Day Trips from Frankfurt

Day-trips: - Wiesbaden, Mainz, Rheingau (tuscany of Germany)- Palatinate mountains, Dürkheim, Deidesheim- Lahn river valley, Limburg, Marburg, Wetzlar- Rhine river valley, Koblenz, St. Goar, Bacharach, Bingen- Würzburg and Wertheim village outlet shopping center- Heidelberg and the Neckar river valley- Hessenpark, Bad Homburg (last German empress's castle), Saalburg roman border castleOvernighters: Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Stuttgart, Paris, Hamburg, Brussels, Luxembourg, Amsterdam, Nuremberg, Rothenburg (all within a 4hrs train or car ride radius)

I second the recommendation for Wurzburg, about 1 hour by train. Beautiful, walkable city right on the Main River. And Wertheim is lovely, although I have been very disappointed in the outlet village so far. Since we have a condo in Wurzburg, I may try it again.

Marburg (maybe 2 hours, possibly less) is one of my favorite cities with a great castle/museum and a beautiful old town section. If you are a wine drinker, you must try the Wein Ladl at the top of the street above the fountain in the old town

Andreas' suggestion regarding Bad Homburg and thence to the Saalburg and/or Hessenpark is a great one. It's a short S-Bahn trip to Bad Homburg, where you can catch the number 5 bus in the middle of town and travel in a matter of minutes up (your ears will pop)the road to the old Roman fortress and a system of trails into the beautiful forest of beech, chestnut, oak and maple trees. If you like to walk, it's not far from the Saalburg to the Hessenpark, and you can get back to Frankfurt via one bus ride and two short train rides. The woods are straight out of the best fairy tales.

Wow! Lots of great suggestions. Thanks. I was thinking of Vienna for an overnight, but I think it may be too far. I ride and breed dressage horses, so I'd love to go to the Spanish Riding School. I might have to make it a two nighter for Vienna. As far as a day trip, there is just too much to choose from!

Dawn, Germany's largest Trakehner horses ranch is in Kronberg, about 20mins by S-Bahn from downtown Frankfurt on the foot the Taunus mountains. It's called the Trakehner Gestüt Panker. You may want to copy the URL and open it thru Babelfish as I can't find an English language site. But the pictures speaks for themselves, too. Personally I have to clue about horses other than... I won't tell, but you know beef or pork are not the only kind of meats Germans eat. Stuten means female horses, Hengst is a male horse, Fohlen is a baby horse, Gestüt is the entire ranch (in case you want to click yourself thru the website).Air Berlin offer low cost flights from Frankfurt to Vienna starting at €29 one-way. Flight time is about an hour, so it would be doable, too. But you'd miss on some of the other beautiful sights around Frankfurt then.

Thank you Andreas for all of your great advice! I'm going to see if I can find out if there are any Equestrian Events going on while I'm there. I breed Oldenburgs, but I don't see anything on their Calendar at that time. Anyway, thanks again to all for your very helpful information.

Dawn, this is the website of Oldenburger horses in Germany: Oldenburger Pferde. Their seat is in the horse breeding area of Germany, the plains of Lower Saxony near Osnabrück. You can fly from Frankfurt to Münster-Osnabrück airport or take the train directly to Vechta. But it's about a 5 1/2 hours train ride to there.

Hi Dawn, Once, while on business in Frankfurt, I took a room for the weekend at historic/ scenic Hotel Krone in Assmannshausen on the Rhein. It was October, the weather was fine and I enjoyed sleeping in, hiking and wine drinking. There's just no better place for it... Gute Reise! P.