Koblenz Rhine River KD Cruises Questions

The recommendation is usually to take the train up river to save time, then take the boat back for the views. We travelled from Bacharach to Boppard, with a stop in St. Goar to see the castle ruins. You DO need to buy a ticket for each segment if you get off the boat. This surprised us. Given this, I would recommend that they take the train up river, stopping where they please, and continue by train to wherever they want to start the boat trip. Then board the boat and stay on board for a couple hours. They can always take the train back to wherever they are staying (assuming the disembark on the correct side of the river). The train tracks hug the river, so the views are the same as on the boat.

I really like Boppard as a base for this area. We stayed there in 2018. It’s just lovely. Many hotels are right on the river (several blocks from the train), and there is a beautiful promenade along the river. Plenty of shops and restaurants. In 2023 we stayed in Bacharach, and it was just too small for us. Most hotels are RIGHT on the train tracks. Ours was on the main road through town, which was busier than I expected. And we found many shops closed, even in July.

I highly recommend Burg Eltz and Marksburg castles. Burg Eltz gets all the hype, but we enjoyed Marksburg even more.

We stayed at the Rhein Hotel in St. Goar. Nice hotel, but not on the side of the river with the train tracks. But it is about 100 ft. to the boat dock, and I believe there was a ferry going across the river there. St. Goar has Burg Rheinfels, a very interesting castle ruin to walk around. Beautiful views of the river.

I think it was Bacharach which had a great pub, the Altes Haus. The oldest building in town, I believe (seriously old). We had a great meal there and enjoyed just looking around.

"The places they really want to spend time in along the river are Cochem, Koblenz, Bacharach, Rüdesheim and Heidelberg."

Only Koblenz, Bacharach, and Rüdesheim are on the Rhine. Cochem is on the Mosel and can be visited in connection with a Rhine stay.

The best Rhine Castle tour is at Marksburg in the old-world dream-town of BRAUBACH (3 pages of photos at link!) which is not far south of Koblenz on the east bank of the Rhine.

The best Mosel River Castle tour is at Burg Eltz- although it's not really on the Mosel, but deep in the woods, a slightly lengthy bus ride or a one-hour hike.

They want to see Cochem - so start with 2 nights there. It's a great base town wandering around, for wine, hiking, and river cruising and also has a cool chairlift and Reichsburg Castle, with great views of the river - AND IT'S RIGHT IN TOWN.

On the Rhine, Boppard makes for a great base town - start with 2 nights there too. Boppard has more dining/drinking/lodging options than the other Rhine towns AND a great position on the river AND it offers FREE transportation by train and bus locally (and to Cochem) through its VRM Guest Ticket program - get the ticket at any hotel, inn, or apt. there. Boppard's nice waterfront, riverfront hotels, chairlift, and general vibe are very good, and it's easy to visit the other towns of interest from there.... to Cochem 15 train minutes, to St Goar (Rheinfels Castle ruins) 12 minutes, to Oberwesel about 17 and to Bacharach about 20. Boppard is also a good springboard for MARKSBURG Castle in Braubach (3 different ways to get there.)

"Fahrtunterbrechung ist nach vorheriger Bescheinigung durch das nautische Personal beliebig oft gestattet. Fährgäste, die an Zwischenstationen ihre Fahrt unterbrechen möchten, müssen ihre Absicht mindestens zehn Minuten vor Ankunft des Schiffes dem nautischen Personal mitteilen..."

The above passage from this year's K-D website says that layovers ARE POSSIBLE with K-D cruises, but not necessarily guaranteed... The only condition is that passengers tell the staff 10+ minutes IN ADVANCE of their layover intentions (so their tickets can be marked for reboarding.) I cannot explan why travel4fun's layover was denied. Perhaps there was some additional overriding concern that day which prompted the denial. But this layover thing has been possible for many years, and this year's materials indicate the same, so it's probably wrong IMHO to tell you that it's not possible just on anecdotal evidence. That said... I don't recommend layovers since the cruise boat schedule is very skimpy. All the towns of interest have a train station.

The cruise does not have to cover the entire Koblenz > Mainz segment (which would be very boring) and does not have to be round-trip. What they really MUST cover for a good cruise is 1) the Bingen > St Goar segment or 2) the Bingen > Boppard segment (which is 1 hour longer.) And there is usually no good reason to make it a round trip cruise - just cruise one way and use the train to return (or to get to the cruise dock in the first place.) If they stay in Boppard, and they want to have some time in Rüdesheim, as you say, then it would be a simple matter to cruise from Boppard > R'heim one way (11:00 - 15:15, for example, using the Goethe Paddlewheel cruise boat, Tu-Su only.) Then after an evening in R'heim, they'd catch a train back to Boppard via Koblenz.

That's not the only way to slice the cake. They could instead take a Boppard > Bingen train to Bingen Rhein Stadt for boarding the cruise (maybe making a stopover by train in Bacharach or Oberwesel on the way?) and then cruise back to Boppard (16:30 - 18:50 on the same Paddlewheel boat doing its return run.)

Koblenz is OK for Ehrenbreitstein Fortress... otherwise...

Why not do this:
https://www.k-d.com/en/product/combined-ticket-cable-car-and-fortress/

Schedule for trips from Koblenz and back:
https://www.k-d.com/de/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/FAHRPLAN-HS-NS-2025.pdf

Red täglich =daily cruises Black Di-So =cruises Tuesday to Sunday

For example (not mondays) you can start in Koblenz at 9 am go to St Goar 12:20 pm have lunch see the town
Go back with another boat from St Goar 2:30 pm Boppard see the town from there with another boat 3:30 pm back to Koblenz arrive 5:40pm

Alternative Go back by train from St Goar or Boppard to Koblenz That will shorten the daytrip in time and there will be time to use the combined ticket for cable car and fortress in Koblenz

Check int.bahn.de for train connections from St Goar to Koblenz (taking 45 min leaving 10 minutes past the hour)

Wow you all are amazing thank you! I will share this with them !! Wonderful suggestions!

Start the boat at either Rudesheim or Bingen. Take it to at least St. Goar but if you can get the one that goes to Boppard, take that one. In Boppard take the chairlift. The view coming down is my favorite Rhine view. If you want to explore a ruin, do. Burg Rheinfels in St. Goar. Check to see if you need to bring a flashlight or if one is provided and do a tour that includes the tunnels. my brother and I explored them w/o lights on our own years ago. Not allowed these days I understand

If you want a feel for what travel in Germany was like years ago, stay in Bacharach at Irmgard Orth’s 3 room b&b. the room with the king bed ( or 2 singles pushed together ) has the private bath. The other 2 rooms share the hall bathroom. Only 1 time that I have stayed there have both other rooms been occupied. Wonderful hostess, decent breakfast included. Check it out on tripadvisor

You don't mention when they're going, but we did a short section of the Rhine cruise one year in early July and nearly died of the heat on the boat. It was hard to enjoy the cruise.

We stayed at the Rhein Hotel in St. Goar. Nice hotel, but not on the
side of the river with the train tracks.

Uh, the train tracks run along both sides of the river. The station at St Goar is up the hill a couple of blocks from the docks and there is also a station across the river in St Goarshausen.

From the station on the St Goar side you can get to Boppard, Bacharach, and Bingen. From the station the St Goarshausen side you can get to Braubach and Rüdesheim. Besides the boats that stop in both St Goar and St Goarshausen, there is also a ferry across the river between the towns.