lacrossery

I am planning a backpacking trip to Germany and plan on spending 3-4 days in the Rhine Valley area, but I have no idea where to start. I plan on taking one of the river cruises and I would like to spend a night in the hostel in Bacharach, but I have no idea what other I should go. I will have a eurorail pass. Any recommendations on what to see and what hostels to stay at are greatly appreciated.

quokka

Have a look at http://www.welterbe-mittelrheintal.d...id=318&L=3 for a lot of information and inspiration.

Russ

Great place to spend 3-4 days. I love this area like Dorothy loves Kansas. I post a lot about it. Click on my name in this post and you'll find some of my suggestions.

bdjtbenson

Burg Stahleck is a great place to stay. It's a castle turned hostel. Very well run but usually booked up even for one. Try to get reservations ahead of time. If you can't get in there, I've also stayed at the hostel in the next town down (I think Stahleck is in Bacharach and the other is in St. Goar, or vice versa). It's a basic hostel but certainly decent for the price.

A river cruise between Bacharach and St. Goar takes about an hour and covers some good highlights. You can hop off and catch the local train back.

Be sure to explore the Reinfels ruins. Bring a flashlight, there are tunnels and other dark places.

PalenQ

The best place to board the K-D boats IMO is Rudesheim, where many boats start and get rather crowded as many bus tour groups board here - you can nab the optimal seats up front outside but if you board other places you may find many of the better seats full.

with a pass just hop on board - you will need to use a day on a flexipass - take the boat to Koblenz and then from the dock there walk along the pleasant riverfront promenade to the Deutsches Eck (sp?) monument at the confluence of the Rhine and Mosel - a very famous place in Germany - there was once an equestrian statue to Kaiser Wilhelm on the huge pedestal but it was blasted off as target practice by an American GI at the end of WWII (so locals have told me) and now some huge statue to Germany Unity is there.

Plan a whole day getting off and on the boat - say to hike up to Marksburg - the only intact old castle that escaped ruin throught the ages, etc.

Koblenz has a really neat youth hostel - in an old fort opposite the town center - on the other bank of the Rhine - several hundred feet above the Rhine.

lacrossery

ttt

ekellyga

I wonder if you can also see some of the Mosel river valley. I find that area also very pleasant and a bit different than the Rhine river valley.
The castle at Burg Eltz is famous and worth seeing.

travlsolo2

Mosel River would be good -- Burg Eltz is awesome. Bike rentals available in most of the towns; train connections easy from Koblenz.

bigtyke

Besides staying in hostels, check out inexpensive rooms. See Bavaria Ben's website - www.bensbauernhof.com (you can also search this site for Bavaria Ben).

A bed in the Bacharach hostel is 17.40 per night. Only you can decide if hostels are better than an inexpensive room.

When I stayed there many years ago, it was overrun by 10 yr olds

ExplorerB

lacrossery,

As previously suggested by ekelly and travlsolo, it would be a shame to explore part of the Rhine without dippin' your toes in the nearby Mosel.

The Mosel is a lovely alternative to the larger, more touristic Rhine region. There are some small and wonderful vineyards along the river, a memorable castle in Burg Eltz, and it features some charming villages, such as Beilstein (consider staying at the relaxing, well-run Hotel Haus Lipmann - hotel-haus-lipmann.com). In addition, there's the underrated city of Trier, with many fine Roman ruins.

Here's a plan: stay two nights along both rivers. Now that's a can't beat formula for a fine German holiday.

lincasanova

i think you will find rooms for about 25 euros/person with breakfast most everywhere and even cheaper if you go off main roads.

Robespierre

With a Eurailpass, free transportation on Köln-Düsseldorfer Lines uses up a pass day. If this is an issue for you, it would probably be a good idea to compare the fare for the river segment you are contemplating to the cost of a pass day. If the pass day is more, you have at least two options, viz,

1. Buy a ticket instead of using the pass, or

b. Take a longer ride.

I would opt for b. simply because cruising while gawking, eating, and drinking is one of the most pleasant experiences I've had in many, many trips to Europe. We got on at Mainz early in the morning, and disembarked in Bonn that evening. The scenery downstream from Koblenz isn't as compelling as the upper stretch, but who says the industrial river traffic isn't at all worth seeing?

You can buy an accordion-fold map of the castle locations that's interesting to refer to as you chug (-a-lug) along. I got mine on board.

dutyfree

Sorry to cut in on your thread Lacrossery but I myself was wondering where everyone would recommend to overnight if you had 6 nights in this area? Thanks!

valtor

Dutyfree, we stayed in Bacharach 2 nights and then 5 nights in Cochem.
From Bacharach , by boat, we were to St. Goar.
It was very easy and nice to make day trips from Cochem (by train): we visited Koblenz, BurgElz, Beilstein, Trier and Luxembourg .

We loved all the region.

bettyk

Dutyfree, we have stayed in Bacharach on the Rhine and in Beilstein and Bernkastel-Kues on the Moselle.

We enjoyed Bacharach very much but I still like the beauty of the Moselle more than the Rhine.

Beilstein is a very small town, maybe too small for some. It's very quiet at night but it's on a very pretty part of the river. Cochem is nearby as well as Burg Eltz. We stayed at the Haus Lipmann Hotel which everybody highly recommends.

We stayed in Bernkastel-Kues last September and loved it. It's a very beautiful town. We also visited Traben Trabach, Trier and Echternach, Lux.

I think a car allows you more flexibility when traveling in this area, but if you are relying on the train and boat, Cochem would be a good place to stay as well as Bacharach.

bigtyke

There is also the Lahn river which joins the Rhine just upstream from Koblenz

Russ

Dutyfree: w/6 days you can stay in one place, but I'd suggest splitting your time between Cochem as suggested above and the Rhine. Bacharach is attractive, St. Goar nicely situated for daytrips and very scenic, Boppard also conveniently located with a larger selection of hotels and restaurants. Koblenz is best if you want a city atmosphere.

smetz

lacrossery, you have some great suggestions here, the only thing I would add is that while the smaller towns like Bacharach and Beistein are picture-postcard pretty, if you like to go out later at night (e.g., dinner at 8 then walk around for a few glasses of wine), your options are little to non-existent in those smaller towns. The bigger towns like Koblenz or Trier are much better for that. Koblenz is nice as a base because it's at the confluence of the Rhein and Mosel, as well as the trains and boats that run up each river. So you can easily take day trips to a wide variety of places (the train tickets are very inexpensive) and return to Koblenz in the evening and still have things to do.

lincasanova

i have been to the mosel three times and always thought ( although i have not looked into schedules) that bernkastel-kues looked like a good place for a few days.

i have never been carless, but you have the boats and buses which seemd to go everywhere. and a nice town, on both sides of the river ( on the Kues side you also have a very good wine distributor in an old hospital where my husband and friends decided was where they had had the best wines).

you are close to trier, and not horribly far from the rhine here, either.

i think you need to stay in a couple places to avoid all the back tracking.

boppard is also a large town with a lot of activity and has the best preserved roman walls in germany .

travlsolo2

I've stayed in Treis-Karden at the Hotel Brauer and rented a bike near there; have also stayed in Bernkastel-Kues while biking; really enjoyed the area.