Rheinsteig Trail - is this trail as wonderful as it seems or is it too urban

[Coverbid]

Hello,
I am researching this trail and it seems wonderful. Yet it doesn't seem to be followed by many people. Does anyone have some insight into the composition of this trail. When you begin in Bonn is it very urban (concrete) and how many miles do you walk until it starts to feel like a trail. Are the hamlets close together to allow walking without having to camp outdoors? Is there an app for this trail that anyone would recommend? thanks for your help. Mike

 

[MinaKamina]

https://www.rheinsteig.de/en/rheinsteig

here you go. it is even in English.
whatever makes you think that not many people walk this trail with the infrastructure that it has?

 

[Coverbid]

https://www.rheinsteig.de/en/rheinsteig

here you go. it is even in English.
whatever makes you think that not many people walk this trail with the infrastructure that it has?

Hi,
Thanks for responding. One source of mine are the youtube videos. And there doesn't seem to be many of them and they all seems to reference the same sections of the trail. There's not much info about the beginning or the end, just the middle sections. So I thought I should ask. Thank you so much. I will read this later.

 

[MinaKamina]

Wikipedia in German:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinsteig

videos of all 13 stages, in German.

the first one:

 

[MinaKamina]

Infrastructure Rheinsteig, with over 112.000 views:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=11PGvdIrnqQ94NhNEuTabcEvo6uo&femb=1&ll=50.36034617008641,7.668016646057367&z=10

source: blog Soultrails, page 1.
https://www.soultrails.de/soultrails-blog/

all in German. Germans walk this trail a lot.

 

[Annette london]

Hello,
I am researching this trail and it seems wonderful. Yet it doesn't seem to be followed by many people. Does anyone have some insight into the composition of this trail. When you begin in Bonn is it very urban (concrete) and how many miles do you walk until it starts to feel like a trail. Are the hamlets close together to allow walking without having to camp outdoors? Is there an app for this trail that anyone would recommend? thanks for your help. Mike

We walked the Rheinsteig in 2012 May/June from Bonn To Wiesbaden, about 320 km
An absolutely wonderful walk and very well marked.
Although it follows the Rhein, a lot of the walk is through forests high above the river and with fantastic views so we often just descended to the bank of the river and walked along, often crisscrossing the river to the villages on the other side

A few times we headed up to the higher plateau and off the official path, once even finding that we were following the Camino de Santiago!
We had no internet or smartphones but the 2 good maps sufficed and never got lost

Accommodation wasn’t a problem and from the book we had(see picture and website) we stayed in peoples homes and hotels
It’s definitely out of date now I’m sure

the people we met on the Rheinsteig were some of the nicest kindness and most helpful people we’ve ever met on a walk

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did

 

[Annette london]

Forgot to enter these
the whole trail is given with stages

 

[Pilger Gal]

I live in this area and have walked the whole from Wiesbaden to Bonn once and many sections as day trips for years. It’s an amazing walk even into and out of the major cities. There are quite a few new resources out now, ex. books and maps plus as you see a very well put together website. If you still have questions please feel free to PM me.

 

[Coverbid]

We walked the Rheinsteig in 2012 May/June from Bonn To Wiesbaden, about 320 km
An absolutely wonderful walk and very well marked.
Although it follows the Rhein, a lot of the walk is through forests high above the river and with fantastic views so we often just descended to the bank of the river and walked along, often crisscrossing the river to the villages on the other side

A few times we headed up to the higher plateau and off the official path, once even finding that we were following the Camino de Santiago!
We had no internet or smartphones but the 2 good maps sufficed and never got lost

Accommodation wasn’t a problem and from the book we had(see picture and website) we stayed in peoples homes and hotels
It’s definitely out of date now I’m sure

the people we met on the Rheinsteig were some of the nicest kindness and most helpful people we’ve ever met on a walk

I hope you enjoy it as much

 

[Coverbid]

Annette,
Thank you so much for all this information. I will research all the items that you sent. My concerns seems to be overdone. The trail should be as beautiful of a walk as I envisioned. Thank you, Mike

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

@Coverbid , thanks for asking this question as I didn't even know that this trail existed. Mind you there's a hell of a lot that I don't know about Germany yet.
I just did a quick search and the site that I found showed the walk as 23 stages. Whether 21 or 23 stages they are pretty darn short stages when it's only 320 kms long ! That's exactly the same length as the Primitivo and most of us do that in 12 to 14 days. I'm guessing that particular website was aimed at day treckers. Looks like a beautiful walk, something else to add to the list...... .

 

[Coverbid]

@Coverbid , thanks for asking this question as I didn't even know that this trail existed. Mind you there's a hell of a lot that I don't know about Germany yet.
I just did a quick search and the site that I found showed the walk as 23 stages. Whether 21 or 23 stages they are pretty darn short stages when it's only 320 kms long ! That's exactly the same length as the Primitivo and most of us do that in 12 to 14 days. I'm guessing that particular website was aimed at day treckers. Looks like a beautiful walk, something else to add to the list...... .

 

[Coverbid]

Hi, I have 4 other trails on my wish list. The Reinsteig, Mont St. Michel, Via Francigena (again), and Le Puy. I have completed the Frances, Del Norte and Via Francigena from Lausanne to Rome. Nothing in '24 but expect to resume things in '25. Best Wishes, Mike