An e-bike wine tour in the beautiful Rheingau wine region
A bike and wine tour - a great way to discover one of the most beautiful and historic wine regions in Germany - read about our Rheingau ebike wine tour with Cult-Touren
Rheingau vineyards at Kiedrich - Source: Winekeller
The Rheingau is considered one of the most beautiful wine regions in Germany and also the most historic, world famous for being the birthplace of German Riesling and ‘late-harvest’ or ‘Spätlese’ Riesling wines.
An e-bike wine tour offers a superb way to discover one of the world’s most famous wine regions - you get to enjoy the nature close up, access the best vantage points for those all-important views, learn some fascinating facts and local insider knowledge, enjoy a glass of wine and you get to exercise - great for your health and wellbeing!
Read - and watch the video below - about our amazing e-bike tour with regional tour specialist ‘Cult-Touren’ - despite knowing Germany’s Rheingau wine region well, we saw, experienced and learned so much more during this wonderful half-day bike and wine tour!
Cycling in the Rheingau wine region
The Rheingau cycle paths are well signed and maintained and it gives you the flexibility to just stop whenever and wherever to soak in the scenery, wander round the chocolate box villages or sample the wines at one of the Rheingau wineries and wine tasting stands along the river!
You can cycle along the Rhine, following the signs for ‘Leinpfad’ which is the Rhine cycle path. There are also clearly signed cycle paths up into the vineyards - follow the ‘Rheingauer Radwanderweg’.
For lots of information and inspiration about cycling in the Rheingau, visit the ‘Rheingau’ tourism website.
Hiring bikes
If you don’t have your own bikes with you, the Rheingau website will help you with hiring bikes locally and you can always visit a local tourist office, where you will get some good advice.
We can personally recommend 2 cycle shops in Wiesbaden-Biebrich and in Oestrich-Winkel.
A guided bike tour
You can plan your own Rheingau bike tour, however, in our opinion, nothing compares to going on a guided bike tour. Not only is the hassle taken out of hiring bikes and planning the tour, but a local, knowledgeable guide will take you to all of the best spots and give you lots of information and insights which you would find hard to research yourself.
We were keen to experience the Rheingau wine region by bike and our research led us to Cult-Touren, who have years of experience specialising in e-bike tours, hiking tours, river tours and events in the Rhine-Main region. This covers the Middle Rhine Valley, Rheinhessen, the Rheingau, Rhineland-Palatinate, the Odenwald and urban regions such as Frankfurt, Bingen, Rüdesheim and Wiesbaden.
Cult-Touren is well-known and respected and offers a range of tours in the Rheingau wine region, so we were delighted to experience their popular ‘Rheingau e-bike-tour’, with expert guide and Cult-Touren MD, Katharina Bahn.
With Katharina Bahn from Cult-Touren - on our Rheingau ebike tour - Source: Winekeller
Our Cult-Touren Rheingau e-bike wine tour
The Cult-Touren ‘Rheingau e-bike tour’ normally lasts about 4 hours and during that time you cover approximately 35km. That sounds a lot, but on an e-bike it’s very manageable! The terrain is mixed, which is great as you get to enjoy different scenery and landscapes - through beautiful villages, amongst the vineyards and along the river - but you also get to enjoy the full e-bike experience and climb some steep hills!
The round tour starts in the village of Walluf and incorporates some of the Rheingau's most significant sights. The tour doesn’t include a wine tasting, but you certainly get to learn about the region’s most famous wine, Rheingau Riesling and discover its world-famous vineyards.
Cycling through the Rheingau’s most beautiful wine villages
After having prepared our bikes and met Katharina in Walluf, we set off up into the vineyards and headed firstly to the lovely Rheingau wine village of Martinsthal, home to some well-known wineries, including Weingut Diefenhardt, from whom we used to import wines years ago.
From Martinsthal we continued on and up towards another well-known and popular Rheingau village, Rauenthal, with its distinctive pink church and its high watch tower. This presented the first challenge of the tour, with a steep climb up Rauenthal and then onto a viewing point called the Bubenhäuserhöhe, offering spectacular views over the Rhine valley from Mainz to Rüdesheim.
The spectacular views from Bubenhäuserhöhe - Source: Winekeller
After enjoying the views - and a quick lunch break - we continued on and into the famous ‘Baiken’ vineyard and the restaurant, ‘Gutsausschank Baiken’ where we had a comfort break! This is a beautiful restaurant owned by the ‘Hessische Staatsweingüte’, located right in the heart of the vineyard. We then continued through the Baiken vineyard and down to the beautiful wine village of Kiedrich.
We stopped briefly here to admire the fabulous 14th century church, a popular pilgrimage site and to learn from Katharina about the history and traditions of this lovely 1000 year old wine village.
Visiting the iconic Kloster Eberbach and Schloss Vollrads
After our stop in Kiedrich we went on to the world-famous monastery Kloster Eberbach and then enjoyed the views from its iconic Steinberg vineyard, rated one of the world’s top vineyard sites. Katharina gave us an excellent introduction to Kloster Eberbach and the Steinberg vineyard and any visit to the Rheingau should always include a visit here!
