Rhine River Valley

Posted by es_prins on 11/10/21 02:14 PM

I'm living in Hamburg for a year. My daughter has a long weekend coming up. We'd like to visit the Rhine River Valley. We are planning on taking the train to Frankfurt. The question is where to stay. We will arrive early afternoon on Friday, Nov. 26. We would like to (1) cruise the Rhine River (either Bingen-St. Goar or Bacharach-St. Goar), (2) visit at least 1 castle; and (3) spend a few hours in Heidelberg. We will return to Hamburg on Sunday afternoon. So basically we have 48 hours.

I've seen different suggestions in the Germany forum about where to stay: St. Goar, Bacharach, Mainz, or Rudesheim. Which would be most central and convenient for doing the activities above?

The KD winter timetable is not easy to figure out. https://www.k-d.com/fileadmin/magazin/2019/SBL/02_KD_Winterfahrplan_21.10.19-09.04.20.jpg Does this mean that we could, say, board in Bingen at 10:10am and arrive at St. Goar at 11:30? Then do we take the train back to wherever we're staying?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Posted by Russ

Paradise

11/10/21 02:55 PM

7072 posts

The winter schedule for THIS year is here. It's daily, Bingen > St, Goar, 10:15-11:30... Bacharach isn't a stop. "Auf Anfrage" means you'll need to communicate your interest to their office, and if there's sufficient demand for a cruise to make, they may be able to accommodate you.

I'd recommend staying in Koblenz, as the smaller towns you mention are largely deadsville at this time of year.

If you really want to stay in a small town, I would pick Rüdesheim, which gets slightly more traffic - and just begin the cruise there instead of Bingen

You could get to Koblenz in the evening for overnight. In the morning, take the train to Bingen to begin your cruise. I think I would skip St. Goar and continue to St. Goarshausen so that I disembark on that side of the river. From there, catch a train north to Braubach for a tour of Marksburg Castle, open year-round for tours and the best intact medieval castle for visiting at any time of year. It's open 11-4 in winter.

You can return to Koblenz by train from Braubach in 10 minutes. If you left your bags in Koblenz at the station in a locker, you could then catch grab them quickly and catch a fast train from Koblenz to Heidelberg if you want to go there; that said, I would probably visit Mainz instead, 1 hour by Regional Express train, a fine city with lots to see and do, a very extensive zone for pedestrians, a popular Christmas Market, and a nice place to overnight.

https://www.vrminfo.de/en/tickets/tickets/ticket-offers/rheinland-pfalz-ticket/

The Rheinland-Pfalz ticket is a day pass that covers all your trains between Koblenz and Mainz on Saturday at €31/ 2 persons. It would not get you to Heidelberg, however, which is a 2-hour trip on the faster trains; regional trains do go there on more expensive day passes but they require 3 hours or longer.

Posted by stan

The Heartland USA

11/10/21 03:06 PM

8977 posts

Why route through Frankfurt? I believe you can go Hamburg > Koblenz, via Köln. Frankfurt is not on the Rhine, so it seems a bit of a detour.

Posted by es_prins OP

11/10/21 03:20 PM

9 posts

There's a high-speed train from Hamburg to Frankfurt that takes just 3.5 hours; going to Mainz adds just 30 minutes. Hamburg to Koblenz is 5+ hours, so 2 hours additional round-trip travel for a short weekend.

Posted by Russ

Paradise

11/10/21 03:49 PM

7072 posts

"There's a high-speed train from Hamburg to Frankfurt that takes just 3.5 hours; going to Mainz adds just 30 minutes. Hamburg to Koblenz is 5+ hours, so 2 hours additional round-trip travel for a short weekend."

You were considering St. Goar or Bacharach, both of which would require 5.5+ hours.

Koblenz requires slightly less time than these smaller towns. Mainz lies well outside the scenic part of the Rhine Valley, but if you prefer a shorter train journey on Day 1, sure, stay there. It's a nice town. You can backtrack north the following morning for your cruise, if it's available, and/or to Braubach for Marksburg.

If you are taking your bags with you because you're heading to Heidelberg afterward, you can take them on the cruise, but you won't want them when you go to Marksburg, so you will probably want to leave them in a Mainz locker and return later to Mainz before going on to Heidelberg.