Sleep in Bacharach , St. Goar, or Boppard in the Rhine Valley ????

Although I really like Bacharach, it is smaller than people think (walk from one end to the other in a leisurely 15 minutes. There's not a lot to do except climb through the vineyard to the top of the hill and admire the view. The castle at the top is not open for touring, its used as a working hostel. I'd stay in St Goar.

Maybe someone with more wine knowledge can comment, but it seemed to me that there weren't wineries offering drop in tours or tasting - not like the custom we're used to in the states. But many restaurants were offering tastings and selling local wines.

I stayed in Bacharach and I really liked it, but if I was to go again I would stay in Boppard. It was a bit larger with more variety and I really felt a good vibe there when I visited.

We stayed in St. Goar for an overnight, it was very nice and that seemed about right. For 3-4 nights I think I'd like something bigger like Boppard for more options.

Boppard and St. Goar are separated by about 10 train minutes. Both centrally are well located for outings, generally speaking. If you are only visiting towns along the Rhine, and don't mind paying for your day passes and the hours restrictions they carry with them, St. Goar is a convenient and desirable base town for visits on both sides of the river, slightly better than Boppard for access to points south, slightly worse than Boppard for points north. There's no huge time advantage for one town over the other.

But things change if you plan on doing outings up the pretty Mosel River via Koblenz. Cochem, Trier and other Mosel towns you might choose to visit will require a disproportionate amount of actual travel time - from St. Goar, it's roughly 1:40 to Cochem vs. 1:00 from Boppard. The same occurs on the return trip... getting back from Cochem to St. Goar takes 1:37 vs. 0:57 to Boppard. So St. Goar > Cochem > St. Goar takes 3:17 round trip, while Boppard > Cochem > Boppard takes 1:57.

Why the huge time advantage from Boppard? 1.) St. Goar is served only by RB milk-run trains, while Boppard is served by RE regional express. 2.) Layover times in Koblenz for the RB trains is significant - about 35 minutes, vs. about 10 minutes for the RE trains.

Marksburg Castle, in the old-world town of Braubach, is the best medieval castle experience on the Rhine IMHO and is reachable from either town by train - you'll save maybe 20-25 minutes round trip by train from Boppard.

Cochem is a fine place to visit for several reasons. With 3-4 days, I would think you might enjoy a visit there, possibly with a cruise to Beilstein.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g198637-Activities-Cochem_Rhineland_Palatinate.html

As for the towns themselves, St. Goar is very scenic and very quiet, maybe slightly geriatric by comparison with Boppard, which has a much greater number of restaurant and lodging choices and at times even a slight buzz to it. There's a good bit more going on in Boppard than in St. Goar at a given point in time. Beer: you can get this everywhere, of course. Wine and wineries: this is what the Rhine is all about, and Boppard has no shortage of wineries:

https://www.deutschlandgourmet.info/bilder/gross/5710-Restaurant-Weinhaus-Heilig-Grab-Boppard.jpg
https://www.boppard-tourismus.de/media/weingut_2020.pdf

Thanks for all the great input, and hopefully more folks will chime in. I love the practical, functional advice, which this Forum provided for my Sept, 2021 Swiss trip.

Since this will be in the second week of the Salzburg/Germany trip, and as seniors, it will be nice to slow down and just wander through towns.

So-
now would you all kindly suggest hotels [with breakfast] in Boppard and St. Goar? I've eliminated Bacharach to sleep, and will day trip there. I do like hotels with views!

Thanks again!

Russ, I recall that in the past, you have occasionally warned about train noise in some towns or at some hotels. Is that a big factor in selecting a town? (I have visited Boppard but not slept there.) I think I've read about river traffic noise, and I once had a decent business-hotel room in Arnhem NL that was right on the river, and (surprise!) came with earplugs. But we never had to use them.

Pat: In recent years I've stayed in the Sonnenhof and the Hubertus in Boppard. Both were good stays, and I would book again in these places, but then I don't hang out all that much in hotel rooms and I tend to like just about everything if a place is clean, competent and not unfriendly. The morning church bells at the Hubertus did not go unnoticed, but then I tend to sleep with the window open and am an early riser. No noticeable train or boat noise in either place. Both had fabulous breakfasts but all my stays at this point were 4+ years ago. No clue what they're doing about breakfast in covid days. There are many hotel options in Boppard in different categories, many of them with river views as well, so I feel I would need to have had a lot more nights in a lot more places, and to have some stays a lot more recently, to give a seal of approval on a specific place. I think if you sort through the reviews carefully, you'll get a feel for what dozens and dozens of others have liked or disliked - reviews are your best resource, I think.

St. Goar: We stayed at the Rheinhotel St. Goar in one of the balcony rooms on our most recent visit - near the station and the KD cruise dock, terrific views across the water of Katz Castle, vine-clad cliffsides, and St. Goarshausen. And there were very nice views from window tables in the breakfast room as well. Breakfast was super. The Hotel Rheinfels is right next door and may be to your liking as well if views matter, but I've never set foot in the place and am otherwise under-informed. This report from a couple that used Hotel Rheinfels as their daytrip base might include the kind of personal input you are looking for, but it too is a bit dated now.

