Day trip on the Rhine
 

We will be staying in Cochem ( at the Villa Villeum) May 29 and 30- realizing it is a German holiday - do we need to make a reservation for the boat trip on the Rhine? Is there a particular line that would be better for the best day trip..... how should all this be done? Thank you! We are looking forward to the last part of our European adventure in May��. Melissa

If you are staying in Cochem, that is on the Mosel River. Wouldn't you want a Mosel Cruise?

Cochem is not on the Rhine but on the Mosel.

What you can do:

- you can make a boat trip on the Mosel which is nice enough (although there are not as many castles on the slopes as on the Rhine)

- you can take a train from Cochem to Koblenz and board a Rhine cruise there (1:10 riding time plus 15 min walking time)

- you can drive from Cochem to Koblenz (~50 min.)

- you can drive from Cochem to Braubach, visit the Marksburg there and then board the boat in Braubach

Here is the website of the main cruising company serving both the Mosel and the Rhein (with schedules):

https://www.k-d.com/en/home/

Reservation is not necessary.

Best bet for the Rhine cruise is K-d boats - I'd start in Rudesheim and take the boat downstream - lot quicker than going upstream and after a few hours most folks have had enough - I'd board at Rudesheim because that is where many services commence and many tour groups come aboard snatching the best seats - outside up front - yes get off at Marksburg to see the only intact castle on this part of the Rhine and then you as you are thru the best of the scenery can simply hop a train to Kobelnz and change trains there for Cochem - 20mins by frequent trains.

There are Mosel boats but at that time of year running a sketchy schedule and IMO the Rhine cruise is a whole lot more interesting - check the following sources for good info on cruising thru the Rhine Gorge - www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com has good descriptions of the Rhine cruise. And yes just buy a ticket a hop on - no reservations needed or I believe even accepted except for groups. (I took groups on these boats for a few decades and everyone loved them - even though we too were staying in Cochem.

a nice boat ride from Cochem goes to Beilstein - bus or boat back or rent a bicycle.

Even if you have a car I would not drive to Rudesheim or other boarding point for the boats as you then will have to backtrack by train or boat to get your car.

Simply do the about one hour total train ride Cochem to Rudesheim or other boarding point - will save money too over potential parking fees, gas, etc.

If you are taking the train, you may get a discount if you show your train ticket at the boat ticket office.

there is a daily K-d service on the Mosel between Koblenz and Cochem but for folks in Cochem it, running only once a day, runs at inconvenient times - leaving Koblenz about 9 am, arriving Cochem noon or so then going back to Koblenz - but to me the Mosel though gorgeous is pretty much all the same - the Rhine is much more varied and interesting for a boat ride IME.

Is there a particular line that would be better for the best day trip..>

Yes by all means like traveller1959 says K-D does most of the short few-hour cruises thru the best of the Rhine - the Rhine Gorge and the famous Lorelei - even tears were brought to my eyes when the Germans began singing some popular sanguine song associated with the Lorelei when we went by this cliff at the bottom of which, in German mythology I guess, gorgeous sirens used to lure boatmen to their deaths by crashing into the sheer cliff.

The Lorelei is a huge rock tha rises 129 metres above the river and constitutes the most narrow sgretch of the Rhine between Switzerland and the North Sea - thus the waters swirl beneather the cliff with huge rocks just below the waterline causing in the past many boats to crash - the Loreli is near St Goarhausen, I'd say about half way between Rudesheim/bingen and Koblenz - the 65 km of river called the Rhine Gorge and names a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002. One things that sets the Rhine cruises off from the more or less the same Mosel cruises.

https://www.google.com/search?q=lore...=1600&bih=1075

Wow- thank you all. So much helpful information!! Really appreciate it. ����

http://www.marksburg.de/english/frame.htm

Marksburg as mentioned is the favorite castle to get off the boat and see - boat docks right below it and if you want to end your cruise here you can take a train from Marksburg to Koblenz.

I agree with PalenQ that the Rhine is more interesting to cruise as you will see many, many castles as well as the vineyards on the hillsides. Allow some time to get off the boat and explore at least one of the Rhine villages. My favorite is Bacharach.

The boat cruise from Cochem to Beilstein on the Mosel River is interesting in that it goes through the Fankel Locks.

I don't think the Cochem to Beilstein boats may be running at full tilt late May - the season on the Mosel does not really hit high gear until July - the busiest and August - it's a nice cruise thru vineyard-carpeted gorges but pretty much all the same - going thru the lock would be nice. You could put a bicycle you rent on the boat and bike back down the Mosel (with thew ind usually) to Cochem.

the daily K-D boat Cochem to Koblenz could be used to go to Moselkern, a few mile walk or cab ride from Burg Eltz, one of Germany's most famous castles - again this is a short bike ride too - you could take a train to Moselkern - trains take bikes too if you want to cycle one way.

I actually like Koblenz - as you have to pass thru it from cochem to the Rhine if you take the boat to its terminus at Koblenz stroll thru this pleasant if not spectacular city cengter to the train station, about a mile from the boat dock.

check out the Deutsches Eck monument at the confluence of the 'Father Rhine' and 'Mother Mosel' as I am told Germans refer to the two rivers - the mighty fast-flowing Rhine and the languid canal-like damned up at points Mosel - anyway the monument to German Unity ifs famous in Germany - check it out.

the plinth once hoisted en equestrian statue of Kaiser Wilhem on it but just before the end of WW2 an American GI firing some kind of cannon from the opposite bank of the Mosel shattered the equestrian Kaiser Wilhelm to smithereens - now a monument to German Unity has taken its place. the place was where Teutonic Knights made a settlement in the 13th century so venerated by Germans.

(Told this by the local manager of the campground from where the American GI let fire - who said the GI was just having fun with his buddies - the official Koblenz tourist Office version below is a bit different - an artillery attack which is I guess the same story).

http://www.koblenz-touristik.de/en/p...sches-eck.html

https://www.google.com/search?q=ehre...=1600&bih=1075

Another landmark in Koblenz is the Ehrenbreitsen Fortress that looms high over town from its clifftop perch on the opposite side of the Rhine - there is a cableway going up to its summit from Koblenz I believe and foot ferries to ferry folks over to it to then walk thru twisting tunnels to get up top,

where there is a regional museum and views to kill for. There is also (or was last I know) a HI youth hostel in part of the old fortress, which dominated a vital area where the Mosel and Rhine came together.

Lots to see and do in Koblenz after the boat ride - lovely esplanade for strolling along the Rhine Ufer and Deutsches Eck area.