Rhine River Cruise, Munich with sidetrips & Berlin train questions

Sunday, arrive 7:30 am into Frankfurt. Travel to Mainz then Bingen for Rhine KD cruise to St. Goar. I'd like to see this area and I heard being outdoors is a great way to beat jet lag. From St. Goar train to Munich. If I have any energy that day I'll see what I can of Munich but otherwise I'll rest. I'm staying at Pension Lindner. I was with you until From St. Goar train to Munich. That's far too much for your first day after a transatlantic flight. You will be dead by the time you reach Munich, and you'll likely need to sleep quite late the next day to recover.

Thanks Tom. I was thinking I could nap on the train from St. Goar to Munich but if its too much I'll reconsider.

"Is there anything that y'all think I should definitely omit? I have a fairly loose itinerary but my musts are Dachau, Salzburg and obviously my concert Thursday (in Berlin.)"

You should omit nearly all of it, IMO.

Your time is indeed crammed into less than a week. You have less than 2 days for Berlin once you subtract your Thursday music-related activities. 4 days is about right.

On Day 1 you're flying red-eye then using your first day to spend 7+ hours on trains and 1.5 hours on a cruise boat. Really?

Your tribute to your mother will be absolutely perfunctory with this plan. A day trip from Munich to Salzburg is possible but not advisable.

If you wish to pay tribute to Holocaust victims you can do that near Berlin at the Sachsenhausen camp.

So IMO, one option: Skip Munich and Salzburg. Spend Day 1 and part of Day 2 on the Rhine. Don't leave without touring a medieval castle. Then leave in the afternoon (Bingen 13:55, Berlin 20:25) and spend the rest of your time in Berlin and doing the round-trip by train back to Frankfurt. Include an outing to Sachsenhausen during your stay in Berlin.

Option two: Skip the Rhine. Skip Munich. Board the train from FRA (8:52?) for Salzburg (14.41) for a 2-night stay. It's a long ride but better than what you have planned now for Day 1. See Hohensalzburg Castle there. Fly on Tuesday to Berlin for 4 nights. Include an outing to Sachsenhausen during your stay in Berlin.

Interesting Russ I hadn't considered skipping Munich. I will consider it. I'm so glad I posted this! I always think I can do more than I can! To be clear I am flying into Frankfurt and out of Berlin.

Aha - flying out of Berlin helps a little.

What if I skip the Rhine and train directly to Munich from Frankfurt? Since it isn't a must perhaps I plan on coming back and doing the Rhine another time. I suppose I was thinking it would be a nice way to get fresh air since it was so close to the Frankfurt airport. Also what train tickets should be bought before the trip and which can wait when I get there? Thank you again.

Could you fly into Munich, out of Berlin, skip the Rhine for this trip? Munich has a beautiful new airport, and you could be rested up to see your "must see" places before taking a direct train to Berlin. We recently did a 4-hour walkaround stopover in Bamberg (luggage lockers in the train station) but we had been to both Munich and Berlin before so we weren't shorting either city.
Or fly in and out of Berlin, which has plenty to see?

No Laura plane tickets have already been purchased. It was ridiculously expensive to fly into Munich from NC for some reason.

I think I may drop the Rhine & go directly to Munich which is unfortunate but probably for the best.

Hi,

How long is your transatlantic flight? Arriving at 0730 at FRA on Sunday, plus that Rhine trip, before going on to end the day in Munich can be done but I would reserve at the Pension first. Of course, you can sleep on the train to Munich...no problem. I would aim at arriving in Munich ca 18:00 or 1900 hrs. How do you know you'll have jet lag upon arrival? You may have nothing at all to beat.

The best way to carry out Sunday's plan, what I call a heavy duty schedule (ein strafes Programm), after arrival is don't pack too heavily, I'm not not a light packer, but I keep it at medium. Make sure you have a good hot lunch either at Mainz Hbf or on the boat to St Goar. If you know what you're doing, don't procrastinate, dilly-dally, your Sunday program is doable. Traveling solo makes it even easier with your Sunday itinerary.

Dropping the Rhine trip and going to Munich from Frankfurt can be easily done after arrival.

