Travel to airport from Franfurt

I would stay in Bacharach the night before your flight because your flight is at 1:30 p.m. Recently, our flight was early a.m.--had to stay in Frankfurt (ugh). Of course, leave plenty of time to get there. Also, it will be less expensive in Bacharach. Are you travelling by train or car? Have fun!

Kathleen,
I don't know from experience yet, but i'm planning a similar strategy. Will be flying out of Frankfurt next May and planning to spend an extra night in Bacharach as opposed to going to Frankfurt. Get a little extra time in the Rhine area instead of wasting an evening near the airport.
If i'm not mistaken it's maybe 1 1/2 hours or so from Bacharach to Frankfurt (via Mainz) and there seems to be a number of trains running those routes.

There are trains every hour on the 1/2 hour - 8:30, 9:30, etc and most of them connect in Mainz arriving at the airport in 1-1/2 hours. The 9:30 train connects in Bingen and only takes 1 hour. The fares range from E15-18.

Thank You all for the help.We are travelling by train for just about everything as my husband is concerned we will get lost if we drive. What on earth is the "Mainz"? I'm a neophyte as far travelling goes and I need most info spelled out for me in detail. sorry about that. Thanks again. Kathleen

Mainz is a city, the capital, I believe, of Rheinland-Pfalz. It is about a half hour from the Frankfurt airport on the way in from Bacharach and a major railroad hub. Even if you don't change trains there, you will go through Mainz.

Thank You. Will it only take 1 1/2 hours to get to Frankfurt Airport by train even if we have to change trains? Kathleen

You really need to get familiar with the German Rail (Bahn) website's schedule page, http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en. Put in "Bacharach" and
"Flughafen Terminal 1, Frankfurt am Main" for destinations and your date and time. Use European notation dd.mm.yy and 24 hr time. Note you can put in an arrival time, like 10:30, giving you 3 hours. Use "local" for means of transport.

I found a 2 hour connection, leaving Bacharach at 8:31 on a Regional Bahn (RB) train, having a half hour to change trains (cross platform) in Mainz to an S-bahn, and arriving at the Regional Bahnhof at 10:29.

There are two stations at FRA. The Regional Bahnhof is underground, across the street from Terminal 1. You come up the escalators from the station right into the hall of Terminal 1.

Since the 14th is a Sunday, if you use the local connection I mentioned, both of you can go from Bacharach to FRA using one €33 Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket.

If you do a standard search, you might find faster (1.5 hr) connections, but they come into the more distant Fernbahnhof and the fare will be higher.

Ops, no need for the Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket if there are only two of you since the regional fare from Bacharach to FRA is only €9,50 each.

Note that the Bacharach station is unmanned, so you will have to figure out the ticket machine in the station lobby.

Whether you use local or express connections, the trains leave Bacharach at 8:31 and 9:31. The 8:31 also connects to an Intercity (IC) train in Mainz, which gets into the FRA Fernbahnhof at 9:59, earlier than you probably need, and costs €15 per person. The 9:31 connects to an ICE that gets to the airport at 10:59 and costs €18 per person.

Thank You all so very much. You have been a big help. my husband wants to stay in bachrach one more day so now we can. Kathleen

If for any reason you decide you'd prefer to stay in Frankfurt, I have a hotel suggestion. Last week we stayed at the Movenpick hotel in the commercial fair area of Frankfurt. It's a 5 euro cab ride from the main train station, or a very short tram ride. You can get the tram + S-bahn train to the airport. I found this one on Priceline, choosing 4 star Frankfurt West area, for $58 per room. I've seen people on biddingfortravel.com get this hotel for $50. It's very sleek, modern and clean. One caution, though: apparently there's a huge book fair in Frankfurt around 10/10, so rooms may be tough to get, depending on when the fair ends.

Lee,
Can you advise where you got that regional fare figure of 9.50? Everything i'd seen on the bahn.de site was 17 Euro or so I believe a piece. Anything to save a few dollars!
I know there is the Hessen ticket that i assume would get you from Mainz to airport but it was 29 Euro.

Notice that the €17 fare shown on Bahn.de includes a leg on a Eurocity express train (EC). They cost more than regional trains. The Bahn does not sell regional only tickets when they are are on trains run by a local Verkehrsverbund, in this case the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund, RMV. You can find the lower regional fare at www.rmv.de.

Note that the Bacharach station is unmanned. Last time I was there, 2004, the only ticket machine in the station was a local (Nahverkehr) ticket machine. I think it would be possible to buy tickets from that machine for a trip that included the EC (you would have to press a button for an "IC/EC Zuschlag" (supplement), but normally the machine would just sell you a regional ticket for €9,50.

Bacharach is not actually in the RMV, but you can buy tickets from Bacharach to FRA because Bacharach is in an area shared by RMV and Rhein-Nahe-Nahverkehr in Rheinland-Pfalz. This area is called an Übergangstarifgebiet (overlap, or transition, fare area). However, St. Goar is totally outside of a any RMV ticketing area, so you can buy tickets from Bahn.de for regional trains from St. Goar to FRA.