Rheinsteig Loreley

The Rheinsteig is the long-distance trail from Bonn to Wiesbaden: 320 kilometres high above the Rhine, through vineyards and woods and past more than forty castles. This route covers the middle section, from St. Goarshausen to Braubach, 41.1 kilometres in three stages.

On the first day you climb from St. Goarshausen into the vineyards, with the Rhine and Burg Katz below you, and stay high above the river past Burg Maus to Kestert. The second crosses the ridge with the castles Sterrenberg and Liebenstein, known together as the hostile brothers, and drops to the monastery at the foot of the hill at Kamp-Bornhofen. The third is the longest: through the woods high above the river to Braubach, where the Marksburg sits above the village.

The landscape is steep: vineyard slopes, oak and beech woods and rock faces above the river. Each day climbs between five hundred and a thousand metres, often in short, steep sections; the paths are good but slippery on the slate after rain.

Practical. The route is waymarked with the Rheinsteig logo. St. Goarshausen and Braubach sit on the right-bank Koblenz-Wiesbaden line, with trains every hour; from Amsterdam it is about four hours via Koblenz. The stages end in Kestert, Kamp-Bornhofen and Braubach, all with hotels and guesthouses. The Loreley rock lies about four kilometres upstream of St. Goarshausen; the detour there takes half a day, so plan it deliberately.