Rhineland Itinerary (possibly w/ Munich): Help needed

Just some background info about my travel mindset/priorities!

Your main priority is clearly stated: Neuschwanstein.

I am reluctant to weigh in on either itinerary or on your questions about Luxembourg, Heidelberg, and Boppard, maybe because it seems like you have not yet prioritized the other destinations on the rest of your trip. Most of the towns you are visiting "require" more time than you are allowing... they aren't getting enough stefanie-time to make your trip as rewarding and memorable as it might be... For example, on 8/25 you wake up in Strasbourg, spend the day in the 3 separate Alsatian towns, then return to Strasbourg... Will you later remember which town was which? The "mindset" right now resembles a kind of "fear-of-missing-out," so I think the best advice might be to write down 1-3 REASONS you have for visiting each of your destinations - then cut a couple of places with reasons that seem weaker to you.

It's even more important to do this for a huge detour like Neuschwanstein. I'm sure my own priorities are different... it would never appear on my bucket list, and IMO it isn't worth even a day trip from Munich. But we all have our own sensibilities about these things. Putting down in writing the reasons you have for making it a bucket-list entry - and for dedicating 2-3 days for this detour - would be wise before committing.

Thank you so much for the feedback! I should have clarified that even though Neuschwanstein is my number one bucket list destination in Germany, Amsterdam and Colmar are probably just as high up there in terms of places on this itinerary that I want to visit. My original trip plan before doing enough research was actually to start in Amsterdam and work my way down through Belgium, to Strasbourg, and then Munich by way of Switzerland, but as I did more research and realized that plan was WAY too much, I decided to save Switzerland for its own separate trip someday, and I also discovered all of the magnificent sites along the Rhine River that I wasn’t privy to before! Since I really want to go to Strasbourg/Colmar and Amsterdam anyways, and the Rhine Valley is RIGHT THERE, it feels silly to just skip right over it, but Munich just feels like too big of a detour given the amount of time that I’m working with. I think I need to let go of that idea for this trip, save it for a future trip someday (maybe Munich combined with Salzburg, Hallstatt, and Vienna!), and be satisfied with the MANY beautiful and new places that I’ll already be experiencing on this trip, whether I make it to Neuschwanstein or not. So many places in the world to see, so little time! :)

With that said, if I go with the non-Munich itinerary (Plan A), how would you recommend I structure my days on the Rhine? A very helpful poster on another travel forum (who ironically had the same name as you! :) ) helped me come up with a great, fast-paced itinerary for when I was trying to squeeze the Rhine region highlights into 3 days. However, now that I have 5 days, what changes would you recommend making so that I can see things at a less break-neck pace, but also make the most of my time there? Do you think I could fit Heidelberg (even if just for a few hours) into the equation somewhere? I have a family member who went there and said it was really nice.

This is my “rough draft” of the 5 days in the Rhine region (between Strasbourg and Luxembourg), largely based on the feedback that I got from another forum + some of my own (admittedly very inexperienced) research:
Day 1: Take early morning train from Strasbourg to Bingen-Rüdesheimer. KD boat tour to St. Goar and then to Bacharach. Stay in Bacharach.
Day 2: Take scenic train to Koblenz; spend day around Koblenz/Braubach, and see Marksburg Castle. (Would it make more sense to stay in Bacharach or to stay around Koblenz/Cochem on this night?)
Day 3: Mosel Valley, Cochem Castle, Burg Eltz. Stay in Cochem.
Day 4: Day trip to Cologne to see the cathedral, old city, and chocolate museum. Return to Cochem to spend the night.
Day 5: Not sure what to do with my 5th day in the Rhine. Could I do a day (or half-day) in Heidelberg? Is Rothenburg ob der Tauber worth a day trip, or is that too far? Can any of the above day plans be split into two days to be done more enjoyably? NOTE: “Day 5” doesn’t have to actually be the last day in the Rhine chronologically; I just mean that I only have a plan for what to do 4/5 days in the Rhine region. This 5th day could fit in whenever it makes the most sense logistically.
Day 6: Take direct train from Cochem to Luxembourg, and then continue with rest of trip (Luxembourg —> Belgium —> Amsterdam).

Any feedback on this would be SO appreciated; I feel like the rest of my trip is relatively simple to figure out, but for some reason all the options in the Rhine Valley make my head spin! Thank you so much again for all this helpful insight, and looking forward to hearing thoughts on my revised itinerary! And also, if this is the Russ who gave me helpful Rhine Valley advice in another forum as well, THANK YOU thank you thank you! Your time and expertise is so truly appreciated!

