Route from Heidelberg to Bacharach

I've never spent time in that part of Germany, so I really can't advise you as to places to stop. Some people will recommend stopping in Worms to see the Cathedral. But if you take one of the ICs directly from Heidelberg to Mainz or Bingen and a regional train from there, the trip only takes 1½-2 hours, so you should have time to make stops in eastern Rheinland-Pfalz.

Looks like there is about one connection per hour from Worms to Bacharach, so if you stay there 2 hours, it probably adds another 2 hours to the trip. Still not a day-long trip.

Kay, how are you traveling? Driving or train?

For better or worse, we are driving.

Kay, I would agree with you that you might not have enough time after touring Heidelberg to stop at another town on your way to Bacharach. It takes a while to drive to Bacharach. After you exit the A61 at Bingen to get on the B9, the drive along the Rhein river goes through many small towns. For me, I can't wait to get to lovely Bacharach to walk through the town, sit by the river, enjoy some wine tasting and have a wonderful dinner. Personally, I wouldn't make any stops along the way.

It doesn't take that long to drive from Heidelberg to Bacharach, maybe two hours at the absolute most, so I think you have time for a quick stop-over somewhere else. If you want yet another small-ish town with a castle (or three), check out nearby Weinheim or Heppenheim. If you want a town with a very small but beautiful historical core that also houses a well-preserved monastery from the Carolingian era, look into Lorsch.

If you choose to drive on the west bank of the Rhine instead, and you're looking for a well-preserved historical town with an impressive cathedral, the answer is Speyer, not Worms. Worms is probably more important historically, but it's been burned and bombed so many times that other than the cathedral and a handful of other buildings, almost nothing survives from before the 20th century. Speyer managed to escape WWII unscathed, and it still maintains much of it's Bavarian charm... yes, it was part of Bavaria from the Napoleonic era until the end of WWII, and the influence shows.

You could also consider Mainz or Wiesbaden, but these take a little longer to explore.

Finally, Eltville is worth a look, but you would need to either double back to Mainz to take the bridge, or catch an autoferry to procede further to Bacharach.

Kay,

In May we drove from Bacharach to the Heidelberg castle area on our way to the Neckar valley (we only briefly stopped that day for a picture with the Monkey :-) and it took about an hour and a half for the drive - please note though - this was on a Sunday morning with very light traffic.

If you decided to stop at Eltville you could catch a ferry in Ruedesheim to cross over to Bingen to get back to the Bacharach side of the river. For some reason I really enjoyed the ferry rides (they were cheap and convenient too), this one is clearly visible just off the main road as you leave Ruedesheim.

I'm not familiar with Eltville (other than driving through it), but Bacharach is a lovely place to walk 'around' - I mean all the way around - and up the hill as far as you want to go to the various local sites. You could also go a mile or two north of Bacharach, park the car and take a people ferry to the Pfalzgrafenstein (mini-castle in the middle of the Rhine that has a 'bow' like a boat).

One thought - we spent an entire day in Heidelberg and while the castle tour and grounds were certainly worth visiting I probably enjoyed wandering around the old town more. One thing I will never forget - we were lucky enough to visit the 'Holy Spirit' Cathedral while someone was practicing on the pipe organ and it was simply magnificent. If you have any extra time you might find spending it in Heidelberg is a good use of it.

Tom and Bruce, thanks so much for chiming in with replies. I think that we might dedicate more time to Heidelberg rather than try to stop and explore other towns. We're going to see plenty on our trip and sometimes driving into a town, finding parking, finding the center, etc., can cause more angst for the driver (my hubby), which makes the trip less enjoyable for him. Denise suggested zipping up the A61 to get to Bacharach. Would you both agree, or is there a route alongside the Rhine (east or west) that is as expedient yet more scenic? Bruce, I would be very interested to hear about your trip down the Neckar as we will be there for a couple of nights. Did you love it? Have suggestions for routes & sights? Please feel free to PM me if you prefer.

There aren't any roads that closely follow the Rhine until you reach Bingen on the west bank and near Wiesbaden on the east. Until you hit Wiesbaden, the Rhine could just as well be any river in the world. Much of it around Mannheim and Ludwigshafen is heavily industrialized.