Hi Fred, my flight duration is 8 hours and 40 minutes. I leave Charlotte, NC at 4:50 pm on a Saturday. I'm not planning on taking anything to aide me sleeping other than Melatonin & Bonine. (I always take Bonine when I fly for motion sickness) I don't know if I will be jet lagged. I'm just assuming. This is my first time flying overseas. I suspect I will have a lot of adrenaline. I have reservations at the Pension in Munich (and Berlin) already. I do plan on bringing just a backpack and a day bag (cross body style). I want to avoid checking a bag. I'm flying direct to Germany but I do have a 3 hour stop in London on the way home.

My thought was the same as yours to try to get to Munich in that time frame so my goal was to leave St. Goar between 13:00 and 14:00. I can eat and rest on the train. Though it does look like a change of trains to Munich from there. Perhaps I should not reserve any trains on that first day and just see how I feel when I land. That is a nice thing about traveling solo.

Also what train tickets should be bought before the trip and which can wait when I get there?

For Frankfurt - Bingen Stadt you need two separate tickets since you are crossing a Verkehrsverbund border: 1. S-Bahn Frankfurt - Mainz, 2. RE or RB (local trains) Mainz Bingen - Stadt (please note the name of the station). Get them from a ticket machine on the spot, no pre-booking needed.
For the St. Goar - Munich leg you may want to pre-book for a specific train since pre-booked long distance trains are significantly cheaper. Still, pre-booking for the day of arrivale is always kind of gambling, since you will loose your money if you miss the train.

"For Frankfurt - Bingen Stadt you need two separate tickets..."

If you actually end up making this trip, it will be from FRA airport - right? So get to the Regionalbahnhof (one of two airport stations) and buy your ticket there. It's only ONE ticket that you need for Bingen. Buy it from any ticket machine with a RMV logo for €8.35. Machines will look something like these.

There are a FEW direct trains to Bingen, but not to the Stadt station, so you will probably ride two different trains with this one ticket - one to Mainz and another from Mainz to Bingen. Check the DB itinerary page for schedules.

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

FROM station: Frankfurt(M) Flughafen Regionalbf
TO station: Bingen(Rhein) Stadt

Thanks so much everyone for the assistance. Yes I will be departing from Frankfurt if I do the Rhine cruise. I'm still undecided and will think it over some more.

Should I buy the train ticket to Berlin or Salzburg prior to arriving or is it best to wait until I'm there?

@ dbordsave....In my book you are traveling "light." since you have no check in. Then doing that Rhine side trip, proceeding to Munich afterwards to arrive 19:00 is very doable. When I do the flight over, it's 11 hr non-stop, and taking a 4-6 6hr ICE direct train ride afterwards is no problem. Much easier for you if you have to transfer since you travel lighter than I. . Good that you have the Munich Pension already reserved. I would too.

Have you looked at flying from Frankfurt to Munich and then from Munich to Berlin?

I have not looked into flying as far as price but I have read other threads about it. The consensus seems to be you don't save much time and its pretty much a wash.

It sounds doable as Fred suggested so I likely will go for it but I'll continue to think it over. Thanks for the responses everyone.

@ dbordsave...It is doable. At my age still very much so, and presumably you're much younger and traveling without checked in luggage, you have that flexibility on taking ICE trains Frankfurt to Munich that require transferring. I avoid transferring on the route, since I count on sleeping on the train by the time it arrives at Munich Hbf between 1900 and 20:00 hrs.

Hi,

I didn't see earlier the part on going to Berlin from Munich. That can done by the EN night train, Munich Hbf to Hannover Hbf, then change to the ICE to Berlin Hbf. I've done it. You arrive at decent times, ie, you're not changing trains at 3 or 4 am. That I don't do, it interrupts my sleep on the train. What you aim for is a train arriving at 0600 hrs or 0700 at the earliest. You squeeze out an extra day by taking the night train.

Perfect! Thank you Fred.

You're welcome!

Don't know if the hours have changed, but a few years ago we tried visiting Dachau on a Monday and found that it was closed on Mondays--so double check.

Good point Greg....I just checked and its open daily but the administrative offices & library are closed on Monday's.