Same Russ here. The plan I suggested on the other thread was intended only to help you with the logistics of going exactly where you wanted to go over the 3 days in question, staying where you wanted to stay and hitting the destinations you named. It was not an ideal itinerary, more like triage, really, and I did not address the other parts of your trip. But you now have some additional time and flexibility, it seems. So it's kind of the first inning again at this point...

Fitting in Rothenburg or Heidelberg ON YOUR WAY from Strasbourg to the Rhine/Mosel region would normally be a logical consideration since you now have extra time. But the normal rail schedules out of Strasbourg that take you directly across the German border to Rothenburg, Heidelberg and other destinations on August 22 look to be incredibly... messed up. The railways are undergoing an enormous amount of reconstruction. I am not at all confident that the complicated connections you would have to make will go well for you. I am also of the mind that Rothenburg and Heidelberg are "shiny objects", distractions that take you unnecessarily far afield when there are in fact some similarly fabulous destinations that can be added to your Rhine/Mosel stay. (Heidelberg is not a bad place, but IMO not the greatest either; nice enough if you're in that area, but many places in Germany compare favorably.)

To keep things simple I am going to make the case here for taking a "back-door" route that shows you more of France on your way into Germany and the Rhine/Mosel region over Days 1-5. This plan will hit the same places, just in a different order... I've given you some of the train specifics, not all...

Th Aug 22 (Day 1)
- Direct TER train from Strasbourg > Saarbrücken, Germany (7:34 - 9:27) Early, I know, but the connections are quite good compared with alternatives.
- Layover/breakfast break at Saarbrücken Hbf, 52 minutes.
- Direct RE train Saarburücken Hbf > Cochem (10:19 - 12:18)

Drop bags at hotel. 3 nights.
- 13:24 - 14:13, train + bus to Burg Eltz. Return train + bus 17:22 - 18:14.

Fr Aug 23
Day trip to Bernkastel and back, including river cruise. Bernkastel is touristy but no more than Rothenburg. The buildings in this town rival Rothenburg's, and the Mosel River setting and vineyards add something extra.

Sat Aug 24
- Day trip to Luxembourg for a 7-hour visit and back to Cochem. Direct train 8:41 - 10:23. Direct return train 17:33 - 19:18.

Sun Aug 25
- Check out. Train to Boppard. 2 nights here. 9:18 - 10:14. Drop bags at hotel.
- Take the Boppard chairlift ride to Gedeonseck. Lunch with a view. Return to hotel, check in.
- Train to Bacharach, 13:44 - 14:05. Walk the handsome town for a while, very nice half-timbered buildings
- Train to Bingen Rhein Hbf, 15:36 - 15:46. Walk to Bingen KD dock, catch K-D's 16:30 cruise boat back to Boppard (18:50.)

Mon Aug 26
- Day trip to the "right" side of the Rhine... Marksburg Castle tour and Rüdesheim. Doable by train together in one day. Back to Boppard.

Tu Aug 27
- Train to Brussels with stopover in COLOGNE for a few hours.

Heidelberg... having reviewed the possible itineraries for your travel dates, I just wanted to point out that a day trip from the Rhine using like you were considering would require 2.75 - 3.5 hours of travel in each direction (from Boppard, that is, to Heidelberg-Altstadt) depending on which morning departure you chose. Bacharach (your original travel base choice) would shorten this time by around 20 minutes but still makes for a very long (and not all that scenic once you are south of Bingen) outing, and it would lengthen the other train trips (to Marksburg/Braubach and to Cologne/Brussels, for example.) The construction I mentioned previously is fiddling with the overall travel time to Heidelberg and also very likely making connections trickier than they are supposed to be. Whenever major construction is underway somewhere, unpredictable things can happen...

Bernkastel... this outing can be done in just one hour each direction from Cochem (train + bus connection.) And it's a scenic ride for the most part, even more scenic, of course, if you go one way by river boat. That would go like this...

• Cochem > Traben-Trarbach by train = 40 minutes
• Traben -Trarbach > Bernkastel by boat = 2 hrs 10 minutes

So with the return to Cochem by train + bus total transport time round trip is just under 4 hours, which would be a long day trip normally, but this cruise up the Mosel itself is most of that time and kinda magical; you might even wish it was a little longer.

