My husband and I have been mulling this over for a while... We will arrive in Bacharach on August 15 from Indiana via Heathrow and then Frankfurt - a long, long travel day. We'll get there around 6 pm, when we will hopefully be able to grab a bite, then go to bed. We have two more nights in Bacharach, and will leave early in the morning on the 18th. I've been puzzling over how to get everything packed into these 2 days. Is this itinerary at all realistic? Day 1: Rhine cruise at 10:15 (sleeping in!) from Bacharach to St. Goar. Explore Burg Rheinfels, have lunch, take the ferry over to St. Goarhausen. Take the 14:31 train from St. Goarhausen to Braubach Take the 16:00 English language tour of Marksburg. Take the 17:23 train from Braubach back to Bacharach (is that cutting it too close? We could take the 18:23 train instead). Day 2:
09:21 Train from Bacharach to Trier, arriving at 11:46. Spend the day here. Is there enough to occupy us for the day? Should we go somewhere else on the way back to Bacharach - possibly Cochem? I think day 2 sounds totally do-able, but I'm not sure about day 1. Do we miss a lot if we don't cruise from Bingen to Bacharach, or from St. Goar to Braubach? I don't think it's possible to go from Bingen to St. Goar, and still do Marksburg and Rheinfels in the same day. We'll eventually be making it over to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. Does this make Marksburg less of a must-see? We have two daughters, aged 6 and 11. I think they're pretty good travelers. The 11 year old in particular has more energy than pretty much everyone I know. But I don't know if they'll get all castled out after all this.
Posted by
Orlando, Florida
676 posts
Hi Joyce, I can only speak for Day 2. There is definitely enough to occupy you for the day in Trier. I just went there with friends and a total of 5 kids, ages 4-16. We spent at least 1.5 hours in the Roman baths, the kids loved running around them, and after my friends felt more comfortable not being with them every second, run they did! We also went into one of the churches, there's another we didn't do. You can walk to the Roman ampitheatre, it's a hike and partly uphill. There's a really nice museum there if the weather isn't that great. The square is beautiful, lots of shopping and restaurants, including a McDonald's and Subways, if you just need a taste of home! Also at one end of the square is the Porta Nigra, one of the remaining gates, you can go up inside it. There's a little train that starts right near there that you can take around central part of the city. I really like Trier, have been several times and always enjoy it.
Posted by
Chicago/Rural WI
811 posts
Since Day 1 involves a lot of moving around and you will likely be jet-lagged, you might want to consider switching your plans by doing the Trier day trip on Day 1 and saving your current Day 1 for Day 2. For example: Day 1: get up whenever, hop on the next train to Trier. Spend as much or as little time as you want/are able, then head back to Bacharach. Trier isn't very big, and I think it would be best to have only one "To-Do" for that first day. It sounds a bit more relaxing to me. Day 2: off to the races...
Posted by
Atlanta
1358 posts
I'm a little surprised that you're staying in Bacharach and not really spending any time there. We were just there with our kids, ages 5 and 9, and they enjoyed having some time to just explore there. You can hike around the vinyards or see the old towers left from the wall around the city. There's a half-decent playground by the river. Just getting ice cream and hanging by the river watching the boats can be a treat, especially after being in transit for a whole day. Burg Rheinfels is completely different from the other castles you're visiting, since it's ruins and the kids are free to explore. We spent a good few hours there, taking the self-guided tour and just letting the kids wander. I was amazed but only partly surprised that my husband actually packed a headlamp for exploring the tunnels with the kids. My guys weren't that excited about the Rhine cruise when they were on it. It might have had something to do with the fact that it was crowded and cold and rainy, though. I'd consider dropping Hohenschwangau later in the trip. Since you have to take guided tours of that and Neuschwanstein, that may be too many tours in a day for the kids. Something that my kids LOVED was the luge down by Neuschwanstein, at Tegelberg. Seriously. It was a blast. And they have a GREAT playground there with a zipline. It was one of the highlights for them. We were very lucky that the rain cleared up just enough for us to do it, since it closes down when it rains.