Germany destinations

Welcome to the forum, Marc!

A week's not much so the best strategy is to limit your ground travel.

"...we are wanting to see the castles Neuschwanstein and Linderhof outside of Munich, the Rhine valley (boat tour and Rheinfels Castle) and the Trier area where I lived as a child..."

Castles: What follows is stuff intended to bump up your information base. Besides the Rheinfels Castle tour (which takes you through a large set of ruins and an interesting museum) there are additional castle options in the Rhine Valley, the best of which is probably Marksburg Castle, a completely intact castle from the Middle Ages where you can really absorb the history of that period. Marksburg is just south of Koblenz in the town of Braubach, on the eastern bank of the Rhine, not far at all from Rheinfels (in St. Goar.) You will see dozens of other castles along both river banks in this area. Here's a complete list of them - click on the map for more info on each one. Notice "Palace Stolzenfels" near Koblenz? A palace is a completely different sort of place from a much later period of history - not a castle. Neuscwhanstein and Linderhof near Munich belong to this same group. N'stein in fact was built about the same time as the first Chicago high rises, the late 19th-century - nothing at all like the medieval Rhine castles, despite N'stein's fake castle exterior.

Rhine base: St. Goar is a very good choice. Boppard just to the north also works well for cruising and for train travel.

Trier and the Mosel River: You'll probably follow the Mosel much of the way to Trier. Burg Eltz Castle might be another good option for you - different from Marksburg but another marvelous place that has stood for hundreds and hundreds of years, and not far from the Mosel River town of Moselkern. Many visitors choose to stay in Cochem, which happens to have its own castle right in town, the Reichsburg, which is actually a rebuild, finished at around the same time as Neuschwanstein. Cochem is a very good base for a day trip to Trier, or a river cruise to Beilstein, or a trip to Burg Eltz, and it has a few points of interest of its own as well, like the Bundesbank Bunker.

Also in the Rhine/Mosel area; check out the first two on your own:

Cologne
Mainz
Remagen and the WW II Bridge at Remagen Museum (between Cologne and Koblenz.)

Slightly further afield: Heidelberg and the Neckar River Valley; Frankfurt; Worms and Speyer.

All the places I've mentioned are easily visited by train, and that's what I'd recommend.

So the gist of my post is this... Stick to this part of Germany with just 7 days, where there's so much to see and do. It is not worth using up two of your travel days to head all the way to the L'hof and N'stein, near the Austrian border, and back.

If you want to rent a car, wait until you arrive in Germany, perhaps in Saarbrucken, then drop it in Frankfurt. That will sove a couple problems like international drop fees.

Since your train routes could require several connections, I would prefer the flexibility and directness of a car this time and would drop it in Cologne or Dusseldorf, where you can catch a direct, 3-hour train to Amsterdam. These depart Köln Messe/Deutz station around 10:30, 12:30, 14:30, etc, and there is a Europcar office on that side of the river. Dusseldorf might be even more convenient. Train connections from Trier to Amsterdam are not attractive.

Plenty of time to do all that. except for Linderhof, all is easy to do with the train. You don’t say how many are ‘we’. I prefer to stay in small establishments. The one I stay at in Bacharach has only 3 rooms for rent. I also like staying in apartments if I am staying 3 days or more.

With your desires, I would spend 2 nights in the Fussen area, 3 on the Rhine and 2 on the Mosel or in Trier. If you want to spend time in Munich, then I would do 2 in Munich, then 1,2,2

To add to Sam's suggestion: Renting a car to get from Paris to Germany makes no sense. You can get from Paris to Saarbrücken in under 2 hours by train (or, alternatively, to Luxembourg in a bit over 2 hours). By car, this will take at least twice as long. For most of the distance, the train goes at a constant speed of 320 km/h (or 199 American statute miles per hour, or 173 knots).
You can then take another train to Trier, or (if you go through Saarbrücken) stay seated in the train towards Mannheim/Frankfurt, or rent a car.

Hey, Marc. Another hearty welcome to the forum. I'll endorse Russ's post.

I spent a week in the St Goar area last fall and used it as a base to explore the area. I found plenty to do (and did not do all that I planned to do). Marksburg Castle was easily my favorite of the "big 3" castles in the area -- Marksburg, Burg Eltz, and Rheinfels. To me, it had the most genuine medieval feel. Burg Eltz was also worth seeing, especially combined with the walk/hike from the Moselkern train station (I like hiking). One of my favorite days was a long day trip that combined Remagen and the cute town Linz am Rhein across the river from it. I'm a big WWII history buff, so it was really cool to see the remains of the bridge that US troops used to cross the Rhine; the museum is not flashy, but excellent. If your visit lines up with one of the Rhein in Flammen weekends or a wine festival, there is even more to do.

Six nights divided between the Rhine/Mosel area and Trier sound good to me.

Like Russ, I hate to see you lose the time driving/riding a train to get to the Austrian border when you will be in an area that has so much to offer. Maybe you can hit Austria/Bavaria on the next trip?

Very good advice on places to visit and getting around. With so much to consider we may scale back all the travel time favor of seeing more of the country. Based on the recommendations we will skip southern Germany this trip and focus on the Rhine Valley and St.Goar area. A good education on the castles as we lack our own here in the USA. :) I should have clarified my wife and I would arrive from Paris on the train into Germany (somewhere). I looked at trains from Paris to Cologne, 3:40 or Paris to Luxembourg , 2:17 as a way to position us close to the Rhine Valley area where we would rent a car while in Germany. Open to suggestions on this. The recommendation of basing in perhaps St.Goar and/or Cochem is appealing with all there is to see in that area. Where is a favorite place to stay (we are easy to please) in either of these towns or in the area?
We looked at doing "Rhine Blitz Tour" Rick recommends from Koblenz to Bingen and returning by train. Has anyone done this boat trip?

