Car Hire Koblenz - Mini guide to Koblenz

Koblenz was founded two thousand years ago as a Roman outpost and is the perfect base for exploring the Rhineland. Set where the Moselle River meets the Rhine, Koblenz offers an impressive waterfront and a number of graceful 18th century buildings.

The Deutsches Eck (German corner) features a massive statue of Kaiser Wilhelm on horseback and overlooks the Moselle and Rhine rivers. Here you’ll find a plethora of river front cafés and beer gardens, as well as the Kurfürstliches Schloss, a neo-classical palace built in the late 1700s. The small Mittelrheinmuseum displays some of the romanticized paintings that helped to make the nearby Rhine Valley so famous.

Festung Ehrenbreitstein (a fortress) offers a spectacular view of Koblenz. To get there, you have to catch a ferry from the River Crane restaurant. Alternatively, Koblenz’s old town is a charming neighbourhood reconstructed from the rubble of WWII. The Basilica of St Castor is a Romanesque structure that boasts a memorable fountain.

For a break, visit Kaisserin Augusta Park, where you can stroll along the gorgeous promenade that runs beside the Rhine. All along the river banks you'll find cafes and biergartens filled with both locals and tourists. Shoppers will be delighted with Löhr-Center of Koblenz, which has over three floors of shops, including boutiques, department stores and cafés.

Outside of town, Schloss Stolzenfels was built by the King of Prussia in the 1800s. This grand castle should not be missed and scheduled tours in English are available. Also not far from the city is Schmetterlings (Butterfly) Garden, where you might see a butterfly break out of its leaf-like cocoon and try out its wings for the first time. Koblenz is a good place from which to begin boat trips. You can go up the Moselle as far as Cochem, down the Rhine as far as Cologne or up the Rhine as far as Mainz.

By car to Koblenz, take the A48 autobahn (east and west), connecting with the A3 (north to south). The nearest airports are at Frankfurt and Cologne; from there you can continue the journey by road or rail. The Koblenz Hauptbahnhof lies on a major rail line, with frequent connections to important German cities. Thirty trains per day arrive from Frankfurt (two hours) and 16 come from Berlin (8 hours, 30 minutes). Trains also arrive every 30 minutes from Cologne (one hour).