Itinerary ideas for 2 days in Bacharach Rhine

Here's what we did on one of the days. We rented bikes in Bacharach (ask your hotel - we got ours from a man who rents them out of his garage on the north end of town, but there was another option that happened to be closed). We rode to maybe St Goar (can't remember exactly) and locked our bikes and caught the ferry across. On the other side, we caught the train north to the Marksburg station, and walked/hiked from the station to the castle ad toured it. Then we returned the same way: walk, train, ferry, bike. We could have visited Rheinfels the same day but didn't. Instead we returned to Bacharach and hiked around the hills above it. We opted for biking instead of the KD trip and I was so glad we did. I felt like the bike, ferry and train got us so much closer to the towns, literally obviously, but in terms of getting a feeling too. The bike paths are huge and the ride is all flat. But you can do both since you are there two days...

Jessica

We took the KD Line from Bacharach to Boppard. Nice boat and enjoyed the cruise. Lot to see along the way. Squeezing both castles in one day would be a stretch because you won't reach Braubach until noon. I would do Marksburg on your cruise day and Rheinfels the next. It is only a 10 minute train to St. Goar. Enjoy the area. RESTAURANT: Altkolnischer Hof (Excellent Food), Gaststatte Posthof (Very Good and a great outdoor eating area).

And if we have our Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket from Saturday- I think we can also use it on Sunday in this area, correct?

If you are arriving with this ticket on Saturday, it will expire at 3 am Sunday morning. You can use a Rheinland-Pfalz ticket for Sunday. Assuming "we" is 2 people, that will be 29 EUR, I believe it also gets you a discount on the K-D boat. Normally, I'd take the K-D boat downriver to Braubach, do your castle tour, and take the train back, stopping off elsewhere on the way as you wish. The boats are slower going up river, especially where there is swift current around the Loreley.

"I wanted to do a Rhine cruise and see Marksburg and Rheinfels. Was considering the KD line."

The logistics of getting around here are complex as you have trains, cruise boats and ferries to work around.

THE CRUISE: KD offers a 20% cruise discount if you show the kiosk attendant the train ticket you used to reach the town where your cruise starts. It's a good choice.

Here is a map for your reference that shows the Rhine town locations...

http://www.mittelrhein-wein.com/Bilder/rheinlauf-gross.jpg

I see that threadwear boarded in Bacharach and cruised north to Boppard. Sam has suggested cruising to Braubach, followed by a castle tour. Cruising from south to north does work best in the interests of time, as Sam indicates.

My cruise advice:

1.) Board in Bingen, which is the true southern gateway to the valley. If you first board in Bacharach, you miss half of the best Rhine scenery.

2.) In the interests of time, you may want to end the cruise either in Boppard (after 2.3 hours) or earlier in St. Goar (after 1.5 hours.) The most dramatic scenery is between Bingen and St. Goar. St. Goar to Boppard tends to be slightly repetitive of the earlier segment. So cutting it short on the north end, even in St. Goar, means you don't miss all that much. If you cruise all the way to Braubach, you'll be on the boat for about 3 hours (and pay more for the cruise of course,) which is alright for some people, but I tend share Jessica's observation that the towns are the main thing here. Cruising all the way to Koblenz ends up a real waste of time. Avoid that.

About cruising all the way to Braubach/Marksburg: The 9:30 boat north is the only one you can use to take a Marksburg castle tour that day (the other 2 boats to Braubach arrive too late.) The 9:30 gets there at 12:20 - in time for the 13:00 English tour. However, the train you must first take to Bingen will mean you have to leave your Rhine base by around 8 am, and you will have about 1 hour down time in Bingen before the cruise. And you'll need to have lunch on the boat. So this may or may not be the best plan for you.

Combining a cruise and Marksburg on the same day is less demanding on your schedule if you do it this way:

1.) Cruise Bingen to St. Goarshausen (10:30 - 12:05, or 11:30 - 12:55; take the train to Bingen first, of course.) St. Goarshausen is the town right across the Rhine from St. Goar.
2.) Walk to St. Goarshausen train station, catch train north at 12:32 or 13:32 - ride to Braubach takes 20 minutes.
3.) Have a nice meal in Braubach. The Marktplatz has a couple of restaurants.
4.) Walk around Braubach for a look around, then up to Marksburg for the 16:00 tour in English.

After your tour you can return to your Rhine base by train via Koblenz.

On DAY 2: Boppard, Oberwesel, St. Goar (Rheinfels) and Bacharach are all on the same side of the river. You can use trains to visit whatever interests you. Boppard has a chairlift ride with an extra nice view from the Gedeonseck restaurant near the top:

http://ext.pimg.tw/samlucky5711/1379089584-1923285561.jpg?v=1379089585

Where are you coming from that you will be using a Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket. There might be less expensive Länder or Regional tickets. For Sunday and Monday you can use a Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket for 29€ for two people. Depending on where you travel, a VRM (Verkehrverbund-Rhein-Mosel Gruppentageskarte might be an even better deal. Only caveat is that the VRM extends from Oberwesel to Remagen on the Rhein and up the Mosel to Bullay. Bacharach is outside the Verkehrverbund so you will need local tickets to Oberwesel to start using the VRM ticket.

You can find the prices for the VRM Gruppentageskarten on their website, under Preistabelle. The ticket prices are based on cells transversed. The cell layout (Wabenplan is here.

Check the K-D schedule here, on pp 21-22. Note that the Rhein flows DOWN the river from Bacharach to Braubach and UP the river from St. Goar to Bacharach. That's important because the current is very strong and it take a lot longer going up-river.

Wow-thanks! This is great advice.
Lee-we are coming from Nurnberg on Saturday. I guess I misunderstood the weekend tickets bc I thought they would be good for all weekend.

We will be leaving for Amsterdam on Tuesday, so a 3 day rail pass for the Rhine area (if that exists) would be great. I am such a newbie when it comes to train travel. I am learning so much (and saving $$) so thank you everyone.

And there are 4 of us, 2 kids (12 and 14), if that changes any rail/boat ticket recommendations.