We drop off our hire car in Mainz and then need to get to Cologne the following day. So we would like some boat, some train, a beautiful town to sleep in half way up the Rhine to explore in the morning ....We have our 4 kids with us (so every ticket purchase is heart wrenching)
Whats the best way to approach this journey
Thanks
Murray
What are the ages of the kids?
You could get the K-D at Mainz at 9:30, but otherwise you could get a local train from Mainz to Bingen (Stadt) and get the the there at 11:30. Next boat is at 2:30 pm if you can't make that one. You can get off in Boppard and spend the night there. Next morning, get a train to Cologne. Type of ticket you buy depends on the ages of your family.
Thanks Sam
Kids are 19, 17, 14, 11
We heard Mainz - Bengin is less scenic, so may be a waste on KD?
Can we get train tickets (hop on hop off) up to Boppard, sleep there and then KD to Cologne?
We need to book these tickets before we leave (Visa requirement) do you know the sites to purchase the train tickets
Many thanks!
The scenic part of the Rhine is from Bingen to Boppard. The Lorelei, the gorge, and all the old castles on the hill tops. Boppard to Cologne, not so much. That is the section you should cover by train.
6 people with only 2 who are 14 or under, is a little awkward size because group discounts tickets are for groups of 5 or less. You can get group tickets at a discount in advance for groups of 6 or more. Look at www.bahn.com. Mainz to Bingen is a local train ticket. Prices at:
https://www.rmv.de/auskunft/bin/jp/query.exe/en
Curious where you are coming from that requires a visa, and the need to have train tickets booked already. You are apparently renting a car. Do they need that booking info as well? Pick-up and drop-off locations?
Local train tickets are bought out of a vending machine.
The KD boat is at http://www.kdrhine.com/
Thank you Sam !
One more thing...
Would it better to travel by train and get on and off at more towns vs spending a longer period of time on the KD with less hop on and hop off....
There are 5 daily boats on the Rhine, so hop-on hop-off opportunities are limited, but possible. See the schedule at the KD website. There is a 3 hour gap between the 3 morning boats and the 2 afternoon boats.
When Russ sees this, he is the Rhine castle expert and will add a lot of detail. There are some worth seeing. You could get off the ship in St Goar and travel by train from there, or spend the night there.
murray, please download the KD schedule immediately, checking for your dates in the two schedules they usually post. You need this document anyway. (No winter service.) You will see that the frequency of the boats makes them very unlike a downtown city bus. You have to plan very carefully to make more than one stop in a day. You will also see that the time (and lack of scenery) all the way to Cologne (or as far as the boat may go, maybe Koblenz) is not worthwhile.
Thank you! I will do that...
would love your insight on whether the you can purchase a train ticket that allows you to hop on and off, as we go up through the village towns, say from Mainz - St Goar...
It is called a Rheinland-Pfalz ticket. Your problem is that it is only good for up to 5 people, and you have 6. I think if you just buy tickets out of the vending machines, you will not pay very much.
For Instance, Bacharach to St Goar, a 10 minute trip, is 4.10 EUR for the people over 14, and free for the people 14 and under, although they must be listed on the ticket and one of the adults must be a parent or grandparent.
Train to Bingen. Board KD - show train ticket for 20% discount. Get off at St. Goar or Boppard. Stay there. If you want to visit towns you skipped such as Bacharach, go back by train. Continue next day by train to Cologne.
Many of these stations are unattended, so you have to hope that your chip and pin card works in the ticket vending machine, or have lots of small bills. I haven't bought a RP dayticket myself, but couldn't you buy two? Are any of the children under 14? I just wonder about short legs and stamina for the vast amount of walking and hills up to castles? With the latency of public transportation spacing, and the time on the boat, how many towns can you really burn through in one day? (The trains themselves are fast, much faster than the KD boats, even downstream, despite being local train routes.)
Unless there's something you really want to see in Mainz, can you drop the car in Bingen or closer to the actual scenic part of the Rhine? The train from Mainz to Bingen is fine, but you don't have the time to learn about taking public transportation in a big group, that morning. Are your kids used to being chauffered in an SUV everywhere? It sounds like you may have unrealistic expectations for the number of stops. Have you done this before?
You could buy 2 Rheinland-Pfalz tickets, 29 EUR each, but that kind of kills the economics.
These tickets are sold like this: the 1st passenger costs 24 EUR and it is 5 EUR for each extra person up to 5 total traveling together. If there are up to 2 people on the ticket, they can take any number of their own children aged 14 and under, but not 3 people on the ticket. So you have to buy 2 2-person tickets, one with the parents and their children 14 and under, and the other with the 2 children that are over 14. All the names of the travelers must be written on the back of the ticket. If you buy them at the ticket window, there is a 2 EUR service charge, so they should be bought out of a ticket machine to save money. You could also get them with a DB app on your smart-phone, but the kids on the other ticket would also need a smartphone for their tickets.
Monday to Friday, you must travel only on regional trains after 9 am, weekends and German holidays you can travel anytime. It is good in the German Land of Rheinland-Pfalz, which covers the Rhine River down to just south of Bonn. It is good for any number of journeys until 3 am the next day. Do not get on ICE, IC, or EC trains. The tickets are not valid on these trains. You also get a discount when you show the tickets for the K-D tour boats.
Thank you so much Sam, appreciate the detailed assistance, Tim as well, yes some reality has helped me refine the trip ...!
I am taking KD to Boppard, stay a night and then train to Cologne
Many thanks
