Nahe-Glan-Camino (Nord-Variante)

At a Glance

• Start / Finish: Odernheim at the Disibodenberg / Tholey in Saarland, where the northern variant meets the southern route again
• Length: 94.9 km
• Duration: 4 stages, 5 with a stop in Nohfelden
• Elevation: ↗ 1,594 m / ↘ 1,347 m
• Highest point: 473 m at km 75.7 between Hoppstädten-Weiersbach and Nohfelden
• Landscape: the Nahe valley, the ridges of the Upper Nahe Uplands, forest and hills in northern Saarland
• Operator / Waymarking: part of the Nahe-Glan Camino; in sections shared with the Saar-Hunsrück-Steig, the Nahe-Steig and the Naheweg (blue N on white)
• Traces of St. James: hardly any physical ones; the route lives from the monasteries and churches at its start and end, the Disibodenberg and the Abbey of St. Mauritius in Tholey
• Accommodation: inns, guesthouses, Idar-Oberstein youth hostel; hardly any pilgrim beds
• Connecting routes: Nahe-Glan-Camino (Süd-Route) in Odernheim and Tholey; from Tholey the Jakobsweg Saarbrücken to Saarbrücken, where the Jakobsweg Hornbach – Metz connects
• Best time: May to October; in winter there's often snow on the heights around 450 m
• Associations along the way: whole route: St. Jakobus-Gesellschaft Rheinland-Pfalz-Saarland e.V.

Overview

Since 2025 the pilgrim route from Bingen to Tholey has officially been called the Nahe-Glan-Camino, and it has two arms. The main route, the southern one, follows the Glan from Odernheim via Meisenheim, Kusel and St. Wendel. The northern variant stays with the Nahe and takes to the heights: via Bad Sobernheim up into the villages of the Upper Nahe Uplands, down to Idar-Oberstein, and via Birkenfeld and Nohfelden into Saarland. The two arms meet again in Tholey.

Counting from Bingen, the Nahe route is only a little over two kilometers longer than the Glan route. The difference is in the altitude: almost 1,600 meters of climbing, much of it in the woods. Behind it lies an old line, the Celtic-Roman road from Mainz to Metz, later a pilgrim route. Part of it now lies inside the Baumholder military training area, which the route skirts around. You're walking a Roman road, just where no tanks roll today.

Other Names

The association calls the northern variant the Nahe route of the Nahe-Glan-Camino, as opposed to the Glan route, which Camino Ninja lists as the southern route. Before 2025 it was simply the Jakobsweg Bingen–Tholey, or, on a larger scale, the Jakobsweg Mainz–Metz. In English it's the Nahe-Glan Camino, northern variant.

Who It's Ideal For—and Who It's Not So Ideal For

The northern variant is ideal if you're looking for a quiet upland walk of four to five days, with stations of the Nahe Valley Railway close by, lots of forest and little pilgrim traffic – or if you're coming from Bingen and would rather see the rock church than the Glan valley.

Honestly, though, it's not for you if you expect hostels where other pilgrims sit together in the evening. Between Meddersheim and Idar-Oberstein even guesthouse beds are few and far between. St. Wendel with the tomb of St. Wendelin lies on the southern route, not here. And between Steinberg-Deckenhardt and Oberthal you should expect muddy forest tracks – forestry and feldspar mining churn up the ground.

Route & Landscape

Odernheim to Idar-Oberstein (km 0–48.2): At the foot of the Disibodenberg, where the Glan flows into the Nahe, the variant begins and follows the Nahe on the flat via Staudernheim and Bad Sobernheim, whose center lies about a kilometer off the route, to Meddersheim. Then comes the big climb: from 164 to 400 meters in ten kilometers, up to Hundsbach. Via Sien, Oberreidenbach and Dickesbach, forest and field tracks lead across the ridges until the route drops into the Nahe valley at Nahbollenbach.

Idar-Oberstein to Tholey (km 48.2–94.9): From the narrow valley you climb again, via Kronweiler up to the Rimsberg at 458 meters and across to Birkenfeld. At Hoppstädten-Weiersbach you return to the young Nahe, walk a stretch with the Naheweg and reach Nohfelden via the highest point. In Saarland come Walhausen, Steinberg-Deckenhardt at 442 meters and Oberthal, and finally the old railway line toward Tholey; near Oberthal, 400 m off the route, lie the excavations of the Roman vicus in the Wareswald. Where the variant ends, the abbey is still a good kilometer away, on the southern route.

Stages, Terrain, and Difficulty

We show the variant in 4 stages. Distances come from the Camino Ninja map, calibrated exactly to 94.9 km. If you want shorter days, split the last stage in Nohfelden: 10.1 km from Birkenfeld, then 17.3 km to Tholey.

1. Odernheim → Sien (24.0 km) — flat along the Nahe, then the steepest climb; few beds in Sien, book ahead.
2. Sien → Idar-Oberstein (24.2 km) — through the hilltop villages and a long descent into the valley.
3. Idar-Oberstein → Birkenfeld (19.3 km) — a stiff climb to the Rimsberg, then forest and meadows.
4. Birkenfeld → Tholey (27.4 km) — over the highest point into Saarland.

Nothing is technically difficult. The challenges are the climbs after Meddersheim and after Idar-Oberstein, and the hilltop villages without a café or shop: take water and food for the whole day.

