Frankfurt to Amsterdam 10 days

What is in Dusseldorf? You should put Heidelberg and Wurzburg and Rothenburg ob de Tauber on the list.

And small villages along the Rhine such as Bacharach and St. Goar. Also small villages on the Mosel River like Cochem and Beilstein. Don't understand Dusseldorf either. So many better choices.

For 10 Days Frankfurt to Amsterdam, Organize it like this:

Frankfurt - 3 Days

Heidelberg - 2 Days

Cologne - 2 days

Amsterdam - 3 Days

Dusseldorf has a botanical garden, several modern art museums, one older art museum, and a vibrant night life/beer hall culture. They might even be able to synchronize with the monthly Fish Market (sausage and beer festival) on the riverside. I personally prefer Cologne, but to each his taste. I would also like to see the Schwebebahn in Wuppertal.

I would allocate more time to Cologne than Frankfurt. You might also be interested in Aachen or Brussels, which are well-connected. There are some Fachwerkstrasse towns accessible from Frankfurt. Don't stint on time in Amsterdam, as it is rich with sights, and has easy train daytrips to four or five superb smaller cities, including very famous Delft.

Edit: I agree that summer is a great time to visit the Middle Rhine, which is easy from Frankfurt. Use the Search Box top center on "Middle Rhine" to read other posts about that visit. Note that Cologne is NOT on the Middle Rhine and does not have a scenic river cruise, just local commercial piers and housing developments on the river. (I HAVE been on the local Cologne boat ride, and it is not an important boat ride!)

Depends a lot of your likes. Do you want to see cities?
You are arriving on a Thursday. There will be weekend wine festivals at various towns along the Rhine and Mosel rivers. I see one in Hatzenport on the Mosel July 26 and 27. Coincidentally, that is where you can also get a weekend bus to visit Burg Eltz.
https://www.mosellandtouristik.de/en/wine-cuisine/wine-events/wine-festivals/ev/20190726/Wein-und-Heimatfest-Hatzenport_Hatzenport/deskline.html

https://burg-eltz.de/en/

I am also sure you will want to take a cruise on the Rhine river through the famous gorge. You could use that as part of your journey down the Rhine.
https://www.kdrhine.com/

After the week end, head to Cologne for a couple of days. Then it will be time to head to Amsterdam.

There are a ton of interesting small towns all around Frankfurt that you might want to visit and only Berlin has more museums than Frankfurt does.
My list of towns to visit that are all within a 1 hour train ride from Frankfurt: Limburg, Marburg, Idstein, Gelnhausen, Eltville and Eberbach Monastery, Bad Homburg (with the Saalburg Roman Fort and Hessen Park Open Air Museum), Mainz, Kronberg, Seligenstadt and rather than the completely over-touristed Rothenburg that is 3 hours from Frankfurt you could visit Büdingen which is only 1 hour away and all original.
Heidelberg is a bit over one hour as is Worms, Speyer or Friedberg.
The Rhein gorges is easy to reach by train if you want to go see castles.

Hi,

I would suggest spending some days in the greater Frankfurt area, then head off to Düsseldorf am Rhein. One of Germany's greatest lyric poets is a Düsseldorfer, Heinrich Heine, whose house/museum you can see there, plus a Documentation Center too. More history with the statues of Bismarck and William I en route to the Altstadt.

The ICE train Frankfurt to Amsterdam stops in Düsseldorf.

Not impressed with your plans.

Cologne --the famous cathedral is about the only thing worth visiting, can do that in half a day.

Dusseldorf- seriously????

Frankfurt has some things to see, but is not near the top of my list in Germany.

Heidelberg, yes, but that is another day trip.

A cruise past the Loreli to Rudesheim is an option.

Trier is interesting.

The Mosel Valley is beautiful.

geogrifith, you might want to do a bit more sightseeing in some of these cities, including Frankfurt. Having read many of your posts, it is clear that you really do not know very much about Frankfurt nor Cologne.
Cologne has many worthy sites besides the cathedral. For those into Roman history, this was a huge Roman city. Museums are plentiful, there is a fun pub quarter, the Belgian quarter is beautiful, great parks, one of the cooler shopping zones.

This forum is about providing your opinion. My opinion is based on extensive travel.

I realize that some may disagree with my views. For example the significance of touring Frankfurt and Cologne.

In my view, Cologne is worthy of visiting, primarily to see the amazing Cathedral.

