Rhein-Camino

At a Glance

• Start / Finish: Lahnstein (Hospitalkapelle St. Jakobus, Oberlahnstein) → Kaub am Rhein
• Length: 52.5 km
• Elevation: 1,466 m of ascent, 1,376 m of descent
• Highest point: 361 m on the heights between Kamp-Bornhofen and Prath (km 24.1)
• Stages: 3
• Duration: 3 days
• Difficulty: moderate – short, but constantly switching between riverbank and hillside
• Waymarking: yellow scallop shell on a blue background (waymarked in 2001 by the Taunusklub), in sections shared with the European long-distance path E3
• Best time: April to October; in 2026 the right-bank Rhine railway is closed from 10 July to 12 December, replacement buses

Overview

This route does not begin with a legend but with a find. In the Hospitalkapelle St. Jakobus in Oberlahnstein, a Gothic building from around 1330, renovation work brought to light a medieval pilgrim's grave containing two scallop shells – one of them is now set into the base of the statue of St. James that Johannes Hillebrand created in 1989. The cathedral of Santiago is carved in relief above the portal. From here the Rhein-Camino runs 52.5 kilometres along the right bank of the Rhine to Kaub, where the toll castle of Pfalzgrafenstein sits in the river like a stone ship. The route starts with proof that people made pilgrimage here, and ends at a toll booth.

It is one of the shortest Caminos in the German network and still climbs almost 28 metres per kilometre: down below the wine villages and ferry landings, up above beech forest, vineyards and lookout points, and in between short, serious ramps. The operator, the St. Jakobus-Gesellschaft Rheinland-Pfalz-Saarland, defines it exactly as we do – Lahnstein to Kaub –, and in Lahnstein it takes over where the Lahn-Camino from Wetzlar ends after 139 kilometres. Walk both back to back and you have a good 190 kilometres in one go.

Other Names

The operator writes Rhein-Camino and pairs it with the Lahn-Camino as the Jakobswege Rhein-Lahn. Some maps say Rechtsrheinischer Jakobsweg (right-bank Way of St. James) – handy, but easily confused with the Linksrheinischer Jakobsweg on the other side of the river, which runs from Cologne to Bingen. One thing you should know: the operator's website has since added a fourth stage from Kaub to Rüdesheim, around 31 kilometres. The official Rhein-Camino and the Camino Ninja map end in Kaub; if you want to go on, you will find the better continuation below.

Ideal For – and Less So For

The Rhein-Camino is for you if you have a long weekend and still want the feel of a real route: three days, a clear beginning at a chapel of St. James, a clear end at a castle in the river, and a railway station, a bakery and a bed in every stage town. It is the natural follow-on for anyone who has walked the Lahn-Camino, and an honest test for anyone who first wants to find out whether pilgrimage is for them. Castle lovers cannot avoid it anyway: Lahneck, Marksburg, Sterrenberg, Liebenstein, Maus, Katz, Pfalzgrafenstein, Gutenfels – eight in 52 kilometres.

Frankly, though, it is not for you if you are looking for hostel romance and a pilgrim bed for twelve euros: there is not a single pilgrim hostel on the Rhein-Camino, you sleep in inns, guesthouses and winery rooms at Middle Rhine prices. Nor is it for you if you need silence – main road, railway and freight barges can always be heard in the valley. And anyone who hears „am Rhein entlang“ (along the Rhine) and thinks flat will be taught otherwise on day two between Bornhofen and Prath.

Route & Landscape

You start in Lahnstein, where the Lahn meets the Rhine and where four Caminos pass the baton. From the Hospitalkapelle you follow the water to Braubach beneath the Marksburg, then climb onto the hillside above Osterspai, with its 12th-century chapel of St. James, and Filsen as far as the pilgrimage monastery of Bornhofen. From here the route does what almost all right-bank routes do: it keeps changing floors.

The second part is the more spectacular. Between the castles of Sterrenberg and Liebenstein the route climbs to its highest point, 361 metres at kilometre 24.1, runs via Prath and Wellmich beneath Burg Maus and past Burg Katz to St. Goarshausen. From there you climb via Patersberg onto the Loreley rock, 132 metres above the water at the narrowest and deepest point of the Rhine – and then it becomes surprisingly quiet: across the plateau through Bornich and Dörscheid you walk through fields and orchards until the route finally drops steeply down to Kaub.

Stages, Terrain & Difficulty

Three days, 52.5 kilometres, 1,466 metres of ascent – that makes a good 17 kilometres a day, but never flat. The surface is mostly forest track and narrow hillside path, asphalt in the villages; the descents into the valley are short and steep, and the slate gets slippery when wet. Every stage can be cut short at a railway station, all the towns lie on the right-bank Rhine line. Kilometres from the Camino Ninja map, calibrated exactly to 52.5 km.

