A day cruise down the Rhine River from St. Goar down to Rhudesheim is a peaceful and scenic tour with beautiful views of vineyards, steep hills and so many castles! We did the cruise on a Monday because it worked best for our schedule but that limited the stops and duration of the cruise. We were coming from the Cologne area and had planned to get on the cruise line in Koblenz but since there were no cruises departing to Rudesheim on a Monday, we took a train down to St. Goar on Sunday and spent the night there and boarded our K-D Cruise from St. Goar Monday morning.
St. Goar
St. Goar is a small town, extremely walkable and quite cute. We arrived in St. Goar Sunday afternoon on the train from Cologne, walked to our hotel to drop our bags off and then found a great little hike that took us above town and gave us a perfect view of the Rhine River and a couple of castles. There is also a nice paved walking path the goes along the river.
The next day we had a great breakfast at the hotel and hopped on our cruise ship! The cruise was only a few hours, but it was really great. There is a café on board with wine, coffee and a full food menu (bring cash). So, be ready to sit back, relax and snap pictures!
Castles
We were able to see so many castles along the river. Some are currently being used as hotels, some for tourisms like museums and others are even private residents (could you imagine!). They are just truly impressive buildings. You’ll see a few that are just on top of hills and others that are built right into the hills. I absolutely loved seeing them all.
Rüdesheim
Our cruise ended in Rhudesheim where we stayed for two nights. We really enjoyed all that the town had to offer. Cute streets, cute shops, adorable beer gardens, great German wine, and delicious food. Don’t worry about transportation here, you can walk everywhere you need to go! Plus, after all that wine and food you may just need to!
A few highlights of our stay in Rhudesheim were Rhein Wen Welt, cable cars, and Rhudesheim coffee. Looking back, we could have used another day to check out a few more of the winery tasting rooms.
Rhein Wen Welt (Rhine Wine World)
Okay, if you can’t find a wine you like here, you have a problem! There are 7 rooms with 15-20 different wines in each room available for samples, all local wines from the Rhine River region. We started with 20 tokens for tastings and only made it to room 3 before we ran out! We had intentions of taking a snack break at their café and getting back to business but got derailed with gin and tonics. Turns out, we never made it back to the tasting rooms to complete all 7 rooms. Goals for next time though! I would recommend doing a smaller wine tasting at one of the tasting rooms in town before coming here. They are so knowledgeable around town it will be helpful to know a little about the area before diving into the wines.
Cable Cars
Rhudeshime is adorable on the street level, but from above it’s something else! As you ride the cable car up, the little town fades and you see its surrounded by the Rhine River on one side and vineyard after vineyard on the other. The cable car will take you up to the Germania statue and reward you with beautiful views of the Rhine River Valley. Bring your own wine from one of the tasting rooms up with you or grab a beer at the café on top and enjoy the view!
Rüdesheimer coffee
You can’t stop here without treating yourself to Rhudesheim specialty! This speciality coffee has an extra bit of love with added brandy! It’s a bit of a fire show as well. It even has its own special cup! If you haven’t had one before, take it from me and just order it!
We weren’t quite ready to leave, but our time was up in Rhudesheim! We boarded a train and headed to Paris because why not?!
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