Where you are spending too much time is in travel. And you're trying to fit way too much into this trip. Cochem and Burg Eltz you can do in one day, but you'll need a car. But you can't expect to have any time to see anything else. Trying to do Colmar, Riquewihr, & Ribeauvillé in one day is not going to happen, unless you just want to drive through and say you've been there. And in August that may be tight. Strasbourg to Bingen? This may take a lot longer that you think. The trains are all messed up between Mannheim and Frankfurt, and all the trunk lines are impacted. My trip today was one hour longer than planned as my first train was late and that caused me to miss the transfer by 3 minutes. And that's better than Fridays trip which took 2.5 hours longer than planned. And don't get me started on road construction.

You need to drop half of the places you want to visit and plan to spend some time in the other half.

For example, you want to go to Koblenz, and Cochem, and Marksburg, and Burg Eltz, and do the Rhine boat ride, and Cologne, and Luxembourg. Be smart. Stay in Koblenz. From there you can do the boat ride (take the train to Bingen and ride back to where ever you want then take the train back to Koblenz.) You can go to Cochem and Burg Eltz. You can go to Marksburg. You can also go to Ehrenbreitstein, and the Eck (which is better than Marksburg). You can take the train right into Cologne. And you can take the train right into Luxembourg also.

Thank you both for the insight! @Russ (and anyone else who wants to respond), I have a few questions based on the itinerary that you gave me:
1. On August 22, is there a way to get from Strasbourg to the Rhine area that involves less train time? I remember you suggesting an earlier itinerary to me (back when I was trying to do the Rhine in 3 days) that involved a train from Strasbourg to Bingen-Rüdesheimer that would be 3.75 hours — which is shorter than the total travel listed in this new plan — and then involved taking the KD boat tour to St. Goar and then Bacharach, staying the night in Bacharach. What are your thoughts about that plan versus the more recent one (see below)?
2. On the days that you suggested staying in Boppard, would it make a difference if I stayed in either Koblenz or Boppard on those days? Just wondering because another commenter advised staying in Koblenz because it has the most direct trains to the other places that I want to visit, and I noticed they’re close together so I’m wondering if it would work equally well to stay in either one.
3. Given all the potential contingencies with the trains, would it be better if I just rented a car? I could rent it in Strasbourg (so that I can drive through the Alsace wine region myself), and return it in Boppard or Koblenz once I’m done using it to explore the Rhine area? I’m just wondering if there would be less issues with travel times, planning my itinerary, and trying to fit in various sites if I didn’t have to rely on the trains. Would you say it’s better to have a car for this, or to use the trains? And if I rented a car, would that change how I should structure anything in the current plan below?
4. Could my time in Cochem work to fit in a visit to the castle that’s there? And if so, how could I fit that in?

Thank you so much for all your help! Here’s my most recent and updated itinerary, based on the most recent feedback and details in this forum:

Current Itinerary as of 7/22:
- August 18: Transfer from London —> Paris and Paris —> Strasbourg. Arrive late in Strasbourg. (Or, if possible, fly direct from London —> Strasbourg?). Stay in Strasbourg August 18-22.
- August 19: Day in Strasbourg
- August 20: Day in Colmar
- August 21: Cute small towns on the Alsace Wine Route: Riquewihr & Ribeauvillé
- August 22: Direct TER train from Strasbourg —> Saarbrücken, Germany (7:34 - 9:27), and then from Saarburücken —> Cochem (10:19 - 12:18). Drop bags at hotel in Cochem (staying here August 22-25). Catch 13:24-14:13 train to Burg Eltz. Visit Burg Eltz 14:13-17:22; train back to Cochem at 17:22.
- August 23: KD Rhine River cruise to Bernkastel and back; stay in Cochem.
- August 24: Day trip to Luxembourg for a 7-hour visit and back to Cochem. Direct train from Cochem —> Luxembourg at 8:41 - 10:23, and return train 17:33 - 19:18. Stay in Cochem.
- August 25: Check out of hotel, and take train to either Boppard or Koblenz to check into hotel (depending on where I’m staying). Take the Boppard chairlift ride to Gedeonseck. Lunch with a view. Take the train to Bacharach (13:44 - 14:05), and spend about an hour and a half walking around here. Take the train to Bingen Rhein station (15:36 - 15:46), walk to Bingen KD dock, and catch K-D's 16:30 cruise boat back to Boppard (18:50).
- August 26: Day trip to the "right" side of the Rhine — Marksburg Castle tour and Rüdesheim. Back to Boppard/Koblenz (whichever I end up staying at) to stay there for the night.
- August 27: Train to Brussels with stopover in Cologne for most of the day.
- August 28: Brussels; transfer to Bruges before the end of the day, and stay in Bruges for the next 3 nights.
- August 29: Bruges
- August 30: Day trip to Ghent; possibly transfer from Bruges to Amsterdam tonight.
- August 31-Sept 2: Amsterdam
- Sept 3: Fly back to London (flying out of London back to NYC on September 4th)

