Rhine/Mosel Valley Itinerary ?s

It's doable mostly but Day 2 is going to be packed. Braubach is on the other side of the river and you must ferry across. Maybe someone else can figure a better strategy but this is the best I can come up with working with the castle and the transport schedules.

• Lv. Boppard 8:44, ar. St. Goar 8:55... visit Rheinfels (opens 9 am.)

• 11:10 St. Goar ferry to St. Goarshausen... 11:32 lv. St. Goarshausen for Braubach (11:53)... lunch and 1 pm English tour

• Lv. Braubach 15:06 for St. Goarshausen (15:25)... ferry back 15:40 to St. Goar... Catch 15:56 train south to Bacharach (16:05.)

Then you see O'wesel whenever in the evening and get back late to Boppard. Perhaps you could fit in O'wesel somehow on Day 1 - check in, step off the train in Oberwesel on the way to Bingen. Don't know if that could work with your schedule that day.

Day 3: You'll have a full day just with Eltz and Cochem.

Agree with Russ advice on day 2 – you'll be exhausted. I was there last year at that exact time, and the tourist people mover was not running, so you might have to hike up to the Marksburg. Factor in a 30-40 minute walk for that (it is all up hill but a very pretty woodsy walk). Note that you can take any German tour aided by an English handout (you pay a small deposit on the handout, returned when you give it back). I did this and thought it was fine, though I missed some of the guide's jokes. It's a must see castle in any language, so if it helps your planning to take any of the tours, you could pick an early morning tour and do much of Russ' itinerary but in reverse - Boppard to Braubach (transfer in Koblenz), Braubach to St. Goarhausen, ferry to St. Goar, short side trip to Bacharach, then back to Boppard.

And to point out the obvious include walking time between the ferry or train stop to all of these spots – it's also up hill to Rheinfels castle (they do have a people mover, but it is sporadic that time of year) and a short walk (6 or so blocks) from the St. Goarhausen ferry to the train station.

On day 1 try to take the train leaving Boppard at :44 that stops at Bingen (Rhein) Stadt (not Hbf), as the Rhein Stadt stop is much closer to the KD Line boat dock. Based on your 12:30 arrival time in Boppard, you really only have two choices for KD river boats – one that leaves at 2:30 or the cool old school paddle wheel Goethe that leaves at 4:30. If you choose the latter, you could try to fit in Oberwesel on your way to Bingen, but personally, I'd cut out Oberwesel altogether.

Too bad you are doing this a day too early. Your plan is to go to Burg Eltz on a Friday. On Saturday there is are buses leaving Hatzenport Bahnhof, a stop for the hourly Regional Bahn (RB) on the Mosel, at 9:19 and 11:19. The buses go to the parking lot just above Burg Eltz in 17 minutes, saving you the time of the hike. However, they only run on weekends.

The bus also leaves from Moselanlage in Moselkern 8 minutes earlier, or from the Bahnhof in Treis-Karden, which is also a stop for the Regional Express (RE) trains, 8 minutes before that, at 9:02 and 11:02.

As for Day 2, make sure you factor in the time of the tour at Marksburg. You can only tour the castle as part of a guided tour, and the English tours are at 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM (of course, you could also take a German language tour any time). The tour takes about 50 minutes. Plus you have the time to get back down the hill to the Bahnhof..

Thanks for all the responses. The train and ferry times/itinerary really helped us figure everything out. We are very excited to explore this area!

@ Lee.... we will be in Boppard on Sept 23 which is a Saturday. The fireworks Rhine in Flames are in Boppard that night. Could we execute your plan above, to see Burg Eltz that Saturday, and make it back to Boppard in time for the fireworks?

Depends on how long you want to spend at Burg Eltz.

You can leave Boppard at 9:39 and get to the bus stop at Burg Eltz at 11:36.

You can stay at Burg Eltz for almost 5 hours and leave at 16:15 (4:15 PM) and get back into Boppard at 18:15.

I don't know how late it get dark in September.

Or, you can leave Boppard at 8 AM and get to Burg Eltz at 9:36. Then you can leave Burg Eltz at 12:15 (give you 2h45) and get back to Boppard at 2:15 PM.

You can look up these schedules on the Bahn website. Use Boppard to "Burg Eltz, Wierschem".

The Burg Eltz website only says that it will open on April 1. It doesn't say when it will close, but as I remember, it had just closed when I was there in November. The website also doesn't say what the open hours will be in September, but there is something on the page for group tours that indicates tours start at 9:30.