Burg Rheinfels alternative

You can't just wander around most castle interiors unaccompanied unless it's a set of ruins (like Rheinfels.)

Marksburg offers only a guided tour (just as Burg Eltz does, btw.) It shares the train line with Rüdesheim and St. Goarshausen.

So do your cruise, get off in St. Goarshausen, then catch a train to Braubach (takes only 22 minutes to get there.) Plan on a walk up to the castle entrance of 25-30 minutes, or a taxi ride. This is a never-destroyed castle with true medieval feel, not a tour you will regret taking, IMO. English tours are typically at 1 and 4 pm. You do not have to schedule or book anything in advance. If you choose not to time your arrival in Braubach with the English tour hours, you can always just take a German tour; an English-language flyer can be provided so that your walk-through includes information that is otherwise covered verbally in German.

https://www.marksburg.de/en/circuit/#/

Marksburg offers only a guided tour (just as Burg Eltz does, btw.)

We're planning to do Burg Eltz the day before on the drive from Dusseldorf to Rudesheim. I'm hesitant on Marksburg because maybe the kids might get bored w/ another tour and going on the other side of the Rhine means I need to cross back if I want to go to Bacharach. I guess three ferry trips never hurt anybody. Maybe there's some good lunch options in Braubach that will hype me up on Marksburg. I had Zur Krone in St. Goar on my radar.

As far as strolling goes, do you prefer St. Goar or Braubach?

I'm hesitant on Marksburg because maybe the kids might get bored w/ another tour

You know your kids better than I do, but the castles themselves are quite different. Eltz: certain rooms with lavishly furnished interiors from later periods, somewhat more museum-like. Marksburg: much more medieval in feel... more like the prototype castle that 7th-graders are assigned to replicate with sugar cubes, heh heh.

Bacharach's half timbered buildings are much nicer on than those in St Goar.

It is possible to include Bacharach and Marksburg with a cruise stopover in Bacharach and zero ferry crossings...

• 9 am cruise from Rüdesheim > Bacharach (10:00.)
• 12 am cruise from Bacharach > St Goarshausen (12:50.)
• Direct train to Braubach (Marksburg), 22 minutes: 13:02, 13:32, 14:32 options from St. G'hausen. Lunch in St Goarshausen or better yet in Braubach.
• Direct train back to Rüdesheim after your tour

OTOH Braubach isn't only about Marksburg Castle... like Bacharach, it is full of very nice old-world buildings, a "back-door" gem, as Rick Steves might call it, and thus an excellent subsititute. So you may want to just forget the stopover in Bacharach and stay on that 9:00 boat to St Goarshausen.... then catch an earlier train to Braubach for lunch and a stroll there. All the same route, still zero ferry crossings. You can preview Braubach's fine buildinng through the 3 pages of photographs below:

https://www.stadtbild-deutschland.org/forum/index.php?thread/7322-braubach-am-rhein-und-marksburg-galerie/

There are a couple of Braubach restaurants that will feed you lunch on the cobblestoned Marktplatz:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4143/4751924826_98980aa49f_o.jpg

Alternatively, if you're set on NOT going to Marksburg/Braubach, you can do as you suggested... do the standard cruise to St Goar + train to Boppard/chairlift + train to Bacharach + ferry crossing back to Rüdesheim (I think that's what you suggested.)

(Keep in mind that Rüdesheim has its own cable car lift, and the walking from the top of it is pretty nice too.)

I stayed in St. Goar and went to Marksburg (following Russ' great instructions on train/ferry). It was a nice walk (up hill) and the town is cute. The tour was in German with an English handout, it was easy enough to follow along. It was a highlight of my visit to the area. Also, ferries are fun.

If you think your teens will be bored with more tours, I did this nice hike across from St. Goar - views of the towns/river from above and you see Katz castle from behind. https://www.alltrails.com/trail/germany/rhineland-palatinate/rheinsteig-loreley-treppenweg-rhein

You're going to drive a route from Dusseldorf that's almost certainly one of the most under construction in Germany. Either way. I'll suggest you might want to consider taking 42 down to Koblenz and touring Fortress Ehrenbreitstein and the Eck instead of trying to do Burg Eltz, and then going along the river to the Niederwalddenkmal and Rudesheim. Just plan on a day of it. You could even stop at Remagen for your WWII fix.

Another option is to detour due south from Bonn to Cochem, hit that castle, then Burg Eltz (they're fairly close).

Or, you can take the cruise, then take the train to Koblenz, do the Eck and the Fortress (which isn't Rheinfels, but is pretty impressive in a wholly different way.) Then back on the train (same ticket) stop at St Goar, or Bacharach, or Oberwesel; it doesn't matter because the trains run every 30 minutes.

You're going to drive a route from Dusseldorf that's almost certainly one of the most under construction in Germany.

Interesting. Google Maps has me taking A57, A1, A61 to Burg Eltz and doesn't look like much construction. I do see lots of construction on A3.

Either way. I'll suggest you might want to consider taking 42 down to Koblenz and touring Fortress Ehrenbreitstein.

I hadn't considered Ehrenbreitstein before. Looks interesting. And it does me on the right side (pun intended) of the river and might be a good replacement for Burg Eltz while I'm driving down from Dusseldorf. I don't want to travel that far north though on the KD cruise the next day though as 2 hours from Rude to St. Goar is more than enough time for us on a boat and I don't want to add an hour train ride on top of that.

If you want a ruin that you can roam around with minimal other visitors, walk to Burg Stahlberg which is located above the village of Steeg which is a km or 2 inland from Bacharach. Note that I mean StahlBERG, not StahlECK which is the castle-hostel above Bacharach.

Do avoid A3 if possible. It's all tore up. I drive 61 at least once a month and it seems like every bridge is constricted and speed limited south of Koblenz. On a recent trip to Remagen it wasn't until I got south of Bingen that the traffic opened up.

There's a lot more to see and do at Ehrenbreitstein than at Burg Eltz. And it's a much more historic, and strategic, fortification. Control of the Eck made Koblenz a very rich place for centuries.

I just took two teenagers to Eltz and they were ready to leave in less than an hour. With the Sielbahn to the Eck (from Ehrenbreitstein) and all the places to sit and eat, both on the river and above, the issue was more in rounding them up to go.

As my luck would have it, Gauklerfest is happening at the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress during my time in the area. It appears that I will need an event ticket to enter the Fortress, but I'm not sure if I need one to ride the sielbahn. Might be a pain to find parking if there's a festival going on too. We'll see.

I'm now thinking of maybe both Ehrenbreitstein and/or Marksburg instead of Eltz on my way to Rudesheim, which would save me at least 1.5 hours the next day taking a train from St Goarschausen to Braubach after the nearly 2 hour KD cruise. Instead, we'll take the KD cruise to St. Goar, and w/ no Rheinfels, maybe head north to Boppard or add Oberwesel in addition to Bacharach as a stop heading south.

There's a lot of parking at the fortress, and it's up on top. The sielbahn is cheap (I think 5 euro, it's been 6 months since I rode it last). I'm thinking I may have to add that to my list of events for this summer.