Thank you so much!!!

1.) The difficulty with getting to Bingen in the normal way on a normal, quicker schedule results from the same rail construction projects that are impacting travel to Heidelberg , as KGC and I have both explained. That's why I re-routed your itinerary. Besides the longer travel times and re-routing that construction causes, I would not want to be subject my trip to the many unpredictables that can take place in those construction zones when things do not go exactly as planned. The plan I gave you OTOH is one that I would willingly do myself. You can of course take a look at the DB schedules available for travel to Bingen for your travel dates on your own, which you should do anyway... verifying every bit of advice you get on this forum is the smart thing to do. Then decide for yourself. But to me it looks messed up.

2.) My reasons for not recommending Koblenz as your base town are provided on the thread below. Scroll down to my most recent post there:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/germany/southern-germany-itinerary-help-a9dca0ec-9a89-467c-b160-7eb16a173ab6

3.) I do not drive anymore in Europe by choice, as I really don't like the work, the risks, or the responsibility that is involved with driving. Nor do I like the traffic jams I've been stuck in, or missing out on the scenery passing by because I am always focused on the driving when I drive. It is more work to plan a train trip than a car trip for sure. Maybe driving suits you, but I am not really qualified to provide you any driving advice.

Bingen-Rüdesheimer is the name of one of the Rhine cruise companies. It is not a town name. The town names are Bingen and Rüdesheim.

Ok great, thank you so much for all this help! And thank you for answering all my continued questions; the wealth of options has been a bit overwhelming and confusing for me, and my head’s been spinning trying to figure it all out! :) Do you think that the itinerary that I mentioned in my previous reply looks good? And also, does the time in Cochem account for seeing the castle that’s there (and if not, do you think there’s a way that I can incorporate it into everything, or is it not worth it)? Thank you so much again, really appreciate all the insight.

Sorry, one more question I thought of. Would it be more affordable to get a train pass for all of the train rides, or to just buy each ticket individually? When you reference the trains, is there a particular site/train line you recommend (just Eurostar, or should I use TER or a different train line that is specific to Germany)? Apologies if this has already been mentioned elsewhere; I’m looking at tickets and wondering if it would cost less to buy individual tickets or to get a multi-use pass. Thank you!

Unlike Russ I prefer to base out of Koblenz. It's a 15 minute walk from the "Stadtmitte" station to the Eck (which is one stop past the main station), even for an old guy like me carrying a duffle bag. And I like Koblenz. the view from Ehrenbritestein in the evening is better than almost anything in the middle Rhine valley. Plus I can always find a room and a huge choice of places to eat at "non-tourist" prices. And again, the main station is actually staffed, so you can get something to eat, drink, read, etc. and there's someone to ask if you have a question regarding a certain train or changes.

You can do most of your planned train traveling on the Germany Pass, which costs 49 Euro. But pay attention to the subscription and make sure you cancel it by the 10th of the last month you plan to use it.

4. Could my time in Cochem work to fit in a visit to the castle that’s there? And if so, how could I fit that in?

If you are feeling like Cochem is getting left out, I like the way you are thinking. Right now you are using it only as a train station. But most visitors come here because it's just a nice place to be. Reichsburg Castle is definitely worth your time IMO, and this linked page will give you some background. My suggestion: You've already had one long train ride on 8/22, so after dropping bags at your Cochem hotel, just stay in Cochem. Half a day there is not too much. Find yourself a nice lunch spot. Then walk the handsome old-town zone a little. 4.5-minute video showing why this might be time well spent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB_Euv9zL-0

Then head up to Reichsburg castle for a tour. After the tour, you can stay on the grounds for a while to enjoy the views. There's also a terrace up there where you can have a drink and do the same thing for a while before you head back down into town:

https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/29/39/25/71/delicious-lunch-and-wine.jpg

