Small towns to visit while staying in Frankfurt

If it's quaint towns that you are after, it is easy to stay in those places instead of commuting to them from Frankfurt. There's a large cluster of old-world towns including Bacharach, Oberwesel, Boppard, Braubach, and Rüdesheim, all of which huddle along the Rhine River and all of which are well connected by train to Frankfurt Airport, Frankfurt, Mainz, Koblenz, and other larger cities. See maps below:

Area map

Map that zooms in on the Rhine Gorge between Koblenz and Bingen with towns, railways, ferries, and day cruise docks

Boppard makes for a great base town with lots of hotels and restaurants and comes with a Guest Ticket (pass for free local train rides to other towns.)

For beautiful, quaint, historic towns near Frankfurt, my favorites are Büdingen, Limburg, Marburg, Idstein, Seligenstadt, Kronberg (has a cute Staufen castle) and on the Rhein, Eltville. All are within one hour of Frankfurt on regional trains.

Hotels in Frankfurt that fit your ideas - Motel One at the Römer, Flemings City Center (by Eschenheimer Turm) or perhaps Moxy.

One day only, Eltville and Rudesheim together.

Extra days, see above.

more possibilities - Tracing Dostoyevsky’s Wayward Path Through Three German Spa Towns

Some info on the German spa towns of Baden-Baden, Bad Homburg and Wiesbaden.
Baden-Baden is about a two hour drive, but the others are near Frankfurt.

Eltville and Schloss Johannisberg