Travelling down the Rhine.

The scenic part of the Rhine does start just south of Koblenz although St. Goar to Bingen is the very heart of the Rhine gorge. The problem with taking the train is that you can only see the castles on the other side of the river and they go by very quickly. On the boat you see both sides of the river and you have a lot more time to see things. We did the Koblenz to Bingen trip and it makes a very pleasant day. I have no idea where the car rentals are in Bingen, I would assume they are near the train station which is not far from the KD docks.

You can get on the boat from multiple locations. Rather than Braubach, unless you want to go up and see the Marksburg, what about getting on in Boppard, get off in St. Goar and then continue your boat ride on to Bingen?

Having spent a lot of time in the area, I can tell you that the scenery immediately south of Koblenz isn't that special - there's a good bit of industry there. You see, larger, more recognizable towns are often used to identify the scenic area - Koblenz and Mainz are commonly used as pin points so that visitors can find them easily on a map. But the actual scenic area is smaller; Mainz is well outside the scenic zone, and Koblenz is a large city with a mostly uninteresting waterfront to the south. Braubach is a better and easier starting or ending point near Koblenz. Boppard, which Jo suggests, is a a little further south on the west bank and a good suggestion too; besides Marksburg Castle, there's not much between Koblenz and Boppard. The train from Koblenz to Boppard (along the west bank) provides a view of the industry along the east bank, but you won't have to cruise past it at a snail's pace (2 hours by boat from Koblenz to Boppard, 15 min. by train) and you'll still be able to see the east bank castles (Marksburg, Lahneck.) The only castle you might miss is Stolzenfels, high on the west bank (you'll see it from the train as you leave Koblenz if you crane your neck.) It's generally better to start the cruise in Bingen and END a cruise in either of these places (Bingen-Braubach is less than 3 hours, while the reverse, Braubach-Bingen, takes 5+ hours!) The cruise boats are nice enough, but it's wise to spend your limited time cruising the BEST part of the river (Bingen-St. Goar or maybe Bingen-Boppard, where the concentration of castles is greatest) in as little time as possible. The cruise from Bingen to St. Goar takes you past the Loreley and a multitude of castles in only 1.5 hours. If you spend 5-6 hours on the cruise, you won't have time to explore the handsome villages of Boppard, Bacharach, Oberwesel and St. Goar.

Irv writes, "I have no idea where the car rentals are in Bingen, I would assume they are near the train station which is not far from the KD docks." Last time I checked, there were no major rental companies serving Bingen. Mainz, Bad Kreuznach, and Wiesbaden are probably the closest possibilities, but before committing, I would check on how conveniently located their agencies are to a railway station. If you are planning to go to Rothenburg from Bingen, I would suggest the train. The advance-sale fare for two travelers starts at about 49€. After Rothenburg, you can use the BAYERN TICKET (daypass, 26€/day) to get around.

Bingen=cars=zip

You want to go UP the Rhine, not down. Taking the boat is 1000 times better than the train.

I took the KD barges over 2 days and could walk anywhere I wanted to go from the dock, with my 50# backpack. I used a eurail pass, and on the 5 different barges I got on as I stopped whereever I felt like it and got on the next hourly barge as I finished, they always checked that I had one, but never stamped the day so with some good frixion eraseable pens, it was completely free (keeping in mind that I had bought and paid for the pass planning on using those days for that purpose... It just ended up being a bonus!).

What were you erasing? Sounds a bit shady.

Shelley, if you aren't buying Rick's Germany guidebook, go to the library and read the three pages on the KD boats. This doesn't really change from year to year, and will answer all of your questions - except the 2013 boat schedule, which is online at the KD website. Note that the boats are not a frequent as "hourly". The "boat view", as noted above, is FAR superior to the "train view" or the "car view". Your trip happens to be (as another poster pointed out) UP the Rhine, which takes substantially longer for a given distance. (The downstream boats do not go too fast to enjoy the view.) On our day trip from Andernach (near Koblenz), we walked from the Bingen train station to the KD dock, which was a substantial walk, but except for the pedestrian bridge over the railroad, completely level. I would not choose to do this with my luggage. And I was sorry we missed the track of Hildegarde von Bingen. We rode the boat to Boppard, which was a wonderful place to roam around, before taking the train back to our hotel. The reason we didn't visit all the towns Rick says are swell is that the boats (May, 2011) were not frequent enough. The same-day train tickets were pretty cheap, I remember maybe about $6 per person. It was just annoying to buy them from a machine in an unattended station without having a chip-and-PIN card. We left our car at the hotel because you don't want to take a car to a one-way boat trip.

Thank you one and all. We have decided to take the train to St. Goar on the day we arrive from Mosel River area. Tour that castle that day and then the next day travel by early train to Bingen and travel up the Rhine to Boppard. I think this will work out the best for us. Thanks everyone & my new friend Russ for all his behind the scenes help. :)