Is a One Day Rhine or Moselle River Cruise Possible?
Oct 10th, 2012, 03:40 PM
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Is a One Day Rhine or Moselle River Cruise Possible?
Next September we plan 2 1/2 weeks to visit Switzerland and France (1 week house rental) and wanted to squeeze in a pretty stretch of the Rhine (Koblenz to Rudesheim) or the Moselle (Cochem to Bernkastel) on a one day river cruise. Are such trips available. We don't want to spend a week on a river cruise. Any info and company names would be helpful.
Oct 10th, 2012, 04:32 PM
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For Rhine, KD has several boats going up and down the river per day. http://www.kdrhine.com/rhineschedule.htm
You just buy tickets at a dock just before you hop on. Rhine flows pretty fast and notice the significant travel time differences depending on whether you are going up or down the river.
You just buy tickets at a dock just before you hop on. Rhine flows pretty fast and notice the significant travel time differences depending on whether you are going up or down the river.
Oct 11th, 2012, 05:03 AM
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The best Mosel cruises begin or end in the Cochem area. But if you've got time for one cruise, do the Rhine. It's more scenic, more dramatic.
I'd suggest spending at least 2 nights in the Rhine/Mosel area if you can arrange it. It's worth checking out the villages and touring a castle or two. Cochem, Linz, Braubach, St. Goar, Bacharach and Boppard are all wonderful towns with lots of old-world flavor, and on September weekends, wine festivals make the area even more appealing.
KD is the most prominent cruise outfit. Bingen-Rüdesheimer also does cruises in the area.
The best Rhine cruise begins in Bingen (or across the river in Rüdesheim) and ends in Braubach (home of Marksburg Castle.) The route takes about 3 hours. Don't cruise from north to south, or the same trip takes almost twice as long (current.) Longer cruises are possible, but the scenery won't be as good either north or south of this section, and cruising is generally slow and you'll be spending time that is better spent visiting the villages, IMO.
By the way, trains run along both sides of the Rhine, which makes it easy to visit villages outside or inside the scenic section covered by your cruise boat. Trains along the Mosel to Cochem and beyond also follow the river for the most part and provide good river scenery.
I'd suggest spending at least 2 nights in the Rhine/Mosel area if you can arrange it. It's worth checking out the villages and touring a castle or two. Cochem, Linz, Braubach, St. Goar, Bacharach and Boppard are all wonderful towns with lots of old-world flavor, and on September weekends, wine festivals make the area even more appealing.
KD is the most prominent cruise outfit. Bingen-Rüdesheimer also does cruises in the area.
The best Rhine cruise begins in Bingen (or across the river in Rüdesheim) and ends in Braubach (home of Marksburg Castle.) The route takes about 3 hours. Don't cruise from north to south, or the same trip takes almost twice as long (current.) Longer cruises are possible, but the scenery won't be as good either north or south of this section, and cruising is generally slow and you'll be spending time that is better spent visiting the villages, IMO.
By the way, trains run along both sides of the Rhine, which makes it easy to visit villages outside or inside the scenic section covered by your cruise boat. Trains along the Mosel to Cochem and beyond also follow the river for the most part and provide good river scenery.
Oct 11th, 2012, 05:06 AM
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Here's the Mosel cruise outfit that sends boats off from Cochem:
http://www.kolb-mosel.de/en/
http://www.kolb-mosel.de/en/
Oct 11th, 2012, 08:10 AM
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I agree the Rhine has more dramatic scenery, more history. But I find the Moselle prettier, smaller in scale, more relaxing.
Ideally you can do both. And if you do one castle, make it Burg Eltz. Unlike so many castles, it has been lived in continuously. That make it more domesticated, more human in feeling. And the location's great.
Ideally you can do both. And if you do one castle, make it Burg Eltz. Unlike so many castles, it has been lived in continuously. That make it more domesticated, more human in feeling. And the location's great.
