For Rhine, KD has several boats going up and down the river per day. http://www.kdrhine.com/rhineschedule.htm

You just buy tickets at a dock just before you hop on. Rhine flows pretty fast and notice the significant travel time differences depending on whether you are going up or down the river.

Thanks. Anyone know about the Mosel?

The best Mosel cruises begin or end in the Cochem area. But if you've got time for one cruise, do the Rhine. It's more scenic, more dramatic.

I'd suggest spending at least 2 nights in the Rhine/Mosel area if you can arrange it. It's worth checking out the villages and touring a castle or two. Cochem, Linz, Braubach, St. Goar, Bacharach and Boppard are all wonderful towns with lots of old-world flavor, and on September weekends, wine festivals make the area even more appealing.

KD is the most prominent cruise outfit. Bingen-Rüdesheimer also does cruises in the area.

The best Rhine cruise begins in Bingen (or across the river in Rüdesheim) and ends in Braubach (home of Marksburg Castle.) The route takes about 3 hours. Don't cruise from north to south, or the same trip takes almost twice as long (current.) Longer cruises are possible, but the scenery won't be as good either north or south of this section, and cruising is generally slow and you'll be spending time that is better spent visiting the villages, IMO.

By the way, trains run along both sides of the Rhine, which makes it easy to visit villages outside or inside the scenic section covered by your cruise boat. Trains along the Mosel to Cochem and beyond also follow the river for the most part and provide good river scenery.

Here's the Mosel cruise outfit that sends boats off from Cochem:
http://www.kolb-mosel.de/en/

I agree the Rhine has more dramatic scenery, more history. But I find the Moselle prettier, smaller in scale, more relaxing.

Ideally you can do both. And if you do one castle, make it Burg Eltz. Unlike so many castles, it has been lived in continuously. That make it more domesticated, more human in feeling. And the location's great.

The best Mosel cruises begin or end in the Cochem area. But if you've got time for one cruise, do the Rhine. It's more scenic, more dramatic>

maybe more dramatic but more scenic - I think most like me would say the Mosel is far far more pretty as a river valley than the Rhine - just a short part of the Rhine - the fabled Rhine Gorge can be called scneic - about a 20-mile stretch of river between Bingen/rudesheim and Koblenz - the rest littered and scarred by industrial detritus but the Mosel is awesomely scenic with walls on each side several hundred feet high and at many places carpeted by vineyards and puncutated by cutish riverside wine towns.

Both rivers are very different - the Father Rhine as Germans call it - mighty, fast-flowintg and the Mother Mosel - tranquil and lazy - do both but I would never say the Rhine is more scenic than the Mosel.

Russ is an awesome font of great info on this area but I do differ with him on this point.