Rhine daytrip from Cologne

I'd make sure your room reservation is extremely firm, and reconfirm it. Sure, the riverside part of the city will be a madhouse. If you want a no cost viewing option, you'll have to sit waiting in the sun for hours. I'd book a Lights boat ride if I could afford it, and if the boat is big enough to have a bar and a toilet!

The only scenic cruising area is downstream, from, roughly, Bingen to Boppard. Please use the Search box to read about this, and castles. You'll find much more than you can get in a single discussion here. Rick has a Rhine castle advice page.

The Middle Rhine Valley takes a little time and a day trip from Cologne will be rushed. My advice - The Rhine towns are much more atmospheric places on the whole than Cologne. Keep the night on 15 July in Cologne and see what you need to see there that day and on the following day if needed - but proceed on 16 July to one of the Rhine Villages for a 2-night stay there.

The castle in Bacharach has been converted into a youth hostel. For a real castle experience you should probably visit Marksburg in Braubach - it's the only never-destroyed medieval castle in the Middle Rhine Valley.

I would pick either Boppard or St. Goar for a Rhine base for 16 & 17 July. From St. Goar a ferry takes you across the river at any hour and you can board a train there to Braubach (takes 20 min.) to visit Marksburg. From Boppard you can cross by ferry as well, take a somewhat longer walk north into the town of Filsen, and catch a train from there to Braubach. If you arrive in St. Goar (or Boppard) mid-day on the 16th, Marksburg can be done the same afternoon.

Staying in St. Goar would give you proximity to the adorable town of Bacharach (10 minutes south by train) and of course Rheinfels Castle ruins is right in St. Goar. To include a Rhine Cruise and Bacharach, you would take the train south to Bingen (stopping over in Bacharach on the way for maybe 2 hours) the board a northbound KD boat in Bingen to return to St. Goar. Bingen-St. Goar offers the very best cruise scenery and takes 1.5 hours.

It MIGHT be possible to do a day trip from Cologne that includes Marksburg and a Rhine Cruise and Bacharach but you would have to lay out a scheduled plan very carefully using Marksburg, train, and boat schedules, and it would likely be a very long day. And I have a hunch that once you see Braubach, Bacharach and St. Goar, you'll wish you'd booked 2 nights there instead of in Cologne.

Here is the brochure with the schedule for K-D boats on the Rhein. The schedule is on page 7.

Note a few things.

1. The Rhein flow down from Mainz to Cologne. Because of the strong current, it takes boats a lot longer to go up the river from, say, Koblenz to Bingen than down from Bingen to Koblenz.

2. There is no single boat that goes all the way between Cologne and Bingen.

3. There are very few boats between Cologne and Bonn or between Linz and Koblenz.

4. This isn't like a bus line with hourly buses you can hop on and off of. Between Boppard and Bingen/Rüdesheim there are only five boats each way daily. For the rest of the way there are fewer.

There are rail lines on both sides of the Rhein, at least between Koblenz and Bingen/Rüdesheim. Milk run trains that stop in every station run hourly. You can find schedules on this Bahn webpage. Take the train in the morning from Cologne to the farthest point up the river you want to go to. Some would say Bingen; I'd say Bacharach. Then come down the river with whatever stopovers you can fit into the schedule and come back the rest of the way by train.

I'm not sure why Lee recommends starting a cruise in Bacharach, but here's why I recommend Bingen:

Bingen scene: http://www.klaes-w.de/fotos/mittelrhein/mittelrhein_update/bingen_maeuseturm_mit%20ruedesheim_ruine_ehrenfels_8418sqx.jpg

Burg Rheinstein, just north of Bingen: http://www.welterbe-atlas.de/uploads/pics/burg-rheinstein-trechtingshausen.JPG

Cruise map showing other castles and sights south of Bacharach, all of which get skipped on the way to St. Goar if you start in Bacharach: http://www.bingen-ruedesheimer.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Loreleyfahrt.png

Thanks all for very helpful info.

I'm not sure why Lee recommends starting a cruise in Bacharach

Assuming you have plenty of time and money, go right ahead and go from Bingen, but I don't think the stretch from Bingen to Bacharach has anything that can't be missed if time is a factor. The stretch from Bacharach to St. Goar has the mid-river toll castle, the Pfalzgrafenstein, and the Lorelei, plus castles and river towns.

