We fly into Frankfurt and want to spend a couple nights before we head south to Gengenbach would you recommend any of these over another? And one last question, we dont have enough time to see Rothenberg is this a mistake?
Posted by
Paradise
7469 posts
It isn't just a matter of comparing towns. Bacharach and Rüdesheim are part of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley / Rhine Gorge. Stay in a Rhine Gorge town and you get a lot more than just what one town has to offer.
Rüdesheim tends to be very touristy and very busy with day trippers on tour buses. It's also in a flatter part of the river and slightly less scenic than the towns to the north.
St Goar has the most scenic setting of all the Rhine towns IMHO. Rheinfels Castle is right there. Take a tour. And there are riverfront hotels with awesome views as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxFF80wORNQ
From St Goar's main street, now set aside for pedestrians and lined with places to eat, you can walk up to the Castle (see photo below), take a bus, or you can drive up:
https://www.weinkonvent-st-goar.de/images/heerstrasse.jpg
This shot of Rheinfels Castle shows the terrace-restaurant at the hotel next door to the castle. Nice place with a great view of the Gorge:
https://www.toptagungslocations.de/assets/hoteldaten/34/images/Schloss_Rheinfels_Tagungslocation.jpg
View from the Rheinhotel St Goar, right in front of the dock where the day cruise boats stop:
https://dynamic-media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-o/18/9e/0f/df/rheinhotel-st-goar.jpg?w=1400&h=-1&s=1
The famed Loreley cliff is just around the bend from St Goar:
https://i2.wp.com/herbert-piel.de/wp-44b92-content/uploads/2016/01/Loreleytal.jpg?fit=960%2C641
The best part of the Rhine cruise is between St Goar and Bingen, which makes St Goar a convenient place for cruisers. This map shows the castles and towns you will pass on a two-hour cruise between these towns:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2117/2235929460_e474b112d4_b.jpg
There are no bridges across the Rhine, but in St Goar and a couple other towns, there is a ferry crossing you can use to explore the opposite riverbank, where Rüdesheim and Marksburg Castle, the only tourable, intact Rhine Castle, are located:
https://faehre-loreley.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Impressionen-1791.jpg
https://www.deutschland-luftaufnahmen.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Marksburg.jpg
Bacharach is a very nice town that's worth visiting. I suggest you travel a few miles north of there to bed down in St Goar, where the enhanced scenery, the convenience to Rheinfels Castle, the riverfront hotel views, and the ferry crossing combine for a fuller experience. You can make a stop in Bacharach for an hour or two on your way to St Goar, or on your way south to G'bach after that. But Bacharach as a base town tends to lack the advantages of St Goar.
Posted by
OP
7 posts
Thank you. As you can tell I am struggling putting this together, there is so much I want to see! We are very flexible so if you think there is a place everyone should visit or see at least one I would absolutely love the info :) Thanks again
Posted by
Niagara, Ontario
1785 posts
As you only have a couple of nights, no big difference if you stay in Bacharach or St Goar. Bacharach is a more attractive little place in my eyes.
Give some thought to Eltville, a quaint small town with a nice waterfront. Kloster Eberbach up in the hills. Also good for visiting Rudesheim.
Heidelberg is in the right direction if you are moving onto the Black Forest, as indicated in your other post. Much larger.
Posted by
Paradise
7469 posts
"...if you think there is a place everyone should visit or see at least one..."
I didn't put it into words, but I can. If I were forced to choose between Rothenburg, Heidelberg, Gengenbach, and the Rhine Valley, I would choose the Rhine Valley, wihout question. And I'd pick St Goar as my Rhine town base over Rüdesheim and Bacharach.
Gengenbach is a very good choice for seeing the Black Forest. Between Gengenbach and the Black Forest towns... and the Rhine Valley towns... you will see so many half-timbered old buildings and old-town walls that Rothenburg would probably seem like the "same old thing" anyway (except for the mob of tourists in Rothenburg, that is.) The Rhine towns of Bacharach, Oberwesel, St Goar and Boppard are very close to each other on the same riverbank , making it easy to visit all of them in a short time. There is so much to see and do here that 2 nights really is just an introduction.
