Bonn sits on the last easy bend of the Rhine before the Siebengebirge close in on the right bank, and the city has drawn the obvious conclusion from its own geography — a surfaced path runs down both sides of the water, most of it well away from traffic. From the main station you can be riding beside the river within ten minutes, and from there head south for two hours without meeting a climb worth the name. The bicycle here is not a novelty or a green gesture; it is simply the most sensible way to see the half of Bonn that faces the water.
Where the bikes come from
Radstation Bonn (Hauptbahnhof, city centre) is the practical start line, 400 m from the platforms with the hire counter open 07:00 to 21:30 every day. It is run by Caritas as a training workshop, which matters more than it sounds — the machines are genuinely maintained rather than parked and forgotten, and on a hire fleet that is the difference between a pleasant afternoon and a slipping chain at Mehlem. A city bike is €12 for the first day and €10 for each day after; a pedelec or a tandem €29 then €25; a child trailer €10 a day. Pedelecs need a €100 deposit and photo ID. Walk-in is fine for one or two riders. Anything larger should ring ahead on 0228 9814636, because the fleet is finite and the tandems, pedelecs and trailers are the first things to go.
welo (stations across the whole city) is the other way to get moving. It launched on 1 September 2025, when Bonn's nextbike, RVK e-Bike and RSVG Bike were folded into a single system — 1,710 bikes and 332 pedelecs, 70 locations inside the city, and coverage that reaches into 19 surrounding municipalities. Standard bikes are €1 per 15 minutes, e-bikes €2 per 30 minutes, cargo bikes €3 per 30 minutes, each with a daily cap; VRS subscribers and students pay less. Every rider needs their own account, so set that up over coffee rather than standing at a docking station with a group waiting, but six bikes can be pulled off one station and returned anywhere in the network. That last point is what makes welo useful beyond convenience — it is the reason you can ride one way down the river and take the train home instead of repeating the same bank in reverse.
The rule of thumb is straightforward. Take a Radstation bike for a full day, a loaded ride or anything with a trailer on the back. Take welo for hops, for one-way legs, and for the evening when nobody wants to pedal back from Beuel.
The flat kilometres at Rheinaue
Freizeitpark Rheinaue (south of the centre, straddling the river) was laid out over 160 hectares for the federal garden show of 1979 and has around 45 km of paths, all of it flat, asphalted and free of cars. It is free to enter, has no gates and no closing time, and it hangs directly off the riverside route, which means it costs nothing to spend the first hour circling inside it before committing to the river proper.
For a nervous adult, a child still negotiating with the brakes, or anyone who has not ridden in years, this is the best stretch in Bonn and it is not close. The surfaces are consistent, the sightlines are long, and nothing motorised is going to come round the bend. The picnic lawns take a party of any size, which is why local clubs and school groups use it as their standing meeting point; if you are assembling a group of ten with mismatched fitness, start here rather than at a busy junction in town.
Two river terraces in the middle of town
Biergarten am Alten Zoll (Altstadt, on the old bastion above the water) occupies the corner bastion of the city's fortifications and holds the highest useful view over the river in central Bonn. It pours its own Alter-Zoll-Bier, and it has had a refit and expansion recently, so expect newer furniture than older photographs suggest. Hours are listed daily 11:00 to 24:00. With somewhere between 250 and 400 bench seats at long tables it is explicitly group-friendly — midweek you can simply walk in with eight people, but at weekends ring ahead if you want a block held together rather than a scatter of singles. Beer runs roughly €5 to €7, mains €12 to €18.
Across the water, Bahnhöfchen (Beuel, right bank) is a former Bröltalbahn station turned river terrace, and it is the one stop on that side that faces the sunset back onto the city — a real consideration if you are timing a ride to finish in the light. It opens Monday to Thursday 12:00 to 24:00, Friday until 01:00, Saturday from 10:00 and Sunday from 09:00, with the kitchen running until 22:30 and mains between €16 and €26. It takes bookings for celebrations, company parties and weddings, and the terrace absorbs a cycling group without fuss, though anything over six is worth reserving.
A little further along the same bank, Kameha Grand Bonn (Beuel, directly on the riverside path) is the one genuinely high-end stop you pass without a detour. The RheinAlm terrace does casual Bavarian food and beer outdoors at €€ and handles walk-in groups; Yunico upstairs holds a Michelin star, sits at €€€€, and needs booking well in advance. Choose deliberately — the terrace suits a ride with a stop in it, Yunico suits an evening where the ride was only the excuse.
North to the Mondorf ferry
Downstream, the northern loop-closer is Rheinfähre Mondorf (Bonn-Graurheindorf to Niederkassel-Mondorf), running daily 06:00 to 21:00 with a second boat at peak times and costing a few euros for bike and rider. There is no reservation and no queue system; cyclists board freely alongside the cars, and deck space is the only real constraint at rush hour. It lands beside the Sieg estuary nature reserve, which is a quieter, flatter, less photographed end of the ride than anything south of the city.
One caveat deserves its own sentence. The Mondorf ferry stops running at high water, in the range of 6.20 to 6.40 m on the Bonn gauge. Check the gauge before you plan a one-way route that depends on it, because the alternative is a long backtrack up the bank you have just ridden down.