Oct 11th, 2012, 08:29 AM
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The best Mosel cruises begin or end in the Cochem area. But if you've got time for one cruise, do the Rhine. It's more scenic, more dramatic>
maybe more dramatic but more scenic - I think most like me would say the Mosel is far far more pretty as a river valley than the Rhine - just a short part of the Rhine - the fabled Rhine Gorge can be called scneic - about a 20-mile stretch of river between Bingen/rudesheim and Koblenz - the rest littered and scarred by industrial detritus but the Mosel is awesomely scenic with walls on each side several hundred feet high and at many places carpeted by vineyards and puncutated by cutish riverside wine towns.
Both rivers are very different - the Father Rhine as Germans call it - mighty, fast-flowintg and the Mother Mosel - tranquil and lazy - do both but I would never say the Rhine is more scenic than the Mosel.
Russ is an awesome font of great info on this area but I do differ with him on this point.
maybe more dramatic but more scenic - I think most like me would say the Mosel is far far more pretty as a river valley than the Rhine - just a short part of the Rhine - the fabled Rhine Gorge can be called scneic - about a 20-mile stretch of river between Bingen/rudesheim and Koblenz - the rest littered and scarred by industrial detritus but the Mosel is awesomely scenic with walls on each side several hundred feet high and at many places carpeted by vineyards and puncutated by cutish riverside wine towns.
Both rivers are very different - the Father Rhine as Germans call it - mighty, fast-flowintg and the Mother Mosel - tranquil and lazy - do both but I would never say the Rhine is more scenic than the Mosel.
Russ is an awesome font of great info on this area but I do differ with him on this point.
Oct 11th, 2012, 09:14 AM
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I think the Mosel is just as attractive as the Rhine - in a different way - and I've spent some very nice days there. If I were biking or hiking, I'd pick the Mosel. But for, say, a 3-hour CRUISE, although both rivers are charming, the Rhine wins handily, IMO. The Rhine is exciting, the Mosel calm, bucolic - pretty but not thrilling.
"the fabled Rhine Gorge can be called scneic - about a 20-mile stretch of river between Bingen/rudesheim and Koblenz..."
A boat ride on the Rhine through the section PalenQ mentions takes you past 40 castles. (By the way, it's 40 miles, not 20, from Bingen to Koblenz.) On the Mosel, castles are a good bit more scarce and less impressive since the Rhine over the centuries has had so much more commercial importance.
As I suggested, you don't need to cruise beyond Braubach to Koblenz, however - the scenery becomes somewhat industrial during this stretch.
If you really aren't interested in the castles, perhaps the Mosel trip would suit you just as well, or better. But I think for most folks with limited time, it makes good sense to do a 2-3 hour Rhine cruise and then see the Mosel by train if time allows (Cochem, which has the single most impressive castle on the Mosel, is quite easy to reach by train - about 30 minutes by direct train, right along the river, from Koblenz.)
Cochem to Bernkastel requires 7 hours, by the way.
"the fabled Rhine Gorge can be called scneic - about a 20-mile stretch of river between Bingen/rudesheim and Koblenz..."
A boat ride on the Rhine through the section PalenQ mentions takes you past 40 castles. (By the way, it's 40 miles, not 20, from Bingen to Koblenz.) On the Mosel, castles are a good bit more scarce and less impressive since the Rhine over the centuries has had so much more commercial importance.
As I suggested, you don't need to cruise beyond Braubach to Koblenz, however - the scenery becomes somewhat industrial during this stretch.
If you really aren't interested in the castles, perhaps the Mosel trip would suit you just as well, or better. But I think for most folks with limited time, it makes good sense to do a 2-3 hour Rhine cruise and then see the Mosel by train if time allows (Cochem, which has the single most impressive castle on the Mosel, is quite easy to reach by train - about 30 minutes by direct train, right along the river, from Koblenz.)
Cochem to Bernkastel requires 7 hours, by the way.
