Welcome to Hooked on Walking holidays and our walking holidays in Germany. This particular hiking vacation takes you beside the River Rhine in Germany and is a level 2-3 self guided walking holiday. This walking holiday will explore the Rheinsteig, a way marked walking trial on the eastern bank of the river Rhine. In total the Rheinsteig is 320km long but our journey between Koblenz and Rüdesheim is on average per day 12 miles, 20km long. You will see many castles hanging on cliff edges and amongst the forests, lovely little villages, medieval towns , vineyards and breathtaking views across magnificent river scenery. You will also pass directly the legendary Loreley rock, a visual site not to be missed.

Available daily from 1st March to 30th November
Level 2-3 self guided walking tour

Day 1 Arrival to Koblenz
Arrive to Koblenz and check into your hotel.

Day 2 Koblenz to Braubach 13 miles 21 km up 740m
Today you leave Koblenz upstream on the Rheinsteig. Soon you will walk away from the river through Pafferdorf and into the idyllic Bienhorntal valley. Soon you will descend through the Ruppertsklamm and to the small river Lahn. Afterwards you walk through the quaint village of Lahnstein and climb shortly to the Lahn heights. Shortly afterwards you will see Braubach by the river and the castle Marksburg on its opposite bank.

Day 3  Braubach to Kamp-Bornhofen 13.5 miles 22 km, up 620m
Firstly you will have a chance to visit castle Marksburg. After your visit you continue upwards to the Rhein heights and into the Dinkelholder valley. You continue along the Rhein heights until you reach Kamp-Bornhofen a famous pretty pilgrimage village.

Day 4  Kamp-Bornhofen to St. Goarshausen 12.5 miles 20 km, up 690m
Very shortly after you start today’s hike you will pass the castles Sterrenberg and Liebenstein. Soon you reach a beautiful little village in the hills called Lykershausen where you continue upwards to Hindenburghöhe where there is  small hut to rest. Continuing on the Rheinsteig you reach the old mining town and called Prath-Ehrental-Wellmich. You will descend down to Wellmich before climbing again to castle Maus.

Day 5  St. Goarshausen – Dorscherd 12 miles 19 km, up 360m
Today you start with a climb to castle Katz before continuing through the village Heide in direction to the world famous attraction called Loreleyfelsen (translation is Loreley-Rock). In this region the scenery is slightly different to the previous days. Near Loreley Rock there are many viewpoints of the rock formations and river valley. Now you enter the Urbachtal valley, onto the Alte Burg castle. Before you will reach your destination village Kaub you will view castle Pfalzgrafenstein on a island. This little island in the middle of the river was very important in the German history, during the German so called Napoleonic War of Liberation against the French occupation under Napoleon at the beginning of 19th century, the island with the castle was used by the German commander called Blücher during the New Year’s eve in 1813/14 for his legendary Rhein-crossing. While Blücher was persecuting Napoleon, Commander Blücher and the English commander Wellington could finally win the important battle of Waterloo in 1815 against Napoleon.

Day 6 Dorscherd to Lorch 11.6 miles 19 km ,up 560m
Today you start walking through fields, forests and vineyards to the castle Gutenfels and into the Volkenbachtal valley. Now you will see some more wonderful views across to the Rhine before passing castle Nollig and onto your destination Lorch.

Day 7 Lorch to Rüdesheim,11 miles 18 km, up 340m.
Today you will start directly near by the church for an ascent through the vineyards. Today you will be passing castles Sonneck, Hoheneck, Reichenstein and Rheinstein. You continue through a few valleys and through vineyards to a vintager-town on the river Rhein . In Assmannhausen you should use the possibility to get by the chair-lift so you can get high easily to the nature-reserve Niederwald. Now you have reached today’s stage-end at a very famous and important historical monument Niederwalddenkmal where you descend to Rüdesheim by cable car.

Day 8 Departure
After breakfast you can easily depart via train back to Koblenz of back to your chosen airport.

Difficulty: A level 2-3 tour. Walks of around 5 hours long and 500-800m of climbing. Boats are always stopping at most of the towns on the walking trail so you can use these if need be to shorten or take rest day during the tour.

Accommodation: 2/3 star hotels.
 

2013 Prices

How to get there
By plane to Frankfurt Fraport, Frankfurt Hahn , Dusseldorf , Brussels or Stuttgart airport and then by train Koblenz.
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