Hi Rick Steve,
Me and my family first time visit Europe. We have 3 days in Mainz on 16 March to 18 March 2016. Unfortunately the KD Rhine river cruise is not available at that time.
We are interested in 1 day castle tour (rheinstein castle), can you guide us for 3 days in Mainz ?
I have visited Mainz many times at various times of the year. It is always an enjoyable experience. Among the key sites to see are the Cathedral/Dom (one of the three great Romanesque churches in the Rhineland), the St Stephen's church (to see the Chagall windows) and the Gutenberg Museum.
Jack
Will you have a car? Or traveling by train?
we dont have car and travel by train. Is there any transport pass?
Mainz and the west bank of the Rhine down river almost to Bonn is located in the German "Land" (state) of Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate). So you can use that is called a Laender Ticket for daily travels.
You don't say how big your family is. The Laender Ticket allows your group of up to 5 adults unlimited travel for the entire day from 9 am until 3 am the next day for one price on regional and local trains and buses. Children or grand children of the ticket holder under the age of 15 travel free, and do not count against the maximum of 5 adults. The price is 24 euro for the first person, and 5 euros for each additional adult person.
So to visit Rheinstein castle, you would buy a Rheinland-Pfalz ticket out of a vending machine at the Mainz train station, (or from a manned ticket window with a 2 euro service charge), and ride a Mittelrheinbahn train to the nearest station, Trechtingshausen, and walk to the castle from there, about 30 minutes according to the website.
As an example, if you had 3 adults, (husband, wife, 16 yr old daughter) and 2 children under 15, you would buy a 3-person R-P ticket for 34 euro out of the vending machine. Travel regional trains only, no IC or ICE trains. After the castle, you could also make other journeys the same day to say Koblenz and the lower Mosel River.
Details at: http://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/prices/germany-regional/rhineland-palatinate-ticket.shtml
A nice triangle of medieval towns is possible for daytrips (Worms, Speyer, Mainz).
Be sure to click the "Terms and Conditions" tab on the page referenced above.
Note: one adult can bring along any number of their own children/grandchildren (under 15) plus one (only one, not two or more) accompanying adult (person 15 and up); otherwise every person (adult and child counts). For two parents plus three children, one 16, you would need a Länder (Laender) Ticket for five people at 44€.
If you only plan on going to Rheinstein or even as far down the Rhein as Bacharach, your travel will be within the Rhein-Nahe-Nahverkehrsverbund (metro district, RNN). This is the network map. For travel within this district only, you can use a RNN Gruppen Tageskarte (day ticket for 2-5 people) for 27,90€ (for the entire network (Preisstufe 10 = Netz). This ticket would also be valid for Worms, but not Speyer.
"We are interested in 1 day castle tour (rheinstein castle), can you guide us for 3 days in Mainz ?"
Rheinstein castle is quite attractive but it's also very small and a good deal LESS interesting overall than MARKSBURG CASTLE to the north in the very attractive town of Braubach.
IMO you should definitely travel to Braubach, not only to tour the only never-destroyed castle on the Rhine, but to take in the scenery that you will miss by not taking the cruise. (If you only go as far north as Trechtingshausen, you are traveling only 8 km of the river, but there are 50+ km more of scenic river valley that you can take in by train - trains follow the river the entire way.) Based on Lee's numbers you'd be paying €28 just for Trechtingshausen, but just €16 more for the Rheinland-Pfalz ticket would cover the trip to Braubach, and of course any of the other scenic towns you wish to see on the way north (Rüdesheim, Bacharach, Oberwesel, St. Goar, for example.)
Here's how I'd do it...
The 9:13 train from Mainz gets you to Braubach at 10:53 (with a change in Wiesbaden) if you head straight there (alternatively, stop off in Rüdesheim for 2 hours, and then continue to Braubach.) After you tour the town and the castle, head south to St. Goarhausen and use the ferry there to reach St. Goar (runs all day.) Then see whatever towns you want on that side of the river as you return to Mainz. The R-P ticket covers the St. Goar ferry too.
Mainz sights: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g187393-Activities-Mainz_Rhineland_Palatinate.html
Walk Mainz: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g187393-c218446/Mainz:Germany:Walk.Mainz.In.One.Day.html
Mainz is a pleasant city with enough sights to fill a few days. The romanesque Dom is very impressive and i also particularly liked the Museeum of Ancient Seafaring, that displays models of the Roman ships that patrolled the Rhine river. http://web.rgzm.de/en/museums/museum-of-ancient-seafaring-mainz.html
I agree with Russ that you should skip the Rheinstein Castle and go for Marksburg instead. Like he says, it's the only castle on the Rhine that has not been destroyed and is not a 20th century copy and you also get to see the full lenght of the most scenic part of the Rhine.
