Discover Amazing Castles While Hiking on the Rhine in Frankfurt 🇩🇪
Jul 23
5 min read
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Germany has always been high on our list to visit. We have actually fully planned two trips in past years that fell through for one reason or another. Funny enough, this trip was supposed to be in Scotland. That trip was fully planned and only when I went to start booking hotels did we decide to change it. We just so happened to choose the weekend Taylor Swift was in Edinburgh so prices on everything were ridiculous.
Luckily, I happened to stumble upon a multi-stage hiking route that follows the Rhine River, which is lined with castles. This is called the Rheinburgenweg and is composed of 13 segments, of which we only hiked two.
Frankfurt
To get to the Rheinburgenweg its best to fly into Frankfurt because its such a large airport and the train takes anywhere from 45-90 minutes depending where you go.
We decided to spend a few nights in Frankfurt checking out the city and then go hiking. Frankfurt seems to mostly be used as a fly-in, fly-out stop, or train in, train out. That being said, it was very nice just walking around the city, seeing the German architecture, and visiting all the parks.
Oh, and of course, sampling plenty of schnitzel and German beers. Seriously, we dropped our bags at our hotel and right around the corner was this large outdoor market with food, grocery, and beverage stalls. I immediately got a schnitzel and currywurst, and that schnitzel may have been the best we had all trip. It was so big and crispy, absolute perfection. Washed it down with an Apfelwein, which is everywhere in Frankfurt.
After that our days were just spend walking all over the city, checking out plenty of parks for Landon and grabbing some food.
One strange thing we noticed in Frankfurt was the lack of grocery stores and convenient stores. That was particularly nice in London, where they were all over, but we couldn't find any quick-stop stores. We had to actually make detours to stop in any, and they are all closed on Sundays.
Rheinburgenweg, Sankt Goar, and the Rhine
After our few days exploring Frankfurt it was time to hop on some trains and head out to Sankt Goar. This is where we stayed for our duration on the Rhine. The Rhine is full of small german towns and villages that are very cool to check out. Sankt Goal is fairly central for what we were doing. We also stayed in/next to a castle that overlooked the river.
Side note on this, pictures and haning out on the balcony there was fantastic and unique. But oh boy was this a trek to do. Very steep incline with a stroller and pushing our bags up hill. 0/10 would i do that again, and every day after our hikes and adventureing we had to walk back up it. Also our hotel didnt have AC which happens with older hotels in Europe a lot and something to note.
Hiking
Day 1
The First hike was Stage 10 of the Rheinburgenweg was (according to my Garmin, NOT all trails) 7.55 miles, 1,667 total ascent and took us 3 hours and 22 minutes. This starts in Sankt Goar, like right at our hotel, and ends in Oberwesel.
Most of the hike is straight forward with several picnic areas, gazebos and lookouts. But the final/southern third was overgrown and skechy. Im not sure if All Trails was wrong or we made a wrong turn, through we did plenty of searching.
You will see a jittery blue and greed bit in the picture because we were in some sketchy, edge of a cliff, overgrown no path section that all trails swore we were on the right path.
Day 2
Took a pause from hiking and ventured up to Kolblenz. This was mostly spur of the moment wanted to get out and see some things, eat good food. We were there in the middle of the week so a lot of the smaller towns like Sankt Goar or Oberwesel not much is open mid week.
Kolblenz surprised us. One of the main reasons we went is because they have this really cool cable car you ride across the river and up to a fortress which gives panoramic views of the river.
Kolblenz also probably had lots of awesome food and had one of our best meals here. Its worth a day trip if you're close.
Day 3
Our second hike was stage 11 of the Rheinburgenweg, longer than the first but a lot easier because we didn't have any sketchy overgrown parts. It also ended in one of the cooler towns we visited. According to my Garmin data, it was 8.76 miles, 1,488 ft ascent, and took us 3 hours and 21 minutes, so exactly the same duration but one mile further.
It also had some of the best castle views, so I highly recommend this hike. Also, there are a lot of fields and farmlands that you can take a more direct route through, rather than following the all trails path.
This trip really planted the seed to want to not only come back to this region but to really explore Germany. The United States has great hiking, but throw in some awesome castles (and some schnitzel) and it's really top tier.
Plus with public transport all along the trails you can do point to point hikes and not always have to do out and backs so you can cover more ground.
Public Transport
I had to mention it but didn't want to distract from the rest of the greatness.
Public transport was also a bit much especially since our previous trip it was so awesome in the UK. There are so many different trains everywhere their train maps and names can be a bit much especially for non german speakers, which is pretty much everyone.
There are no gates or places to scan tickets; you just walk onto any train you want. BUT there are signs everywhere that if you don't have the proper ticket and somebody comes and checks you, you will automatically get a 60 euro fine, and apparently they aren't very forgiving, even to tourists.
So I HIGHLY recommend downloading the DB Navigator app. Purchase your tickets through there and have them ready to scan if somebody asks. There are also different tiers of rates, so be aware of those. I had to screenshot them and put them in my Google Translate app.
Oh, and even though people praise the German train system and their punctuality, we have experienced more trains that were late than anywhere we have ever traveled. One was over 90 minutes late. Definitely be aware of this along the Rhine because it's only one track, so at any point along the way, if something slows it down, it will all be slowed down.
Best Tips
Bring Cash! Euro that is. When we visited there were a ton of places that were cash only or very high credit card minimums. I believe it has to do with a recent transaction or processing fees?
Pack for 3 seasons. We went in Mid june and it was fairly warm some days, mid-high 70s in Frankfurt but out along the river some days started around 50 degrees. It only rained one day but always have rain gear.
Everything closes on sundays so get any groceries or other things you need. There will be restaurants that open up later on but just be aware of hours.
Download the DB Navigator app to help with the train and public transport. You really don't want to get a 60 euro fine.
Eat schnitzel! Drink their beers! Get their very meat heavy salads!