Pictures of Braubach, a town I didn't mention:
https://fotos.schloemp.eu/wp-content/gallery/braubach/002Braubach-Bauernschaenke-Eck-Fritz.JPG
Boppard (also not mentioned) just a few minutes north of St Goar; awesome chairlift ride to lookout:
https://fewoboppard.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Sessellift.jpg
Boppard wine garden: https://www.deutschlandgourmet.info/bilder/gross/5710-Restaurant-Weinhaus-Heilig-Grab-Boppard.jpg
View from terrace near Boppard chairlift:
https://s3-media1.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/T9oxNMwLvt_-r5nCsce-jg/o.jpg
The Günderodehaus, just outside Oberwesel, is a fantastic spot overlooking the Rhine that you can hike or drive to:
Posted by
OP
7 posts
You guys are wonderful!!! Thank you so much, this his extremely helpful :)
Posted by
Alsenborn, Germany
2034 posts
Russ has pretty much laid out the Rhine, but to me that's out of the way if you're heading south. Consider Deidesheim, a medieval walled city, around which they have been making wine for over 1500 years. Excellent hotels and restaurants (I know three that are Michelin rated), this is a Napa Valley type destination for Europeans and it's almost as pretty as Rothenberg. Plus you can easily take a train from there to Heidelberg for a day trip if you want, but frankly there are a lot more picturesque small towns within walking distance. If you prefer red wines to white this is much more the place to go than the Rhine. And you have two excellent castles within 2 km of the town center; Burgs Friedelsheim and Wachtenberg. There's half a dozen more castles within 10 miles, more than you can see on the Rhine.
Posted by
Paradise
7469 posts
...a Napa Valley type destination for Europeans...
An apt description for Deidesheim. A nice town. Don't expect to see defensive walls there today.
D'heim is part of the German Wine Route which runs along the low-lying foothills west of the Rhine in a N/S direction and connects numerous wine towns in the Pfalz region.
Another such wine town route that connects Frankfurt more directly with Heidelberg is the Bergstrasse, which runs N/S to the east of the Rhine.
https://diebergstrasse.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Holiday-Route-2024.pdf
The half-timbered towns here are lovely as well, the scenery bucolic, with Heppenheim being my personal favorite.
With more time and a sincere interest in wine, I think these routes are worth some time. I did not suggest them as an alternative to your mention of Bacharach / the Rhine gorge on the grounds that the Rhine gorge offers much more variety of experience and much more dramatic scenery - there's no big river or cliffs or river cruising along these wine routes. The Rhine gorge has UNESCO World Heritage status as well - its historic and cultural importance to Europe makes it a unique place. In Oberwesel and Bacharach you can take footpath along the towers and other remnants of the medieval walls that protected these towns when they were fully intact. I haven't been to the Wachtenburg ruins myself - I imagine it's interesting to do a walk around there. But on the Rhine, there are tours offered in English at both Rheinfels and at Marksburg, an advantage if you don't speak German.
As for castle numbers... The Rhine is famous for its 40 castles in 40 miles of river. And if you stray away from this part of the river here and there, others can be found as well.
Posted by
Paradise
7469 posts
Further to the south of these places are some very nice towns that share the Neckar River with Heidelberg. Bad Wimpfen and Besigheim are standouts. (You might need a week to get to Gengenbach.)
Posted by
West Michigan
391 posts
Lots of good choices in the Rhein valley. You've got some great advice. If you choose to stay in St. Goar, my wife and I stayed in the Rhein Hotel in 2015 and liked it very much. Room overlooking the river. Bacharach has a very old center of town, we ate at the Altes Haus, I think (oldest house). Worth a visit.
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
7766 posts
On our trip, upon landing in Frankfurt we drove to Bensheim to get over jet-lag and it wasn’t a long drive. From it we stayed in Baden Baden before heading to Gengenbach. We stopped in Bacharach on the return to Frankfurt at the end of the trip. We had been to Heidelberg previously so skipped the city in favor of smaller towns. Likewise, we had previously visited Rüdesheim am Rhein.
Posted by
Plains of South Dakota
21 posts
Not sure when you're going, but we stopped at Rheinfels castle about a week ago. A lot of it is closed with construction work going on. Little flags placed in various points to signal the direction you're supposed to walk to get through it. It was disappointing. I'm not sure when things will open again, but by the looks of it, it could take some time yet.
Posted by
Paradise
7469 posts
Good tip from MattM on Rheinfels. Hit Marksburg Castle instead. It's in Braubach, 22 train minutes north of St Goarshausen. A fully-intact castle from the Middle Ages, terrific tour.
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
7766 posts
Marksburg castle was very nice but you have to be on a tour to see it; no wandering on your own. When we were there in 2023 there were only a few English tours a day. It is popular with river boat cruises. Four Viking groups were there the same time as us. When departing we had to back our car up the one lane road so a Viking bus could get to the castle.
I preferred Marksburg castle to Rheinfels castle although there were some nice views and cafeteria at Rheinfels.