We're going through the region in August 2024, and have 2 nights to spend in the middle Rhine area. We definitely want to do one of the KD boats to see the castles but are trying to determine where to home base.
Any suggestions/pros/cons between Cologne, Koblenz, Bacharach...somewhere I'm missing. We'll be leaving for Luxembourg the third day.
Thanks!
The stretch of Rhine between Bacharach and St (Sankt) Goar is very scenic and densely packed with castles. Marksburg, Rheinfels, and Burg Eltz are all worthy of a stop and provide something different from one another.
Unless you specifically want to see Cologne, and if castles are the goal, I would stay somewhere in or very near this stretch for easy KD access. We used Bacharach and enjoyed our location.
Cologne is too far from the scenic section of the river. Bacharach is very nice but very small and the castle there is not visitable. Rudesheim and St Goar are options. But for 2 nights, there's not much time to work with. Where will you be coming from?
Coming from Amsterdam
2 nights... that sounds like 1.5 days to do things. A lot of train trips from A'dam in August have 4-5 connections to make in order to reach the Rhine towns south of Koblenz (where you should stay for cruising, castles, etc.) The best journey I see has just one change of train at Cologne Messe Deutz - 8:08 - 12:55 for the journey to St. Goar, probably the most convenient town for getting around on both Rhine riverbanks. Suggest you stay there.
CRUISE: Bingen > St. Goar hits the most beautiful part of the river. The train I just mentioned, if you stay on it past St. Goar, will drop you at the Bingen Rhein Stadt station, a 5-min walk from the KD boat dock, at 13:39; there a cruise boat to St. Goar departs at 14:30 and reaches St. Goar at about 16:00. This is probably the slickest way for you to fit in the cruise. The following day, you have options... Rheinfels Castle tour, right in St. Goar? Or visit Marksburg Castle, the best medieval castle tour on the Rhine; just use the St. Goar ferry crossing to cross the Rhine and ride the local train to Braubach. St. Goar is only 10 train minutes from Bacharach, which is worth an hour or two just walking through the town to see the nice half-timbered buildings. In between St. Goar and Bacharach is Oberwesel. Take a walk along the old-town-wall fortifications there.
In St. Goar, look into the Hotel Rheinfels and the Rheinhotel St. Goar. They are just steps from the KD boat dock and have riverfront views - fantastic riverfront views. And it's an easy walk to the train station there as well.
How many is ‘we’?
Awesome ideas, thanks! Will definitely look into St. Goar.
Where were you finding the train schedules so far out? My preliminary searches had sites that didn't have them that far out.
We = 4 of us - 2 adults + 12 and 13 year old kiddos.
Trains: https://int.bahn.de/en/
From: Amsterdam Centraal
To: St Goar (no period)
Tickets are not yet available for sale for August.
Apartments may be what you want. No experience with this one but it's in the same vicinity as the other mentions and is listed on booking.com as well, I think.
https://alongthedustyroad.com/ferienwohnung-an-der-fahre-st-goar-germany
I really like Eltville. You are right in the Rheingau, close to Eberbach Monastery, Kiedrich, a number of vineyards, lovely hotels and great food, and you have a beautiful promenade along the river without a train blocking your view. It is only about a 10 min. ride on the train to Rüdesheim, or you can catch a ship here once a day and ride to St. Goar and Burg Rheinfels. Hourly train will take you along the right side of the Rhein all the way to Koblenz, or go back the other way and in a short ride, you are in Wiesbaden. In an hour, you are in Frankfurt.
Back to the topic of trains...
Train from A'dam > Rhine Valley... To pull up a schedule that takes you straight to Bingen for the cruise, enter Bingen(Rhein) Stadt as your "to" station at the DB train site I linked to.
Although prices are not shown now for August train trips (they will appear in February) you can peek at prices for earlier dates. June 14 tickets are available as of today, with the lowest prices for 2 adults + 2 kids (12 & 13) ranging from €55.80 to €167.60. (These prices should be the same as the prices for just 2 adults; kids that age travel on an the adult ticket for free.)
The itineraries vary wildly by routing and number of changes. Each itinerary is depicted with a "block" for every train in the sequence. For June 14, do you see the 7 blocks for the 9:54 train? That's 7 trains, so 6 changes of train! I suggest you consider only the journeys with 1-2 changes of train, preferrably just ONE change, which will help ensure your timely arrival. On June 14, between 8 am and 11 am, the only 1-change itinerary is the 9:16. On AUGUST 14 (random date) I see two one-change itineraries... at 8:08 and 10:38.
The lowest fares are "saver fares" which require pre-purchase (ASAP) and are train-specific. You must be on those IC or ICE trains out of Amsterdam as scheduled, or your ticket is void and worthless. Make sure you can commit to the schedule prior to purchase. "Flex" fares for this trip will be available at a higher price.
Trains from St. Goar > Luxembourg: Your itinerary search should turn up regional trains (RE, RB) for this trip with a change of train in Koblenz. Your best ticket to the Luxembourg border is the Rheinland-Pfalz Ticket, a day pass for the regional trains with schedule flexibility. Just buy it at the station from a ticket machine or using the DB app. Regional trains cover this 3.4-hour train trip. €35/2 adults, and kids travel with you for free. When the train crosses the Lux. border, you will be traveling free of charge:
https://luxembourg.public.lu/en/living/mobility/public-transport.html
Map of the "Rhine Gorge" for your reference with Koblenz at the north end, Bingen in the south, and St. Goar in the middle. Ferry crossings are shown in red.
Map of St. Goar - shows the train station (St. Goar Bf) and railway, the K-D dock (#4), and the landing for the ferry (Fähre) crossing.
I am unsure which town or towns Jo is referring to with "...a train blocking your view" - possibly Bacharach, where at least one hotel's patio is frighteningly close to passing trains:
(Actually, the town of Bacharach is set back so far from the river that you really don't have much of a view anyway.)
The tracks in St. Goar are tucked away a couple of blocks "behind" the riverfront hotels - see map - and do not threaten your views across the river from those riverfront rooms.
Russ, having ridden the trains up and down both sides of the river, the tracks block the view in lots of towns. If nothing else, look at Google street view.
Which google street views, Jo? The towns mentioned as base options in this thread include Bacharach, St. Goar, Cologne, Koblenz, Bonn, Rüdesheim, and now Eltvtille. If trains - or train tracks - are blocking views in some of these places, or in others, the OP might want to have a look.
