Layover in Frankfurt

Once your flight lands, you should be emerging into the main part of the airport with-in about 30 min. All you have to do is go through Passport control. For your return flight, you should plan on being back at the airport and going through security about 1.5 hours before your flight.

Information about training into Frankfurt from the airport:
It is quite fast, with a train only taking 11 min. (3 stops from the airport) to the Main Train Station - Hauptbahnhof, or a few minutes more (5 stops from the airport) if you would like to get off at the Hauptwache or the next stop Konstablerwache (6 stops from the airport). There is usually a train every 15 min. and they run from very early in the morning (04:15) til quite late at night.

How to find the train station in this huge airport? You should follow the signs for Regional Trains or S-Bahn. (look for the big green S) This station is under Terminal 1 by Arrival Hall B-1, and the signs will be in English. Just take the escalator downstairs and for Frankfurt, go to track #1. For Mainz or Wiesbaden, you would go to track #3. This is where the S-bahns 8 and 9 normally stop. There is also an RMV ticket machine here. Regional trains may also stop here and the ones that are on track #2 are usually going to stop at the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof. You can ride these too with your ticket.

If you land at Terminal 2, simply take the Sky Train, a fun little monorail over to Terminal 1. It should only take about 5-6 minutes to go from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 and then down to the Regional Train station.

Cost - a single ticket, one way (einzel fahrt) costs 4.35 €. This ticket will take you into Frankfurt city center by train, and is also valid to get to your final destination by tram, bus, S-bahn or U-bahn, as long as you keep traveling without a break. An all day ticket (Ganz Tag) for one person that includes travel to and from the airport as well as all public transportation in the city, is 8.50 euro. Going to Mainz or Wiesbaden will cost the same amount. This is a better deal than buying 2 one-way tickets.

A group day ticket, called an "All Day Collective Ticket" on the ticket machine (gruppen karte) costs 15.00 euro. This ticket is good for up to 5 people and is valid all day long, getting to and from the airport and on all forms of transportation in Frankfurt. A good choice for 2 or more people up to 5. These are NOT 24 hour tickets, they are only good for the day of purchase until the trains, etc. stop running for the day, usually around 1 a.m. Going to Mainz or Wiesbaden from the airport costs the same amount as going to Frankfurt.

The RMV and DB share ticket machines and they are all touch screens. They switch into English and are fairly user friendly. The machines take coins, 5 and 10 euro bills for single tickets and if you are getting a group ticket it will take a 20 euro bill. It will NOT take a 50 euro bill. Change will be in coins.

RMV machines do not take American credit cards for local travel, but the DB does.

In Frankfurt you do not need to validate your ticket unlike some other cities in Germany. It is all on the honor system. If you do not have a ticket though, you will be fined 40 euro immediately.

There is a DB Travel Center located right next to the escalators for the Regional Train Station. They can print your tickets for you (this will cost you 2 euro), take credit cards for payments and give you information about schedules and so on.

If you need to store your luggage at the airport, cost per bag will be 7 euro for 3-24 hours. The better deal is to bring your carry-on into the city and store it in the lockers located along track 23 in the main train station. Cost is between 3-5 euro and the 5 euro lockers are big enough for about 4 carry-on back-packs or bags.

What to see in Frankfurt:
- The Roemer and the Roemerplatz, City Hall since 1405 and old town square
- Book Burning Memorial, site of the Nazi book burning
- Alte Nikolai Church, Gothic church built in 1290
- House Wertheim, the inner city's only original half-timbered house left at the end of WWII
- Eisener Steg, pedestrian bridge of the Main River, offering a great view of the skyline and the many museums lining the riverbanks, covered with "locks of love".
- St Bartholomew, better known as the Kaiserdom, Imperial Church, site for elections and coronations of the Holy Roman Emperor for centuries, climb to the top of the steeple
- Joerg Ratgeb's wall paintings in the Karmeliter Kloster (Carmelite Cloister), the largest religious wall paintings north of the Alps, painted in the early 1500's (this is located in the city archives next to the Archeology museum.
-Stumble Stones (Stolper Steine), a unique way of commemorating the many victims who lost their lives under the Nazi regime (there are over 45,000 of these now, mainly in Germany, but in a few other countries
- Jewish Holocaust Memorial Wall, a very personal memorial that the city of Frankfurt has created, to honor the memory of the 12,000 Frankfurt Jewish Citizens who lost their lives during the Holocaust, including Anne, Margot and Edith Frank
- Medieval Jewish Cemetery, one of the oldest and largest Jewish cemeteries in Germany, begun in 1272
- Jewish Ghetto Wall, (Staufen Mauer) once part of the city's defensive walls built in 1180, it later became one of the walls that surrounded the Jewish Ghetto begun in 1462
- Klein Markt Halle (little market hall), this is a wonderful produce hall filled with fruits, vegetables, chocolates, pastries, cheeses, breads, meats, fish, and delicacies from around the world (closed on Sundays and holidays)
- Hauptwache, historic Frankfurt landmark
- The Bull and the Bear at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange
- The Thurn and Taxis Palace, reconstructed, but a lovely example of 18th Century Baroque architecture
- Eschenheimer Turm, an original guard tower from the city's outer defensive wall, built in 1425
- Alte Oper, one of Europe's classic opera houses, once known as the most beautiful ruin in Germany, built in 1880
- The Goethe House, where Frankfurts' favorite son was born
- Deutsche Ordens Church (Teutonic Order of Knights) built in 1309
- Paulskirche, the location of Germany's very first democratically elected parliment in 1848
- Main Tower, cost is 6.50 € for the best views in Frankfurt
- Farmers Markets, Thurs. & Sat. at the Konstablerwache, Fri. by the Stock Exchange, Wed. & Sat. in Bornheim on the Berger Str., Tues. & Thur. small market on the Kaiser Str., Tues, Fri. & Sat. in Höchst, Tues. & Fri. Sachsenhausen Sudbahnhof, Fri. Nordend Friedberger Platz.
- Höchst, chock full of half-timbered buildings, one of the oldest churches in Germany, St. Justinus, built in 850, a little schloss, and the Bolongaro Palace
- Palmengarten, huge botanical gardens

Multiple museums to visit for every interest.
http://www.kultur-frankfurt.de/portal/en/Museums/Museumsufer-Ticket/1505/1507/0/0/1441.aspx

My suggestion is to maximize your time and see the most that you can.

Perhaps a walking tour of the major sites:

http://www.frankfurtonfoot.com/

They are in English and highly recommended.

Thanks for the wealth of information. We'll likely avoid museums so we can stay outside all day.

Jo,
I feel bad that you provided such a wealth of information and now we've changed out flights to connect in Stockholm instead of Frankfurt. We leave SFO an hour later than the original flight, connect in Chicago, then Stockholm, and arrive in Edinburgh 7 hours sooner. Shortens our travel time by 8 hours, and adds 7 hours to vacation time. Yippee!! I found a pair of business tickets using miles and changed our flights immediately.

I will however save thread for future. And hope others find your thread helpful also.