Four Days Around Koblenz: Rhine and Moselle

October 31, 2026

One base for four days

Koblenz makes a practical base for a trip of three or four days. The Rhine, the Moselle and the Eifel volcanic hills all lie within a short train, bus or boat ride, and you can sleep in the same hotel each night. The plan below is built for the open season, roughly late March to the start of November. Burg Eltz and Geysir Andernach close for the winter, and the KD winter timetable from 19 October 2026 to 2 April 2027 has no Koblenz departures, so a winter trip needs swaps, noted at the end.

Day 1: Old Town and fortress

Spend the morning on the Old Town loop: Liebfrauenkirche, the Schängelbrunnen in the Town Hall courtyard, the Historiensäule on Görresplatz and the Basilika St. Kastor. Have lunch near the river, then walk out to the Deutsches Eck headland. In the afternoon take the cable car across the Rhine to Festung Ehrenbreitstein for the museum, the cannon Greif and the views back over the confluence. Finish with Himmel un Äd at a tavern in the old centre.

Day 2: Marksburg and Boppard

Go to Braubach for Marksburg Castle, which is visited on a guided tour only, with tickets of 12 EUR. The right-bank railway is closed until about 12 December 2026, so allow time for replacement buses. In the afternoon take the RB26 from Koblenz to Boppard, about 15 minutes, to see the Roman fort walls and ride the chairlift to the Vierseenblick. Bopparder Hamm Riesling is the local wine to try in the evening.

Day 3: Burg Eltz and Cochem

Take a train along the Moselle to Moselkern and walk the 2.5 km path to Burg Eltz, about 35 minutes, then take the guided tour of the castle and the treasury. Tickets are listed at 14 EUR. Eltz is open only from 29 March to 1 November, so this day only works in summer. In the afternoon go on to Cochem to see Reichsburg Cochem and the riverside wine cellars, then return to Koblenz and walk the Kaiserin-Augusta-Anlagen at sunset. See the Burg Eltz website for the season.

Day 4: Andernach and Stolzenfels

Take the RB26 to Andernach for Geysir Andernach: the discovery museum, a boat across the Rhine and the 60 metre eruption. The ticket is 21.50 EUR for adults. In the afternoon go back to Koblenz and take bus 670 south toward Schloss Stolzenfels. The interior opens on a German-language tour for 6 EUR, and the gardens are the reason to stay on after it. The castle is open Thursday to Sunday through the summer and closed in December and January.

Winter swaps

From November the plan changes. Replace Burg Eltz with Marksburg, which stays open all year, with shorter hours of 11:00 to 16:00, and replace the Andernach day with museum time at the fortress, the Mittelrhein-Museum and the Ludwig Museum. Stolzenfels is open only on weekends and holidays in November. The fortress is open all year, but the cable car takes a winter break after 1 November, and its 2027 reopening date is on the cable car website .

Booking the base

One hotel in Koblenz covers every day of the plan.