Heidelberg Transportation Tips by Sjalen Top 5 Page for this destination

To the castle!

The pedestrian route to the castle is lovely as you can see, but it can be strenuous as it is all uphill and cobbled. Therefore, there is a Bergbahn (see second picture) which has the Castle as its first stop on the way further up the mountains to the Molkenkur restaurant and then you have to change trains to get all the way up to the Kaiserstuhl. If all you want to do is get to the castle, it is quite expensive to catch the Bergbahn though, so if you are fit and have time you might as well walk. Otherwise, there are various daycards if you want to combine several of the mountain destinations. See the link below for current information. Oh, and don't be alarmed when one of you can get through the ticket barrier whilst the rest of you cannot. This just means that they have sold out the next departure and you will all have to wait for the barrier lights to go green again once that train has actually left the platform.

Mode: AROUND

Type: Train

Website: http://www.bergbahn-heidelberg.de

Schlangenweg

To get up to the Philisophenweg, you can walk along the affluent residential area on the same side, higher and higher, but also quite a detour. The more direct route from the Old Town is to use the Schlangenweg, or "Snakes Road" up the hill from just across the Old Bridge. We did this after a heavy rainfall and it turned out to be quite an experience as wet cobbles are always...eh...interesting. Not for people with trouble walking as, apart from the cobbles, it is quite a steep gradient and here and there you have to negotiate stairs. We kept sending our daughter ahead as a scout as the road twisted and turned in a serpentine manner all along and the high stone walls revealed nothing of what lay ahead. Luckily, there were some viewpoints in the wall here and there, where you could sit down and enjoy the Castle.

Mode: AROUND

Type: Other

By rail

Heidelberg is along a frequent IC Hamburg/Cologne to Stuttgart line so there are no problems getting here. Even if you are on the international Copenhagen-Cologne-Basel trains or something else, it is easy to get here by for instance changing in Mannheim which is only 20 minutes away by local S-train (see second website). The Hauptbahnhof (central station) in Heidelberg is not that near the Old Town so I recommend a taxi from it for less stress as the trams don't really take you to the "hotel end" of it.

Mode: TO

Other Contact: http://www.s-bahn-rheinneckar.de

Type: Train

Website: http://www.bahn.de