Rhein Castle Hotels

Spend your money on other things...especially if you're not spending the night in the real castle but in an attached hotel instead.

If this is about the EXPERIENCE and FEELING of staying in a castle there is also the option of staying at Burg Stahleck in Bacharach. It's a youth hostel and thus much more affordable than the hotels. They do have a few double and family rooms, you don't have to sleep in a large dorm. However, they book fast so make reservations asap. We stayed for a week at the Burg Schoenburg in Oberwesel and would definitely do it again, it was a very special time! It has a hotel part and a Kolpinghaus part, both are in original castle buildings. A separate youth hostel is 100m away in a new building. The hotel looks really beautiful, the restaurant has breathtaking views. However, for a family of 4 it was well beyond our budget. We stayed at the Kolpinghaus which is kind of like a youth hostel, they have mostly double rooms, all with ensuite bath. However, they book primarily large groups so you need to make enquiries soon. The website is in German only but the managers are fluent in English (email under "Kontakt"): http://www.kolpinghaus-auf-schoenburg.de/

We stayed at the Schoenburg Castle Hotel several years ago and loved it. Worth the splurge and they do an excellent dinner. Our room, with a small balconey, overlooked the Rhine and was a very delightful room. It was late in October and log fires were burning throughout the main rooms.

We also stayed at Castle Schoenburg just last month. We were treated like royalty from the sherry i the room to the room with the private terrace and view of the Rhine!! The Castle, tho renovated, seems like the "real deal". The staff is very nice and the rooms were exactly as pictured on the website. Well, worth the money.

I've stayed at Burg Stahleck. It's a little hike by trail and stairs up from the Rhein. It's a real castle, now run as a youth hostel. It's very clean and quiet, certainly one of the best hostels I've stayed in. Our room had a great view, as does the courtyard in the center of the castle. Be sure to get reservations, it's always full. It seems to be a popular stay for Germans, at least everyone we talked to was from somewhere in Germany.

Although we are budget travelers, we have stayed at Schoenberg twice over the years and plan to do it again. It is the real thing, the food and lodging are fantastic and the view of the Lorelei is great. Yes it has been restored from ruins and is not all original but it is a piece of history that goes back centuries and we have found the experience to be fantastic. Cut corners on the more mundane and save up for a couple nights in a real castle. Their web site is hotel-schoenberg,com.

I am surprised to see this discussion continuing a month later, but there is a good range of views and some good first-hand information. After checking prices, and reviews, I decided these were not worth the extra cost; the closest one to being affordable wanted cash instead of credit cards. I may yet stay in a Rhein castle but not this time. Since posting the original question, I have decided to go west to Bruges instead of returning to the Rhein. The new part about the Rhein for me would have been staying in one of the castle hotels above the river. Instead, I plan to stay at least one night at the historic French castle in Sedan, northeast of Reims, before going on to Bruges. It is not as old or as scenic as the Rhein castles but it is more authentic, and it was very important in the history of both France and Germany. And, the hotel is inside the fort instead of being an add-on like the Rhein castles. Plus, it is more affordable, which means I can splurge on something else.

Great idea to stay in a French castle!!! For clarification, the hotels mentioned here were all ones IN the castle and NOT add-ons or attached. There is a difference between a renovated castle and a new building attached to a castle. I bet the French castle you'll be staying at has been renovated several times over the years as well and is not 100% authentic either - or you'd not find a flush toilet in there!

Thanks for the feedback. I guess "authentic" is a loaded term. My definition would describe "authentic " as something with the original walls or, if destroyed, rebuilt as close as possible to the original. In any case, that was not a deal-killer. Based on your tips here, I did some more research on castles Stahleck and Schoenburg. I also looked at Castle Liebenstein, where the hotel is clearly a mid-20th century add-on and out of character with the original castle. The Stahleck at least sticks to the original design of a medieval castle, but it was a guessing game for the restorers in the early 1900s. Although authentic-looking, it just did not appeal to me or my wife. The hotel part of the Schoenburg fills in the space nicely between the reconstructed parts, but it does not even look like the rest of the castle. It instead reflects the 19th century romantic ideal of a medieval castle, which is not a bad thing. As I said, I may yet stay there in the future.