Self guided Day Trips from Frankfurt

As I am a lover of Jugendstil ( Art Nouveau ) I visited Darmstadt twice when spending a week in Frankfurt in 2019 . This artists colony was undergoing major renovation at that time , but it was thrilling nonetheless . If you decide to go , it is about forty minutes south of Frankfurt on the S-Bahn .https://www.mathildenhoehe-darmstadt.de/en/mathildenhoehe/artists-colony/

What are you interested in and what do you want to see? Art? History? Nature? Culture? Anything else? Also, any reason for the car? Public transport is excellent in Germany.

Where does your tour start?

There is loads to do in and around Frankfurt, and then of course there will be plenty on the way to wherever your tour starts. Where do you have to get to in 5 days?

Is it a Rick Steves tour, or river cruise or ???? The reason I ask is to help you in the direction you are heading and avoid duplication.

There are several of us here who know the area pretty well.

Not self-guided, but we used this company https://www.frankfurtonfoot.com/ Frankfurt on Foot for English speaking tours. In addition to learning about Frankfurt, we also went to a medieval walled town and a Celtic burial site and museum with them. We never felt the need for a car due to the excellent public transportation systems. .

I second Frankfurt on Foot.

Our tour starts in Frankfurt. We will come 5 days early to see the country. We love the small towns and country living. Enjoy touring castles. Our tour takes down the romantic road into Austria and Switzerland comes back up through Nuremberg and Munich back into Frankfurt. It is not a Rick Steve’s tour.

Odenwald - s.e. of Frankfurt - Michelstadt, Amorbach, Miltenberg
Heidelberg and east along the Main River
Lahn valley, Limburg

How about Rothenburg and the Romantic Road, Cochem, Beilstein, the Berg Eltz castle and Wurzburg.

I like the Half-timbered route rather than the over-populated Romantic Road.
https://www.deutsche-fachwerkstrasse.de/en/Homepage.html

Towns for day trips from Frankfurt - Limburg, Marburg, Büdingen, Gelnhausen, Seligenstadt, Idstein, Michelstadt, Worms, Speyer, Mainz, Wiesbaden, Heidelberg, Kronberg.
Visit Hessen Park Open Air Museum and the Saalburg Roman Fort by Bad Homburg.
The Rhein is close by, but a good day visit is Eltville and Eberbach Monastery. There are any number of towns on the Rhein to visit with lots of castles. Cruise from Rüdesheim to St. Goar and train back. Stop at Bacharach or Ober-Wesel.
Leave a couple of days for Frankfurt as there is way more to see here than the RS guidebooks mention. Hopefully, our museums will be open again soon.

Bacharach and St. Goar are doable from Frankfurt, but I feel it would be more scenic to hop on a boat in Bacharach and get off in St Goar instead of driving. You could also do it in the opposite direction, but since the Rhine River flows northwest, it's faster to go up the river than down.

I feel it would be more scenic to hop on a boat in St Goar and get off in Bacharach

Ops, wrong direction. The trip from St Goar to Bacharach is southward, against the current, and is v-e-r-y slow. It takes 70 minutes by K-D boat. On the other hand, you can go from Bingen to St Goar, with the current, in about 85 minutes - just fifteen minutes longer, but a lot more to see.

If you are starting from the Frankfurt Hbf, buy a 12,50€ RMV ticket to the Bingen Stadtbahnhof (note, Bingen Stadt, not Bingen Hbf). Walk to the riverfront K-D dock and purchase a boat ticket to St Goar. You should get a 20% discount when you show them the rail ticket that got you there. When you get to St Goar on the boat, go up to the train station and buy a ticket back to Frankfurt.

If you page down to start at the Fachwerkstraße sub-heading, this trip report has some ideas.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/baltic-germany-fachwerke-landesgartenschau

Thanks for the feed back Lee, I just edited my post.

Bacharach is about a 5 min. train trip from St. Goar. Getting on the ship for this short ride means you miss 3/4ths of the castles on the Rhein. I know Rick recommends this, but have no idea why.
I also advise getting on the ship in Rüdesheim for 2 reasons. One, the dock is a straight 10 min. walk along the river from the train station to the dock and Two, if you want a seat up on the deck in the shade, you have a better chance of getting one if you get on the ship in Rüdesheim.
I have taken this ship and this route about 100 times and this is my experience with it.
Riding the trains means you can do wine tasting.

