Germany Travel Forum

Is May a good time to travel down the rhine river?
What is the best and most scenic stretch to travel along?
How would you recommend the cheapest way to travel?

Furthermore. I generally get very ill and seasick on the ocean when travleing by boat. Is barging more calm and do you think I'll be ok? Are the waters here calm?

Thanks.

Look forward to hearing back

I would look at
www.d-k.de. website.
They have Great Boat Trips starting at Dusseldorf or Cologne all the Way to Mainz, passing Koblenz And Lorelei ....
The strech from Cologne via Koblenz is littered with castles on both sides of the Rhine.
Visit the German Corner at Koblenz, take ride with the pods to the castle above the City ( there is an Great Youth hostel weithin the grounds) And Wander the streets of the 15 Century old town...
www.koblenz-touristik.de/en/
Once you are in Komblenz you can also take Day Trip ( Boat) along the mosel river. Mosel meets Rihne at the German corner...
And continue towards Mainz.

Travelling by river in Europe is very different to sailing on the ocean - or the Meditrranean sea.
I travelled the length of the Danube in Oct/Nov and had a most enjoyable time.

Now I am looking forward to the Rhine and Moselle in April.
It is all scenic - only travelled by road before - but really looking forward to the slower, gentle pace of a river cruise.

Try: http://www.rivercruise.com/

PJ (and no sea sickness at all)

Koblenz to Bingen is usually considered the most scenic part of the Rhein for these types of trips. Waves, very little other than a bit of wake from other passing boats.

Try to go on a nice day, if you have a choice of dates. The Rhein in the rain is not best...

You could also go by train from Cologne to Frankfort

We left Koblenz in August on a KD Ferry on our way to Sankt Goarshausen (about 3+ hours upstream). When we left there was a very thick fog and we were disappointed to think that we wouldn't see anything. How wrong we were! The fog cleared gradualy over the next half hour or so and if anything, it made the castles look really mystical, absolutely enchanting. I have a photo of Marksburg Castle on my home page which is still shrouded in a thin veil of fog and looks fantastic. No seasickness worries here, it is all "plain sailing" as they say. Our ferry was a paddle steamer too which made it even more interesting.

The best and most scenic part of the Rhine:
Koblenz to Bingen & Ruedesheim (these 2 towns are opposite of each other)
for infos an pics, take a look here:
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/1ffe4/e/
Seasickness on the Rhine ? NO !!!
May is a good time, its beginning of the summer and lots of trees blooming already.
I would not bother with a hotel-ship, daycruises are fine as well and you can also see a lot, when taking the trains on both sides of the river, BUT a big part of it is also through tunnels, so the ship or car is the best option !!!

The best boat line is K-D, Köln-Düsseldorfer:
http://www.k-d.de/english/kd-scheduled-cruises/kd-rhine-timetable/#c572

In my opinion, the best part is between Bingen and Boppard. This because this is the narrower part of the river, where the "gorge" part is more spectacular. Between Boppard and Koblenz it becomes more flat.

But I also suggest Bingen to Boppard/Koblenz and not the other way because the boat downstream takes less time than upstream.
Bingen to Koblenz is approx. 4 hours,
Koblenz to Bingen is approx. 6 hours.

Depending how to travel to Bingen or Koblenz, it would be wise to exit the boat on the same side.
I mean when you come to Bingen or Koblenz by car, you should exit on the same side to get on the proper train. Otherwise you might have to walk a long way to the ferry to get to the other side of the river and the train station there.
In case you go to Koblenz or Bingen by train, it does not matter where you exit. Have a look here, where I wrote about "how to best travel by boat":
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/1e80da/

I can confirm that the waters are very calm. K-D boats are big enough that no other big boat's waves would cause the boat to wallow (is that the proper word?). I think I must have taken this trip 10 times by now. I live close by and usually take foreign colleagues and friends on the boat trip.

May is usually a good month - late spring, flowers and blossoms all over, vineyards have leaves etc.

This is the website where you can see the river flow and the castles, and all the villages and towns we have mentioned:
http://www.welterbe-mittelrheintal.de/index.php?id=35&L=3

Enjoy :-)
Ingrid