Mainz to Rüdesheim

I'm no expert on independent travel in Germany but found a website rome2rio.com that showed the options. Train (plus a cab) is 1 hour plus and costs $127-158. Uber is 34 minutes travel time and $55-75. Taxi alone is 34 minutes and $85-110. You can also check Google - plug in one of the towns, select directions and then toggle between car, public transport to see options.

The cable car over the vineyard sounds amazing but is it really worth the hassles? I see you stop in Koblenz - how about the cable car over the Rhine? We've cruised the Rhine and Moselle. Loved the Moselle - our favorite river.

Option 1: Most cruises seem to provide a list of various activities for the daytime tours while the boat is in a town. Perhaps the first thing to do is ask them they have an option for going to one of the Rhine gorge towns in a group. They may have cab/uber contacts in Mainz. They can certainly also arrange a cab from the boat dock to the Main train station.

Option 2: Chat with other tour members to share a cab/uber. A car should take about half an hour each way. See Googlemap for Mainz to Rudesheim directions.

Option 3: Deutsche Bahn will do the Mainz Main Station to Rudesheim trip in about an hour out, and an hour back.

Here is the bahn.de webpage:

https://www.bahn.de/p/view/index.shtml

click on English in the top row of choices, and add in your starting point and end point and pick a date and time for the trip out and back.

If you ask the train provider - dbahn - you will see that it is every hour at xx:13, takes 51 minutes by train with a simple 8 minute change in Wiesbaden Hbf, arrives Rüdesheim(Rhein) at 4 minutes past the hour.

€4.95 one way. €9.65 all day, per person.
or €16.60 for a group day ticket, up to 5 people all day.

Sometimes, unfortunately, Rome2Rio can get it slightly wrong.

If Nigel is Right then I'll strike rome2rio.com off the list of useful websites. Quite the difference is prices quoted.

Folks, there is no Uber in Germany.
The train is the easiest way. Use www.rmv.de to find your trains and their schedule. It only takes 51 min. and you will change trains in Wiesbaden. The train going to Rüdesheim and back to Wiesbaden only runs once an hour, so having that knowledge from the RMV site is valuable. Get an all-day group ticket from the ticket machines.

Thanks, Ms Jo.

i’ve Checked cruise for excursion that would include this but none so looks like the train is our best bet! Thanks for info on train and especially detail of hourly connection! Interesting that their is no Uber, but I’d be afraid to do that anyway! Looks like we are going by train! Thanks to all for your help!!

I enjoy visiting Worms a lot, but others don't. Rüdesheim is not my cup of tea, but others love it and frankly, the view going up the chairlift to the Niederwald Denkmal is special. Mainz has a ton of stuff to see, yet few people post about the many sites. Perhaps they are following Ricks suggestion not to bother with Mainz or Wiesbaden or Heidelberg? Even Koblenz that doesn't appear on many peoples list has charming and historic sites to visit. Cologne has so much more than a cathedral. Frankfurt has soooo much more than banks. Stuttgart has a plethora of cool sites.

I’m in the camp that things Rüdesheim is a bit of a tourist trap. It’s certainly pretty, but also full of stereotyphical german stuff ( the oompa bands, beerhalls etc) and loads of tourists. I’m not saying your shouldnt go there, just that you should know what to expect. Personally I found it quite tacky, but also fun in it’s own way.

Morton, thanks for the input!! Of course seeing oompa on tv all my 62 years would be kinda cool to see in person :)

Go to Rüdesheim. In some ways it is a tourist trap, but so what? That's irrelevant. You can easily get away from all that.

The last I was in Rüdesheim was in 2014, going there after I had landed earlier at FRA in the morning from SFO. What I wanted to see (again, the first time was in 1977) was the Niederwalddenkmal which was all covered up because of cleaning, etc, took the cable car up there, walked back down., ca 30 mins.

I took the regional train from Frankfurt Hbf to Rüdesheim. You can connect from Mainz.

True, Mainz has numerous historical and cultural sites...also well worth your time. Good that Uber is not in Germany.

Thanks Fred!