Germany's Romantic Rhine and Rothenburg Itinerary recommendation

Will you have a car?

Hi Sam,
From Frankfurt airport, I was planning to take a taxi to maybe Bingen (to take a boat to Bacharach) or take the taxi directly to Bacharach. From there, the plan is to use the boats and trains.

For the Berg Eltz visit, I was thinking of taking a taxi also from Cochem.
Thanks!

You should save your wallet and take trains. They are fast and pretty cheap, at least compared to a taxi. Save the taxi fare for a lift up to the Burg Hotel. You can get a train right from the airport to Bingen Stadt and walk down to the boat dock. Train ticket is 8.35 EUR. If you go with my plan, you will need to take the train to Boppard for 21.80 EUR.

Edit: Will you be traveling alone and with only a backpack of carry-on size? The more I think about this the more impossible it seems, but I'll try.

You will not be able to make the 11:30 K-D boat at Bingen, and the next boat is not until 14:30. So instead of cooling your heels, take a train to Boppard and then take the K-D boat the slow way up river to Bacharach. That will get you to Bacharach by 15:30 or 16:30 at the latest. Now you have your Rhine cruise crossed off the list. Stay at the Burg Hotel 2 nights and forget staying in Cochem
Next morning June 6, take a train to Moselkern. The 8:21 departure gets you to Moselkern at 9:57, you can hike to Burg Eltz in about an hour and a half. If it is inclement weather, you will need a Plan B. Maybe spending the big bucks to take a taxi from Cochem. Anyway, you can be at Burg Eltz by noon and figure 2 hours there, nice little terrace restaurant there with typical German food and a beer or soda. Then hike back down to Moselkern, figure you will be there by 16:00. Then get a train back to Bacharach.
Next morning June 7, take the train at 8:06 to Rothenburg, changing trains at Mainz, Wuerzburg. and Steinach. That will get you to Rothenburg by 12:49. So that gives you the rest of the afternoon and evening in Rothenburg.

You are counting on having good weather for this. Might as well be optimistic.

Thank you, Sam. Saving cash is always good. My first choice was to take the train from the airport but I was concerned about wasting time. If taking the train won't take too much time, I will definitely take your advice. Thanks again for help and time. - Joel

See my detailed edit.

-We are scheduled to arrive in Frankfurt 9:30 AM on Jun 5
-Stay the night in Bacharach
-Stay in Cochem the following night
-Leave Cochem the following morning to spend a day in Rothenburg

Hi, Joel.

If you arrive on time, you MAY be able to catch the 10:37 train departure for Bingen, arriving 11:31. But there is no KD boat heading north until 14:30. You'll be stuck there for 3 hours. If instead you take the train to Bacharach, you'll get there at 11:50. I don't know whether you can drop your bags at Stahleck castle-hostel at that hour, but that place is 500 stair steps on the way to heaven from town. You may or may not want to make that ascent twice in one day. There are no lockers at Bacharach station if you were to just hang out in the town. So my suggestion would be that you scurry from the station down to the KD dock. That same boat that you missed from Bingen at 11:30 leaves Bacharach at 12:15 for St. Goar (12:55.) (You will miss that first part of scenery that starts in Bingen by boat, but you can still enjoy it from the train window.) It is in fact this part between St. Goar and Bacharach that R. Steves recommends.

Once in St. Goar, walk about 2 blocks into the town center and grab some lunch at one of the cafes there. You'll have a view of Rheinfels Castle if you sit outdoors. After lunch, walk down to the St. Goar TI office on Heerstrasse and ask them to keep your bags (they take lunch from 1:00 to 2:00.) Then have a walk (a more gentle slope, not hard without the bag) up to Rheinfels Castle. Spend a couple of hours there? Fetch your bags. Then catch a train back to Bacharach (a 10-min ride) at 15:56 or 16:56 (takes 10 minutes and €3.90.)

On Day 2: Your one-way fare to Cochem is €20.80. Buy the ticket at a ticket machine in Bacharach. The ticket allows you to get off in Moselkern for several hours to do the hike to Moselkern and back. Then continue on to Cochem. HOWEVER... You won't have anywhere to put your bags while you see Burg Eltz....

For this reason and because it's a long trip from Cochem to Rothenburg, I suggest instead that you NOT sleep in Cochem. When you take the train to Moselkern, you must change trains in Koblenz (which DOES have storage lockers.) So let's say early that morning you see a bit of Bacharach and catch the 10:21 train from Bacharach to Moselkern; you have a layover of 12 minutes to walk down the platform steps and stow bags in a locker there before your train to Moselkern departs (Have your Euro coins handy.) Then you just need to return from Cochem in the evening to Koblenz. Maybe you stay there. Or maybe you catch an evening train to Mainz and stay there for the night. If you take this suggestion, then don't buy the one-way fare that morning - instead, buy the Rhenland-Pfalz Ticket, a day pass which covers the train to Moselkern, Cochem, Koblenz and Mainz, from a Bacharach station ticket machine - only €24 no matter your destination. You'll be a lot closer to Rothenburg if you overnight in Mainz.

