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River Rhine - 1 day

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I am currently in Cologne and have one day to tour the River Rhine area. Before realizing how long it took, my intent was to board KD River Tours in Cologne and make my way towards St Goar, but now I realize that is not feasible. So now I am thinking to take the train to St Goar, tour around for an hour or two and then depart for Braubach. From Braubach take the boat t Koblenz and then the train back to Cologne.

I have a few questions:
1. Which train station should I be going to in St Goar? There are a few to choose from on the DB Bahn site. Is the train station walking distance to the sites?
2. In looking at the boat schedule I find it confusing. There is a boat which leaves St Goar at 1155 and arrives in Boppard at 1250 and then it appears you have to change boats to go to Braubach but the departing boat also leaves at 1250. Will they wait for passengers from the other boat? This seems so strange!
3. So if that works it appears I will be in Braubach for 4 hours....is that too long? Is the castle accessible from the boat dock area? Do I need to book a tour reservation in advance?
4. Is the Koblenz train station far from the dock? Is it walking distance?

http://www.k-d.com/en/kd-scheduled-cruises/kd-rhine-timetable/

Thank-you for your assistance.

Posted by
20085 posts

For the last question, the K-D dock is a ways from the Koblenz station. Take a taxi.

Posted by
19092 posts

1. There is only one station in St. Goar. St. Goarshausen is the town across the river from St. Goar. "St Goar" is the station, "St Goar KD" is the KD boat dock, "Fähre, St Goar" is the dock for the ferry across the river. On the Bahn website, type in "St Goar", no period after "St". It's only a couple of blocks from the station to the dock, all downhill.

2. As I read the schedule, you do have to change boats in Boppard. I would expect them to wait.

As an alternative, you can take the ferry across the Rhein at St Goar to St. Goarshausen and take the train to Braubach. Or go to Boppard and if they don't wait, take the ferry from Boppard to the other bank of the Rhein, walk about 1 km down the river to Filsen Bhf, and take the train (10 min) from there to Braubach.

3. The Marksburg is accessible from the KD dock. I walked up the dirt path from the market square (1.1 km). It looked formidable from the bottom, but wasn't really that bad. There is a "trolley" from the boat dock to the castle. I think it is timed to meet the boat.

4. The KD dock in Koblenz is on the left bank of the Rhein, a little ways up river (south) from Deutsches Eck. I walked from Deutsches Eck to the main train station on Sunday morning. Google maps says that walk was 1.7 km - not a short walk, but not unpleasant. But I wasn't carrying luggage. The walk from the KD dock to the station should be a little shorter.

I believe there are Koblenz city buses from the KD dock to the train station.

You can also get on the train at Braubach and take it to the main station in Koblenz. If you take the train from Braubach to Koblenz, there is one every hour, so if you want to stay five hours, or three hours, no problem.

Posted by
6637 posts

Hi, lydia49a. You are focused on the wrong part of the river for cruising. If you are going to spend more than 2 hours on the KD boats then see the more spectacular part SOUTH of St. Goar (which takes only 1.5 hours.) The part from St. Goar north to Koblenz is somewhat less impressive - and then you have those logistics issues in Koblenz.

Try this. Get yourself to Bingen in time for the 10:30 boat north and cruise to St. Goar (11:55.) Spend (about) 2 hours there.
Take the ferry over to St. Goarshausen at 13:50, walk north to the station, and catch the 14:31 train north to Braubach (arr. 14:52.)

(Take your Marksburg Castle tour?) Then return to Cologne via Koblenz by train from Braubach whenever you're ready (trains run all the time, unlike the boats.)

Scenery near Bingen
Pfalzgrafenstein near Bacharach, south of St. Goar
Oberwesel, south of St. Goar

If you need help with train ticketing options, re-post with your travel date and # of passengers.

Posted by
2 posts

Just hoping that Russ could help me with a similar question. We will be arriving to the middle Rhine from Rothenburg by car in the hopes of doing a short river cruise and touring one castle before heading to Cologne . I know we can be in Bingen for the 10:30 tour you mentioned in an earlier response.

Could you please let me know the best approach as we will need to leave the car in Bingen (train station perhaps??) and then hop on the boat....to St Goar perhaps as I think this might be the best option with our limited time to see the castle there.

Could you please help me with timing and with how to get back to our car. (For instance is the train station in Bingen on the same side of the Rhine as the castle in St Goar or do we have to ferry over?

Thank you!

Posted by
6637 posts

fianni2: The 10:30 boat from Bingen gets you to St. Goar at 11:55. If you spent about 2.5 hours in St. Goar seeing Rheinfels (castle ruins and museum) and having a quick lunch, you could catch the 14:20 train back to Bingen and be there by 14:55 (€5.90 each from a ticket machine at St. Goar station.) Or have a longer lunch and catch the 15:20 train to Bingen. Then drive to Cologne.

But if you want to tour the best castle on the Rhine, stop at Marksburg in Braubach on your way north. The 12:00 and 4:00 tours are in English. If you're truly pressed for time and choose Marksburg instead of Rheinfels, then you can leave St. Goar for Bingen on the 12:20 or 13:20 train instead; drive to Marksburg and take a tour in German (and follow along using an English-language handout from the castle kiosk.)

Marksburg

The above train times are samples only using the Bingen Hbf and St. Goar train stations - check the schedule for your own dates:

DB itinerary page

The KD boat schedule varies by date as well - no 10:30 boat in low season:

KD timetable

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