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Cologne to the Middle Rhine Valley

Posted by on

Hi everyone,

My partner and I (late 20s) will be travelling to Cologne in May and was hoping to take a day trip from Cologne to the Middle Rhine Valley on May 12 as follows:

1) take a train from Cologne to Bingen

2) Take a cruise from Bingen to St. Goar

3) Head back to Cologne via train

Is one day enough time/too much time to do all of this? Should we try to fit in more into our day? I also had some questions about how this would work logistically as I saw Russ' post about disruptions to trains in the Middle Rhine Valley. In terms of the cruise between Bingen and St. Goar, would this be the ferry that we should be taking?

https://www.k-d.com/en/?kd_product=liner-trips-on-the-rhine-2

Posted by
22084 posts

The current schedule at DB website will show if there are any train schedule disruptions for your travel date.

Posted by
9082 posts

Hi, kcheu3,

First, yes, most travelers take the KD cruises along the Rhine.

With regards to the timing, I think you have enough time to take the train to Bingen, then cruise to St. Goar and head back to Cologne. You're looking at approximately 2 hours each way on the train, so if you factor that in, you could make some time to stop in some of the towns and explore if you wanted to.

Posted by
7340 posts

Will you be using the month-long subscription-based pass, the Deutschland-Ticket? That could be advantageous for getting an early start and traveling inexpensively on regional trains.

Otherwise, the Day Ticket for Germany (€59/2, valid after 9 am weekdays) will get you to your cruise boat and back from St Goar/St Goarshausen.

I think you will find a lot of replacement buses and long travel times on the west bank of the Rhine that gets you to Bingen. Instead... use the EAST side railway, where no repairs are underway and the less-than-dependable replacement buses are not an issue. It's still a long trip of 3 hours. You will head to Rüdesheim to board on that side of the river.

Lv Cologne 9:51, ar R'heim 12:52 with 2 changes of train. Take a short walk around R'heim.

Catch the 14:15 KD boat from R'heim to St Goarshausen (16:00.)

If this were MY trip, I would then be looking for some food; I'd likely head to Braubach for a tour of the old town zone. Braubach is on the way back to Cologne.

Lv St Goarshausen station 16:32; ar Braubach 16:53. See 3 pages of Braubach photos here. Have a walk around town and a traditional German meal at zum Goldenen Schlüssel.

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

https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension=1070x10000:format=jpg/path/sc484ea64eed53c8f/image/i82e0948970fa8d90/version/1550765364/image.jpg

Lv Braubach 18:53; ar Cologne 21:59 with 2 changes of train.

For comparison: The fastest morning journeys along the west bank right now for Cologne > Bingen Rhine Stadt look to be around 2.5 hours. For the dates I checked in May, One-way saver fare prices for two to ride the fast trains out of Cologne, which produce the quickest rides there, range from €75 - €140. So double that for the round trip as an estimate. And they still require changing to the slower regional trains once or twice and are under constant threat from delays, replacement buses, and the sort of chaos that occurs on a busy route when construction takes place.

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