Frankfurt to Berlin

I would go by train. Little bit over 4 hours with one change. You go from Frankfurt Flughafen (Airport) to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station) where you change and arrive to Berlin Hauptbahnhof (not to Berlin airport as you mistakingly stated).

"...it seems that the high speed train from Frankfurt takes about 4 hours to Berlin airport. From the airport, we'd still have to get back to the Mitte..."

I don't see why you want to go the Berlin airport first. Just use the DB itinerary page to find your fastest routing to whatever your Mitte location is.

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Since the fare to Berlin will be a fairly expensive one, you may want to look into the cost of a multi-day German Rail flexi pass (twin pass, 2nd class is reasonably priced) providing you have other journeys to make in Germany or to the destinations covered by the GRP outside Germany:

http://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/prices/germany/german-rail-pass-flexi.shtml

I guess I would check the time and price to Berlin on a thru connection.

It seems to me that taking the train would be preferable because we have to go through customs in Frankfurt, anyway, and would have to recheck our luggage ($$s) or deal with the difference in European budget airlines' carryon rules.

If you had a thru ticket, your luggage would be transferred automatically to Berlin, where you actually clear "customs". You do have to pass through immigration at Frankfurt.

I actually did this from Duesseldorf this summer in order to get the right flight routing for my return. In order to get a good price, I had to buy the D'dorf-Berlin train tickets the day they went on sale 3 months in advance. I left a 3 1/2 hour cushion from flight arrival to train departure in case there was a flight delay. Since the price for 2 was 49 euro, and a walk up price would have been 220 euro, I took the chance. As it was, we landed on time and had to cool our heels in the airport for a couple of hours waiting for our train.

"I left a 3 1/2 hour cushion from flight arrival to train departure in case there was a flight delay."

That's not a bad strategy for getting a saver fare ticket. It would have worked on 2 of my last 3 transatlantic flights, all of which had substantial delays. Not on the third however. If the saver fare price is just too good to ignore, it's maybe best to spend night one in Frankfurt and get the saver fare for the following morning. Always nice to get freshened up and relax on Day 1 after a long flight anyway... maybe better than waiting around, then taking another long journey after that wait.

The general rule-of-thumb has always been if it takes 6 hours by train, it's as fast as flying, when you take into account time to and from airports, check-in time, security, waiting to board, finding ground transportation, but in this case, you'll already be at the airport so a lot of that time doesn't happen. If you book the entire flight to Berlin, your luggage will be checked through and you won't have to go through customs until Berlin (but customs, today, is mostly a formality. Pick the line that says "nothing to declare and walk out.). Regardless, you will have to go through immigration in Frankfurt.

What are the prices. You probably can't use a rail Saver Fare because of the uncertainty about arrival time in Frankfurt, so look at full rail fare of 110€ to 125€ per person. A lot of time the air fare for an additional leg is negligible.

But why do you plan on flying to Frankfurt and not directly to Berlin? Frequent flyer miles?

"But why do you plan on flying to Frankfurt and not directly to Berlin? Frequent flyer miles?"

There's a nonstop flight to Frankfurt from Seattle, so that gets most of the trip over in one leg. If we are allowed to check our luggage all the way through to Berlin, though, that changes things. Going through security again is not big deal.

You should be able to book a flight all the way from Seattle to Berlin with the change in Frankfurt. That way you can check your luggage through and won't have to worry about it in Frankfurt. With luck, if your flights are Lufthansa/United, your change in Frankfurt will be in the same concourse and you won't even have to go through security.

If you buy your train tickets ahead of time, they would only cost 29€ p.p. Flights will certainly cost more than that.

Personally, if I just got off a long trans-Atlantic flight, the last thing I would want to do is sit around an airport for 2-3 hours waiting for a flight or a train. Then to sit in a train for another 4 hours sounds almost masochistic. You will be so exhausted the next day, it will be tough to enjoy doing anything.
Stay overnight in Frankfurt, have a good meal, sightsee a bit by walking around in the sunshine, have a restful nights sleep and head off to Berlin early the next day. That way you can buy the cheap train tickets and be rested at the same time.

Actually, I think we are going to do exactly as Ms. Jo recommends. My husband would like to connect with a cousin that we missed on our last trip to Germany, so we will now probably stay in the Frankfurt area for a couple of days before we head out (by train!) to Berlin. Thanks to everyone for all the great information.

We were just in Germany in October. We flew into Munich, then went to Frankfurt, and then Berlin (we were there to see several concerts for our favorite band). We took the train in between each city, and it was extremely convenient, comfortable and economical.

The trip from Frankfurt to Berlin took just under 4 hours on the train. As someone mentioned, if you get directly on the DB website, you can map out your route to the station that is closest to your destination (which may not be the main train station). You can also buy your ticket directly on their website. If you are set on the time you want to travel, in addition to buying the ticket, you should make a seat reservation as well. While not necessary, if you are traveling at a more peak hour when the trains tend to be more crowded, it is good to have a reserved seat.

In my opinion, the train is just much more comfortable than a plane. The seats are more spacious, there are outlets at each seat that allow you to plug in your devices, and you can freely walk around.