Day 1: Arrival

Make your way to the charming city of Koblenz, a Roman settlement founded at the meeting of the Rhine and the Moselle. Enjoy its riverside beauty and historic old town, and settle into your central hotel on the banks of the Rhine. Meet your tour director and fellow tour participants for an included drink and evening meal.

Day 2: Mainz and Rhine Gorge Cruise

We start with a visit to the bustling city of Mainz, where the lovingly restored Old Town is brimming with authentic atmosphere, and a cultural heritage dating back to the city’s foundation in Roman times as Mogontiacum. The city is at the heart of Germany’s largest wine growing region, and was the home of Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press. Amongst the highlights is the recently discovered Sanctuary of Isis and Magna Mater, eastern goddesses whose veneration was introduced by Roman soldiers from various parts of the empire. We also visit the Museum of Ancient Seafaring which, excitingly, is reopening in the Spring of 2026 after a long period of renovation. The museum is famed for its collection of five Roman ships discovered in the 1980s, giving us a unique insight into the fleet that patrolled the Rhine frontier.

A scenic treat is in store this afternoon as we exchange roads for water and take a cruise down the Rhine on our way back to Koblenz. We embark at Sankt Goarshausen, known as the city of Loreley after its striking rock formation was made famous by Heinrich Heine’s poem of the same name. This stretch of the Rhine is famous as the majestic Rhine Gorge, a UNESCO cultural landscape with dramatic scenery, picturesque towns, and ruined castles perched high above our boat.

Day 3: Saalburg & Keltenwelt am Glauberg

Today we venture across the Rhine, “behind the lines” into Germanic lands, stepping off the beaten track to glimpse what life was truly like in the frontier zone for both Romans and locals. At Saalburg, a Roman frontier fortress has been magnificently reconstructed on the foundations of the original, the most completely reconstructed fort along the entire length of the Limes Germanicus. Strategically located on a transport route into Germanic lands, by the 2nd century AD the fort was home to a cohort of 500 men, while a civilian settlement, or ‘vicus’, had developed outside the walls of the fort as the home for some 1500 traders, craftsmen and soldier’s families.

We continue into Germanic lands to visit the World of the Celts at the Glauberg, one of the most important archaeological sites of the Celtic Iron Age. It appears to have been a princely seat of the late Hallstatt and early La Tène periods, with a fortified settlement and several burial mounds. A large reconstructed burial mound and processional way now form the centrepiece of the archaeological park, while the cutting-edge museum displays the finds from the site, including the rich grave goods of the Celtic elite and a unique life-sized sandstone statue of a Celtic ruler. The exhibition takes into account the wide range of “Celtic” cultural phenomena, and provides insight into the “barbarian” side of the Rhine frontier,

Day 4: Trier

Today we explore the beautiful city of Trier, which was founded at the end of the 1st century B.C and is often referred to as Germany’s oldest city. It was certainly one of Rome’s largest cities north of the Alps, capital of Gallica Belgica during the height of the empire, and by the late 3rd century it was the seat of the Praefecture of Gaul. This made the city the capital of much of Western Europe and parts of North Africa, and the official residence of the emperor. Constantine the Great lived here on and off between 306 and 324, erecting buildings which would aggrandise his power.

Trier’s Roman legacy, which includes some of the country’ best-preserved Roman remains, is astonishing: the massive Porta Nigra, one of the ancient city gates; the Aula Palatina, the superb throne hall of Constantine the Great; and the vast Imperial Baths, among the largest built outside of Rome. In the city’s outstanding Rheinisches Landesmuseum, we explore one of the richest collections of Roman artefacts in Germany.

Day 5: Bonn & Cologne

Leaving Koblenz, we transfer to Cologne, stopping for the morning in Bonn, the former capital of West Germany and in Roman times the site of a mighty fortress that housed an entire legion and its auxiliary forces. On a walking tour of the city, we trace the outlines of its Roman past before visiting the LVR Landes Museum, which among other things, houses the extraordinary tomb of Marcus Caelius; the only known gravestone of a Roman soldier lost in the Varian disaster.

In the afternoon, we continue the short distance to Cologne, where we stay for the next three nights. Our hotel is in the centre of Cologne’s colourful Old Town, a maze of winding, cobblestoned alleys and courtyards, and picturesque gabled houses on the banks of the Rhine. The city’s hallmark is its cathedral, one of the world’s largest Gothic cathedrals. In antiquity the city was known as Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, and was the capital of Germania Inferior. We see the Roman wall which encircled the city, and the Romano-Germanic museum where we find the in-situ remains of a Roman domus, complete with a mosaic of Dionysus, and a world class collection of Roman glass.

Day 6: Haltern am See & Kalkriese

Venturing across the Rhine in Germanic territory, we discover the very site of the Varian Disaster of A.D. 9, otherwise known as the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, where three Roman legions were ambushed and annihilated by Germanic soldiers. This is commonly seen as one of the most important defeats in Roman history and one of the most important events in European history, bringing the triumphant period of expansion under Augustus to an abrupt end, and dissuading the Romans from their ambition of conquering Germania. A huge number of artefacts have been found here, ranging from military equipment to personal effects, and these are displayed in the site museum.

We also visit Haltern am See, where the Roman fort had been the base of Legio XIX, one of the legions that was wiped out in the Varian Disaster. The Roman Museum here exhibits finds from all of the military encampments that penetrated Germanic territory along the Lippe valley; giving us an insight into Roman strategy on the Limes Germanicus throughout its history, and the various encounters between Rome and the local population.

Day 7: Xanten

We dedicate our final day to the wonderful Xanten Archaeological Park, where we explore the remains of Colonia Ulpia Traiana, established in the 2nd century A.D as a veteran’s colony housing between 10-15,000 soldiers. In what is Germany’s largest open-air museum, we examine reconstructions of the amphitheatre, fortresses and other buildings such as taberna and a temple. We also explore the site museum with its vast array of artefacts which allow us a glimpse into the life of soldiers and veterans on the Rhine frontier. It is striking is how globalized the culture of the time was, with the inhabitants of this frontier colony doing similar things to people all across the empire.

This evening, we share a farewell dinner to celebrate the insights and friendships we have gained along one of the most momentous frontiers of Europe.

Day 8: Departure

Make your way home after a leisurely breakfast, or why not stay longer in this wonderful region of Europe?