Day Trips - Frankfurt

There are any number of places you can easily visit from Frankfurt, including Heidelberg as well as Wuerzburg. Some of my favorites are Buedingen, Idstein, Mainz, Wiesbaden, Seligenstadt, Eppstein, Bad Homburg, Marburg, Darmstadt, Gelnhausen and of course the main part of the Rhine with all the castles.

Great ideas from Jo, as always. Some others in the local area- if you like hiking, the Taunus mountains are to your immediate north, the Odenwald is to your immediate south. In addition to the towns that Jo mentioned, I can recommend Fritzlar (like Rothenburg o.d.T. without the souvenir stores and tourist buses), Alsfeld, Münzenberg (mainly for it's large castle ruin), Butzbach, Lindenfels, Erbach, Michelstadt, Bad Dürkheim, Heppenheim, Bad Wimpfen, Aschaffenburg, Lorsch, and Weinheim. A little further afield, Eisenach in Thüringen is worth a long daytrip to visit. You may need a rental car to visit some of these.

We enjoyed Wertheim which isn't far from Miltenberg and Karlstadt. All are lovely little towns on the Main River that can be explored in a short period of time and aren't far from Frankfurt.

I recommend the Mosel River Valley and Trier. You can do this area by train.

Thanks - these are great suggestions - and I was hoping to do trains rather than a rental (for one person, seems pricey). On trains - someone said there is a local pass for weekends? or is a railpass for all of germany a better option?

It depends on where you are going. If you are staying in the state of Hessen, then you can use a Hessen Ticket. If you leave Hessen, then you could use a Happy Weekend Ticket. Some of the places, like Buedingen or Idstein are close enough, that just buying 2, one way tickets through the RMV (local public transportation) will be the cheapest. Just switch it over to English www.rmv.de

I love Trier!

Hi again, if you want to use trains, as I posted earlier the Mosel River Valley and Trier are the perfect trip, the villages along the river are small and easy to walk and it's only a couple of hours from Frankfurt. The Mosel is a wine region if that is something you're interested in.

Over a regular two night weekend most of Germany is within your reach. I took an overnight train once from near Frankfurt to Dresden on a Friday night and came back Sunday night. If you haven't been Dresden is perfect for a two day trip. There's always Paris as well-- less than four hours by train, eminently doable on a Friday evening.

Thanks - everyone. Paris is a favorite city and less than two years ago, my son and I did Berlin and Munich but I thought this was a great chance to see the side trips of Germany. I will be going to Munich at the end of my work time to visit my son doing studies there - we are debating doing a week in Madrid then.
These all sound great - I will try to do as many as I can - Mosel and Trier sound great, as do all the others. I had not even thought of hiking but that was a great suggestion too.

I second Elaine's recommendation of Trier. We were there last year when starting a RS G/A/S Tour as he thinks it has lots of historical significants (sp?) which indeed it did.

Hi, For a day trip within an hour or two radius, I recommend Marburg, very historical with its Elisabethskirche, and Wetzlar. For a larger city and another hour longer, Erfurt. Easily doable taking the ICE direct. If you're interested in art, Kassel has that special exhibit Dokumenta that comes every five years.