Strasbourg to Frankfurt Airport - where to stay?

How early is your flight? Driving or using the train? If by train, I would simply go with one of the nearby cities, such as Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Mainz or Darmstadt.

Hi Tom - thanks for your reply! We will be driving. Our flight isn't until 1:10 PM. Thanks! Meg

Since the S-Bahn connection from Frankfurt to its airport is so easy (10 minutes), I'd be willing to give the big city a try, and sleep near the train station. You could drop the car at the airport before going to the hotel. Tom may have more small-town ideas, now that he has a better idea of your timing.

Have you considered staying overnight in Frankfurt? Beautiful city, with some great neighborhoods, and it is a very historic and one of the oldest cities in Germany. It is much, much more than just a banking city. Have a look at the neighborhood of Höchst perhaps, Westend, Bornheim, or Sachsenhausen.

OK, then I would stay relatively close to the airport. No further than Frankfurt, Darmstadt or Wiesbaden.

If your flight is at 1:10 PM (13:10) you will need to be in the airport by 10:10 AM at the latest, I would suggest staying near the airport unless you want to get up very early and fight traffic near Frankfurt.

Traffic after 09:00 or so leaving Frankfurt is not bad at all. Everyone is already at work, school vacation is happening which means traffic is even lighter, and people drive into Frankfurt to work, not away from it. There is really no reason to stay at a boring & expensive airport hotel, when you could be in the city having great food, strolling along the river at sunset, and doing some sightseeing.

Thank you all so much for your helpful information! We will likely stay in/immediately outside Frankfurt (but will avoid the airport hotels). Thank you!

We fell in love with Heppenheim on our last trip. It has a picture-perfect old town centre with a few cafes/restaurants around it. The church in the centre was very impressive. There is also a castle surrounded by vineyards up on the hill overlooking the town. It's only a 30 minute drive south of the airport. We'd recommend the Goldener Engel, where we stayed.

I've flown out of Frankfurt 4 times in the last 15 years, and except for the first time, when I flew from Terminal 2 on a US airline that only had two people to check in a 747, I have never arrived 3 hours early. The rest of the time I have flown from Terminal 1 on Lufthansa and have arrived at the airport two hour ahead (or a little more depending on train schedule). And I've come in from as far away as Boppard and Karlsruhe for a flight in the early afternoon. But don't try to drive in on the day of departure, due to the chance of traffic delaying your arrival. The trains have always gotten me there on time. If you have a car, either stay close to the airport or dump it the day before and come in on public transportation.

Thank you, all! I greatly appreciate all of your help - now I am even more excited for my first trip to Germany.

Take care,

Meg

You could stay in Mainz. It's a 27 minute trip into the airport Regionalbahnhof from the Hbf in Mainz. Hotel Königshof is right across the Bahnhofplatz from the station. They have a wonderful breakfast buffet with traditional German food plus American bacon and eggs.