kd rhine cruise

Since it is faster going downstream than up, most people ride the train up river from Cologne and board upstream. Bingen is a good spot to board. St Goar is a good spot as is Boppard to get off. On the other hand (I am an Economist) that is exactly what everybody else will be doing. Hoards of tour bus groups will board at Rudesheim and get off at St Goar to go to Rheinfels Castle. So there is an advantage to taking the slow way.

sam, are there also hoards of buses at Bacharach. would it be better if we took train from cologne to Koblenz or st goar, then cruise upstream to Bacharach, then train back to cologne

"...should we take an early train from cologne to Bacharach, cruise downstream..." A quick look at the KD schedule will point out that such a trip is impossible. You will need to take a train to the Middle Rhine area, cruise the Bingen-St. Goar segment, then return to Cologne by train. The cruise is nice enough, but I am not a gigantic fan of the idea, especially in summer or on weekends. It can be hot and crowded and somewhat tedious. You can enjoy the area by train instead if you wish. Trains run every hour or better between the towns, and daypasses are an inexpensive way to hop on and off at Bacharach, Oberwesel, St. Goar (Rheinfels Castle), Braubach (Marksburg Castle), and/or Boppard. If you want to get an early start from Cologne, plan to go on Saturday or Sunday, when the "Happy Weekend" daypass lets 2-5 people travel at any hour (on other days, you're stuck with starting after 9 am if you want to take advantage of the daypasses.)

Hello Ron. I recommend : ride in a train to Bacharach. Ride on a K-D ship from Bacharach to St. Goar. Riding in a train is less scenic. Being on a ship on the river, you can see the castles at both sides of the river. People in a train can not see that. If very many people are on the ship on the river, there is a good reason for that. It is one of the world's great boat rides !
Try to be one of the first of the people to walk onto the ship at Bacharach, quickly walk to the top deck, and grab chairs. Sit at the middle of the top deck, for the best views. Arrive at Bacharach, 45 minutes before the ship departure time, and walk through Bacharach. It is a visually charming little town. At St. Goar, there is nothing to see in the town. A "tschu-tschu" tourist "train" goes up the hill to the Rheinfels castle. That castle was broken by the French Revolutionary army in 1797, and many of the rocks in the walls were taken away for building houses. The tops of the walls are not there. Seeing that destroyed castle was not appealing to me, but some people like to be there, to see how a castle was built. Riding in a train from St. Goar, you could get off at Boppard, and walk through the town.

Ron from Missouri correctly points out that Rheinfels is a set of ruins. Still, a combination of features make it a good destination for many - the museum there, the stunning view of the valley and the cliffside walks, as well as the terrace-restaurant (Der Landgraf) in the classy hotel next to the castle might make it worth your time. To visit a never-destroyed castle, Braubach's Marksburg Castle is very good. How to visit Marksburg? It's 11 minutes by train from Koblenz to Braubach; hike up or catch the shuttle from town. If you decide to do the cruise, you can either cruise north to Braubach (time consuming) or end your cruise in St. Goarshausen (right across the river from St. Goar) and catch a train there (20 minutes to Braubach.) So... if you're on the 10:30 boat from Bingen (or the 11:15 boat - same boat, actually - from Bacharach) you'll reach St. Goarshausen at 12:05, walk to the station, catch the 12:31 train north to Braubach (12:52 - you could also do this routine one hour later starting at 11:30 from Bingen or 12:15 from Bacharach.) The scenic Bingen-Braubach section of the river is 52km long. If you're going to travel all the way from Cologne and back to see it, why not see the WHOLE thing and continue south by train beyond Bacharach to Bingen for the other castles as well (15 km more of great scenery.) If you go only to Bacharach and cruise north to St. Goar, as Ron suggests, you'll cruise just 13 km of the river, spend 40 minutes on the boat, pay roughly 13€ on top of your train pass, and miss out on 30% of the scenery - and you'll be seeing the Braubach-St. Goar part by train only anyway. I'd rather extend the cruise by paying 6€ more to start from Bingen OR to save the cruise time and money altogether and just use the train the entire way - you'll enjoy the scenery from the riverbank towns that you stop in along the way anyway.

I strongly disagree that there is nothing to see in St. Goar and that Rhinefels is just a bunch of rocks. The 2 ancient churches in St. Goar have such beautiful vaulting, with painted ceilings and wonderful old gravestones, plus a great crypt. Even though I have see them quite a few times, I still like to spend about an hours or so, just on these 2 churches. When you walk into the Great Hall in Rhinefels, it will take your breath away, it is so massive. Wandering around thru all the tunnels, climbing up onto the ramparts, peering out thru the walls, are all great fun. Believe it or not, using the bathrooms there gave us the biggest kick. We couldn't stop laughing. This is a good place to have a flashlight ap on your i-phone. You will need it in the tunnels. Riding the boat does give you the best view, but I would also start way before Bacharach. Beginning at Bingen or Ruedesheim, lets you see a lot more castles. If you get on in Bacharach, you will only see about 4 castles between here and St. Goar. If you want to explore Bacharach, you will also need more than 45 min. You might also want to visit the churches in Ober Wesel and Lorch. One of the things you can do that makes this trip even more interesting is to read a book called "Rhine Sagas". Mark Twain was "enchanted to death" with this book and it does make the castles and Rhine come alive with the odd stories connected with all of them. Helpful is also a book that describes each castle, with the map on the back, available all along the Rhine for about 8 euro.