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boat ride from Boppard to St. Goar

I was under the impression my husband and I
could buy a ticket for this portion of our trip. Cruise along the Rhine from Boppard to St. Goar. Has anyone done this? Now it looks like maybe this can only be done in a group. Any information would be helpful.

Posted by
328 posts

We will have a carry on size luggage and the purse or computer bag. Taking the train to Amsterdam. It sounds like Boppard is the town where we can get on the cruise and get off in St. Goar. I wonder also which
would be the better month July or August? Now it will probably be 2021

Posted by
328 posts

The reason I picked that portion was I seen it on a GET tour.

Posted by
6590 posts

You can get on or off the cruise in almost any of the Rhine towns. But the wise thing to do is to cruise the most scenic part, and that part is from Bingen to St. Goar (1.5 hours) or perhaps go a little further to Boppard (2.3 hours.)

Don't buy advance tickets. You can buy them at the dock in Bingen. And if you arrive in Bingen by train from (where are you staying the night before your cruise???) then show your train ticket at the KD cruise dock in Bingen. They will give you a discount.

What day is your planned cruise?

The short time on the boat allows you to see towns and castles on the river banks.

Details about your plans would help us give you better advice!

Posted by
2376 posts

Note that Russ is suggesting riding the boat NORTH which is with the current. Going south is against the current and takes too long ( although I did go Koblenz to Bacharach once ). The best part is Bingen or Ruedesheim to St. Goar or Boppard. In St. Goar I love the ruins of Burg Rheinfels. In Boppard, the chairlift gives terrific views of the Rhine.

Posted by
328 posts

Thanks to all for answering my questions, very helpful. We're in planning stages, I just received the GET travel magazine in the mail. I'm basically trying to follow their "European Whirl" 14 day tour. It won't be exact,
just a general start.

Posted by
6590 posts

"Whirl" tours or "Blitz" tours (Rick Steves coined the "Rhine Blitz" tour with a cruise for a similarly short cruise segment!) do not necessarily care that you get the best experience - or may not even have given quality much thought. Sounds to me like "GET" is probably happy to squeeze folks on a short segment that is convenient for them, tell them they had a Rhine cruise, and then drag them somewhere else.

Since you are on the way to A'dam and have bags... I suggest ending the cruise in St. Goar (which gives you the 1.5-hr. cruise) - and then if you want to tour Rheinfels Castle - https://www.st-goar.de/en/rheinfels-castle/ - (why not??) you can leave your bags with the tourist office in St. Goar (which is on the way to the castle before you start the uphill part.) They will hold bags during open hours for visitors like you (no lockers at the small town train stations, unfortunately.) Then have lunch and leave a little later for A'dam.

If you are on a rail pass, the stopover is no problem. You should repost if you need advice for your train tickets to A'dam and getting in that stopover time you need on your ticket.

July or August - no difference really, high season, lots of visitors.

The right Bingen train station to use for boarding the cruise is called Bingen Rhein Stadt. You can walk from there to the dock with bags. Buy your cruise ticket at the dock in Bingen. If you go with KD, they will give you a 20% discount as long as you show the train ticket (or rail pass) you used to get to Bingen. The cruise fare will be about €16 with the discount.

Posted by
328 posts

Russ, thanks for all the info, alot to think about
We're in the planning stages so nothing is in stone. The only part of Germany I've been to was the black forest area Beautiful! I fall in love easy thats where the Rhine valley came in. In checking further may the Romantic Road would be more interesting! Storybook Germany. As you see I'm all over the place. I now have the RS Germany book so I can really start researching. We have 3 weeks and prefer the warmer time of year other wise we're very flexible.

Posted by
6590 posts

In checking further may the Romantic Road would be more interesting! Storybook Germany.

The Romantic Road is not uninteresting. There are several nice old-world towns with old town walls, cobblestones, towers, etc. For the international tourist crowd, the RR is indeed the "big-name" route that you will come across time and time again in travel guidebooks and magazines. The name is catchy for sure. But the route itself is not especially scenic. The better known towns can be very overcrowded; Rick Steves sends his readers to Rothenburg but admits that it feels like a "medieval theme park" at times. As most Germans will tell you, there are LOTS of places around Germany where old-world towns were left undisturbed by WW II and where you can see the "Storybook" places that are so charming - you probably saw some of those in the Black Forest.

Some of the very best places are not too far from the RR. Here are a few nearby places that you will probably miss if you follow the tourist crowd down the RR:

Iphofen

Pappenheim

Miltenberg

Michelstadt

IMHO the Rhine/Mosel region has a good deal more to offer than the Romantic Road. Much better natural scenery for sure:

https://www.zellerland.de/fileadmin/user_upload/rad_4_10x5.jpg
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/slowing-down-in-mosel-valley
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/02/a0/b5/90/cafe-overlooking-rhein.jpg

There's a good variety of towns, sights and activities there too - wineries, hiking, river cruising, castle-snooping, spa towns, open-air cultural museums, WW II sites... Be sure to check into the Rhine/Mosel carefully before you drop it from your plans.

Check out Rick's comments on Oberwesel in this Rhine blog (a place he only recently discovered.)

More Rhine/Mosel photos:

http://www.zughalt.de/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/DB11321.jpg
https://www.weinhaus-weiler.de/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/DSC_2434_1920.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Marktplatz_in_Bernkastel-Kues_%281%29.JPG
http://schnuggel-elsje.de/upload/Bilder/IMG_0131.JPG

Posted by
328 posts

Russ you helped us decide and we will stick with the towns along the Rhine. So helpful, thanks