hello I will be visiting the Rhine river valley next month and I just want to be sure I understand this correctly.... The way I understand it is that the boats cruise up and down the river making several stops. Can you hop on and hop off all day? Can you pick up the cruise at any stop? ie. if you are staying in St Goar, can you pick it up there? Also, do you need advance reservations?
Thank you so much for all the help...traveling in Germany is so unlike anything we have in the US...it seems confusing but I think I will really enjoy the efficiency once I get there.
Posted by
Keystone, Colorado, USA
44 posts
You got it right. Just goggle it - here's one - http://www.bingen-ruedesheimer.com/rhine-cruise/lorelei/index.html. I stayed St. Goar last Nov and boats not running much but that was off season - dock right there and all along the Rhine - you will see that the main portion of the Rhine Gouge is between Bingdin in the south and Koeblenz to the north. Koeblenz was a busy city that we skipped and we turned around and drove back to Bingdin. Seemed like main dock in Bingdin where you can park, get ticket and schedules, etc. and little docks along the river. Seemed like you could just walk up as this is a main tourist attraction with several boat companies there and lots of boats. I think the only guide book I found with info was the Rough Guide Germany. But Tom can tell you all this and more.
Posted by
Texan in CA
4415 posts
Here's the schedule. (Click on the schedule to enlarge; note the two different skeds - high vs low season!) On the homepage, there's a map of all of the landing stages (see far right), but I suspect my iPad/Apple product isn't downloading it...and our desktop isn't free at the moment to test out my little theory. Just be sure that you end up on the correct side of the river, meaning that the boat stops on both sides. You don't want to plan on catching the train in St Goar, but getting off the boat across the river at the St Goarshausen stop :-( If you aren't using a railpass - then no, you can't 'hop-on, hop-off' the boat. Well, not without paying for each section of the trip. That could get pricey, though...But you could get off, wander around a bit, then buy a ticket for the next stop. The link above has the prices, too - at the far left of the page, click on 'Day Cruise Rates' for prices. You don't need advance reservations; just show up at the dock, look for the ticket booth, and buy a ticket for a particular destination. The boats don't make a ton of stops at each dock - again, look at the schedule for times. You don't want to get off at one place, then have to take the train to get to where you need to be for the night because the boat is finished with that particular town for the day :-(