Take a look at TripAdvisor and what it recommends in that city.https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g187371-Activities-Cologne_North_Rhine_Westphalia.html

Frankly, you don't find anywhere near as much to see as you would find in other places in Germany. Others may disagree and be able to name other things to do.

I realize that Cologne was a Roman settlement, but Roman settlements area are all over the Rhineland and southern Germany.

Frankfurt, is another place that I have commented on. Others have pointed out many items of interest. I personally was able to visit some of those places, however, I would not advise spending significant time in Frankfurt over other places in Germany.

Others may disagree, that is fine.

Among the other attractions of Cologne are many excellent museums, among them Greek-Roman, Applied Arts (including important lime/linden wood sculptures), Kolumba, modern art, Picasso, older art, medieval art, and Ethnography. There’s an unusual Kathe Kollwitz museum. There’s a lovely river walk, with bridge pathways and parks, and a botanical garden. There’s a very unusual underground Roman structure, with associated tunnels. There’s even a medieval Mikveh underground you can visit. Archaeological digs can be viewed from beside the excavations. Kolsch beer (served in 0.2 liter glasses) can only be brewed here.

Cologne is an exceptionally walkable city, with 85% of my list easily walkable from the HBF.

Don’t miss the Cathedral treasury, the only part you have to pay for in the Cathedral. And Gerhard Richter’s geometric stained glass windows.

@ pulps....How much are you willing to deviate time-wise from a more or less straight line from Frankfurt to Amsterdam? If you are willing to deviate a bit, back track, which I have no problem doing depending on how desperate i want to get to a specific site, I would suggest small places too,

These are Bad Nauheim, Friedberg/Hessen, Marburg (a bit out of the way but historically and culturally pertaining to German history well worth your time), Wetzlar, aside from the big cities of Düsseldorf, Heidelberg, and Frankfurt.

In particular, if you want to see museums pertaining to Germany's greatest poet, I suggest Wetzlar and Frankfurt.

On the other hand, you could revise the itinerary, skip all of this and focus north of Düsseldorf towards Dortmund.

See the towns of Soest/Westf...the oldest town in Westphalia, Münster/Westf, Warendorf, Warburg, even Detmold, if you're really into the history. Crossing over to Holland from Duisburg is convenient since you would be in the general area. The trunk lines change in Hamm Hbf.

The Trip Advisor lists are so poorly done. The one for Frankfurt is almost worthless, so not sure why Cologne would be any different. Attractions and tours get listed usually if they are paying to be listed. The list for Frankfurt lists all kinds of attractions and tours that are not even in Frankfurt or don't even exist!

Opinions are just opinions, but it is nice to base them on something. For example, for me, Munich is just ok. It has pretty buildings and churches, most of them re-built, lots of museums, and nice scenery near-by, but it just does not do anything for me. Perhaps it is their attitude, though it may be their history, but it is one of my least favorite cities to visit in Germany.

So, I have given the OP some suggestions about Frankfurt that match their interests and believe that they will find what they are looking for here.

"...though it may be their history." One can make a historical argument for that view. The extremes of German history began in Munich...Communism and Nazism. After the war in 1919 Munich was the hot bed of the radical left and the radical right. What they had in common was their dead set opposition to democracy.

Fred, we are very willing to deviate from the straight line. Though I do get a thrill out of a perfectly efficient open jaw trip with no backtracking...I do make exceptions :) Thanks for your suggestions, I didn't know much about any of the places you mentioned and will look into them.

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions and spirited discussions. My wife and I are so grateful for your input. This message board has enriched our travels in the past and I am certain that this thread will lead us to new adventures we hadn't previously considered. And I do see that there are other places we might spend our time than Dusseldorf :)

Thanks again!

Hi,

You're very welcome.

If you're planning on doing a day trip (deviating?) from Frankfurt to the Middle Rhine area, then I would heartily recommend choosing one or two depending on the factor these places, Koblenz, Bad Ems, Rüdesheim, Bacharach, or Kaub am Rhein, not only to take in the view, etc but also to be in historically connected places.

The view from the historical monument, Niederwald Denkmal, all spruced up, refurbished now is well worth seeing. I've been up there twice. The last time in 2014 the monument was all covered up for cleaning , etc, The first time was in 1977, my main purpose in going to Rüdesheim then.

Likewise with Koblenz where you see the Rhine and the Mosel flow together and Deutsches Eck (corner) up on the Prussian fortress, Festung Ehrenbreitstein...great aerial view. Take the S-Bahn from the main station, Koblenz Hbf to reach Ehrenbreitstein.