Frankfurt Airport

We just returned from our annual trip to Germany through Frankfurt. The airport is no more difficult to get around than any other large airport - except for Charles DeG which is in my opinion a "mess." Steve

It has been 3 years since I flew into FRA. It was my first trip to Europe. I didn't find it to be a problem at all.

Thank you, that helps!

Frankfurt airport is huge, but it is nicely organized. Most people have no problem at all there. There are horror stories for every airport, but I very seldom hear anything about Frankfurt.

What did you hear was a nightmare?

Frankfurt became a nightmare just before Christmas when most of Europe got covered in snow and shut down large airports such as Schiphol and Duesseldorf. Frankfurt got stuck with thousands of people and their luggage that had not connecting flights anymore ... We had no problem taking the train instead to continue our trip - but without luggage. Mind you, Amsterdam was certainly not a better destination on those days!

Other than that we've had numerous trips with Frankfurt either as final destination or layover and no problems.

I've flown in or out of FRA 10 times this decade and never found it to be a particular problem. It's a big airport, but far less difficult to get around in than, say, PHL, (Philly).

The train stations at FRA are very accessible, particularly if you come in on Lufthansa or one of the Alliance airlines. Do you know at which terminal you will arrive? Or what airline, American? I would assume you have a railpass and will be taking an ICE to Freiburg, therefore using the Fernbahnhof (long distance station).

You can find a schematic map of FRA here.

From the airport website, I see an American Airline flight arriving in Hall C of Terminal 1. You follow Hall C down to the main hall of Terminal 1. Near the glass window-hall facing the street, you should find an escalator to the 2nd floor mezzanine, to the LH side (facing out) of the main hall. There should be a sign for "Fernbahnhof" and maybe some sort of train symbol. Go up the escalator and across a pedestrian bridge over the access road. Follow the hall out to the Fernbahnhof, a glass roofed atrium on the other side of the building across the street from Terminal 1. When you enter the atrium, there will be a ticket counter to your left where you can validate your railpass and escalators down to the tracks.

Frankfurt is easy to follow, there's signs everywhere. If you have a question about which train platform to go to, there's a help desk by the escalators going to the trains.

There are signs to help you get you to where you are going......but I do have to admit, it was like a crazy maze. I never had to go up and down so many escalators, thru so many corridors and hallways to get to my gate. I was just there at the beginning of December and it seems that there was a decent amount of construction going on. It was kinda wacky.