ryan

My wife and I would like to stay a night in the Rhine River area- any castle hotel suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also, any suggestions on good boat tours (about 2-4 hours in length)would be helpful. <BR>Thanks so much, <BR>Ryan

Clare

Hi Ryan <BR> <BR>I recently stayed in a castle overlooking the Rhine - highly recommended. I can recommend two types: the first one being a castle with good views etc but completely rebuilt in the centre section and therefore really nice rooms with all the mod cons etc. http://www.hotel-schoenburg.com/ <BR> <BR>The second one being the one I stayed at, a very old castle with creaky stairs and very old fixtures and fittings etc but a very old castley feel about it. http://rhinecastles.com/castle-guten...any/index.html <BR> <BR>Both hotels cost around $150 per night.

ellen

I can also recommend Auf Schoenburg. I paid only about $55 for a single. Have dinner there if you can. It's a treat.

lori

To the two who responded to this post- did you take a cruise on the Rhine while you were there and did you do that through your hotel/castle? <BR>Thanks

libuse

when we were in Koblenz we just walked to the ferry stop and bought our tickets there and then for immediate travel, they are easy to find on the river bank. We took the boat up to Boppard, spent a couple of hours there, and then came back. It took about an hour or so each way, and there was a bar/restaurant on board. It seems to operate like ordinary public transport so I think you can choose where to go and for how long.

lori

So, you can just grab a cruise from various places up and down the river? No need for prior reservations or anything like that?

BillJ

I would enthusiastically endorse the Schoenburg Castle, previously mentioned. My wife and I stayed there in May, as a direct result of information on this forum. It was magnificent, and yes the dinner is a must. View their web site, and decide for yourself. We arrived by car from the Moselle area, stayed 2 nights, and fully intended to do some kind of Rhine cruise. Instead, took our car across on the St Goar ferry, and took in Lorley and the Marksburg castle. Our host at Schoenburg recommended Marksburg, if we could only see one castle. <BR>As to the cruise, well, some of the people we met travelled all the way to Bingam and back, but it is a whole day, most of it spent on a boat. I would be more inclined to use the river "taxi" system which runs frequently up and down the river. The schedules are available at the tourist offices and your hotel. You can get on and off at whatever little village you wish. For instance, if you stay in Oberwesel, you could take the boat down to Boppard, then back up to St Goar, visiting both. St Goar was our favorite. These are not "tours" or cruises per se, just a interesting way to go from town to town. Also, the train runs up and down the river, so lots of ways to get from village to village. Have fun!

libuse

hi Lori,<BR>yes, thats exactly how it worked; we were a bit bemused and asked the person at the counter a lot of (probably irritating) questions cos it seemed so easy. On the boat there was a commentary about the sights, and we could choose how long to stay at our destination for, or you could just go one way and use it as a method of getting about, a really great system. We just found that along the river banks there were several &quot;stalls&quot; advertising the various boat trips and this was one of them. I don't think we irritated the woman on the counter too much with our naivety, as she then grilled us about prices in London, in prep for her own holidays!