South past Bad Godesberg, and the crossing that makes a loop
Rheinhotel Dreesen (Bad Godesberg, on the river) has been family-run since 1894 and is the natural turnaround for a southbound ride out of the centre. Its beer garden reopened for the season on 2 April 2026 and runs Monday to Friday 15:00 to 22:00, Saturday and Sunday 12:00 to 22:00, with last orders at 21:30. Prices are hotel-standard, mains from around €20. Note the weekday 15:00 opening — a midday arrival on a Tuesday will find the garden shut, so this is an afternoon stop rather than a lunch stop unless you are riding at the weekend. Functions and larger parties are routine here; book by phone on +49 228 8202 0.
Carry on south and you reach Rheinfähre Königswinter, boarding at the Bonn-Mehlem landing. It costs €3.00 per bicycle including the rider, and between 10 July and 11 December 2026 cyclists and pedestrians holding a valid public-transport ticket cross free. Boats run at roughly eight-minute intervals from about 05:15 — 07:45 on Sundays and holidays — until 21:45. Nothing is booked, bikes roll straight on, and a dozen of you will fit a single crossing without splitting the group. With the Bad Godesberg–Niederdollendorf ferry out of service, this is the only dependable link between the left-bank path and the far side at this end of the city, which makes it the hinge of every southern loop worth riding.
Once across, Schloss Drachenburg (above the ferry landing, built 1882–84) holds the best panorama over this stretch of river by a clear margin. It opens daily 11:00 to 18:00 from 1 March to 1 November and 12:00 to 17:00 in winter, closed on 14, 24 and 31 December, with tickets through its own online shop and combination tickets available with the cog railway. Group visits and guided tours are arranged in advance, and the park and terraces take a larger party comfortably. Be clear about one thing before you set off, though — the climb up to it is not a cycling route. Lock the bikes in the town and go up on foot or by rail.
Further upstream, Insel Grafenwerth (a Rhine island at cycle route km 641) is the obvious southern turning point. Its paths, playgrounds and open spaces were rebuilt and made barrier-free from autumn 2021, so the surfaces are smooth enough for road tyres and for a trailer with a sleeping child in it. The island is free and unrestricted; a beer garden under old trees and a small Italian place at the tennis club both take walk-in groups.
The long ride down the left bank
If you would rather ride one way and let the railway do the return, aim for Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, the furthest-south stop worth the pedalling and sitting directly on the left-bank path. It opens Tuesday to Sunday 11:00 to 18:00 including bank holidays, and closes on 24 and 31 December and on Shrove Monday. Entry is €12 for adults, €9 reduced, €18 for a family, and under-12s go free; groups of 10 to 20 pay the reduced rate, school and nursery groups are free, and guided tours start at €4 a head. The detail that matters to a cyclist is that advance tickets double as free VRM regional bus and train travel — buy ahead, ride down the river in one direction only, and the leg home is already paid for. The museum also runs its own guided cycle tours out to the riverside sculpture park.
Riding with someone who knows the water
Colonia Aktiv (private tours, city-wide) is built for groups and runs nothing else — route and stops adjusted to the party, bikes and helmets supplied, and guiding in English, German or Dutch on request. Their 18 km Fascination Bonn route takes in the Rhine banks, the government quarter and the old town in up to three and a half hours with a beer-garden break built into the schedule. Pricing is quoted per group on enquiry. For a company outing or a family that would rather not argue about navigation, this is the sensible booking.
Baja Bikes Bonn (fixed departures, city-wide) is the counterpart when you want a scheduled tour rather than a bespoke one — a three-hour English-guided circuit tying Beethoven's birthplace, the university quarter and the riverbank together, bike hire included. It costs from about €306 for a single rider and falls to roughly €43.50 a head at 15 or more, with no booking fee if you take it as a private group. As a solo traveller that first number is steep; as six friends it is ordinary.
ADFC Bonn/Rhein-Sieg (the local cycling association) publishes a programme of day rides and after-work loops through the Vorgebirge, the Siebengebirge and along the river, open to non-members as well as members, with sign-up through the club's tour portal. Rides cost nothing or a few euros, and the family rides are trailer-friendly with no steep climbs. It is the cheapest way to ride with people who know which bank to take on a given day — and on a river with two paths and a fickle wind, that knowledge is worth more than a map.
Practical notes
Getting to the start. Everything above begins within a few minutes of the Hauptbahnhof or a welo station, and the wider Bonn guide covers the districts you will be riding through. If you are staying overnight, a riverside or Altstadt base saves the most pedalling; compare rates through Bonn hotel search.
Money. Budget €12 for a day on a Radstation city bike, or roughly the daily cap on welo if you are hopping. Add €3.00 for the Königswinter ferry, a few euros for Mondorf, and €12 for the Arp Museum. A beer-garden stop runs €15 to €25 a head at Alten Zoll, €20 to €35 at Bahnhöfchen or Dreesen. Carry €20 to €30 in cash — ferry decks and beer-garden counters are the two places where cards are least dependable.
Timing. The Königswinter ferry starts at about 05:15 on weekdays but not until 07:45 on Sundays and holidays, which shapes an early start more than anything else. Dreesen's garden is shut before 15:00 on weekdays. Drachenburg closes at 18:00 in the season and 17:00 in winter. And before any route that relies on the northern ferry, check the Bonn gauge — above roughly 6.20 m, Mondorf stops.
Shape of the day. A comfortable first outing is Rheinaue to warm up, the left bank south to the Mehlem landing, the ferry across, the island or the castle, and the train or the same path back with the light behind you. Nothing in it requires fitness beyond ordinary, and none of it involves sharing a lane with a lorry.
