4 times per day except Mondays (about €4) and the view from up there is spectacular. It's right in town.

Thank you for all your help.yes,I do plan on visiting Ludwig burg and would love to go to lichhenstein castle also.