Tim: Trains have been a bugaboo in Bacharach for a long, long time, not just for hotel guests but for the townsfolk as well. The town is built on a flat, narrow piece of land between the cliffsides and the railway, with many of the town's buildings - including the Hotel Kranenturm - just far too close for comfort.

https://www.nuernbergluftbild.de/images/2009110272.JPG

https://www.rhein-zeitung.de/cms_media/module_img/557/278944_1_mrvwallpaper_278944_1_org_bacharach.jpg

(You won't find rooms with great river views right in Bacharach, by the way - hotels are set too far back for that.)

In Boppard and St. Goar there's a smaller problem with noise because of the positioning of town and railway. Read the hotel reviews closely in Bacharach for noise complaints for sure, but I would do the same in the other towns too.

We have stayed in two very memorable hotels with Rhine views. $plurge$ for sure, but with the retrospective vision Covid has given us, they were worth every penny.
The first is in Oberwesel. It is the https://www.hotel-schoenburg.com/en/.
Our expansive room had a balcony overlooking the river. Breakfast and a gourmet dinner ( with a small bound menu book you get to keep) are included, along with complimentary minibar and sherry in the room. Our room even had the bathroom hidden behind a heavy bookcase door! It is located on the top of the hill, so we called a cab once we arrived at the train station. Walking down is enjoyable, but the “ up” was beyond our old legs. An experience we will never forget.

The second hotel was in Boppard for the Rhine in Flames. Our apartment had a balcony right above the river. Modern and spacious it was also convenient to the train station. No big hills to navigate with our luggage. The included breakfast was an expansive affair.
https://www.bellevue-boppard.de/en/rooms-and-rates/apartment-suite/apartment-rooms-residence-bellevue. We stayed at the apartments which are next door to the hotel itself.
We really enjoyed Boppard, and found it an excellent location for train excursions. We also had a lovely afternoon lunch and hike using the gondola. It appears their website is “ down” at the moment, but here is a review:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g198627-d3306006-Reviews-Sesselbahn_in_Boppard-Boppard_Rhineland_Palatinate.html
We hope to return to Boppard this fall for the Rhine in Flames and will try to stay at the Bellevue Apartments again.

I found Bacharach to be the most attractive of the three towns, Sankt Goar has the fantastic Rheinfels ruin, Boppard is larger and can offer more restaurant choices. I'd work out all the travel times/costs. There's enough to do on the Rhine for three or four days, without hopping over to the Mosel (which I prefer). Once we visited the little mentioned Burg Rheichenstein (now a museum and top-end hotel), had it almost to ourselves and enjoyed a long lunch there.

Thanks to all,
I'm looking up all of these lodging suggestions. Russ, thanks for all the travel times, and Travelingmom, thx for the hotel ideas. Boppard does seem like an ideal location!

Excellent thread. I will incorporate all this info in thread I started "Middle Rhine for a Week".

Hi Pat, I’m excited to hear you will be in the rhine valley for part of your Germany trip. I’ve got my eye on Germany (black forest and rhine river) for sept. 2023. I’ll be looking forward to your trip report as I know you’ll write a fabulous one. 😊

I have spent ovet. 20 days in Bacharach and have never been bothered by train noise. I stay about a block away from the tracks. The trains are short and sort of swoosh along rather than being hundred car long clickety clack trains common in the U.S.

I spent about a week in Bacharach a few years ago, and really enjoyed my stay there. I was using it as base to visit other towns in the area, and had no trouble accessing trains. I stayed one night in Pension Lettie and the remainder of the time in Hotel Kranenturm, and had no issues with train noise. There are other hotels there that are a greater distance from the tracks, so trains shouldn't be a problem. The dock for the boat was almost right across from Kranenturm - https://www.k-d.com/en/landing-stages/bacharach .

FWIW, I took a trip to St. Goar and wasn't impressed. I could hardly wait to get out of there.

Hopefully everything will be much the same once the pandemic is under control.

St. Goar has changed a lot over the past few years. They have had a ton of construction for the main streets and the docks. Unfortunately, when I was up there in Sept. almost all of the stores and businesses were closed down. Looked like for good. Not sure I would want to stay there. Right now the only reason to stop here is to see Burg Rheinfels.
No one has suggested Ober-Wesel or any of the towns on the right side of the Rhein.
My personal favorite is Eltville. It is close to Mainz and Rüdesheim, and Eberbach monastery is easy to reach by bus. This is a stunning 1000-year-old monastery set in the Rheingau. The abbey of Hildegard of Bingen is also close by as is Kiedrich. The promenade along this naturalized part of the Rhein does not have trains running along it as they are set back in the town. Lots of excellent restaurants and wineries are here and the train to Braubach and the Marksburg goes by once an hour.

Good to hear an update on St. Goar, Jo.