1. Lahnstein → Kamp-Bornhofen (20.5 km) – From the Hospitalkapelle St. Jakobus along the Rhine to Braubach beneath the Marksburg, then up onto the heights above Osterspai and Filsen to the pilgrimage monastery.
2. Kamp-Bornhofen → St. Goarshausen (15.9 km) – The day with the most ups and downs: up between Sterrenberg and Liebenstein, over the highest point of the route (361 m) and Prath, then down to Wellmich and on beneath Burg Katz.
3. St. Goarshausen → Kaub (16.1 km) – Ascent via Patersberg onto the Loreley rock, then across the plateau through Bornich and Dörscheid and down to Kaub.

A Real Shell, an Invented Siren

The most famous rock on this route has no medieval legend. The Loreley as a sorceress was invented by Clemens Brentano around 1800, printed in 1801 in the second part of his novel „Godwi“ – „Zu Bacharach am Rheine / Wohnt eine Zauberin“ (At Bacharach on the Rhine lives a sorceress) –, and Heinrich Heine turned it in 1824 into „Ich weiß nicht, was soll es bedeuten“ (I know not what it should mean). Before Brentano there is no Loreley legend. The chapel of St. James in Oberlahnstein had by then stood for almost five hundred years, the shell in the pilgrim's grave even longer. The „Feindliche Brüder“ (hostile brothers) above Kamp-Bornhofen are Rhine Romanticism too: the shield wall between Sterrenberg and Liebenstein was built because Sterrenberg passed to Electoral Trier in 1320 and had to be fortified against its neighbour – territorial politics, not a brothers' quarrel. The castles never fought, and the legend is first attested in 1587. The real pilgrimage destination lies directly below: the Marian chapel of Bornhofen is first documented in 1224, the miraculous image in 1289, Pope Boniface IX granted an indulgence in 1389, the church was consecrated in 1435, and Franciscans have served there since 1890.

Twice world politics at the wayside, four hundred years apart. On 20 August 1400 four Rhenish electors at Burg Lahneck, directly above kilometre zero of this route, declared King Wenceslaus deposed – although the Golden Bull of 1356 knew no deposition procedure at all; the next day at Rhens they elected Rupert III king. And at the turn of the year 1813/14 the Prussian field marshal Blücher crossed the Rhine at Kaub with 60,000 soldiers, 20,000 horses and 200 cannon in pursuit of Napoleon. The route begins with a coup and ends with a campaign. The toll castle of Pfalzgrafenstein, its tower built in 1326/27 under Louis the Bavarian, survived both and collected tolls until 1866.

Highlights Along the Way

• Hospitalkapelle St. Jakobus, Oberlahnstein (km 0) – Gothic chapel from around 1330, relief of St. James with boat and cathedral above the portal; set into the base of the 1989 statue is a shell from the medieval pilgrim's grave. A round window lets you look inside even when the door is shut.
• Burg Lahneck – built from 1226 by Archbishop Siegfried III. von Eppstein, meeting place of the electors in 1400; in 1850 the Scottish railway entrepreneur Edward A. Moriarty bought the ruin and rebuilt it in neo-Gothic style.
• Marksburg, Braubach (km 4.4) – „die einzige nie zerstörte Höhenburg am Mittelrhein“, the only never-destroyed hilltop castle on the Middle Rhine, for over a hundred years the seat of the Deutsche Burgenvereinigung; visits by guided tour only, around 50 minutes, admission 12 euros (as of September 2026).
• Jakobuskapelle Osterspai (km 15.0) – 12th-century chapel in the garden of the moated castle, rare Romanesque wall paintings, inside a sculpture of St. James by the Spaniard Bernal Redondo.
• Wallfahrtskloster Bornhofen (km 20.5) – one of Germany's oldest Marian pilgrimage sites, church consecrated 1435, Franciscans since 1890; the Lower Rhine boat procession has come here since 1917.
• Sterrenberg and Liebenstein – the „Feindliche Brüder“, whose dividing wall dates from the territorial politics of 1320; there was never a fight between the castles.
• Burg Maus, Wellmich (km 31.2) – built from 1353 as St. Peterseck for Archbishop Boemund II. of Trier; it owes its nickname to the Counts of Katzenelnbogen next door, attested only since 1744. In St. Martin below, a „Last Judgement“ from 1380–1390.
• Loreley rock (km 40.9) – 132 metres above the Rhine at river kilometre 555, open-air stage from 1939.
• Burg Pfalzgrafenstein, Kaub (km 52.5) – toll castle in the middle of the river, a signal station for shipping into the 1960s; reachable only by passenger ferry, 8 euros including the ferry (as of September 2026).
• Blüchermuseum Kaub – on the Rhine crossing of 1813/14, Metzgergasse 6, April to October Wed–Sun 11am–5pm, 6.50 euros (as of September 2026).

