Freiburg im Breisgau Travel Forum

Hi,

I’m travelling to Germany for vacation and would like to know if there’s any way that I can take the river instead of the road or train from Frankfurt to Freiburg. Any tips would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Faaro

in principle it should be possible, BUT will not be easy at all:
Frankfurt am Main - cruising first on the Main to the Rhine and then upstream to maybe KEHL might be the closest place to Freiburg, at least the small river that flows through Freiburg to the Rhine is much too small for ships.
Normally cruisesips on the Rhine will stop eighter at Strasbourg or at Basel, both places are rather close to Freiburg.

What an interesting question!

As ships travel on the Rhine from Lake Constance (Rheinfelden year-round) to Rotterdam this stretch of river is surely serviced by tour operators.

This company for example offers charter tours:

http://www.aventura-online.de/

Of course, this is not the way to go for you but I am sure there must be something... Perhaps some other VT member has travelled on the Rhine.

If nobody knows I am sure the Rhine cruise companies in the south can tell you although in Basel they offer only tours towards Lake Constance. Here is the website with contact details of the company in Basel:

http://www.bpg.ch/index.php?nav=1&submenu=1

I can imagine you can travel on a commercial transportation liner, or with someone on a houseboat.

I have never heared of a ship sailing from Lake Constanze to Amsterdam, I am sure that normal cruises have to end at Basel.
2-3 times a year there might be a direct cruise from Amsterdam to Vienna and even furtheron, maybe thats also done from Basel, or you have to change ships.

I also think that normal passenger cruises end in Basel but ships sail down to Rheinfelden and do access Lake Constance in summer. However, I also think that there might not be a lot of passenger cruises in this southern stretch of the Rhine. Most start in Mainz and Düsseldorf/Köln, so far beyond the area where Faaro wants to travel.

Only possible on board of one of the rather expensive cruise ships. And only from Mainz to Breisach. Travel time 2 days. And with the cruise ships you'll have to book the complete cruise (e.g. Rotterdam to Basel).

A frequent passenger server exists only between Mainz and Cologne.
At other parts of the Rhine you can find boats offering round trips. And only from time to time a longer excursion on the Rhine

http://www.bfs-info.de (Breisach based)
offers during summer 5 trips to Basel from Breisach

http://www.primus-linie.de/007/cnt/routenkarte.htm (Frankfurt based)

With their longer excursion one way is often by bus as by boat is too slow.

This part of the Rhine is also not that interesting by boat. The Rhine valley is really wide here and most towns keep a safe distance from the river. Strictly seen is the Upper Rhine (Frankfurt - Freiburg) not even a valley, but a depression or graben.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine_Graben

Well, you could try swimming. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

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The only passenger ships that travel this stretch of the Rhine are cruise ships coming up from Cologne or the Netherlands and going to Basel. These won't pick up passengers along the way.

There are some short round-trip cruises starting from, for example, Karlsruhe, but there are no line connections like between Mainz, Koblenz and Cologne.
To be honest, the Upper Rhine isn't that interesting to see from a boat anyway. The Upper Rhine Plain is too wide to offer views of the hills, all you'd see is a stripe of flat wetland forest on both sides of the river.

If you have enough time and a chance to get hold of a bicycle, there is a fantastic bike trail along both river banks down the whole valley.
I heard that some river freight ships take passengers on board, but these are usually longer (7 day or so) trips organized by a specialized agency.
That's all I can think of at 2 a.m. in the morning... I guess you'll have to go by train.