We will be arriving in Frankfurt by train from Paris and will be departing by air back to the US in early December. This will be our first time in Germany. How many days should I plan to stay in Frankfurt? I plan on taking a walking tour of Frankfurt and just roaming around 1 day. Any suggestions for day trips/tours that we can take to see something other than Frankfurt this time of year, but are easy using Frankfurt as a base?
Thank you in advance!
Early December will be Christmas Market season all over Germany.
I should admit that 30 minutes of Christmas Market a year is enough for me! (Although I like Glühwein.) While I like visiting the major cities of Europe, Frankfurt is not one of my favorites. (I've been there twice, counting a one-week business trip.) I don't think it pairs particularly well with Paris. Did you select it mainly as Germany's busiest airport?
I'd be inclined to fly to Cologne, which is also a big city, but a more walkable one, which is good for at least three days. And Dusseldorf, Monschau, and Wuppertal are each good for a day out from Cologne.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/germany/can-i-see-enough-of-cologne
To respond directly to your question: I've pasted a link below to a Trip Report that mentions several of the places around Frankfurt that we went to with a car (from a suburb, Kronborg. But you can get everywhere in Germany by train. It's harder to get to multiple places in one day with trains, however.) You have to page down to my subheading Fachwerkstrasse. Note that I mean to include places like Aschaffenberg, which are not right next to Frankfurt.
Like Cologne, Mainz is a very walkable city with numerous museums. Much of central Mainz has been given over to pedestrians - the tangle of streets in pink on this map are car-free walking zones:
https://www.orangesmile.com/common/img_city_maps/mainz-map-2.jpg
Museums: https://www.mainz-tourismus.com/en/explore-enjoy/living-culture/museums/
FRA airport > Mainz is a direct 20-25-minute ride by local train from the FRA airport terminal. As the train map below shows, Mainz lies just west of FRA ("Flug." on the map) with Frankfurt just to the east:
https://www.seat61.com/images/rhine-train-map.jpg
Mainz can thus be a good daytrip destination from Frankfurt - or it can serve as an alternative base town near FRA for you. The map also shows the location of Cologne ("Köln" on the map.)
Rüdesheim (not on map but also served by train,) Koblenz, Cologne, and Mainz have Christmas markets worth visiting.
After touring Frankfurt for a couple of days, you may want to consider taking an hour long train from Frankfurt to Wurzburg or Heidelberg to see a place more historic and charming than Frankfurt. That is my plan in 3 weeks.
Towns for day-trips out of Frankfurt, all within 1 hour by train: Mainz, Wiesbaden, Marburg, Limburg, Büdingen, Gelnhausen, Seligenstadt, Idstein, Bad Homburg.
Mainz, Wiesbaden, Marburg, Seligenstadt & Limburg will have their markets on every day. Bad Homburg just on the weekends. Büdigen & Idstein on only 1 weekend during Advent.
For those who don't think Frankfurt is historic or old, you need to re-visit this city. It is one of the oldest and most historic cities in Germany. There are plenty of sites to keep you busy here and if the weather is rainy, there are dozens of museums.
Wikipedia has a good description of Frankfurt, including things to do and see.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt
The wikipedia article also mentions:
Timber framed old towns
Around the city center of Frankfurt are several former independent villages, now part of the city, with timber framed centres and even whole old towns like Höchst, Seckbach, Niederursel and Bergen-Enkheim. Overall there are around 14.500 buildings in Frankfurt built before 1919 and around 3.000 of them are timber framed houses.
The small towns on the Rhine are not especially worth visiting in DEC, their displays will be most local and small. But Koblenz has a good Christmas market and the Winter Garden at the Fortress Ehrenbreitstein is not to be missed. Frankfurt, Mainz, and Heidelburg are all good, as is Wurzburg. But you may want to take a quick train ride to Wiesbaden.
Trier is the oldest city in Germany, worth a day trip. Heidelberg of course. Rudesheim to do a short Rhine cruise.
Tim, thanks for the suggestions. I chose Frankfurt as it had the specific flight back to US that I wanted. I am actually spending bulk of time in Spain, but decided to make a few side trips in France and Germany on the way to Frankfurt for departure. I appreciate the suggestions.
Russ, Thank you. I will definitely look at Mainz and Cologne as possible home bases.
Alohalover, thanks for the suggestions. Hope you enjoy your trip!
Ms. Jo, thanks for the suggestions! Looks like some good alternatives in that list!
KGC, we are definitely going to look at Mainz, Heidelburg and Wurzburg.
Geovagriffith, Rudesheim looks good, thanks!
Not being a museum person, to me, a day in Frankfurt is sufficient. Ms. Jo mentioned a number of towns worthy of visiting.
Whenever I visit any town or city in Germany I find myself asking if the old buildings are really old, or simply old looking since so much of the country was destroyed during the war.
Rudesheim in DEC is the site of a market, mostly cheaper foreign stuff, and a lot of tourists. It's a small town; you can walk it in a couple hours. I've been there, last time just before Christmas in 2023, and wouldn't go back for the market. The other main attractions (when the boats are not running, like in DEC) are Asbach (the local brandy), and the Niederwalddenkmal, which is nice on a clear day.
I spend 4 nights / 3-1/2 days in Frankfurt am Main. I have a talent for visiting underappreciated museums. Check google maps and guidebooks: There is the Städel Museum (old paintings), a history museum that had some English labels (I would start on the second floor with the old coins and then look at the first floor as time allows); a Jewish museum with two branches; an archaeology museum with few English descriptions but you can figure out the name of what you are looking at or the place it was found and then look it up later; I went to a botanic garden tourists usually skip.... I did the Frankfort on Foot walking tour. The tour might have lasted 3-1/2 hours with a bathroom break. This tour or a similar tour would be good. I took a day trip to Schloss Johannisberg in Aschaffenburg. Frankfurt has historic landmarks if you know where to look if you don't do a guided tour. The suggested daytrips others suggested above could be good. You will not be lacking for sights, landmarks, day trips, and so on.