You can take the 6:56 MRB from Cologne and go to Bingen at 9:57. There you catch the 10:30 boat down the river to St. Goar at 11:55. If you instead get off at Bacharach at 9:30, you can catch the earlier boat at 10:15 and be in St. Goar at 10:55. If you want to spend time at Rheinfels and Braubach that day and still go back to Cologne, the extra hour could be critical.

In 2004, I did the trip by boat from St. Goar to Bacharach. The boats go so slowly, especially against the current. I'd spend 15 minutes looking at the same thing. By the time I got to Bacharach, I was so bored I couldn't wait to get off. It's a little faster the other way, but still slow. I'd rather spend my time looking at new things.

"Assuming you have plenty of time and money, go right ahead and go from Bingen, but I don't think the stretch from Bingen to Bacharach has anything that can't be missed if time is a factor."

40 minutes is pretty short IMO. Just to be clear about your choices - if you board in Bingen, you have 85-min. on the boat (for about 16E w/ discount) vs. a 40-min. cruise for about 11E if you start in Bacharach.

40 minutes is pretty short IMO

It's more like an hour. The train to Bingen stops in Bacharach 27 minutes before it gets to Bingen, allowing you to catch the earlier boat and get to St. Goar an hour earlier.

40 minutes refers only to the actual cruise time between Bacharach and St. Goar. That's not much.

A look at that KD schedule provides clues for the best sightseeing strategy. KD runs its greatest number of northbound boats - 5 per day - starting in Bingen/R'heim because that is where the great scenery begins and where the demand from the cruising public is greatest. Bingen-Ruedesheimer (another cruise company) runs cruises that cover ONLY this southern section between R'heim/Bingen and Trechtingshausen. They call them Burgenfahrten or Castle cruises because there are some very fine castles in this part of the river. Certainly, a lot of folks find this part of the river less skippable than others.

You're traveling many miles to get here; if it's at all possible, treat yourself to the full 26 km, 85-minute cruise.

Ok with your help the following plan has crystalised.
Early train (about 6am)from Cologne to Bingen.
9 30 boat from Bingen to Braubach.
Lunch and Marksburg visit.
Train back to Cologne.
I supposs that is doable?

Your plan is one of the few feasible options on that weekend - train service to/from Braubach and along the entire east bank of the will be interrupted then. Construction work I imagine. You'll get off the boat in Braubach at 12:20. The 15:05 KD boat gets you out of Braubach and across the river to Boppard, another lovely town where you can walk the town, maybe ride the chairlift to the lookout and have a brew at the Gedeonseck terrace, then catch a train north back to Cologne. Braubach is completely lovable Rhine village that you will enjoy, and fortunately small as your time there will be fairly short.

To cruise north to Braubach and then SOUTH to Boppard at 15:05, I believe you will need a round-trip cruise ticket from Bingen to Braubach.

If you leave on that 5:56 MRB train from Cologne and return by MRB or other regional train combo from Boppard as well, you can cover all your train travel with the Happy Weekend Ticket - 44E for two. Buy it at a Cologne station ticket machine, maybe the night before for the following day so that you aren't "buying groggy" at 5:45 am. The MRB train to Bingen will pause for 20 minutes at Koblenz station - time enough to grab a 2nd cup of coffee in the station's main hall.

I am still casting my vote for staying in the Middle Rhine Valley (Boppard?) Ideally, you might arrive fairly early in Cologne on the 15th , stow your bags, and have a long day of sightseeing there - then proceed to Boppard in the early evening - but I'm guessing you have made a firm decision to stay in Cologne the entire time for reasons that are very important to you.

Thanks for your great help Russ.Accommodation in Cologne is already paid for

I was fortunate enough to live in Koln one spring while teaching abroad. I am not sure what exposure you have to the Romans in Germany, but if I was going to see one thing in Koln it would be the Roman Germantic Museum right next to the cathedral. You could spend hours there. Happy travels!

Johan, don't forget about Monday museum closures. To me, it makes sense to be sitting on a train when everything but the Kolumba museum is shut.

Hi Jim.I have a bit of background regarding Roman Law and the said museum is definitely on our program.
Tim we will indeed be spending our Monday on trains.Thanks guys.