On the balance, I would say A5 on the Heidelberg side offers a more scenic drive. You have the Odenwald mountains and a number of castles that you can easily see from the road. Further north as you approach Wiesbaden, you can get a good view of Mainz's massive cathedral from across the river. A61 is mostly just normal boring Autobahn views, until about half-way between Worms and Alzey, where you can see some massive vineyards from the road, depending on how interesting you find seeing rows upon rows of cultivated grapevines as far as the line of sight allows. It may appear from the map that A60 between Mainz and Bingen allows a good view of the Rhine, but in actuality, you can only briefly and barely see it.

Thanks for that note about the A5, Tom. I know you mentioned it before as being potentially more scenic. I'm a little more reluctant to take that route simply because it goes close to larger cities and there's the potential for traffic accidents, delays, etc. What do you think about the A61?

A61 always seem to have road construction on it somewhere (not sure about now), that's why I never take it on my frequent trips up to Belgium. Once you leave get beyond the Heidelberg interchanges on A5, traffic usually moves fine. It's generally pretty heavy everywhere in the area, though.

The Neckar valley was probably the most 'scenic' (non-mountain) geography that we traveled through on the trip. Tom actually recommended it when I was planning the trip. He suggested a stop in Bad Wimpfen and we ended up using it as home base for 3 nights :-).

The Neckar is smaller and the river's valley is more wooded than the MittelRhine, and there are quite a lot of lovely towns and castles along the banks - all of which made it more scenic - but honestly the clincher that raises the Neckar above the Rhine in my memory was simply that the Neckar had almost no barges/bulk carriers on the river AND none of the screaming fast bulk cargo trains blitzing by as there were on the Rhine...Now I wouldn't have wanted to miss the Rhine, but I am very glad Tom suggested the Neckar.

I thoroughly enjoyed Bad Wimpfen - parts of it were the lovely 'medieval' that we tourists get all googlly about (the Red Tower and the Blue Tower and surroundings), parts were more modern (plenty of restaurants and shops for example) and it had easy access to/from the Autobahn. We stayed in a hotel on a bluff that looked toward the East over the Neckar plain/valley(?) and every morning was memorable - sitting there with a brötschen with some exotic fruit marmalade on it in one hand, a cup of kaffee in the other and a gob-smacked grin on my face looking out over the countryside.

We visited Hirschhorn for an afternoon on the way to Bad Wimpfen and it was another lovely medieval spot along the Neckar with a castle - it also has a restaurant seemingly designed for Ugly Americans - DEBO 800 - a burger and steak joint :-) Trust me - don't order the large burger ;-> (unless you are going to share it!). We also stopped at Burg Hornberg late one afternoon and then had dinner at the restaurant, which was a bit upscale, but worth it, and the view was excellent!

We drove on both sides of the Rhine (coming and going) and frankly I recommend the Western side (the left ?) right now because there is construction on the East side - either taking the ferry at Ruedesheim or going over to the West side of the river at Mainz(?) which I think is where the last bridge is (the ferries are more fun though) is a better choice.

EDIT - Just a clarification - I was just talking about the local roads along the Rhine - B9 on the West and B42 on the East side. We drove along the A61 for part of the way toward Heidelberg and while I don't remember any construction it was certainly not a memorable trip.

Tom, what route do you normally take when you head north and/or to Belgium? Bruce, we're spending just one night in Bad Wimpfen...and looking forward to it (thanks, also, to Tom). Our second night is in Neckargemuend which I'm quite glad of since I've discovered the Ritterfest being held in Hirschhorn. Thanks for your other tips on the Rhine.

"Tom, what route do you normally take when you head north and/or to Belgium?" A5 to A67 to A3 to A4. For most of it's length (not the portion you would drive, but further north) A61 on the west side of the Rhine is more scenic, but it's only 4 lanes, whereas A3 has 6. An accident or road work can foul up traffic much more easily with only 4 lanes. You can't see the Rhine from either route, except where A4 crosses the river at Köln. A61 gives you a good, if brief, scenic glimpse of the Mosel valley, though.

"...or next night in Bacharach." If you are interested in Prussian-German history, see the historical plaque in Bacharach...the Gedenkstein. Better still you're motorised, you can visit the museum in Kaub am Rhein to see the museum on this event.