Traveling from Munich to Mainz and arriving by train at noon. Our flight departs at 5:40pm the next day from Frankfurt. We only chose Mainz since it is close to the airport.
I would love to try and see Rüdesheim or another town along the Rhine. Do you think this is doable with the time we have? Mainz doesn’t seem to be overly interesting so I would like the fill the time somehow. Please let me know what you would recommend
Mainz certainly has plenty to see, but why did you choose it over Frankfurt if you don't think it sounds interesting? This puzzles me. Especially since Frankfurt is even closer to the airport?
What are you interests? Without knowing what they are, it is difficult for anyone to make suggestions about what to see and do.
There's a lot to see and do in Mainz, or in Frankfurt. But you can easily get to Rudesheim in the time you have. Take the train to Bingen, and then take the ferry across the river. There are two trains every hour between Bingen and Mainz.
Closer to Mainz than Rüdesheim is Eltville.
Mainz is a reasonable choice, both handy to FRA and interesting IMO. Rüdesheim and the Rhine River Valley lie to the west of FRA airport; Central Frankfurt lies to the east, in the opposite direction. See map:
https://www.seat61.com/images/rhine-train-map.jpg
IMO there is no reason at all that you have to sightsee in Frankfurt or in Mainz either if your core interest is getting to the towns and the scenery of the Middle Rhine Valley. And there's no reason to feel obligated to the city of Frankfurt either. With your hotel in Mainz - and let's hope it's near the station for your convenience - you can reach the gateway-town to the MRV (Bingen) by direct train in 25-30 minutes. So I suggest you drop bags at the station (lockers) or your hotel, maybe grab a sandwich at the station, and catch the 13:02 - 13:29 train to Bingen Rhein Stadt stop. Nice views along the riverfront walk there. Take a K-D river cruise from there (14:30 - 16:10) to St Goar to see the best scenery on the river (castles and vineyards on the cliffsides, villages on the river's edge.) Be sure to show your train ticket to Bingen at the K-D kiosk for a 20% cruise discount.
In St Goar - enjoy the views there, maybe over a drink. Then catch the next southbound train (16:56) for the 10-minute train ride to Bacharach, which has what is possibly the Rhine's best collection of old-world buildings.
https://www.mittelrheinentdecken.de/en/villages-towns-and-cities/bacharach/
Spend at least an hour wandering the streets there. Then head back to Mainz, either after dinner in Bacharach, or before dinner in Mainz. Trains back to Mainz take 30-50 minutes and leave at...
18:06
19:06
19:36
20:06
21:04
On your departure day: Either tour Mainz or visit Rüdesheim if you feel it's important. The trip to R'heim requires a train connection in Wiesbaden. With an early start you would take the train to Wiesbaden (10 minutes) and stow your bags in a station locker. Then a second train to R'heim (30 minutes.) You need to reach FRA by around 2:40 pm, so that would mean leaving R'heim by around 12:30 or so for the 1.5-hr train trip to Wiesbaden for bags and to timely arrival at FRA. I don't like this plan at all myself - too risky on a flight day to be counting on timely train connections. I would probably spend time in Mainz instead. Direct trains to FRA fom Mainz take 25 minutes and depart every 20 minutes or so.
The suggested train trips the first afternoon are easy to ticket (one day pass for 2 persons covers all.) You did not provide your date of travel, so train times are random and will require confirmation. Use the DB railways site:
Here's a map of the towns and railways in the Rhine Valley for your reference:
http://www.loreley-info.com/eng/rhein-rhine/walking-hiking.php
Another option, in case your Mainz hotel is not set in stone: Just ride the 13:02 train from Mainz to Bingen as before, but take your bags with you and stay in Bingen. The NH hotel is right on the same river promenade where the K-D boats dock.
https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/06/1a/df/01/nh-bingen.jpg
And Bingen is right across the river from Rüdesheim, so on the second day, you could ferry across to visit R'heim, ferry back to Bingen for your bags, then catch a DIRECT Regional Express train to FRA airport from the Bingen Rhein Hbf station (13:47 - 14:33.)
Thank you! Honestly we chose Mainz as easy access to the airport. We stayed in Frankfurt last year and wanted a change of scenery and to explore a new region as we haven’t been to the Rhine area. And it helped getting a free hotel stay with our points as well. My husband suggested we stick to Mainz due to our flight but I was hoping to have some time to see at least another town, and wanted to show him it was a good idea haha. It seems they are all pretty close and doable!
All things considered, Mainz isn't as convenient as Bingen, but Mainz will work as long as you do the sightseeing in the MRV that first afternoon/evening. There are other options, but I do recommend the cruise from Bingen to St Goar and the visit by train afterward to Bacharach over the other choices.
