Transportation to Koblenz on the Rhine and Mosel Rivers

Getting to Koblenz in Germany is easy by train or car with easy connections to various airports and Rhine and Mosel River boat cruises.

Cable Car Across the Rhine in Koblenz Germany — Cable Car Across the Rhine River in Koblenz © Koblenz-Touristik

Koblenz, at the confluence of the Rhine and Mosel Rivers, can easily be reached by car or public transportation from all parts of Germany. Excellent rail and road connections make traveling to Koblenz fast with easy links to several airports including Frankfurt, Hahn, Cologne-Bonn and Düsseldorf. Koblenz is at the center of the Middle Rhine Valley making it a great departure port for day-trip excursion cruises to the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage-listed Mittelrhein with the Loreley and endless castles. Hiking and cycling are also popular in the Koblenz area.

Driving to Koblenz in Germany

Koblenz is located at the confluence of the Rhine and Mosel Rivers in western Germany. It is close to several major autobahn highways allowing for very fast traveling to many cities in the region.

Driving distances and times to Koblenz via the Autobahnen are:

Bonn – 80 km / 1h00
Cologne / Köln – 100 km / 1h20
Düssseldorf – 150 km / 1h40
Mainz – 100 km / 1h10
Wiesbaden – 100 km / 1h10
Frankfurt am Main – 120 km / 1h30
Cochem – 60 km / 0h50
Trier – 128 km / 1h20

Far more interesting is driving the slower roads on either side of the Rhine especially to the south of Koblenz. Although no bridges cross the Rhine between Koblenz and Mainz-Wiesbaden, several car ferries provide opportunities to cross the Rhine. Driving from Bingen or Rüdesheim to Koblenz along either side of the Rhein takes around two hours.

Driving in the beautiful Mosel Valley is even slower. The meandering Mosel increases the riverbank road distance from Trier to Koblenz to nearly 200 km with driving times close to four hours – a drive well worth considering if time is not pressing.

Cheap Flights to Koblenz in Germany

Koblenz can easily be reached by car or public transportation from several airports including Frankfurt International (FRA), Frankfurt-Hahn (HHN), Cologne-Bonn (CGN) and Düsseldorf (DUS).

Frankfurt International Airport (FRA is the most convenient airport for most intercontinental travelers en route to Koblenz. Direct trains take less than 1:30 while driving can be faster than an hour. Direct trains from Düsseldorf Airport take just less than two hours.

Cheap flights arrive from various European airports at Frankfurt-Hahn (Ryanair) and Cologne-Bonn Airport (Germanwings, Easyjet, Air Berlin). Both airports are around an hour from Koblenz with Köln-Bonn easier to reach on public transportation.

See Cheap Flights to Koblenz for more details on how to reach Koblenz from these airports by car or on public transportation. Suntransfers gives online quotations for private airport transfers without first requiring personal details or flight numbers.

By Train to Koblenz in Germany

Koblenz is halfway between the Rhein-Main cities of Frankfurt, Mainz and Wiesbaden and the Cologne-Bonn area. For more than a century, the main railway lines between these cities have been through the Rhine Valley giving Koblenz excellent railway access to the rest of Germany.

The new high-speed railway line between Frankfurt and Köln bypasses the Rhine but trains to Koblenz still use the valley line where trains often run directly next to the Rhine River. The rail journeys between Bingen and Koblenz and Rüdesheim and Koblenz are often spectacular.

Train traveling on direct trains to Koblenz on the fastest (local RB / RE) trains are around:

Köln – 0:53 (1:10)
Bonn – 0:32 (0:45)
Mainz – 0:50 (1:02)
Frankfurt Airport – 1:13 (1:29)
Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof – 1:27 (1:45)
Trier – 1:25 (RE) / 1:58 (RB)
Wiesbaden – 1:33 (VIA regional train)
Rüdesheim – 1:00 (VIA regional train)
Bingen – 1:08 (MRB regional train)
Linz – 0:36 (regional trains only)

All trains stop in Koblenz at the Hauptbahnhof (main station) but local trains often also stop at Koblenz-Stadtmitte (city center). Stadtmitte is closer to the old town, Deutsches Eck and the Rhine riverboat landings.