Frankfurt has some interesting sites and I agree with the others who recommended Frankfurt on Foot. They have daily tours and private tours if you have a particular interest.

When will you be taking this trip?

Nearby Mainz, Berg Eltz (60mi) Heidelberg (49mi), possibly Nuremberg, DE (116mi) or Strasbourg, FR (113mi) are places I’ve enjoyed visiting.

"We will come 5 days early to see the country. We love the small towns and country living. Enjoy touring castles."

The "elephant in the room" here is that you have pre-chosen Frankfurt for your travel base for those 5 days. Why do that if your heart is set on country living and castles?

You might want to spend your first night near FRA to adjust to European time. But after that, I think someone with your stated interests should head to Germany's Rhine/Mosel region. Others have already mentioned small, old-world towns like Bacharach, St. Goar, Oberwesel (no hyphen,) Rüdesheim, Cochem and Beilstein, popular places to visit and to stay in the Rhine/Mosel region. What has not been mentioned is that a successful day trip from Frankfurt to this area is next to impossible. It's too far, and there's too much to see and do there.

Like Burg Eltz. Great castle to visit. But there are other castles you can tour here as well, and each is different:

Marksburg Castle in Braubach
Rheinfels Castle in St. Goar
Reichsburg Castle in Cochem

Some castles (like Auf Schönburg in Oberwesel) offer accommodations rather than tours.

Oberwesel still has much of its old town wall - and it's walkable:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g198501-d2189241-Reviews-City_Fortifications-Oberwesel_Rhineland_Palatinate.html

River cruises, wineries, the Roman city of Trier. outdoor activities, churches and a few interesting museums are additional ways that visitors get to to know the area.

There are several good base towns for seeing the area by car. Boppard (on the Rhine) is a good small town to consider because of its central location for both river valleys. It has a large selection of hotels and eateries, with many of those positioned on/near the riverfront walk. The visuals in this video will give you an idea of what Boppard is like.

Area map for pinpointing towns of interest:

https://www.vrminfo.de/fileadmin/data/pdf/2017/RLP-Ticket_streckennetz.pdf

(It's a rail map but it shows most towns. To do a cruise, catch a train from Boppard, or any Rhine town nearby, to Bingen - then cruise back by boat.)

Nice article today on Heidelberg -

Mr. Würzner’s (the mayor) goal is to reduce dependence on cars, no matter where they get their juice. Heidelberg is buying a fleet of hydrogen-powered buses, building a network of bicycle “superhighways” to the suburbs and designing neighborhoods to discourage all vehicles and encourage walking. Residents who give up their cars get to ride public transportation free for a year.
...
Heidelberg is at the forefront of a movement that is probably strongest in Europe but has a presence in plenty of communities around the world, including American cities like Austin, Texas, and Portland, Ore. The pandemic has given many citizens a taste of what densely packed urban areas would be like without so much traffic, and they like it.
...
Heidelberg is one of only six cities in Europe considered “innovators” by C40 Cities, an organization that promotes climate-friendly urban policies and whose chairman is Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York. (The others are Oslo, Copenhagen, Venice, and Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the Netherlands.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/28/business/heidelberg-cars-environment.html

Busman, don't let people dissuade you from staying in Frankfurt. This is a wonderful, historic city with great sightseeing opportunities.
It is the best centrally located hub for day trips. If you were on the Rhine or Mosel, you would be farther away from the many towns that would be interesting for you to visit. Additionally, if the weather is cruddy, you have the choice of dozens of museums to choose from in Frankfurt. It is also the best train hub if you choose trains for the day instead of taking a car. If you want to do any wine tasting or have a beer with lunch, this is recommended.

Busman: I wouldn't dissuade folks from sightseeing in Frankfurt if that's their objective. Maybe you plan to stay there and enjoy the city. That would make sense, but that's not what I read. To me, doing day trips by car out of and back into Frankfurt seems a poor way to "see the country" or to experience/appreciate "small towns", "country living" and "castles." Are you staying with a friend or relative in Frankfurt proper? As Jo points out, it's possible to do certain small-town day trips from the big city, and maybe it's a good plan for you in that case. But if you're free to roam, it's not imperative to do it that way. Besides the Rhine/Mosel region, there are several other regions not far from Frankfurt where you can base yourselves for a few days.