Additional attractions in Cochem: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g198637-Activities-oa0-Cochem_Rhineland_Palatinate.html

Then you have 8/23:

- August 23: (KD Rhine River cruise" to Bernkastel and back

Not quite. First you must use the train from Cochem (use the DB site for schedules) to reach Traben-Trarbach, where you board the boat to Bernkastel. From the T-T station, walk into town to the dock, near the Hotel Moselschlösschen. The walk is no more than 10 minutes. This is not a KD boat. "Kolb Personenschifffahrt" boats serve this route. See schedule box at bottom left on this page:

https://www.moselrundfahrten.de/cams/clients/kolb/media/downloads/file_1.pdf?1713965549

Standard fare = €19 one way:

https://www.moselrundfahrten.de/cams/clients/kolb/media/downloads/file_8.pdf?1716469423

After your time in Bernkastel it's a 1-hour bus + train ride back to Cochem from the "Forum, Bernkastel-Kues" transit center, across the river (use the bridge) from Bernkastel's old town zone in the "Kues" part of town, and just behind the old train station (no longer operational, now a restaurant.) USE THE DB SITE TO FIND YOUR SCHEDULE. It will give you the bus info too.

8/24: I really do think this day trip to Luxembourg should probably be eliminated. It's too much moving around altogether.

I would visit Burg Eltz on this day. And instead of the train + bus approach I suggested before, I recommend that you make time for the lovely walk to Eltz from Moselkern. Just take the train to Moselkern (about 20 minutes) and follow the walking directions in Rick's book or in one of the other online resources you might find.

Then enjoy the other things Cochem has on offer. Or for a short outing from Cochem, take the bus to Moselstraße/Fähre, Beilstein (Mosel) to visit the handsome village of Beilstein. It takes just 22 minutes. The DB site provides bus schedules there and bach from Cochem.

Otherwise, your newest plan looks solid to me, as long as you can fill in the details.

I agree with KGC that the D-Ticket should handle your Germany journeys just fine. As far as Cologne, anyway. Find train schedules for the D-Ticket by clicking on "only local transport" under "means of transport" at the DB site, which will eliminate the ineligible trains. You will want a standard train ticket - maybe a pre-purchased saver fare from DB - to travel Cologne > Brussels in the afternoon of 8/27.

Hi again! So sorry for the delayed response; very hectic past few days. Thank you both SO much for all this information! This is really really helpful. Lots of fine details to firm up on my end; I’m going to revise my itinerary (hopefully) one more time either today or tomorrow, and I’ll post it for some feedback!

Still debating Luxembourg vs. one more day in the Rhine. I originally just saw Luxembourg as a “why not?” type of place because I’d be taking the train practically right past it (and although it’s not purely to check another country box… I DO think it would be kind of cool to visit one more country that I’ll probably never be that close to again). But then I searched the forums on a couple hubs to see if it would be worth the day trip, and every traveler review of Luxembourg that I read was GLOWING and saying that YES it would be worth it. So that’s why I got my heart set on it a bit more. But, I definitely don’t want to be in the Rhine and miss Burg Eltz, and I’m wondering if I should spend a little more time in Bacharach than just a couple of hours (only because I’ve heard it’s very pretty), and if I’m going to be staying in Cochem I’d certainly like to see Reichsburg Castle… so I’m just not sure what to trim down on to fit all these things in, or what could/should be cut from the itinerary altogether in favor of something that’s more of a “must-do.”

Any feedback is appreciated so much — going to try to get this itinerary solid by tomorrow! :)

My two cents. Bacharach is very nice, but it's so small you can leisurely stroll across the whole town in 15 minutes. Yes, shops and restaurants, so it's a good place to have lunch and shop a little. But based on your proposed itinerary, I wouldn't spend more time there.

PS the castle there is a working hostel so its not really visitable, if that's what you're thinking.

I've been to Luxembourg City on 4 separate occasions for stays of 1-2 nights, a couple times to use its airport; it has a charming physical setting, and my friends and I had a fun time drinking wine there and enjoying each other's company, but much of the city itself is pretty ordinary. I think I'll stick with the itinerary rec's I provided in my 7/20 post; head to Brussels on 8/27 via Koblenz and then Cologne (stopover) after checking out of your Cochem hotel.