Sam / Russ, Thank you so much for all the information. They are very helpful. This forum should have been the first step I took before planning this trip. There will be a total of 4 of us on the trip. We're exited and looking forward to it. Thank you again for your help. Very much appreciated - Joel

"There will be a total of 4 of us on the trip."

Aha. So your RMV ticket from FRA to Bacharach would be €34.50 for a group day ticket (Gruppentageskarte.)

Your Rheinland-Pfalz ticket fare will be €39 for 4.

4 adds a lot of variables... You may want to opt for a taxi ride up to Stahleck hostel. 4 can do the Mainz-Rothenburg trip for €68 using regional trains on a "QDL" day pass.

First, I would never recommend Stahleck to anyone unless they had non-rolling backpack or a car. Going by foot involves a walk of about 3/10 miles, part of which is paved, part of which is steps, and part of which might be a dirt path. Or you can follow the paved route for cars. Easy with a roll-aboard, but over 2 miles. I would, instead, recommend Im Malerwinkel for ease of access and separation from the train noise.

In my opinion, you are trying to stuff 10# of sightseeing into a 5# bag. If you are arriving from across the Atlantic on Jun 5, you are going to be jet-lagged. Trying to do much of anything the first day will be a struggle. The second problem with trying to make definite plans for the day of arrival is you never know when you will arrive. Keep your plans flexible for the first day. If your flight arrives early, you might make the 11:30 boat from Bingen, but if your flight is late, the 14:30 boat might not entail too long a wait. Page 9 of this pdf file shows the boat schedules. The easiest way to get from FRA to the boat dock in Bingen is to take the S8 from the regional bahnhof to Mainz, then go by Regional Bahn (RB) to Bingen Stadt.

Give some thought to using a car. We have done more or less the same trip using a car and it was nice to be able to set off in the morning when we wanted to and add last minute tweaks to the itinerary without fretting over train schedules.

Think carefully about using a car and all the problems it entails. Where do you leave the car when you go on the boat and how do you get back to the car after the cruise? You might be creating more problems than you solve. And spending a lot more money.

Plus, no one recommends driving immediately after a long trans-atlantic flight.

hello all. Thank you once again for all help and concerns. This will only be a portion of our (Wife and 2 kids) adventure in Europe this Summer. We should be good with jet-lag by the time we arrive in Frankfurt. I will reply with an update on what itinerary I end up with. I've been researching train and taxi fares and definitely, we will be mostly using the train. With the feed back I've received, I've already cancelled my hotel room in Cochem. Danke Shon!!

Update: Thanks to all, the itinerary is complete (lodging and transportation)! For transportation, we'll be utilizing all planes, trains and automobiles ... and boat :) I'll post another update after the trip on how the itinerary worked out.

Wow! Everything went as planned. Since this vacation was pretty much a European adventure, I will only discuss the time a places on this subject. Here’s how it went:

Jun 5 – Landed in Frankfurt flughafen (09:30) from Amsterdam. We opted to rent a car to make the hour drive to Bacharack. I’d say it was about 11:00 when we arrived at Burg Stahleck to check in. Burg Stahleck was no disappointment. After check-in, a lite lunch and little rest, we were able to stroll around Bacharack until our 15:15 KD boat ride to St Goar. The stay in St Goar wasn’t very long so we were able to catch the last KD boat ride back to Bacharack. With a 2yo little boy and a 4yo daughter, we were able to make it up the uphill climb back to Burg Stahleck in about 20 minutes. Since we were able to have dinner at St. Goar, the kids were treated to ice cream on the castle’s court overlooking the Rhine River. After the kids had time to play, it was time to clean up and time for bed. We’ve never stayed in a hostel so I was a bit surprised that we had a private room. The room and the bathroom were clean and comfy.

Jun 6 – Woke up seeing the Rhine River through our room window. After a lite breakfast and a few photo op, it was about 09:00 when we made the hour drive to see burg Eltz. We did the tour and of course took a lot of pictures. The rest of the day was spent in Cochem for some site seeing and … shopping. I found out that I had a free night stay in a Marriott so we made a 2 hour drive to Wiesbaden to stay for the night.

Jun 7 – It was a 2 hour drive from Wiesbaden to our hotel in Rothenberg – The Romantik Hotel Markusturm. The wife and kids liked the hotel very much. I forgot the name of the café/pastry shop but it was in the main square, where we were able to have cake and pastry to celebrate my son’s 2nd birthday. What to do in Rothenberg? More sightseeing, shopping and of course, a visit to Kathe Wohlfahrt 

Jun 8 – Dropped off the rental car in Munich. Walked around the city to see the Glockenspiel at Marienplatz and made a stop at the Hofbrauhaus. The following day, I decided that I’d take it easy so we purchased a small-group luxury coach day trip to Neuschwanstein and Linderhof castle.

Thanks again very much for everyone’s help and recommendations – Joel

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