Train travel from Amsterdam to Cochem, Germany

Nancy It will take approx. 5 hours and you do need to make a reservation on some of the trains. Is this the only train you have to take?? If not and you are traveling elsewhere in Europe you should check out the Rail Europe site.
You can get a ticket at the station.

Thanks. We will also be taking the train around other parts of Germany. Any suggestions on whether or not we need to purchase a rail pass?

It's impossible to say anything about railpass vs. point-to-point tickets without knowing where else you're traveling, exactly, but let's just say that p2p tickets can be a very good deal to, within, and from Germany. I just looked at 29€ tickets on June 20 between A'dam and Cochem at the German railways website: http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en You will NOT find these advance-sale tickets at the Rail Europe website (but you will find faulty schedules and inflated prices if you want them.) The downside to these advance-sale tickets is that you must use them as scheduled. Full-price p2p tickets can generally be used for any trains on the same day. I'd use the German railways site; I don't know your travel dates, but if you do, and they're within 92 days, you might find some good deals. Travel dates further out will not yield prices. If your trip is in September (or anytime 92+ days from now) you might just check dates that are within the 92-day window to get sample prices for your specific legs of travel - you'll at least have an idea what prices you can expect once the 92-day window opens. Shorter trips within regions in Germany are possible on daypasses like the Bayern ticket; 2 people can travel within a given region (like Bavaria) for 29€ (or less) total: http://www.munich-touristinfo.de/Bavaria-Ticket.htm Daytrips from Cochem will run you 25€ for two: http://www.vrminfo.de/en/tickets-and-fares/ticket-offers/rheinland-pfalz-ticket/

Thanks, Russ. I must not know how to use the website. I went to it and put in June 20 and the lowest price I got was 62E. We are traveling Sept 10, so I realize that is too far out to buy tickets yet.

Maybe you're looking in the wrong column. 62.80€ is the standard fare in the standard fare column. Just to the left, there's a savings fare column with 6 different departures at 29€ prior to 3 pm.

Russ offers good advice; from a more general view of European train travel, the master source is www.seat61.com

From Amsterdam Centraal to Cochem(Mosel), at least one of the legs, Amsterdam to Koeln will be by express train (ICE/IC). Make sure you didn't choose "Only local transport" under Means of Transport.