Rhine River Planning

I think Bacharach would work.

Day One:

1)Catch the 7:58 out of Cochem, change in Koblenz, head to Bacharach where you arrive 9:30. Drop bags at a Bacharach hotel.

2)Catch the 10:15 boat in Bacharach north to Braubach. (The section from St. Goar to Braubach is also very scenic.) Arrive 12:20, have lunch?, tour Marksburg 1:00 - 2:00 or 2:00 - 3:00.

3)Proceed back to Bacharach for afternoon and evening. Take train to St. Goarshausen, ferry to St. Goar, then train to Bacharach; alternatively, train back to Koblenz and change there for train to Bacharach.

Day Two: Take train with bags to St. Goar; no lockers there, but the TI will store bags. That was their offer last time I was in town, anyway! The Hotel Hauser is also an informal TI and has been known to store bags for non-guests. Both places are near the center and the rail station. Tour Rheinfels and be on your way.

Yes,

I think that's doable. Originally I thought you wanted to do everything in one day, which is just too much.

The boat from St. Goar to Bacharach is probably the best because of the Laurelei and the number of castles in the area. If not the best, it's a good sample of what you would see more spread out elsewhere along the Rhine. I've driven and trained other parts of the valley but only boated that stretch.

The boat takes about an hour from Bacharach to St. Goar (longer going upstream). It looks like you are doubling the length of the trip (and going upriver) so plan at least 2 1/2 hours. You can check the schedules online at http://www.kdrhine.com/rhineschedule.htm. A 1005 paddle-wheel boat gets you to Bacharach at 1330 or you can catch a 900 boat out of Boppard and get to Bacharach at 1130

If you get to Rheinfels at opening, you can spend all morning there, get some lunch, then head out for Rhotenburg.

My favorite place to stay in the area is Burg Stahleck, it's a castle turned into a youth hostel. It's well run, clean and quiet. If it's full, there are pensions in Bacharach and St. Goar that are further up the hill so the trains aren't as bad as the hotels on the river (and they're cheaper).

There is a hostel in St. Goar but it's very average. Not horrible at all but not special either.

I'd agree that the section of the Rhein from Bacharach to St. Goar is the most interesting because you go right under the Lorelei and go by the Pfalzgrafenstein up close. Other than that you can probably see the castles about as well from the train. Except for Rheinfels, which you are going to tour anyway, and Stahleck, in Bacharach, most of the castles are on the right bank, so if you take the train on the left bank, you'll get a pretty good view. Except for the Bacharach-St. Goar stretch, I would only use the boat if it got you somewhere faster than the train, and I would only take the boat down the river (to the northwest) rather than against the current.

As for your trip, you can take the train to Koblenz and leave your luggage in lockers there. Then take the train or bus to/from Braubach. Come back to Koblenz, pick up your bags, and go on to Bacharach. In Bacharach, stay in Pension Im Malerwinkel (www.im-malerwinkel.de); it's far enough from the tracks to avoid the train noise, but not the long climb up the hill to the hostel.

If you have time that day, take the boat down to St. Goar and the train back. If not, take the first boat in the morning to St. Goar, tour Rheinfels, then come back on the train to Im Malerwinkel, pick up your bags, then head to Rothenburg.

1.) Catch the shuttle ("Marksburg Express") to the castle and you should get in on the 10:00 tour. It's less than an hour long. Sounds like plenty of time to me.

2.) That's tight. There used to be lockers in Koblenz' underground passage connecting the platforms - perhaps there still are. Locate a locker near the track you're scheduled to depart from and it should go quickly. Of course, delays do happen - you'll need a back-up departure at a later hour.

Thanks for the ideas, everyone. I think Lee's suggestion might work best for us. A couple questions:

1) if we plan to arrive in Braubach at 9:22 and depart at 12:32, does 3 hrs seem like a reasonable amount of time to tour Marksburg and possibly grab a bite to eat in Braubach?

2) on our way back through Koblenz, the train arrives in 12:46 and departs at 12:53. Is there any chance of us being able to retrieve our bags from the lockers in this short amount of time between trains?