Heidelberg and Castle Walking Tour

Heidelberg is the German town that most international guests picture before they have seen it: a ruined red sandstone castle on a wooded slope, a baroque old town below it and the Neckar running between. This private three-hour walking tour with a local guide covers both halves of that picture – the castle above and the university town beneath – without rushing either.

Up to the castle by funicular

The tour opens with the short funicular ride from the Kornmarkt up to Heidelberg Castle, which spares the party the climb and delivers them straight into the courtyard. What remains of the residence is a layered ruin rather than a restored palace, and that is precisely its appeal: Gothic, Renaissance and baroque wings stand side by side, half of them roofless since the seventeenth century. Your clients see the great courtyard, the ornamented facades of the Ottheinrichsbau and Friedrichsbau, the cellar with the enormous Great Tun, and the terrace view over the rooftops, the Old Bridge and the river valley.

Down through the old town

The walk continues on foot into the Altstadt, along the Hauptstrasse and through the squares around the Church of the Holy Spirit and the Marktplatz. Your guide talks about Germany’s oldest university, founded in 1386, and about what a student town looked like when misbehaving scholars were locked in their own gaol rather than handed to the city. The route reaches the Old Bridge and its gate, from where the Philosophers’ Walk climbs the opposite bank – a good place to end, and an easy extension if the party wants the classic view back at the castle.

Format and inclusions

• Three hours, private, at a walking pace set by your clients
• Licensed English-speaking guide; further languages available on request
• Start at a centrally located hotel or at an agreed point in the old town
• Funicular and castle admission are quoted separately, so the party size drives the cost transparently
• Cobbles and some steps throughout; a driving alternative can be arranged for guests with limited mobility

Who it suits and how to build a day around it

The tour works as a self-contained morning for travellers passing through on the way between Frankfurt and the Black Forest, and equally as the opening act of a longer stay. Pair it with the Heidelberg gourmet walk for an afternoon of regional food and wine, or with the Heidelberg sip and sail boat tour if your clients would rather see the castle from the water. Cruise guests arriving or departing nearby are best served by our Heidelberg pre and post cruise programme, and the complete Heidelberg range sits in our Heidelberg tour portfolio. Spring blossom and late September are the most comfortable windows; midsummer weekends are the busiest.