castle stay near the Rhine

There is Stahleck, which is a hostel. There's Schönburg, which would break most normal people's bank. I think there is a hotel built at Rheinfels that kind of looks like part of the castle (but not ruined). Schloss Rheinfels (www.schloss-rheinfels.de) is 4* and a double room starts at €125/nt. I think there might be another hotel-in-a-castle between Bacharach and Bingen. I'll try to find it. You might check out Burg Reichenstein. Room for 4, €153. However, only 18 beds, might be booked.

Thanks, Lee. I think Schönburg is one of those that was around 250 euro for a family of 4 per night, that's way out of our league. I'm having a hard time finding something price-wise between Burg Stahleck and Schönburg.

Schönburg is in part leased to the hotel, in part it's a "Kolpinghaus" (like a youth hostel) that is mainly booked by larger groups. They seem to be pretty booked for the summer as well but you could contact them directly ("Anfrageformular") and see if there is some room for your specific time. The website is in German only, the managers speak English. http://www.kolpinghaus-auf-schoenburg.de You could also search the German youth hostel association, their search function let's you specify castles. If you want to stay close to the Rhine you probably need to look at hostels in Rhineland, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg, Hesse http://www.jugendherberge.de/en/hostels/search/index.jsp

Most of the castles in that area were destroyed by Napoleons troops around 1800. A lot were rebuilt as private residences, only a few as hotels. Only Burg Eltz and the Marksburg were left intact. I like the Marksburg because it is preserved exactly as it was hundreds of years ago, not lived in. Stay in an old Fachwerk inn in the village at the base of the castle. (Wieghardt's home page used to have a great picture of the front of the building, but you can see what the whole town square looks like out the window.)

You could look into Burg Liebenstein in Kamp-Bornhofen for a hotel option: http://www.castle-liebenstein.com/germany/hotel-room-rates/index.html I've stayed at the Diez Castle hostel with my family and had a terrific time there. It's an awesome building with modern rooms for families. http://www.diejugendherbergen.de/die-jugendherbergen-auf-einen-blick/diez/portrait It was just after Christmas a few years ago when school kids were on vacation, meaning that there were no week-long school-sponsored class outings in the hostels at the time. These outings normally bring hordes of rowdy pre-teens into the hostels and make for a pretty noisy atmosphere. If your trip is after mid-July, however, you'll have a good chance of avoiding said groups and will likely share the hostel with other families and individuals - a MUCH more enjoyable stay.

Burg Stahleck is the one I've stayed in and really enjoyed it. It's clean, quiet and well-run. It's usually full so book ahead. We had five and they gave us the Rhein-blick room (Rhine view). The room did have a great view, had ten beds (several bunks and some stand alone single beds) and it's own bathroom. They charged me the normal per person hostel rate, not bad but not really cheap when you're paying for five. As I recall, the one next to Rheinfels doesn't resemble a castle - it's just close to the ruin. There is also a castle/hostel in Koblenz. The place itself looks really nice but Koblenz wasn't high enough on my priority list to try it out.

Hi Maureen,
The town of Bacharach, on the Rhine, has a lovely hostel located in a castle. It is called the Jugendherberberge Stahleck I believe it has family rooms, too. The town is charming; we stayed there 2 nights and did the ferry tour up the Rhine There are also a couple of pensions, which are affordable, and the Hotel Krankenturm, where we stayed was not too bad. The owners are wonderful - friendly and accomodating, and provide an enormous breakfast. My teens loved it.

Either I am reading these responses wrong or some folks missed this part of Maureen's question: "it appears Burg Stahleck is booked for the summer..." Maureen,
I hope you can find an affordable castle on the Rhine with rooms still available. I tried the same thing earlier, when some still had vacancies, but decided to look toward France and Belgium. If you don't find what you are looking for and want to expand your search in Germany a little, this site offers a lot of interesting locations, but not all are castles and not all are along the river: http://www.rhinecastles.com/

Brad, I thought the Hotel Schloss Rheinfels looked as much like a castle as Stahleck and Schönburg did. It does have a modern look, with glass windows and a roof, which Rheinfels doesn't have, but so do the other two.

Thanks for the info, everyone. After a couple of days of emails going back and forth, Stahleck was able to find a room for us in July. I appreciate all the suggestions, and I'm glad that those who stayed there really thought well of it. The little princess is happy, and it saves mom and dad about 90 euro/night. Now to book tickets for Legoland for the other kid....