Sankt Goar to Cologne
 

Would someone be able to assist me with the following itinerary? I am having difficulty finding/interpreting the schedules to achieve the desired schedule.

The intent is to take a bus or train from Cologne on a Saturday morning in May to Sankt Goar and take a river cruise back to Cologne.

Can this itinerary be arranged? What is the most efficient transportation to Sankt Goar outbound? How difficult is it to get to the boat landing from either the train or bus station? About how long can one expect to be on the cruise to Cologne?

Thanks in advance...bdj

I don't think that there are boats going all the way from St. Goar to Köln. According to the KD time table you can go as far as Koblenz. The itinerary for summer 2015 was:

St. Goar dep. Koblenz arr.
10.55 13.10
15.55 18.10
17.55 20.10

There are numerous trains between Koblenz and Cologne.

Travel time between Cologne and St Goar is 1:25 at a minimum. E.g., to reach the 10:55 boat you would leave Cologne at 8:25, arriving at St. Goar at 10:19.

The distance from St. Goar Station to the KD pier is 180 m.

Take train to Bingen, board boat there, take boat to St. Goar ( if you want to visit Burg Rheinfels, otherwise stay on until Boppard ), train back to Cologne.

To elaborate on bigtyke's excellent advice above...

The section between Bingen and St. Goar, the part that is missing from your original idea, is the best part of all for a cruise. And the best way to cruise that part is from south (Bingen) to north - a trip of about 1.5 hours - so that your boat isn't bucking the current the whole way. If you cruise north to south instead, you'll waste 1.25 extra hours for no particular reason because the current is so strong.


Including Koblenz in a cruise is NOT a good idea in part because the transfer between train station and boat dock involves a long walk and in part because the scenery just south of Koblenz is industrial and not worth paying for.


It's a very short walk between St. Goar's station and the KD dock. It's a gentle, 15-minute walk from either the Bingen Hbf station or the Bingen Stadt station to the KD dock. Coming from the north, use the Bingen Hbf station.

I'd strongly recommend a visit to Rheinfels Castle in St. Goar and a train trip to Oberwesel (5 min.) and/or Bacharach (10 min.) to see some lovely old-world towns.

On Saturday you can do the whole train trip to Bingen, the side trips to Oberwesel and Bacharach, and the return trip to Cologne on a "Happy Weekend" day pass. It's €44 when you buy it from a ticket machine in Cologne. Be sure to ride the regional trains (high-speed IC, ICE and EC trains are excluded.) Present this day pass at the KD dock in Bingen when you board to get a 20% cruise discount!

HW ticket info: http://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/pr...d_ticket.shtml

Great replies, thanks.

Again, there appears to be a gap in the KD timetable that I can not decipher if one wanted to train to Bingen, board, dock in Remagen and train back to Cologne.

Would anyone be able to clarify?

Sure.

The "gap" as you call it...

In high season there are 5 boats/day from Bingen to Boppard. Beyond Boppard: only 3 of those boats continue to Koblenz; all the boats from Bingen terminate in Koblenz. From Koblenz north there's only 1 boat. Then further north between Linz and Bonn there are 4 boats per day.

The gap in the schedule reflects a gap in good sightseeing. North of Boppard, the scenery goes downhill, then more seriously downhill as you approach Koblenz. However, KD keeps 3 boats going to Braubach (Marksburg Castle) and then to Koblenz (major train hub) because some customers are willing to pay for that stretch of river cruise to reach these towns.

But there is virtually no market at all for the mostly unattractive scenery from Koblenz north to Linz. (The one boat per day at 17:00 might attract a few tourists who don't know any better.) Nobody wants to pay for that, and you probably don't either.

Linz-Bonn is a fairly scenic section that people like to cruise. Bonn-Cologne is not.

Best advice is not to waste your time and money trying to cruise the whole thing. Cruise Bingen-Boppard or Bingen-Braubach (for Marksburg Castle) and don't bother with any cruising north of Boppard - just use the trains, which follow the river almost all the way and are much less expensive.

On a Saturday you can ride the trains all day long on a Happy weekend ticket, a day pass that costs €44 for two adults. Buy it from a ticket machine in Cologne and use the regional trains to Bingen and after your cruise to return to Cologne. Linz am Rhein north of Koblenz is a very attractive small town to stop off in. Braubach is too. When you take the train south to Bingen, stop off in Bacharach and/or Oberwesel on the way.

I need to correct an error in my text above...

"Best advice is not to waste your time and money trying to cruise the whole thing. Cruise Bingen-Boppard or Bingen-Braubach (for Marksburg Castle) and don't bother with any cruising north of Boppard..."

At the end that should read, "...and don't bother with any cruising north of BRAUBACH..."

Sorry for any confusion.

Understood. But would you please clarify something:

Is it possible to take a cruise from Bingen to Remagen and how would that be done?

Much obliged for your assistance...

You have the KD schedule, correct? Take a look. As I said above, "From Koblenz north there's only 1 boat." That's at 17:00, reaching Remagen at 19:15, as the schedule indicates. Of course, to board that boat, you must first reach Koblenz (where 3 boats per day from Bingen terminate.) As you can see from the schedule, only 1 of those 3 boats reaches Koblenz prior to 17:00 - that's the 9:30 boat from Bingen, and it gets to Koblenz at 13:10.

So yes, you CAN cruise that part between Boppard and Remagen that isn't so scenic and often industrial if you are determined to do so, but you will have a 4-hour layover in Koblenz and 7 hours on boats. The standard fare will cost you €100 for two; on top of that you'll have your train fare (€44.) If you instead take the advice I gave above and cruise just the best part you'll have about 2 hours on the boat and do the rest by train; you'll skip the parts with weak scenery and have time to visit the more charming old-world villages (far more interesting overall than if you only visit modern Koblenz IMO) and it will cost about €50 less.

Precisely the information sought...minus the condescending and unsolicited editorials. But to paraphrase Ayn Rand, sometimes you have to willing to wade through a lot of crap to get what you want.

Wow, bdj. SMH.

"Is it possible to take a cruise from Bingen to Remagen and how would that be done?"

Sorry, I don't think it's "condescending" to refer you to the boat schedule (which you said you have) that directly answers this question.

"Editorializing" is what experienced, knowledgeable advice-givers do. If I think you're wasting your time and money on something boring when there's something more interesting you can do in some place you've never been before, then yes, you get to hear that "crap" and either take it or toss it out. But please don't whine about it.

(I guess no good deed goes unpunished by some OPs, who get perfectly good, free advice but then expect it to be perfectly gift-wrapped to their personal tastes.)

Ugh.

Now a septic main has burst. Any fly fisherman able to spare a pair of waders?

And maybe a tissue for her...