Rhine Valley, Germany: One Week

One Week Along the Rhine River

We stayed at the Steigenberger Icon Frankfurter Hof and cannot recommend it enough. The hotel is centrally located, has a gourmet breakfast, and incredibly comfortable rooms.
- We opted to take the train from the Frankfurt airport to Frankfurt (Main) Central Station. From here, it was about a 10 minute walk to the hotel.
- If you want a fun, relaxing activity for your first day, the hotel offers an incredible high-tea experience from 2:00-5:00 PM.
- The hotel also has a spa
Stroll around Frankfurt’s Altstadt (old town)
- Old Nicholas Church (Alte Nikolaikirche)
- Roemerberg (square)
Stroll around the new old town (DomRömer Quarter)
- Visit Frankfurt Cathedral
- Cross over the Eiserner Steg bridge back to the new old town
Go to bed early to adjust to the time change!

We had breakfast at the hotel and then attended a symphony performance at the Frankfurt Oper House
- Symphony Tickets Website
- The symphony performance lasted from 11:00 am-1:00 pm
After the symphony, we decided to take a day trip to Bonn and Cologne
- Both of these towns are stunning and may be worth their own day trips.
- Bonn is known for being the birthplace of Beethoven. His house is currently a museum that you can visit.
- Cologne is famous for their stunning cathedral
We trained from Frankfurt-Bonn then Bonn- Cologne before heading back to Frankfurt.
- When booking your train ticket to Cologne, you have to put in Koln.

After breakfast, we took the train to Oberwesel. The train ride is a little over an hour but incredibly scenic. You will ride along the Rhine River, spotting wineries, castles, and quaint towns.
We stayed at the Burghotel Auf Schönburg, a castle hotel that I cannot recommend enough.
- Make sure to book the four-course castle dinner one of the nights
- We also booked our winery tour through the hotel, which was a major highlight.
- The train station to the castle is about a 20-minute walk up a rather steep mountain. You can arrange a taxi shuttle through the hotel if you know what time your train will arrive. Many other guests had a rental car that they were able to park on the grounds.
  - If you don't want to depend on the trains/ walking up and down the hill, you could rent a car and pick it up on your last day in Frankfurt.
  - We had no problem relying on the trains/ taxis
  - When we didn't have our luggage, we would just walk to and from the train station to the castle.
We explored the castle grounds and had dinner in their bistro before settling in for the night.

We enjoyed breakfast at the castle and then headed down to the river for our Rhine river cruise with KD.
- You can reserve a roundtrip ticket from Oberwesel to a stop of your choice, which will allow you to get off the ship and enjoy lunch in one of the small towns before taking the boat back to your starting point.
  - The ship offers drinks for a small fee.
- We chose to ride the boat from Oberwesel-Assmannshausen.
  - We walked around the small town and enjoyed a quick lunch.
- On our way back, we chose to disembark at Bacharach to explore that town as well.
  - When we were all set, we took the train back to Oberwesel.
Because we were in Germany in April, most of the towns were relatively empty because we were a little early for peak season. Because of this, we ate dinner at the castle every night.
In retrospect, I think it would have been fun to reserve dinner at one of the other castle hotels nearby.
- Castle Liebenstein
- Burg Rheinstein

During our last day, we enjoyed breakfast and then headed to Boppard to explore another small town.
- We walked around, checked out some shops, and enjoyed coffee in the square.
  - We found a great print studio with artwork of the surrounding areas.
    - Coffe Shop: Chocobar - Feine Schokoladen, Kaffee & Wein
    - Art Studio: Kunsthandlung Heinrich Nick
Other optional sites in the area:
- Stolzenfels Castle
- Rheinfels Castle (Ruins)
We signed up for a winery tour through our castle hotel (4:00-6:00 PM) and the castle dinner (6:30-8:30 PM)
- Our winery tour guide was the winery owner himself.
- He took us to a beautiful lookout point to enjoy our first glass of Riesling before taking us to his winery.
After our tour, we had just enough time to change before heading to the formal dining room for our dinner and wine pairing.

Enjoy one last breakfast at the castle before heading down to the train station.
Most of this day will be spent traveling from Oberwesel to Heidelberg.
- We opted to take an early afternoon train, but the train in Oberwesel was incredibly full, so we actually had to rebook on a different train.
- If you're traveling during peak season, it may be worthwhile to leave earlier in the day to beat the crowds.
When we arrived in Heidelberg, we checked into our hotel and headed to dinner in old town.
- There are a ton of restaurants in the area!
We had a hard time finding a hotel; we stayed at the Hilton Heidelberg hotel, which was conveniently located and far away enough from old town to be very quiet.

Explore the shops in old town
Stop by the Old Bridge
Visit the Heidelberg Castle
- We took the tram up to the castle
- When we arrived, we reserved a tour of the castle
Lunch in old town
We decided to train to the Frankfurt airport to stay in the Frankfurt airport hotel to catch our flight home the following morning.