1.) Bergstrasse towns - just south of FRA airport

2.) Main and Tauber River towns + nearby gems, southeast of Frankfurt:

Miltenberg, Michelstadt, Wertheim, Tauberbischofsheim, Würzburg, Veitshöchheim, Sommerhausen, Ochsenfurt, Marktbreit, Rothenburg, Bad Windsheim

3.) The German Wine Road - also south of FRA airport. Here's a plan for a 4-day driving route, or figure out your own plan.

Other small-town driving routes to look into:

German Timber Frame Route (Fachwerkstrasse) - actually a group of different routes spanning the country from north to south.

German Fairy Tale Route

German Castle Road

In Germany you could almost toss darts at a map, book a hotel where the dart lands, and from there seek out some nice small towns in the countryside. But personally, I'd do a little more planning than that to ensure that you have the kind of experience you are looking for.

what's the relationship between a day trip in Frankfurt and an ad in German for a Croatia property?

We have now decided to change our base city per you suggestion. we’re going to now be staying in Bacharack. we’re going to do a Rhine River cruise from Bingen to St Goar. We are also
going to Tier and onto Luxembourg City. And do something in Mosel valley on the back to Frankfurt. we plan to tour Frankfurt the day before joining the tour.
Are there any suggestions for which is the best cruise company to use for the mid Rhine cruise also any idea what it will cost to take the train back to Bingen from St. Goar.
Thanks again for all the responses.

Are there any suggestions for which is the best cruise company to use
for the mid Rhine cruise also any idea what it will cost to take the
train back to Bingen from St. Goar.

Hi, ttc.

Cruise companies:

KD (€21.40 ea., 20% discount if you arrive in Bingen by train) - https://www.k-d.com/fileadmin/schiffstouren/KD_Fahrplan_2021.pdf
(Departures from Bingen to St. Goar at 11:15 and 16:30 during high season)

BR (Bingen-Rüdesheimer, €20 ea.) - https://www.bingen-ruedesheimer.de/fahrplan/
(Departures from Bingen to St. Goar at 11:15 and 13:15)

I don't think it matters much which company you use. Whatever schedule works for you.

If you are staying in Bacharach: to cruise from Bingen to St. Goar, you probably need to do this "Plan A":

• catch a train from Bacharach to Bingen (Rhein Stadt station, €4.75 ea.)
• cruise to St. Goar
• catch a train from St. Goar to Bacharach (€4.60 ea.)

A ride from St. Goar to Bingen, as you asked about, costs €7.70 each. But I'm not sure why you would make that trip if your hotel is in Bacharach.

If your hotel is in BINGEN - which does have a lovely waterfront - then it's just 2 steps... cruise to St. Goar + one train ride back to Bingen.

If your hotel is in ST. GOAR, it's simple as well... you do the train to Bingen first + cruise back to St. Goar.

Or maybe you plan first to arrive on the Rhine by CAR, and you plan to do your cruise BEFORE you reach Bacharach? In that case, you would indeed need to backtrack to Bingen by train to re-join your car.

Alternatively you could drive straight to Bacharach to check in. At that point getting to Bingen by train on "Plan A" above is probably simpler and possibly less expensive (no paying for parking in Bingen, and you get 20% off the cruise fares because of the train ticket you have.)

ttc writes,

We are also going to Tier and onto Luxembourg City. And do something
in Mosel valley on the back to Frankfurt.

Trier AND Luxembourg is probably way too much if you are planning on a day trip that starts and ends in Bacharach (or St. Goar or Bingen.) You'd be better off spending at least a night in Trier if you have your hearts set on seeing both places.

(Trier, by the way, is in the Mosel Valley - not an especially scenic part of the Mosel, but visitors usually go there for the Roman history, not the scenery.)

If you just want ONE base town on the Rhine for your time in the area, I think you might be better off seeing places that are a little closer by! You would have many good choices. Suggestions:

Cochem (Mosel)
Burg Eltz Castle (near Moselkern)
Braubach (Rhein, near Koblenz, Marksburg Castle)
Boppard (Rhein)
Oberwesel (Rhein, near Bacharach)
Rüdesheim (Rhein)
St. Goar (Rheinfels Castle)