Just thought you might like to hear of this vacation.

Normally we plan bicycling holidays all on our own. However this trip had to be done quickly so we surfed and found the Trier city web site. This advertises a number of people who can book bike tours up and down the German part of the Mosel. Randomly we chose www.mosellandtouristik.de and asked them to modify the routes to our requirements. They were very helpful and re-arranged a standard trip just for us. For one week the charges were
Euro 604 B&B for two people for 6 nights
Euro 271 for luggage transfer
Euro 116 for two bike hire
The down side is that we were renting bikes from the German train system which are ok but basically 7 speed sluggards.

Day 1: Ryanair fly into Frankfurt-Hahn, we took the bus to Trier (all details held on the Ryanair site) and were booked into a 18/20 Toch Gault Millaut restaurant Weinhaus Becker, Olewiger Strasse 206 which is just down from the main vineyard of Trier and just across from Terges Winery. Trier is an amazing city and worth a whole article on its own. High points are the Roman buildings, the 18th centaury buildings and the wine.

Day 2: Pick up bike from the station and then pedal off down the valley using the map book provided by Mosselandtouristik (Cycline also from www.esterbauer.com) in English or German. Quickly found bike route, lots of other bikers and the local food is for sale in little restaurants all the way down in September this includes feiderweise (half fermented wine) and onion cake. Ended up at Weingut-Gasthous E Schmitz, Neustrasse 15 in Fetzem. Noticed the whole village were partying down the road and found that the local vineyard was clearing out its cellars before the new harvest. Hence 0.2Litres of fine wine for Euro 1. Two or three restaurant in town.

Day 3: More gently down hill bike routes normally surrounded by vineyards all the way to Hotel Zur Graschaft, Moselweinstrasse 130 in Brauneburg. Not as nice looking at the hotel next door but then discovered 1987 Riesling for Euro 2 a glass. Nectar. Rooms clean but no other customers

Day 4: Traben-Trabach is a real tourist draw. Our tour guide had booked us into the Krones hotel, An der Mosel 93 which is perfectly nice but one km out of town. So we had to walk back to find the best restaurant. Chose the second finest hotel restaurant as it had the biggest vegetarian menu and with good wine ate well. Walked out through reception to see the Art Deco features.

Day 5: Haus Erholung, Moselpromenade 55 in Cochem, again a bit out of town. But to make a change we had been booked on a boat from Beilstein to Cochem (included in overall price). For ferry nuts these work to typical German principles but why not visit the web site and see if you can work out the timetable!!! Generally coffee in Germany is pretty bad so we had begun to look for restaurants with proper espresso machines. This led us way up hill to the only Italian restaurant in town. In the morning my partner took advantage of the German gold prize winning hairdresser in town (no queue) while I toured the hills around. Lots of ancient sites including an Abbey and a castle all within 10 minutes jomp.

Day 6 Winzerhof Gietzen, Moselstrasse 52 in Hatzenport. Imagine coming home, the people are kind, the rooms great and the wine excellent. www.winzerhof-gietzen.de. Our best stay of the holiday. We were happy walking the village but the train stops so you could tour off to the bright lights.

Day 7 Finally City Hotel Kurfurst Balduin, Hohenfelder Strasse 12 in Koblenz. Not that great just a European large commercial hotel. On the way we stopped off at the last day of a village wine festival. 0.2cl glasses of Eiswin for 1 Euro, this cannot be bad. The city of Koblenz is interesting but at best one day’s interest. In the morning we crossed the river (sans bike) to visit the castle museum which has grand views of the Rhine and Moselle, in the afternoon a bus back to the airport. The airport restaurant is pretty good.

Lessons learnt

The bike lanes are very good and in September are busy with middle aged locals touring. In September hotel bookings are not vital. Local food is excellent if a bit basic but plentiful for the riding. Coffee is generally poor so look for espresso machines. White wine by the glass in restaurants is very good. Riesling can be drunk old so Euro 2 should buy you anything from 2005 to 1987 quality wine. If you normally like dry wine move to halb-troken or lieblich as the food handles the extra sweetness. Not many names included above as village wine festivals move about.

We share your excitement about Trier & the Mosel. I went jogging along the Mosel path in Trier and was amazed by how nice/beautiful it was. We were pleasantly surprised by Trier. Unfortunately we're not much of cyclists so we took the train along the Mosel and only made a couple of stops. In September, I found Cochem to be a bit unpleasant as it was jammed with busloads of local senior citizen tourists (wall to wall people inside old town) and too many kitschy shops selling racks of discounted old stock clothing. We were looking for more quaint wine villages. How was Traben Trabach or Beilstein compared to Cochem?

.we're searching for a quaint village in which to stay for a week as we bike the mosel. in
which village would you stay for a week?
thanks.

Traben T is much nicer than Cochem, more a real town with Art Deco hotels (AD has a special german name) If you want the name I can dig it out.

All the towns suffer from being at the bottom of a valley.... So using as a single base means that you would have to take boats or trains away to tour. I think I would stay at TT or Bernkastel if I had to do the Mosel. There are a series of loops you can do. These logically are

Mosel, North up the Rhine and then up the Ahr then back to the Mosel. Long and a single stay may not work.

Mosel, Kyl Ruwer rivers make more sense and choice could include Bitburg (where the Beer comes from) and stay at Trier (lots of small hotels outside town are very nice)

Mosel, Saar and back down the river to the SW. Palzem might be a good stay

Good luck

That's encouraging to hear that TT is better than Cochem. I believe Jugendstil is translated to Art Deco, but I wonder if you're thinking more of Fachwerk which is what I would expect to find in a small Mosel town.