Switzerland to Germany-help me plan our trip!

Hi!
After 4-5 days in the Interlaken area, you could indeed head to the Rhine valley by train. Basel is an interesting city on the way. A possible route could be:

• Sep 30 : Zurich to Interlaken area
• Oct 1 : Interlaken
• Oct 2 : Interlaken
• Oct 3 : Interlaken
• Oct 4 : Interlaken
• Oct 5 : Interlaken - Basel
• Oct 6 : Basel
• Oct 7 : Basel - Rhine gorge e.g. Boppard
• Oct 8 : Rhine gorge e.g. Boppard
• Oct 9 : Rhine gorge e.g. Boppard
• Oct 10 : Boppard - Mainz or Frankfurt
• Oct 11 : fly out

A car is not needed at all!

We are thinking of hitting the Rhine area but have no clue what to see and do! Would love to see and stay in the small villages but need some insight.

Boppard is indeed a very good base town choice.

If the trip is basically about Interlaken + the Rhine region, I don't think it's necessary to break up the trip between these places anywhere. But it's wise to be selective about your train journeys. Some of them would require several changes of train. I'd probably do as follows...

9/30 - 10/4: 5 nights in Switzerland/Interlaken area

10/5: train (Interlaken Ost to Boppard) 12:00-18:39 (only one change of train.)

10/5-9: 5 nights in Boppard

Things to do from your Boppard base:

Day/half-day outings: choose from 5 options over 4 days?

1) Boppard sightseeing + chairlift ride... afternoon train to St. Goar for Rheinfels castle tour, back to Boppard.

2) Morning train to Bingen for 9:15 river cruise (arrives 10 am in Bacharach.) Cruise to Oberwesel (12:00 - 12:20.) These old-world towns are known for their handsome half-timbered buildings and wine production. Oberwesel's old-town-wall walk is very nice. Have lunch there and do the walk. Then complete the cruise of the most scenic part of the Rhine gorge by boarding the 15:35 boat to St. Goar. (16:05.) The 16:38 train gets you back to Boppard in 12 minutes.

3) Morning train to Braubach for tour of Marksburg Castle; train south along the Rhine to Rüdesheim for sightseeing there.

4) Train to Cologne and back.

5) Train to Burg Eltz + Cochem (Mosel river) and back to Boppard

10/10: Check out, morning train to Mainz for final day of sightseeing and final night.

10/11: Direct morning train ride to FRA airport takes 20-25 minutes, with multiple trains every hour.

Sounds like a good guidebook would be a place to sort things out.

I spent a week on the Rhine a few years ago. If you are interested in WWII history, I would suggest a visit to the ruins of the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen -- the "bridge at Remagen" that US troops used to cross the Rhine. The bridge's riverside supports still stand (the span does not) and contain a rather interesting Peace Museum. Linz am Rhein is across the river and can be reached by ferry. It's a gorgeous town with many old half-timbered houses.

Here's my trip report from my 2018 trip: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/a-week-on-the-rhine-rhein-rhein-in-flammen

My wife and I just returned from the Rhine valley this week. We spent two nights in Cologne, three in Bacharach, and one night in Mainz before flying home from Frankfurt. We enjoyed Cologne for the Dom and the Roman ruins, Bacharach as a low key wind down stop complete with castle walk and short hop ferry, and Mainz was surprisingly pretty for its tree lined streets. From Cologne to Bacharach was two hours on a slow train, and from Bacharach to Mainz was one hour on a slow train. We would do it all again. Hope this helps.

"...Bacharach as a low key wind down stop complete with castle walk and short hop ferry"

@kentfast: I'm curious which trail(s) you used in Bacharach and what you were able to see/do on the way. I have only walked the most direct trail between town and Stahleck Castle - the Stahleckpfad (blue line on map below) which snakes up from the Oberstraße past the Wernerkapelle to the castle:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b7/bc/d6/b7bcd6f24bbd5c822a894779071fdc30.jpg

For me this was a serious uphill climb. If you used a different path, I'd enjoy hearing your comments. There's not much discussion on this forum about the other walks.

Also, Bacharach lacks a ferry crossing - the closest ones are at an inconvenient distance to the north and to the south. So are you perhaps referring to the Rhine cruise boats (operated by Koeln-Düsseldorfer or Bingen-Rüdesheimer, for example,) which travel upstream and downstream from Bacharach? Pretty much every town on the river has a dock for these boats.

Tracey asked if the section of the Rhine valley north of Frankfurt was worth the time and effort to get there, and whether she needed to rent a car. In the village of Bacharach, the hike I refer to was up to that tower above town featured in the RS guide book photo, then further up a very steep stairs to the north wall, then back up the valley along a donkey road used to service the vineyards. The ferry was the BR ferry boat ride down to St. Goar and back as described in the RS guide book.

Thanks for the reply, kentfast. I read Rick's written "walk through Bacharach" in my tattered 1998 GAS guidebook (which has no such photo.) Sounds like the "castle walk" you are referring to is the final part of his walk, roughly the right half of the "Stadmauerrundweg" trail on the map I linked to, which includes the Postenturm (tower) and ends in the Steeg valley at the extreme edge of town. You didn't mention the castle, so I assume the walk you took didn't take you there, correct? If I have that roughly right, then This is the view from the tower, correct?

I've done a lot of walks along the Rhine but have left many trail segments unwalked... so I'm looking at including the full Stadtmauerrundweg and 3 or 4 other trail segments on either side of the river on my next trip there.

Also, you wrote, "We would do it all again." Well, if you're like me and several others on this forum, you WILL be back again, maybe more than once. When you return, I'd suggest taking a KD or BR cruise ship between Bingen (or Rüdesheim) and Bacharach. Doing this cruise segment will finish what you started last time. (Sadly, Rick leaves this part of the Rhine OUT of his cruise recommendations, which puzzles most of us here on this forum.) Here's a BR cruise company map showing the entire scenic part.

Thanks again for the trail info.

Thanks for all the help! We have reserved 4 nights in Boppard and plan to use the train to see other villages up the Rhine. We had an exchange student that lived with us for a year 15 years ago and she lives in Düsseldorf. We plan to meet up with her and see her sometime along the way. We will be leaving the Interlaken area on Oct 6th and taking the train to Boppard. Looks like we will be in Boppard for the wine festival that Saturday :)