We will be getting a one country Germany Eurail pass for ____(TBD) days. However, since we'll be spending 4 nights in the Rhine and Mosel River area, we don't want to use our Eurail pass everytime we get on and off the train (or ship) as we travel up and down the river to go sightseeing. Or is this the way we should do it? by adding 4 more days to our Eurail. I figured it cost $55 for 2 (per day) to add an extra days to your Eurail days.

What is the most efficient and economical way to do this?

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

Well the river cruises are pretty expensive, depending on how far you go but the trains that run along the river are pretty cheap (for German trains).

This website will give you cruise prices http://www.k-d.com/englisch/index.html

For train prices, St Goar to Cochem one-way is 19 euro and bahn.de will give you more prices.

So if you are going to do a boat ride and a train ride I think adding a day to the pass, for that day, is probably worth it.

I think it is worth it to have the eurailpass even if it costs a few euros more. You can spend a lot of time in line waiting to buy individual tix and with the pass you can just hop on whenever you want to. I don't like to waste $$ per se, but my time is a more valuable asset when traveling.

If all you are doing is going up and down the Rhein, just buy a Rheinland-Pfalz Länder ticket. This only costs 28 € and is valid all day long for up to 5 people. You can get on and off the train all you want.

You can do much better than the 55-Euro per day railpass!! And the Rheinland-Pfalz ticket is good but for your trips you can probably do even better.

As I remember from your other post, you're spending 2 nights in St. Goar and 2 nights in Cochem.

If you are starting in either of these towns and exploring the Mosel/Rhine on these segments...

Bullay to Koblenz - Koblenz to Bacharach - Koblenz to just north of Remagen

...then the two of you could use one mini-group ticket from the local transit authority (VRM ticket machine in Cochem or St. Goar or any other station on these lines.) This is a daypass good on the regional trains and costs 20 Euros.

Better yet is the 3-day VRM Minigruppenkarte - only 40 Euros. Get it from the same machines.

If you travel from Cochem west to Trier, you are exiting the local transit area and will need a Rheinland-Pfalz ticket for 28 Euros instead. The R-P allows travel in a much wider area (north to Bonn, south to Karlsruhe.

So the cheapest way would be the 3-day mini-group ticket (40) plus one R-P ticket (28) for the fourth day's trip to Trier (or one mini-group ticket for 20 Euros if you don't head toward Trier.)

Boats: To just cross the river, you can buy tickets for just a couple of Euros to use FERRY boats between St. Goar and St. Goarshausen. I think they sell round-trip tickets a little cheaper. The CRUISE boats indeed are more expensive. The cruise if fine for an hour or two, but I wouldn't do more than that and I would focus only on the most scenic part - the gorge between Bacharach and Braubach (where Marksburg Castle is.)

Here's a page in English that explains the mini-group tickets:

http://www.vrminfo.de/vrm/english/si...ini-group.html

Thank you all, especially Russ, for your numerous postings and detailed information for our trip. I really value all your advice and a special thanks to Russ to has made several postings on my forum topics. Many many thanks! I have no idea how you all know so much about this part of the world, other than you must live there or you love it so much you travel there frequently. At any rate, many thanks! I am so appreciative!