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First Trip to the Rhine Region/Rhein in Flammen

Hello, all. A friend and I are headed to the Upper Middle Rhine Valley for the first time in September. We will be there for a week that will culminate in the Rhein in Flammen fireworks show at St. Goar/St. Goarshausen and will include the towns' wine festivals. We will fly into Frankfurt on Sunday morning 9/9, fly out late morning Sunday 9/16, and will have a rental car. I stumbled upon an AirBNB with a phenomenal view of the Rhine at Patersberg, a municipality which is "above" St. Goarshausen (population = 396); we will stay there the entire week. On Sunday 9/9, we will explore St. Goar/St Goarshausen. Friday plans include Marksburg Castle, a lazy afternoon, and then wine festival activities. More wine festival activities and fireworks will fill Saturday. So, we have 4 days (Monday-Thursday) to explore other parts of the Upper Middle Rhine (and a little of the Mosel).

My current thoughts are to spend...

-1 day on a KD Line Cruise from Rüdesheim to Boppard, followed by train to Koblenz to explore there

-1 day hitting Burg Eltz and then going to Remagen to see the ruins of Ludendorrf Bridge and to explore there (car travel)

-1 day hiking from St. Goar to Oberwesel and then hanging out in Oberwesel

-1 day at Winningen to get a taste of a small town on the Mosel that's not too far from our base

(Credit to Russ for the recommendations in others' posts on the hike from St. Goar to Oberwesel and on Winningen).

Thoughts on the plan? Things I'm leaving out that shouldn't be left out? Any other recommendations?

Posted by
8938 posts

If you will be drinking any wine at all at the festivals, leave the car behind and go by train.

Posted by
6618 posts

Looks mostly doable to me. Some suggestions for doing your plan...

(A) - Rüdesheim/cruise/Koblenz outing: Try the Rheinland-Pfalz ticket for this day (€29/2, valid weekdays after 9:00.) Trains depart St. G'hausen at 9:26 for R'heim (ar. 9:51.) This day pass also covers the trains from Boppard to Koblenz and back to St. G'hausen. CRUISE: You'll need to catch either the 10:15 or 11:15 boat to Boppard to complete your planned circuit on this day. Show your R-P ticket at the KD dock for a cruise fare discount. Hope you find time to take Boppard's chairlift to Gedeonseck terrace.

This day is very fully packed as planned. It's also a long, fairly dull walk (or a bus ride) from Koblenz station to the older part of Koblenz, where most visitors end up. Personally I've always found that efforts to enjoy time in Koblenz have gone largely unrewarded. Consider instead a more leisurely schedule... head to Rüdesheim earlier (8:26 - 8:51, €7.20 each for a DB ticket,) spend a little more morning time in Rüdesheim (catch the 11:15 boat north) and more time in Boppard as well (ar. 13:50) and just leave Koblenz out of the equation. After Boppard... there are KD boats from Boppard to Braubach (16:50-17:25 and 18:50-19:25.) One of these would allow you to bypass Koblenz - and give you a view of Marksburg Castle from the river. So when you buy your cruise ticket that morning in Rüdesheim, buy it all the way to Braubach. Then Boppard is a stopover (just tell KD staff your plans.) Then you have a much shorter train ride back home to St. Goarshausen with trains leaving Braubach at :06 after every hour, and additional trains at 17:36, 18:36, and 19:36 (tickets are €4.90 each.)

(B) - Eltz/Remagen outing: In Remagen you can also visit the WW II museum at the bridge site, and see a bit of the town too.

Got more time for an additional stop? I doubt it. But perhaps... There's no bridge now in this area, but there's a car ferry south of town that gets you across the Rhine to lovely Linz am Rhein.

(C) - Oberwesel hike: Might take 2.5 - 3 hours. You'll first use the St. Goarshausen-St. Goar ferry as foot passengers (€1.80 each in each direction, so €7.20) and return later by train from O'wesel to St. Goar (€3 each, so €6) for a total of €13.20.

However, Bacharach is only minutes south of Oberwesel - I would catch the train there after O'wesel for a look around and perhaps a meal - then return later by train to St. Goar; trains leave Bacharach for St. Goar at :50 after every hour, and as late as 21:50. (The ferry back runs all day too, with final crossings at 22:15 and 22:35.) O'wesel to Bacharach DB tickets (€2.60 each, so €5.20) plus Bacharach to St. Goar tickets (€4.10 each so €8.20) along with the ferry costs (€7.20) bring your transport costs this day to a total of €20.60.

(D) - to Winningen and back: This day leaves you a lot of free time.

You might want to recombine some of your destinations onto different days as follows...

(B) - Drop Remagen, add Winningen before or after Burg Eltz (car)

(D) - Drop Winningen, add Remagen and Linz am Rhein (car) with a stop in attractive Braubach as well (dinner??) on the return to St. Goarshausen.

Posted by
6618 posts

I neglected to mention the open-air museum in Bad Sobernheim... The wine fests are fun but the day time wine festivities on the weekend are unlikely to engage you for all the time you've allotted... and there's not too much normally in the morning hours... so before you start enjoying the wine, I'd suggest a morning drive over there. It's an excellent way to see how locals have lived over the last couple of centuries.

Posted by
3830 posts

Ms Jo -- Yes, ma'am, trains are the plan when wine is part of the day.

Russ -- Thanks for all the suggestions. I really like the re-worked Rhein cruise day. The Gedeonseck Terrace picture pulled an involuntary "Wow!" out of me. I like combining Burg Eltz with Winningen, too. I had found the city tour for Remagen and had planned to do it through the the Kripp portion; that would put me right at the ferry to go across to Linz am Rhein, which looks excellent; the Spanischer Garten looks like a good place for dinner that evening before heading back to St. Goarshausen. I'll do some more reading on the open air museum. Thanks again for all the suggestions!

Posted by
2390 posts

If you go to Koblenz, then I recommend taking the cable car across the Rhine to the fortress