St. Goar is very small. Even when it's "wide open", it's probably not for everybody. Its core "business zone" is basically one street - Heerstraße - a traffic-free street but one that is mostly "un-cutesy" with businesses that tend to come and go. And Rheinfels Castle is basically the only tourist attraction in town. I have returned there often myself, not for the shopping experience (which is mostly absent and irrelevant to me) or the dining experience (I tend to ride the train into Boppard for that, though Alla Fontana in St. Goar is pretty good, and there's a place next to Rheinfels Castle with an awesome view) or for the winery experience (Boppard and Oberwesel are far better) but for other reasons...

• its central location (no more than 10 min. or so to Boppard, Oberwesel, and Bacharach) in the most scenic section of the Rhine Gorge

• great cliffside hiking trails

• the convenient ferry crossing + St. Goarshausen train station combo, great for visiting Marksburg, Rüdesheim and other towns on the opposite riverbank

• several nicer hotels near the waterfront with exceptional Rhine gorge views

• convenient town for ending a river cruise

I hope to get back to St. Goar sometime soon to see how the waterfront development project has come along. Unlike Boppard and Bingen (further south) the infrastructure there was negligible and didn't encourage visitors to linger, and they had a hard time scheduling minor events there without temporary utility lines being strapped to the sidewalks.

I have learned so much in this thread, and I think it's interesting that Boppard doesn't really appear in the RS guidebooks.

TravelingMom, thx for the recommendation for the Bellevue Hotel. We are booked, and communication with them has been excellent!

Safe travels to all!

Ms. Joe, thanks for the update on St. Goar! After Russ had mentioned the travel guest card, I had looked into changing my hotel reservation from St. Goar to Boppard, but was still having a hard time with the hotels (probably user error). :) But when I saw your post, I worked a little harder and decided to go with the Bellevue (thank you for the rec, TravelingMom!). I cancelled my hotel in St. Goar (although I was unpleasantly surprised to find that they had already charged my credit card, even though the confirmation email said that it would not be charged till I arrived. Hopefully the cancellation will go smoothly - they assured me it was fully cancellable till the day before my arrival).

At any rate, I feel better now and I can go back and dig through Russ's posts about the Boppard pass.

I think it's interesting that Boppard doesn't really appear in the RS
guidebooks.

Rick does not shoot for "comprehensive." His selections and emphases are personal and narrow by comparison with most other sources.

...the Boppard pass

Just a few clarifications about the pass...

This free travel pass wasn't created by Boppard, actually. It is the product of the regional transit authority, the VRM, and it is actually available to guests who book with participating establishments in other towns inside the VRM zone as well. You can get the pass by booking in COCHEM (in any of 9 participating inns) or in EDIGER-ELLER (27 participating innkeepers) or in REMAGEN (where only one innkeeper has chosen to participate.) In tiny MOSELKERN, the trailhead town for Burg Eltz, there are 2 accommodations options where you can get the pass. For the complete list of participating establishments and the towns they are in, click on the link below, where each one is listed by town name; scroll down the center column under "ORT" to see what your intended destination has to offer, if anything.

Chart of VRM Guest Ticket Program Participants for 2022

This logo indicating an establishment's participation can usually be found on its homepage:

https://www.vrminfo.de/fileadmin/user_upload/VRM_Piktogramme_Gaesteticket_gross_neu.jpg

If you are targeting Boppard, the chart is useless since ALL innkeepers must participate. The same is true for the 220 participating innkeepers in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler (Ahr River Valley, where devastating 2021 floods took place.)

You're absolutely right, Russ - I called it that for convenience sake but I do remember you saying that VRM offers it. The hotel I booked at mentioned it in their confirmation email, although they pointed out that you get the ticket because you are paying the €1.50 visitor tax. 😊 But you also get free entry to the Boppard castle.

Hi, Mardee. My post wasn't aimed at you directly or to correct you but to correct the incorrect impression I might have left with you and others in my posts - that the guest ticket was specific only to the town of Boppard. Hopefully, other readers planning stays in the area will better junderstand the Guest Ticket program.

We did this exact thing in Sept 2017. Came from Rothenburg, stayed in Boppard and lew home from Frankfort. We saw a lot of what you're talking about. If you do a search, there's a trip report (long closed) talking about this.

Judy, Is the Trip Report yours- or- do you remember the title? The Search feature on this Forum is clunky and awkward, so it helps to have some key words of the title . Thanks for the input !

@Pat: Judy's report:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/bill-and-jude-s-excellent-adventure-rothenburg-to-boppard
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/bill-and-jude-s-excellent-adventure-boppard-day-1
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/bill-and-jude-s-excellent-adventure-boppard-day-2
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/bill-and-jude-s-excellent-adventure-boppard-day-3

In the search box above enter “Hotels in Boppard” for a discussion from 2020.

Russ, thanks so much!

Thank you for this question, Pat. My husband and I plan to do the exact same trip at the end of May. (3 nights in the Rhine River Valley) and I was just now starting to research which of these towns to stay in. I'm hoping you will send us an update after your trip!

ddhoughton, would be delighted to share our experiences!
Safe travels to you!

Bacharach is my hands-down recommendation. We stayed/visited all three. I think we only stayed on St. Goar because I was worried to catch the flight home early and it was closer to the airport, but we visited and Bacharach is much more enjoyable.