In September, my son will be taking some driving lessons for a day in Hockenheim. We will fly into Frankfurt. I was wondering the best place to stay the night before? Frankfurt, Mannheim or Heidelberg? Just looking for a decent hotel, nothing crazy in price
Getting from Frankfurt to Hockenheim , I assume I’ll need to rent a car
No, just take the train to Hockenheim. It's not far from FRA airport's "Fernbahnhof" rail station (one of two airport rail stations.) One train to Mannheim, change there for the S-Bahn train (20 minutes further) and you're in Hockenheim. You can find Hockenheim hotels at booking.com and similar websites. Looks like there's one right where your son will have his lessons.
Russ is right; take the train to Hockenheim. Stay there, as you're going to want to be there early in the morning for the day on the track. You should also plan on a day at the Porsche Museum, and possibly another at MBZ in Stuttgart. There's a lot of road construction between FRA and Hockenheim (I drove most of that just yesterday); the train will be just as fast as driving.
