Berlin

Do you want suggestions for sightseeing in the city of Frankfurt or neighboring towns, like Heidelberg, Mainz, Büdingen, Wiesbaden, or the Rhine? Are you interested in Celtic or Roman history, Jewish history, Emperors, churches, music, WW2, wine, food and markets, castles, art?

Both cities offer a huge variety of museums, attractions, historical buildings & monuments. Both cities will be having festivals, so the more you tell us about what you would like, the better the suggestions will be. I probably have about 100 posts at least about Frankfurt and the surrounding towns, what to see and do here. Usually the Search function will help out here, so give it a try. If not, fill us in on your details and we can make more suggestions.

There's lot's to do around Frankfurt. Let's name just a few (I'll let Jo from Frankfurt enumerate the highlights of the city itself). Preserved historic towns: Büdingen, Seligenstadt, Miltenberg, Butzbach, Idstein, Wetzlar. Castles: too numerous to list, but there's a particularly high concentration to Frankurt's north and south. Spa towns- Wiesbaden, Königstein im Taunus, Bad Nauheim and Bad Homburg. Scenic hiking: the Taunus mountains to the north, the Odenwald mountains to the south. Open air folk museums- Hessenpark, just to the north of Frankfurt. Zoos: Frankfurt Zoo, Opel Zoo overlooking Frankfurt in the Taunus mountains. Nearby interesting cities: Wiesbaden, Mainz, Darmstadt, Marburg, Heidelberg, Limburg an der Lahn, Mannheim, Speyer. The famous Mittelrhein valley.

PS- Looks like Jo beat me to the punch...

Asking "what are the highlights of Berlin?" is like asking "what are the highlights of New York City?" Everyone will have a different answer, and if you put them all together, you will need weeks.

As Ms. Jo said, what you should see with limited time depends on your interests. Since there's no right or wrong answers, you should look at a guidebook or two (Rick's Germany book has very good Berlin information to get you started). If you have specialized interests, post more about it here, and people can give their recommendations.

Here's my Berlin trip report from a few years ago, if you want to know some of the thing my mother and I focused on: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/berlin-and-dresden-trip-september-2012. Note that where it says things like "My impressions are on This Thread," the links have gone dead; if you are curious, I can try to find the relevant posts.

Thanks for the help! My husband very interested in WWII and I love the castles and medieval times.. Will there be any festivals the end of June recommended? Thanks in advance and will check out Ricks Germany book.

These are the fests happening the last 2 weeks of June in Frankfurt and surrounding towns;
* 14 June Strawberry Festival, Kronberg
* 14 Jun -14 July Höchst Schloss Fest, Frankfurt Höchst
* 19-22 June Magic Bike-Harley Davidson Meet, Assmanshausen & Rüdesheim
* 20-23 June Johannis Nacht Fest, Mainz
* 22 June Sheep Shearing & Market Day, Hessen Park Open Air Museum
* 22 June Dragon Boat Cup, Offenbach
* 25 June-4 July Opera Square Festival, Alte Oper
* 27-29 June International Jazz Festival "Bingen Swings", Bingen
* 28 June Parade of Cultures, Frankfurt
* 28 June SATOURDAY, Frankfurt (many museums are free)
* 29 June Vintage Car Show, Seligenstadt Main Embankment

Here is my trip report about Berlin and some of the places near Frankfurt, Büdingen, Seligenstadt, Marburg, the Rhine, and Worms
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/jo-travels-thru-germany