Most efficient and enjoyable schedule of Rhine activities?

IMO, cruising is more fun than riding the train. So cruise upstream.

End at Assmannshausen, train back to Bacharach

If you end in Assmannshausen, you will have to take the train back to Ruedesheim and take the ferry across to Bingen to catch a train to Bacharach. Otherwise you will have to go all the way to Frankfurt or Koblenz for the closest railway bridge over the Rhine.

End at Assmannshausen, train back to Bacharach

If you end in Assmannshausen, you will have to take the train back to
Ruedesheim and take the ferry across to Bingen to catch a train to
Bacharach. Otherwise you will have to go all the way to Frankfurt or
Koblenz for the closest railway bridge over the Rhine.

Good callout, though according to Google Maps, we can train to Lorch and ferry across Lorch-Niederheimbach? No idea if one vs. the other would be more convenient. No matter how we arrange it, we'll have to ferry across at some point.

Alternatively, we could get off at Assmannshausen on the upstream cruise and take the "Ring Ticket" excursion in reverse order (ending at Rüdesheim).

You can take the train to Koblenz and back to Bacharach, or you train to Rudesheim, ferry across to Bingen and train to Bacharach. The latter is what we did.

• Bacharach > St. Goar by train (8:50 - 9:00)

• Rheinfels Castle + lunch

• St. Goar ferry > St. Goarshausen no later than 12:10 - 12:15; walk to St. Goarshausen station, a couple blocks north of the ferry dock.

• St. Goarshausen > Rüdesheim by train (12:27 - 12:52)

• Do the Assmannshausen Tour in place of the Ring Tour (same thing without the cruise segment, no sense in cruising the segment twice - 1.5 hrs.)

• **Assmannshausen > Rüdesheim by train no later than 15:48 - 15:52; walk to KD cruise dock

• Rüdesheim > St. Goar cruise on the Goethe paddlewheel steamer, 16:15 - 17:55 + dinner (the Marktplatz outdoor area is nice. Alla Fontana too. But wherever.)

• St. Goar > Bacharach by train whenever. (:56 after every hour)

Check individual train segment pricing against the Rheinland-Pfalz ticket for the train segments, keeping in mind that on weekdays, the first trip (Bacharach > St. Goar) is too early for coverage by the R-P ticket. Remember to retain and show your train ticket(s) at the KD dock to obtain a 20% cruise discount.)

** After the chairlift ride...You can just stay in Assmannshausen and join the KD cruise there at 16:45 if you wish; you'll skip a small part of the river this way, however.

Thanks everyone for your feedback—especially Russ. No big surprise that you provided the most detailed and useful recommendations. :-)

St. Goarshausen > Rüdesheim by train (12:27 - 12:52)

Do the Assmannshausen Tour in place of the Ring Tour (same thing
without the cruise segment, no sense in cruising the segment twice -
1.5 hrs.)

**Assmannshausen > Rüdesheim by train no later than 15:48 - 15:52; walk to KD cruise dock

@Russ, I may be missing something—is there a specific reason you're suggesting to train all the way to Rüdesheim, then do Assmannshausen Tour, and then train back to Rüdesheim?

As opposed to taking train from St. Goarshausen to Assmannshausen and doing Assmannshausen Tour "in reverse" (ending in Rüdesheim), thereby cutting out one train segment?

I think the downhill chairlift rice into Assmannshausen provides the more scenic experience. The downhill ride into Rüdesheim is nice, but it's not quite as scenic as descending into Assmannshausen. I'm probably not alone on this issue. But I haven't done this ride in many years, so maybe others will share their thoughts...

Cruising south instead of north could possibly involve more sun in your eyes. Besides the longer ride, I can't come up with any other differences.

Cruising south instead of north could possibly involve more sun in
your eyes. Besides the longer ride, I can't come up with any other
differences.