The Gem City That Ran Out of Gems

In Idar-Oberstein, agate was already being cut in the early 14th century, on sandstone wheels driven by the Idarbach stream. By the 16th century the area was a gemstone address of real standing, and around 1660 the goldsmiths arrived. Then, around the middle of the 18th century, the punchline: the local agate deposits were exhausted. Idar kept cutting – only now it was stones from Brazil and Argentina. Along with the raw agate, so the story goes, came gaucho-style grilling – which turned into the Spießbraten. The German Gemstone Museum, in a villa from 1894, displays more than 10,000 pieces.

Above it all hangs the Felsenkirche, the rock church. Legend tells of two brothers at Bosselstein Castle, Wyrich and Emich, who loved the same woman; Wyrich threw Emich out of a window and, as penance, had to build a chapel on the spot, at whose consecration he collapsed dead at the altar. What's documented is its construction from 1482 to 1484 under Wirich IV of Daun-Oberstein, in a rock niche high above the valley; 234 steps lead up, and since 1980/81 a tunnel leads into the rock. The Nahe below, on the other hand, Idar-Oberstein has hidden: since 1986 it has flowed for about two kilometers beneath an expressway, and in 1988 the town won a contest for „die konsequenteste Verschandelung eines historischen Stadtbildes“ (the most thorough disfigurement of a historic townscape). A town that cuts stones from overseas and buries its own river under concrete – that takes some doing.

Highlights Along the Way

• Disibodenberg (km 0) — tomb of the Irish monk Disibod (arrived around 640, died 700); in 1112 Jutta of Sponheim moved into the hermitage with the young Hildegard, and from 1147 to 1151 Hildegard and her sisters moved to the Rupertsberg near Bingen.
• Bad Sobernheim (km 7.2) — town charter in 1292; from 1915 to 1925 the „Lehmpastor“ (clay pastor) Emanuel Felke worked here, remembered by the barefoot trail from 1992.
• Idar-Oberstein (km 48.2) — a single town since 1933; rock church, gemstone museum, historic Weiherschleife grinding mill. Town center a good 1 km off the route.
• Birkenfeld (km 67.5) — from 1817 to 1937 the capital of an exclave of faraway Oldenburg.
• Nohfelden Castle (km 77.6) — built in 1285; its 20 m keep is now a lookout tower.
• Abbey of St. Mauritius, Tholey (a good 1 km past the end) — mentioned in the will of Adalgisel Grimo dated December 30, 634, Benedictine again since 1950; since 2020 three windows by Gerhard Richter glow in the choir and 29 windows by Herat-born Mahbuba Maqsoodi in the nave.

How Pilgrims Find Their Way onto This Path

Most come from Bingen, just under 60 kilometers on the Nahe-Glan-Camino (Süd-Route), and choose between the Glan and the Nahe at the Disibodenberg. Several routes meet in Bingen:

• Linksrheinischer Jakobsweg — ends at the Basilica of St. Martin
• Way of St. James Fulda – Bingen — from eastern Hesse to the Rhine
• Rhein-Camino — ends across the river in Rüdesheim; the ferry takes you to Bingen
• Hunsrücker Jakobsweg — shares its first 3.2 km with the Nahe-Glan-Camino

Continue the pilgrimage?

In Tholey you're back on the Nahe-Glan-Camino (Süd-Route), whose goal is the abbey. If you want to keep going, pick up the Jakobsweg Saarbrücken there: 45.7 kilometers via Marpingen, Illingen and Holz to the Ludwigskirche in Saarbrücken. At the Alte Brücke it meets the Way of St. James from Speyer to Metz, on Camino Ninja the Jakobsweg Hornbach – Metz. And so the old idea behind this road comes full circle: from Mainz to Metz.

Preparation & Practical Information

Pilgrim passport and app. As on all Ways of St. James in Germany, a pilgrim passport (credencial) is worth having; the Compostela, however, is only awarded for the last 100 kilometers to Santiago. It's best to order it online in advance so it reaches you in time for the start of your trip; the association issues it for a donation of 5 € (as of October 2026). Because beds are far apart, the easiest way to plan is directly in the Camino Ninja App, where you put your stages together and plan suitable accommodation right along with them.

Season and accommodation. The route is at its best from May to October; in winter the heights are cold and many country inns have rest days. Book ahead, especially for Sien. You'll only reliably find shops in Bad Sobernheim, Idar-Oberstein, Birkenfeld and Nohfelden.

What the journey will cost you

Budget 60 to 90 € a day (as of October 2026), because donation-based hostels practically don't exist here. Idar-Oberstein youth hostel costs 27.30 to 42.70 € per person per night with breakfast, a room in a guesthouse or inn usually 45 to 80 € (as of October 2026). A hot meal at an inn starts at about 14 €.

Getting Here

There and back. The Nahe Valley Railway between Bingen and Saarbrücken accompanies the route: to start, take the train to Staudernheim (km 4.3) and walk back to the Disibodenberg. Along the way, trains stop in Idar-Oberstein, Neubrücke near Hoppstädten-Weiersbach and Türkismühle near Nohfelden, so you can break off at any time. Tholey has no station: the bus takes you to St. Wendel, and from there the train runs.

• Train: bahn.de — Nahe Valley Railway Bingen–Saarbrücken, connections from Mainz and Frankfurt
• Bus in Saarland: saarvv.de — Tholey to St. Wendel