If I was going from Paris to Amsterdam through Germany for a week , I would start at Trier (overnight with its great Roman sites) then home base in Cochem to see the Mosel area including (Burg Eltz). Then home base in Bacharac (best medeval town in the area) and see the Rhine area. The most scenic part of the Rhine boat rides are between Bacharac and St Goar. The train can take you everywhere in these areas except Burg Eltz which you can hike to from Moselkern train station in about an hour and a half.(scenic and enjoyable). And then stop at Cologne to see the great cathedral there(next to the train station).

"We looked at doing "Rhine Blitz Tour" Rick recommends from Koblenz to Bingen and returning by train. Has anyone done this boat trip?"

That phrase "Rhine Blitz Tour" rang a very faint bell for me. Looked it up and found it in this excerpt from his 2006 guidebook. I think Rick was blitzed on his cruise... this misguided cruise suggestion is anything but "blitz" - it's 6 full hours on the boat from Koblenz to Bingen if you cruise southbound against the strong Rhine current, as he advises. Northbound would take you just 3.6 hours for the same scenery. But even in this direction it's a bit much, both in terms of time and €'s. In half that time (and for half as many €'s!) you could instead focus on the best part of the river, which starts in Bingen and ends in St. Goar (1.5 hrs.) The local cruise firms focus on this cruise segment as well; KD has 5 boats per day out of Bingen (there are only 2 from Koblenz) and Bingen-Rüdesheimer serves ONLY this segment. Here is their map. If you want a little longer cruise (2.3 hrs) continue north beyond St. Goar to Boppard with K-D.

Getting to the Rhine from Paris: The beauty of the DB (German Railways) search page is that you can input ANY tiny little destination (like Bingen or St. Goar) and the site will figure out the best way to get there for whatever time you wish to leave without your worrying about Luxembourg or Cologne... To find trains to St. Goar for example, just enter PARIS in the "from" box and St Goar (no period) as your "to" destination at this page:

https://reiseauskunft.bahn.de//bin/query.exe/en

The DB site will also sell you tickets for this trip. For my sample date I found a departure from Paris at 7:19 with arrival in St. Goar at 12:55. This journey gets you there via Mannheim and Koblenz. The saver fare was €49.90 for this journey.

A very fine way for Rhine virgins to experience the river for the first time is to cruise the Rhine first, before you ride any trains there, and before you check in at your final destination. Let's say you book in St. Goar. So the idea is to find a train journey from Paris to Bingen at the DB site. Once in Bingen, you would get off and take the cruise boat to St. Goar - then step off there and walk to your hotel.

I just tried that for Paris - Bingen (Rhein) Stadt, which is the target station in Bingen for cruising. The 7:19 departure got me to Bingen at 12:05 via Mannheim and Mainz for a fare of €44.90. And as it works out, there's a daily cruise out of Bingen with the Bingen-Rüdesheimer firm at 13:15 (which gives you time for lunch on the Bingen waterfront.) You then step off the boat in St. Goar at 15:05 and check into your hotel.

B-R cruise schedule: See "Loreley Fahrt" schedule on this page (in German) - https://www.bingen-ruedesheimer.de/pub/media/wysiwyg/Fahrplan_2019/Fahrplan_de/Fahrplan_2019.pdf
K-D cruise schedule: https://www.k-d.com/fileadmin/schiffstouren/KD_Fahrplan_international_2019.pdf

So if you book in St. Goar, that's it - no added train is needed after your cruise. Not so if you book in Bacharach (10 minutes to the south.) St. Goar has some other pluses, like hotels with riverfront views (not so in Bacharach where the town is separated from the river by the railway and noise can be a problem.) The St. Goar ferry gets you across the Rhine for the train ride to Marksburg Castle in Braubach (20 min.) And Rheinfels castle is right in St. Goar. Look into the Rheinhotel St. Goar or the Hotel Rheinfels.

I can't comment on your specific questions, but if you decide to rent a car, make sure you do it in advance of your arrival in Germany. The price difference between doing so and renting one there is staggering.

Thank you for all the good input. We made several changes and put together a wonderful trip through Germany. We are super excited!

I have to agree with Russ. Don't cruise from Koblenz to Bingen.

First, the part of the Rhein between Koblenz and St. Goar (definitely betwen Koblenz and Boppard) is far less interesting than between Bingen and St. Goar.

Second, Koblenz to Bingen is definitely the wrong direction. The trip up the river, against the current, is excruciatingly slow.

Whatever your start point is - Koblenz, Boppard, St. Goar - take the train to Bingen (Bingen Stadtbahnhof, not Bingen Hbf). If you arrive at the KD dock with a Bahn ticket, you get a 20% discount on the boat ticket.

Bavaria is far from the Rhine, even by German standards. If you want to start in Paris and end in Amsterdam I would fly Paris to Munich. Drive to Linderhof and Neuschwanstein, and return to Munich. It is 1.5 hours by train from Munich to Nuremberg or 4 hours Munich to Frankfurt at the head of the Rhine Gorge. Maybe fly M to F but you will see a lot of Germany in between by train and flying including getting through security won't save much time. Spend the rest of the time going down the Rhine towards Amsterdam or skip Bavaria this time and enjoy NW Germany. We love Bacharach as a base. Wine country! www.bahn.de for travel details.