germany

If you stay in Bacharach, you can purchase a €28 Rheinland-Pfalz(Länder)-Ticket which gives 2-5 people unlimited travel on regional trains down to Bonn and up the Mosel to Trier.

If you stay in St. Goar, you can purchase a VRM Minigruppentageskarte for €20 which will provide the same unlimited travel on regional trains for 2-5 people down to Regagen/Linz (not quite to Bonn) and up the Mosel to Bullay. I think most of what you will want to see is within this area, but you could still go as far as Bonn/Trier for €28.

Bacharach, you see, is just outside the VRM (Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Mosel), but both Bacharach and St. Goar are within the Rheinland-Pfalz.

If I were staying in Bacharach, I would stay at Im Malerwinkel. It's in a beautiful setting, well away from track noise but only a few blocks from town.

In St. Goar, there are a plethora of nice hotels on Heerstrasse, well away from, and below, the tracks. Try Hotel am Markt.

We stayed in both in May 2009. We liked St Goar better though both were very nice.

The telling advantage for St Goar was that it is on the river rather than across the railroad tracks. We stayed in Hotel am Markt in St Goar and could watch the boats (ferry, tour boats and working barges) work the river from the hotel dining room. It was fascinating for my simple mind.

We also enjoyed walks along the Rhine in the evening with views across the river at St. Goarhausen, Burg Katz and the Loreley.

Im Malerwinkel is off the beaten bath in lovely little Bacharach. The vineyards are around you and a babbling brook can be heard from your room (east side). We hiked to the castle up the hill --Stahleck---(cable to help you for a part if you choose) and enjoyed cafe und kuchen looking out over the Rhine. We also walked to Steeg, the little village just a half-mile down the road. It was the June wine festival, and we were the only tourists there. Delightful. TI in Bacharach was great.
The Stahleck hostel would be a great place to stay--I think they allow families. We were able to tour it as it was a festival day.
Bacharach was an antidote to the a busy life for us, but if you prefer a little bigger city, or are traveling with children, St. Goar might be better. We enjoyed the Rheinfels ruins greatly.

St. Goar is in a more scenic part of the Rhine than Bacharach, IMO. 3 castles can be seen from town, and there are some nice hikes - the walk uphill to Rheinfels Castle (tourable), the cliffside hike south to Oberwesel along the river and past the Lorelei-Felsen, and the hike north from St. Goarshausen to Maus Castle through vineyards and fields along the Rheinsteig trail (see the falconry show at Maus Castle if you can.) If using the train, St. Goar is surely better. A ferry there takes you over to St. Goarshausen, where you can use the train to get to Braubach (Marksburg Castle, great tour) and the other east bank towns easily.

Of course, you can visit Bacharach easily enough from St. Goar too. I's only a few minutes by train.

Both, because they are small and close. St. Goar has Reinfels Castle, which is WAY fun (especially following Rick's tour)and depending on when you go, an awesome wine festival complete with an oomp-ah band (we were there mid-late Sept).

Bachrach is gorgeous. You must follow the guide's instructions to have wine at one of the local establishments. When we were there, three other American couples joined us and all were there at Rick's guidebook suggestion! We had a great time.

You can take the boat or train between; it's a gorgeous, about an hour boat ride and I think only a 20 minute train ride.

Enjoy!

Good point about on the river vs. across the road, score one St. Goar. Also the castle, but you can take the boat to get to St. Goar from Bacharach to see that. My sense of St. Goar was the main shopping drag was kind of like a strip mall. So with us it lost points for that reason. We stayed in Bacharach and were glad we had made that choice. BTW, we found the Rhine cruise to be one of the highlights of our Germany/Austria trip, and we just did Bacharach to St. Goar. Certainly the surrounding of the river are nice, but what was fascinating for me was that it's a working river, with lots of commercial traffic. Watching the tankers steam by was really neat.

connie,

I was in both locations about a month ago, and I'd definitely choose Bacharach. It's a smaller town but has a good selection of restaurants and shops. There is the issue of being close to the tracks, but I must have had a good room in Hotel Kranenturm as I didn't really have a problem with it. The couple that own Hotel Kranenturm are wonderful, and genuinely concerned that guests have a nice stay.

I found St. Goar too "touristy" and crowded, and I don't anticipate staying there any time in the near future. You could also consider Oberwesel, as it's along the same rail line and seems like a nice town. As I recall, it's possible to rent bikes in Bacharach, and explore nearby towns on the wine route.

Happy travels!

St Goar.

We were in both last week of July 2010. Really enjoyed both, with very friendly people at both...but Bacharach was less crowded...seemed a little less "touristy" than St. Goar. That said, we hadn't planned to go to St. Goar at all but I saw it from the cruise we did on the Rhine and changed some plans so we could go to St. Goar.

In Bacharach, Herr Stassen has a shop where he does woodworking and painting and will visit with you all you want and will personalize his gifts for free. We bought many gifts at his shop.

At St. Goar, Stefan's Wine and Christmas shop...wowsie! His peach brandy and Eiswine were a highlight of the trip!

Personally, I'd try to hit both of the towns.

There are lots of good reasons for selecting one over the other but size is not one of them. The big town in the area is Koblenz at about 106,000 people. Comparatively, St. Goar is 2,800 people and Bacharach is 2,000. Area wise, Bacharach(24 sq-km)is one sq-km larger than St. Goar. These are both tiny places.

We spent 3 nights (July 3,4,5) in Bacharach @ Pension Lettie. We took the boat to St Goar (Rheinfels Castle) one day and to Rudesheim another day; would recommend the St Goar trip over Rudesheim.
Pension Lettie is easy to find from the town parking lot and Lettie is very welcoming. There was a ceiling fan in the room which was a big plus with the higher than normal temps. We ate 2 of 3 nights at Altes Haus where Frau Weber was friendly and glad to suggest wines to try, and the food was delicious! Our second evening the special dessert was a tarte with cherries and raspberries from her garden.