To the south of Koblenz and the Loreley Valley, trains are more frequent on the left bank of the Rhine. Trains operating here range from the high-speed Inter-City-Express (ICE) trains to milk trains that stop every few minutes. For larger towns, trains generally run two or three times per hour but only once per hour for the smallest villages.

The trains on the right bank run generally once per hour and are operated by a private line – VIAS. However, all German Railways (Deutsche Bahn) tickets and discounts are valid on these trains. The Rhineland-Palatinate ticket is also valid on this line up to Wiesbaden, even though the area to the south of Kaub is in the state Hessen.

German train schedules can be checked online at Deutsche Bahn – online tickets (and tickets bought from vending machines) are at least €2 cheaper than tickets bought from ticket windows. Tickets must be bought before boarding trains.

Rhine in Flames in Koblenz — © Koblenz-Touristik

Save with the Rhineland-Palatinate Day Ticket

Train ticket prices in Germany are partly determined by the speed of the trains – thus high-speed and long-distance trains (ICE, IC, EC) are more expensive than local (Nahverkehr) trains (IRE, RE, RB, S). In the Koblenz region, these cheaper regional trains are only marginally slower than the more expensive trains.

Travelers in the Koblenz region can often save by using the Rheinland-Pfalz Ticket. This Deutsche Bahn Länderticket is valid on local trains and almost all buses in the Rhineland-Palatine and Saarland German states from 9 am on weekdays (midnight on weekends) until 3 am the following day.

The Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket cost €24 for the first person – add €5 for each additional traveler up to a maximum of five traveling together. Own children and grandchildren under 15 travel for free. A slightly cheaper Night Ticket is valid from 6 pm to 6 am.

Buy the Rhineland-Palatinate Ticket either online or from vending machines – it is €2 extra when bought from ticket windows.

The Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket is valid on trains along the Rhine all the way north to Bonn (but not Bonn-Cologne Airport) and to the south to Mainz and Wiesbaden (even though Kaub to Wiesbaden is in Hessen). It is also valid on the private VIAS trains operating in the Rhinelands.

The Rhineland Palatinate Ticket is not valid on Rhine riverboats but KD does offer a 20% discount to travelers showing a valid train ticket when buying day-trip excursion boat tickets. See Rhine Boat Cruise Lines and Deals from Koblenz for details.

By Boat to Koblenz

Koblenz is a popular destination for both multiple-day and day-trip riverboat cruises on both the Rhine and Mosel Rivers. Koblenz is a good departure or destination port for day-trip excursion cruises in the UNESCO World Cultural listed Middle Rhine Valley with the Loreley Rock and endless castles. Boat excursions are also possible downriver to Linz, Remagen, Bonn and Cologne.

See Day Boat Trips on the Rhine River from Koblenz for more details.

Hiking and Cycling Along the Rhine from Koblenz

Cyclist in Koblenz — © Koblenz-Touristik

Hiking and cycling are hugely popular in Germany and river valleys often provide great flat routes. Koblenz, at the confluence of the Rhine and Mosel is thus at the junction of the Rhein-Radweg and Moselradweg – two long-distance cycling routes that follow these two rivers from their sources to the mouth in The Netherlands.

Cycling routes run along both sides of the Rhine from Koblenz to Bingen and Rüdesheim. The cycling paths on the left bank (towards Bingen) is almost exclusively on dedicated cycling tracks while short sections on the right bank are on the busy road.

A 20-km Confluentia Theme cycling route start and finish at Koblenz Hauptbahnhof – it is signposted and mostly along the Mosel and Rhine Rivers.

Contact the Koblenz Tourist Information for details on bike rentals – electric bicycles are also available.

Bicycles may be taken for free on local trains in the Rhineland Palatinate from 9 am on weekdays and all day on weekends. For earlier travel, or travel through some neighboring areas, buy a German Railways bicycle day ticket (Fahrradkarte) for €5. Bicycles are also transported free in the RMV area (Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Mainz) and thus also on the right bank of the Rhine in Hessen.