How Pilgrims Reach This Route

Most arrive on foot: the Lahn-Camino ends after 139.0 kilometres from Wetzlar exactly where the Rhein-Camino begins – at the Hospitalkapelle St. Jakobus. Both routes belong to the same operator, share a website and a pilgrim passport, and the pilgrim certificate is issued for the last 100 kilometres to Kaub, in practice the final stages of the Lahn plus the whole of the Rhine. Opposite, in Koblenz-Stolzenfels, the Mosel-Camino to Trier begins, and a little downstream at Andernach the Eifel-Camino – on the forecourt of Lahnstein's Johanniskirche a St. James stone gives the distance to Santiago. If you simply travel in: Lahnstein has a railway station right on the Rhine and the Lahn.

Continuing the Pilgrimage?

In Kaub the route ends, the pilgrimage does not. From the landing below the gauge tower the Kaub – Engelsburg ferry takes you to the left bank between Bacharach and Oberwesel – and thus straight onto the Linksrheinischer Jakobsweg, which passes Bacharach at its kilometre 208.7 and carries on to Bingen. From Bingen the network opens up: upstream via Mainz to the south, via the Hunsrücker Jakobsweg to Trier. If you would rather stay on the right bank, follow the operator's extension to Rüdesheim and cross to Bingen there. From Kaub, according to the route brochure, it is still around 2,600 kilometres to Santiago.

Preparation & Practicalities

The best time is April to October; in high summer the south-facing slopes above the Rhine get seriously hot, and shade is found only in the forest. Carry water – between Prath and Bornich there are longer sections without anywhere to stop –, and sturdy shoes are a must, because the slate paths get slippery in rain. Book ahead, especially at weekends and during the grape harvest: there is no pilgrim hostel, and the Loreley youth hostel is in St. Goar on the left bank, a ferry ride away.

You don't need a pilgrim passport (Credencial) here to get a bed, but you will want one: there are stamping points in almost every village – mostly the Catholic parish churches, plus tourist offices, a gallery and a few shops, and in Lahnstein also the town archive by prior arrangement. The operators state expressly that the stamping points may „nicht Tag und Nacht zur Verfügung stehen“ – not be available day and night; stamping is volunteer work. The passport is issued by the St. Jakobus-Gesellschaft Rheinland-Pfalz-Saarland; order it in advance.

The easiest way to put together stages, elevation profiles and suitable accommodation is directly in the Camino Ninja app, where you plan your stages and book in your lodging at the same time.

What the Route Costs

Reckon with Middle Rhine prices: a double room with breakfast in an inn, guesthouse or winery typically costs between 60 and 100 euros, and with food and drink you reach 60 to 90 euros a day (as of September 2026). Plan cash for the ferries: the Loreley ferry St. Goarshausen – St. Goar runs on average every 20 minutes but does not accept VRM network tickets, and for the Kaub – Engelsburg ferry no pedestrian fare is published online.

The small items: pilgrim passport 5 euros as a recommended donation including postage (free for members), pilgrim certificate 3 euros; Marksburg 12 euros by guided tour only, Pfalzgrafenstein 8 euros including the ferry, Blüchermuseum 6.50 euros, 5 euros with a Pfalzgrafenstein ticket. Churches and the Bornhofen pilgrimage monastery cost nothing (all prices as of September 2026).

Getting There

To the start: Lahnstein lies on the right-bank Rhine railway, normally served by the RheingauLinie RB 10 / RE 9 of VIAS between Neuwied, Koblenz, Kaub, Wiesbaden and Frankfurt, hourly; from Koblenz main station you are there in a few minutes, and every stage town has its own station.

From the finish: Kaub lies on the same line, towards Wiesbaden and Frankfurt or back to Koblenz. Important for 2026: the right-bank Rhine line between Troisdorf, Koblenz and Wiesbaden is completely closed from 10 July to 12 December; replacement buses serve all stations, including express lines Wiesbaden–Rüdesheim–Koblenz. Alternatively take the left-bank line and cross by ferry – Boppard – Filsen, St. Goar – St. Goarshausen or Engelsburg – Kaub.

• Rail start and finish: Deutsche Bahn – stations Lahnstein, Kamp-Bornhofen, St. Goarshausen, Kaub; long-distance trains via Koblenz Hbf
• Ferries: Loreley ferry St. Goarshausen – St. Goar (about every 20 minutes), Kaub – Engelsburg ferry, Boppard – Filsen ferry
• Route information, stamping points, GPS tracks: lahn-rhein-camino.de of the St. Jakobus-Gesellschaft Rheinland-Pfalz-Saarland