Hi forum friends! We are traveling from Switzerland to Frankfurt day before we leave back to USA in June. I’m seeking advice on a nice city/place to visit within an hour train ride of Frankfurt airport on our last day in Europe. Our flight leaves at 0930 next day. We wouldn’t arrive til afternoon day before so a place we could explore for half a day and maybe get a nice German dinner. Thanks for your advice in advance!
Steve.
Mainz is a very nice place for half a day and overnight. There's a large tangle of auto-free streets that make exploring the old town and the shopping zone a simple matter.
http://www.neumainzer.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Besuch-auf-dem-Mainzer-Wochenmarkt.jpg
http://www.sip2014.mainz.julius-kuehn.de/images/marktplatz.jpg
http://www.master.economics.uni-mainz.de/augustinerstrasse-abends.jpg
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8517/8466997951_748e0b61f0_b.jpg
Mainz' Dom is a fine example of Romanesque: http://georg-dahlhoff.de/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/200509184372-mzmitte.jpg
Other things to do in Mainz: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g187393-Activities-Mainz_Rhineland_Palatinate.html
Lots of restaurants, many of them German:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g187393-Mainz_Rhineland_Palatinate.html
The next morning, catch a direct train into FRA airport. On a typical day the 6 am train takes 20 minutes, with 4 more direct trains between 6 and 7 am.
Have you considered exploring Frankfurt? The city has so much to offer. What kind of interests do you have? When in June will you be here? There are a lot of festivals happening in June
Heidelberg
It might be better to buy an open-jaw air ticket next time, to save the travel back to Frankfurt. But there are plenty of nice visits. You could consider the Fachwerkstrasse towns (maybe Idstein), or Aschaffenberg and its castle/chateau, or the restored Roman fort at Saalburg. Some people do a rushed Middle Rhine visit from Frankfurt, but you're arriving too late in the day, I think.
Frankfurt Höchst is part of the Fachwerkstrasse. It also has one of the oldest churches in Germany. Some day, Rick will visit and add information about this neighborhood of Frankfurt to his book, instead of wasting pages about the RLD.
FWIW, Mercer's '2018 Quality of Living' ranking puts Frankfurt as #7 in the world.
https://mobilityexchange.mercer.com/portals/0/Images/infographics/2018QOL_Top10Bottom10.png?ver=2018-03-16-155209-420
&
https://mobilityexchange.mercer.com/Insights/quality-of-living-rankings
Ms. Jo, haven’t considered Frankfurt itself. Does the city have any good Biergartens comparable to Munich? We will be there on the afternoon of Jun 20. A festival would be great. I was there 3 years ago, same situation and visited Heidelberg which was great but would like to explore a different city this time. Thanks all for the suggestions keep them coming. My focus is for a smaller town with a cool old town like Heidelberg, but if there’s a festival close by that would definitely be something to see.
Steve.
Sadly no festivals until 27 June.
Instead of beer gardens, we have applewine gardens. My favorite is Dauth-Schneider in Sachsenhausen. If you are here on a Thur. or Sat. the Farmers Market on the Konstablerwache is a favorite for Frankfurters to gather, drink local wine from the Rhine, eat local cheeses, brats, etc. on long fest tables. On Friday the same thing happens next to the Stock Exchange at their Farmers' Market. The Klein Markt Halle has a popular wine bar and on Sat. a grill party at the back end.
Since you only have an afternoon and evening, a stroll along the Main is always popular and a pleasant way to end the evening, perhaps a visit to a few of the top sites in Frankfurt? What are your interests?
It will be light out until about 22:30.
Google Fulda its a beautiful town and can be reached by train.
