The night before, inRegensburg

Hotel Bischofshof am Dom

Rooms with ‘a view of the Stone Bridge’ and excursion boats ‘waiting for you on the nearby Danube’ — the hotel publishes no distance.

87 individual rooms and suites 'embedded in the UNESCO World Heritage Site Regensburg', DomSuites from 45 m², and a restaurant and beer garden of Bavarian hospitality.

The address beside the cathedral, and the one we'd book first — ask for a room facing the Stone Bridge, which the hotel offers and which is the view the city is known for. The beer garden handles the night-before dinner without a reservation elsewhere.

SORAT Insel-Hotel Regensburg

On the Danube island Oberer Wöhrd: Stone Bridge 100 m, Marc-Aurel-Ufer landing stage 600 m, old town 500 m

75 rooms in the listed former J.L.L. Brandner crafts manufactory, art déco interiors, the Brandner restaurant with a Danube terrace and a lobby bar with balcony terrace.

The river pick: you look back across the water at the bridge and the old-town skyline, and the walk to the quay is flat. The hotel lists the station at 2 km, so this is the choice for a lazy morning, not a dawn train.

Eurostars Park Hotel Maximilian

'A 19th-century Bavarian palace in the historic center of Regensburg', 52 rooms at Maximilianstraße 28, 250 m from the central railway station; breakfast only, no lunch or dinner restaurant.

The grand façade at a gentler rate, and the shortest walk to the ÜFEX — if your flight home leaves Munich early, or you land late, the 250 m to the station earns its keep. Dinner is elsewhere; the hotel serves breakfast only.

Hotel Orphée (Grand Hotel Orphée / Petit / Andreasstadel)

Three houses grown out of a 40-year-old French restaurant and bistro in the old town — Wim Wenders writes of 'the Thonet Viennese Coffeehouse chairs and tables', mirrors and wood-panelled walls; the Andreasstadel house is in Stadtamhof.

The design choice, on Untere Bachgasse, with the bistro downstairs for the night-before dinner and three houses in three different moods — the Andreasstadel house puts you across the bridge in Stadtamhof. No rating is published, so judge it on the rooms, not a star count.

Hotel Kaiserhof am Dom

'Directly opposite the mighty twin towers of the Regensburg Cathedral', in the city centre.

Quiet, family-run and central at a modest rate, with no spa and no river view — the cathedral across the lane is the amenity. For a one-night stop before a 9:00 pm all-aboard, that's enough.

Altstadthotel Arch

Family-owned old-town hotel on Haidplatz 4.

On the square that hosts the Lucrezia Christmas market, at a gentler old-town rate. Our one sentence about it comes from a third-party guide, not the hotel, so treat the card as a lead and read the current listing before you book.