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Visit Medieval Castles, Vineyards, and Towns on Rhine River Cruise

The Rhine River flows though western Germany, following a northwesterly course from the Swiss Alps to the North Sea. Along the way, it wends past dozens of medieval fortresses, castles, and palaces nestled protectively into the surrounding cliffs. On this 10-day, 9-night tour of Germany, you’ll see and visit a number of ancient castles and towns as you travel from Koblenz to Bad Wimpfen on a seven-night Rhine River cruise aboard the MS Patria. You’ll also have the option to hop off the ship and bike between stops on the cruise (bicycle rentals are available for an additional fee). This tour includes roundtrip airfare from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York, all meals on the cruise, and a one-night stay at the 4-star Mercure Hotel Frankfurt Airport before your departing flight.

Rhine River Cruise

Following an overnight flight from New York to Frankfurt, you’ll transfer to Koblenz and hop on the MS Patria, your accommodations for the next seven nights. The ship visits nine towns as it travels southeast along the Rhine River; you have the option to bike or bus between any or all of the towns and re-board the ship in the evenings.

On your first full day on the Rhine, cruise past the riverside towns of Bingen am Rhein and Rüdesheim am Rhein en route to Mainz, the tour’s first stop. In Mainz, you can visit more than a dozen museums documenting the city’s 2,000 years of history, including the Landesmuseum, with monuments, sculptures, and Etch A Sketch drawings dating back to the Stone Age. The following day, you’ll travel to Nierstein, where you can take an optional winery tour (extra fees may apply). Next up is the city of Worms, a major setting in the epic poem Nibelungenlied and the site of Martin Luther's call for reformation before an assembly of the Holy Roman Empire known as the Diet of Worms.

From Worms, you’ll head to Mannheim and Heidelberg, where you can take a guided city tour that visits Heidelberg Castle, a 14th-century edifice that houses the Heidelberg Tun, the world’s largest wine barrel. The next day, the ship travels to Eberbach. Follow the town’s narrow, pedestrian-friendly streets as they wind past historic half-timber buildings and castle ruins. The spa town of Bad Wimpfen is the final stop along the Rhine before you return to Frankfurt for your flight home. Bad Wimpfen—“bad” means “bath” or “spa” in German—is situated on a large salt deposit, and the town’s many spas use healing saltwater in their treatments.