I meant to otherwise follow your suggested itinerary—cruise north/downstream from Rüdesheim. Just thinking that getting off train from St. Goarshausen at Assmannshausen (before the boat cruise portion) could eliminate a train segment backtracking to Rüdesheim.

If the only difference with that change would be having to twist and crane our necks backward for the better view taking Assmannshausen Tour "in reverse," then that seems potentially worth avoiding an additional travel segment on a day that would already have a lot (train, ferry, train, hike, boat, train).

Had a look at some comments on Tripadvisor. The chairlift preference among Germans does indeed appear to be for the "Talfahrt" (downhill ride) over the Bergfahrt:

https://www.tripadvisor.de/Attraction_Review-g1184900-d10524030-Reviews-Sesselbahn-Assmannshausen_Hesse.html

The ride into Rüdesheim from Assmannshausen is just 4 minutes.

Hi Russ (and anyone else who chimes in), I'm finalizing the plan for this day and studying the timetables closely. The excellent plan you provided would enable us to do everything. But in recent days I've seen a number of comments about how great Rudesheim is; so now I'm not sure this plan really allows us any time to see the town (besides passing through to get on the chair lift).

If I'm right about thinking we're trying to do too much in the day, I'm debating two options: (1) skip Rheinfels Castle to remove time pressure and allow more time in Rudesheim; or (2) stick with the plan as suggested, and consider Rudesheim a tiny taste to whet our appetite for a future visit.

As always, I welcome your thoughts.

But in recent days I've seen a number of comments about how great
Rudesheim is

I think some time in R'heim can be enjoyable. You can probably squeeze some in there, somehow, without shedding Rheinfels. The schedule I created earlier isn't the Ten Commandments - it was made generically, without specific travel dates - and I'd lose no sleep turning it on its head and re-doing it. The 16:15 cruise right now is dragging you away from R'heim prematurely. Bacharach is a PITA because your day needs to start and end there, but you aren't really DOING anything there. So there's certainly potential for enhancement. I'd be happy to give it a shot, but I just don't understand your FINALIZED itinerary parameters fully... Need to know...

...dates and scheduled activities for the day before and the day after
...could you book in Rüdesheim or somewhere else instead?

(You can pm me instead if you prefer.)

We just returned from Germany and in Bacharach we stayed at Altkolnischer Hof. If you’re staying there, we really enjoyed it. Rheinfels castle cost 5€ to enter. Since we are seniors it only cost us 4€ and there’s a 10€ minimum to use a credit card. There’s little to the ruin, other than one tower you can climb, and it takes less than 40 minutes to visit. There is a restaurant right by the castle with a terrace affording nice views. If you’re short on time, you wouldn’t be missing much by skipping it.

We had a rental car so just drove up to the castle. No idea for the best way to get to it from a train station. If you had the time, a better castle is Marksburg castle. It is on the other side of the river and further from Bacharach. The St. Goar ferry with a car was 7€.

If you’re not castled out by then, Rheinstein Castle is about 6 miles from Bacharach.

I am the opposite. I love roaming around Burg Rheinfels for a few hours and I have been there about 30 times. The place fascinates me. Walking into that Great Hall is so cool. The museum is interesting too. It did use to be nicer when you could go into the tunnels and wander around, but you have to be on a tour for that.

One of the more interesting things in Rüdesheim is Siegfrieds Musical Cabinet. Really unique and there is nothing else like it.

Rheinfels and Marksburg are very different from each other. But together, they are the two best Rhine Castles for touring, IMHO. Both are worth seeing if you can find the time - which you should do if you are going there.

The problem with the Rhine - by which I mean the Middle Rhine Valley - is that it's an area that requires some time for an introductory visit; it's not just Bacharach and a river cruise. If you do any reading at all, as Mike S. has done, you are going to turn up some additional places (like Rüdesheim) that you want to investigate.... Sadly, Rick's "Best of Germany" 21-day itinerary advice encourages an unrealistically brief period of time in the area... and his followers miss out on experiences they'd probably enjoy.

