Touring from Como to Frankfurt

Oooh, tough call. I spent 5 nights in Frankfurt in 2018 and thoroughly enjoyed it, never ran out of things to do. But the train goes through some beautiful spots, it would be easy to find a lovely place to spend a few nights. Only you can decide if you will have had enough of small towns and beautiful scenery around Lake Como, and would thus prefer a city break, or not.

You need to be in or very near Frankfurt for Saturday night, so you can be at the airport by 11:30 am with no risk of being stuck by any train or road delays. For me, I would spend both Thursday and Friday nights in the same location to avoid the pack-and-move-each-night blues. So it's either 3 nights in Frankfurt proper, or 2 nights maybe halfway en route and the last night enjoying Frankfurt.

If you go to bahn.de and plug in your start and end points, you can pick any offered solution and open it up to see where you would need to change trains. Most routes have 5 or 6 changes from Como to Frankfurt. Pick one of those places roughly halfway and do some research. You can see (click on the map option in your selected train solution) that most routes angle west through Switzerland (towards Basel), then wind along the French/German border through the Black Forest and past Strasbourg. Lots of great choices along there.

I'd be happy to weigh in with my location opinions once you let us know whether you're leaning towards a city break or a train/countryside tour. My two cents is the only bad choice is the car and driver. Who wants to watch traffic on a highway when you could either enjoy the views from the train or just get it over with and fly?

If we fly into Frankfurt early, what would you recommend seeing or doing there? On the other hand, if we take the train into Switzerland from Como, would a stay in Zurich or Lucerne be more interesting? What are the best tours in that city?

Month of year? Do you like trains? I don’t think the expense of the car and driver provides that much more scenery. Switzerland would be even more expensive than Lake Como. For the small amount of time you have (2 nights) it doesn’t matter whether you pick Zurich, Luzerne, Freiburg, or Basel. It depends on your personal interests and past travel. Have you been to Germany before? Frankfurt is good for three nights, in any case. If money is no object, there are luxury suburban hotels (like Schlosshotel Kronberg for example) outside Frankfurt that could provide a car and driver each day for excursions.

In summer, we enjoyed staying in Vitznau, rather than Luzerne, but you don’t want to spend too much extra transfer time. Routing also depends on how many train changes you are willing to make.

Both Luzern (local spelling) and Zürich are cities. Scenic cities, especially in and around Luzern, but nevertheless cities.

Is cities what you want to see, or if you were taking a trip through Switzerland would you like to go up into the Alps for the scenery. Luzern has Alps around, but the area that Rick speaks about in his videos and books actually is in the mountains. (very easy and seamless to visit by train and linked cable car systems).

Are you staying in Como town or another town on the lake? In Como town, S. Giovanni station is an easy place to catch a train toward Lucerne, for instance, some getting you there in about 2.5 or 3.5 hours with one connection.

If you're in Varenna, on the east side of the lake, then you're already on a train line that heads north toward the Bernina Express route and Pontresina/Samedan/St Moritz area, with a connection at the border town of Tirano.

There are other ways of navigating the lake by bus or ferry, depending on your home base.

Looking Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the Deutsche Bahn train schedule link and tips for using it. This won't sell all the tickets, but is the best source for schedules across multiple countries.

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/switzerland-rail-passes gives you a quick overview of Swiss rail options and links.

Things to do in Frankfurt, if you choose to fly and stay:

• Daily walking tour from Frankfurt on Foot. This will give you a great overview, and the owners and tour guides are such nice people, expat Americans. The city also runs daily tours but they are more boring, not as fun as Frankfurt on Foot..
• walk around the Höchst neighbourhood. It's jammed full of well-maintained half-timbered houses, a castle, great restaurants. Just like any of the historic little towns often recommended here, but it's inside Frankfurt city limits. I spent a whole day wandering around here. Try the new Höchster Weinstube Alte Münze (wine bar)
• if you're up for an art museum, the Städel is Frankfurt's biggest and best. Often overlooked but well worth a visit
• the ancient Jewish cemetery has a brick in the wall for every single person who was deported from Frankfurt during the war, with their name and dates. The next-door synagogue has an excavation underneath it of a truly ancient mikvah and other structures. I took a great walking tour of Jewish history, but it was in German.
• neighbourhood walks anywhere - I enjoyed Bornheim (where I stayed), Oberursel and Sachsenhausen (mostly restaurants/bars)
• if you feel the need for a day trip outside Frankfurt, I strongly recommend Eltville. It's a short train ride (45 mins) to a beautiful town on the Rhine with a huge deconsecrated monastery and the oldest vineyard in the region. There are English monastery/vineyard tours, well worth it. Especially great if you can catch a concert in the old cathedral, as I did. The vineyard tour was fascinating - they built a miles-long stone wall around the most precious grapes centuries ago that still protects those grapes. There is a wonderful open-air restaurant with wine tastings right in the vineyard, but you don't say what time of year you will be there.

There's more, but that's lots for 3 days. For other ideas, Ms. Jo on this forum knows everything about her adopted hometown. I'm sure you will have fun if this is your choice. It's a very interesting city.

P.S. You can buy a Frankfurt transport and discount card that I found very useful.