One of Germany's most beautiful and famous railway routes.

When traveling between Amsterdam, Brussels, or Cologne in the north and Frankfurt, Munich, Switzerland, or Austria in the south, you have two options. The fastest route is via the Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed line, which opened in 2002. The other, more scenic route is along the Rhine Valley, taking the original curving railway past cruise ships, barges, vineyards, hilltop castles, and the legendary Lorelei Rock. The slower Rhine Valley route takes an extra hour, but I think it's worth it! When booking tickets on the website, journey planners will assume you want the fastest route, usually via the modern high-speed line. If you want to travel via the slower Rhine Valley line, simply enter 'Koblenz Hbf' as a stopover, keeping the stopover time at 0:00. Despite the high-speed line, some fast and comfortable IC and even ICE trains still run hourly along the classic Rhine Valley route, and every day you'll find several more comfortable direct EuroCity (EC) trains running between Cologne and Switzerland or Austria, passing through the Rhine Valley. Traveling from Cologne to Frankfurt via the high-speed line takes 1 hour and 18 minutes, while the classic Rhine Valley route takes 2 hours and 19 minutes.