Rick’s Best Three-Week Germany Trip (by Car and Train)

Day 1: Fly into Frankfurt, pick up car, drive to Rhine Valley (sleep
in Bacharach)

Day 2: Rhine Valley (sleep in Bacharach)

Day 3: To Burg Eltz and Mosel Valley, then drive to Baden-Baden
(sleep in Baden-Baden)

Typically, DAY 1 means little or no sightseeing, just stuff like flight delays, grogginess, transport, checking in, getting some good food and a shower, and trying to stay awake after jumping so many time zones. Smart planning writes it off as a loss.

So Rick's suggesting a one-day Rhine visit, in essence.

(BTW, someone should ask Rick how you'd drive to Baden-Baden by train, why it's a sound idea to drive away from the airport after a red-eye transatlantic flight, and how he fits nearly 4 hours of driving, stops not included, plus a tour of the "Mosel Valley" AND Burg Eltz, into Day 3.)

Something forum member stephen penned recently is still ringing its truth in my ears... He wrote that it's...

"...easy to spend much longer than 2-3 days on the Rhine. I have spent about a month over the years and haven’t seen/done everthing I want to."

(Nail, firmly whacked on head.)

Epilogue for this thread: We did our planned Rhine tour yesterday, and my instincts were correct that including Rheinfels Castle would have been trying to do too much. We decided against it, and that choice was a good one. We had a fabulous day, and were fairly wiped out by the evening.

Here's my write-up. Thanks Russ and everyone for the assistance!

https://germanysummer2023.wordpress.com/2023/07/18/rhine-river-cruise-a-la-carte/

Oooh, nice photos that capture the moment well in that report. Also nice to hear you had an enjoyable (if exhausting) day. The hiking segment of the Ring Tour /Aßmannshausen Tour is not overly strenuous, but on a warm summer day, the walk between lifts will take a toll for sure.

You mentioned that leaving out Rheinfels worked well, saving you some energy. I would mention here to future readers of this thread that a Rheinfels Castle visit, if you want to do it, might actually be somewhat less demanding than the Ring Tour. While the Ring Tour gondola rides are surely more stimulating, the Rheinfels shuttle bus from St. Goar's center does the job of getting you up and back down the steep cliffside, and once you're up there, the only mandatory walking is the walking you do on the castle grounds.

I would also comment that the outline in my 5/30 post demonstrates one of St. Goar's advantages as a travel base town over Bacharach. If you stay in St. Goar instead, the tacked-on train rides between these two towns at the beginning and the end of the day become completely unnecessary. And some St. Goar hotel rooms offer views of the river gorge and Burg Katz, the same handsome scene that Mike S. captured in his report.

Lest I gave the wrong impression when I said we were "wiped out" by the end of the day, it was the good, successful-sightseeing-day kind of wiped out. My point (just to be sure it was clear) was that had we added Rheinfels to the day's itinerary, then it definitely would have been too much.

The Ring Tour absolutely lived up to expectations, and we're so happy we did it. For our interests, and the uniqueness of the experience, it was a better choice than Rheinfels. Which I'm sure is a wonderful castle to explore, but we have other castles on our trip itinerary, but nothing like the Ring Tour. So definitely try to do it if it sounds interesting to you! (And we also enjoyed Rüdesheim, and RheinWeinWelt in Rüdesheim.)

We cruised from St. Goar to Bingen (took the train to St. Goar from Bacharach).
This was my husband's account of it from my journal.
Took train to St Goar to board the river boat cruise. Jen wasn’t feeling too well but after a splash of water and a walk around it was better.
Saw lots of castles in ruins and their Mäuseturms.
Had the whole lower level dining area all to ourselves most of the cruise because everyone wanted to be on the sun deck above.
Got to Bingen it was a very tourist town. Walked around a bit but didn’t see anything super special. Jen bought lots of yarn and some tea.
Took the train back to Bacarach.