Read all about visiting Kloster Eberbach and the Steinberg vineyard in our blog, ‘Visit the iconic Rheingau castles and monasteries’.
We then cycled around the Steinberg vineyard and on into the vineyards below the lovely village of Hallgarten, with its mediaeval half-timbered houses, standing 600m high, overlooking the Rhine. From here we continued through the vineyards until we came into view of stunning Schloss Vollrads. After taking some photos of this beautiful sight we rode into the courtyard of the schloss and stopped for a break, to have a quick look around, a comfort break and a look in the vinothek!
Read about visiting Schloss Vollrads in our blog, ‘Visit the iconic Rheingau castles and monasteries’.
Cycling along the Rhine
Leaving Schloss Vollrads we began our descent, down towards the Rhine and the wine village of Winkel, one of the oldest settlements in the Rheingau region. From here we turned left and on into Oestrich-Winkel, a wine village with a long history and tradition of winemaking and home today to several excellent wineries and restaurants. Oestrich is also known today for the impressive landmark - the Oestricher Kran - a large, wooden wine-loading crane located on the banks of the river. It dates back to 1745 and was in operation until 1924.
The final section of the tour took us along the Rhine bike path to the popular wine village of Hattenheim, a very pretty and important historic town in the Rheingau, known for its wine tasting stand on the banks of the Rhine.
Our final stop before arriving back where we started, in Walluf, was the lovely town of Eltville, known as the "pearl" of the Rheingau and "the city of wine and the roses". Here we enjoyed a very welcome ice cream at one of the several ice-cream shops and cafés here!
After saying goodbye to Katharina we ended our day by having a lovely cold glass of Riesling at Weingut J.B. Becker - an institution in Germany’s Rheingau and the perfect location to spend a few hours relaxing by the river, enjoying some wonderful wines! A perfect end to a perfect day!
Additional information about the Rheingau e-bike tour
You can also pay extra to enjoy some wine and ‘vespers’ during the tour. ‘Vespers’ is a traditional German snack, likely to include cold meats, cheeses and bread and in the Rheingau, possibly ‘Spundekäs’, which is a speciality from Mainz and a kind of soft cheese dip usually from quark cheese.
The tour includes the e-bike hire, however you can join with your own bike and the minimum group size is 4 people.
Read more about Cult Touren and to book the Rheingau e-bike tour for yourself, see here.
An example of the stunning scenery you will enjoy on a Cult-Touren ‘Rheingau ebike tour’ - Source: Winekeller
Additional useful information about cycling in Germany
Germany is a nation of cycling lovers - most people own a bike and it’s not just a highly popular leisure activity, it’s an important mode of transport. You will see people of all ages cycling - the advent of the e-bike has helped a broader range of the population enjoy cycling - and there is excellent infrastructure to enable people to enjoy cycling safely.
Bike paths in Germany
From our personal experience cycling in Germany is fun and safe. You can always find a marked bike path to avoid busy roads and often cyclists have the right of way over motorists, especially in busy cities.
Cycling in Germany rules
Cyclists must always use the right side on all paths and roads. If the path is marked for 2-way cycling, ensure you always stay on the right side and overtake only when it’s safe to do so. Pedestrians also use bike paths sometimes, on river paths for example, so always ensure you give them space.
If you’re on an e-bike wine tour, yes you can enjoy some wine tasting - but for your own safety and the safety of others - drink in moderation - you are still in control of a vehicle!
Taking your own bikes to Germany
More and more people are now choosing to take their own bikes with them on holiday. We love to do this and have always found it rewarding and straight-forward.
As we said earlier, infrastructure is there in Germany to support the cyclist, not just with great bike paths, but also and importantly, with adequate places to park and store bikes. Always check that your accommodation can store your bikes - this will most probably be in a cellar. Most restaurants, villages and towns will have lots of places for you to safely park your bike and ensure you always lock your bike up securely.
Cycle routes in Germany
Germany has an abundance of cycle routes, ensuring that a cycling holiday in Germany is a wonderful option for experiencing the countryside, cities, cuisine or culture. There are more than 250 long-distance cycling routes in Germany, each one offering its own unique highlights. All cycle routes are easy to follow and well-signed.
Cycling the Rhine route
Cycling along one of Europe’s great rivers is an incredible experience and in addition to providing great scenery, nature, history and culture, flat bike paths mean it's accessible to most levels of fitness and experience.
The River Rhine is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe and it has so much to offer with its diverse wildlife, its incredible history, its well-known art-romanticism and of course its wines!
The popular Rhine cycle route ( EuroVelo15) takes in 4 countries, from river source to sea, through Switzerland, Germany, France and the Netherlands - something we would love to do one day!
Conclusion - our personal highlights
We love the Rheingau wine region and our ebike tour with Cult-Touren was a wonderful experience! We got to see different perspectives of this beautiful wine region and learned a lot from Katharina, who was an exceptional guide - informative, professional, warm and fun!
We highly recommend Cult-Touren and this fabulous ‘Rheingau ebike tour’!
