5 hour layover in Frankfurt - can I do anything?

thanks for the reply - guess I'll just get a good book to read :)

Kelly, your question is a good and important question. I agree with Jarrod, do not go away from the Frankfurt Airport. The actual amount of time that you could be away from the airport will proably be a short amount of time. An airplane flying to the Frankfurt airport from an airport in the U.S.A. might begin flying from the U.S.A. airport at a time that is one Hour later than the scheduled departure time. Thus, you might arrive at the Frankfurt airport at a time that is one hour later than the scheduled arrival time. To get out of the Frankfurt airport, if you fly to it from another nation, you must show your passport to the imigration department.
The Frankfurt airport is a great airport ! If nothing in the stores there is of interest to you, talk to an interesting person in an eatery in the airport : people from very many countries travel through the Frankfurt airport, and some of them might like talking to you while they are waiting for their connecting flight.
It mig

Ron and Jarred. THANK YOU both so much. I've printed out your replies and am taking them home to my husband who was disappointed that we didn't leave the Frankfort airport during our five hr layover in June. I was very hesitant to leave and had to "pull rank" to stay, also had to endure some heavy sighs and eyerolls while we sat and shopped and ate and sat some more..Security is tighter now than ever and we had to go through three checks (including a pat down)Kelly....STAY PUT is the best advice..

Kelly, the airport is VERY far away from the city and there is little to nothing that you can do around the area worth while unless you have a car and at least 3 hours. I've spent 5 hours in the Frankfurt airport, and it's about as enjoyable as any other airport. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Thanks for the input everyone. I guess I will stay put :) Don't want to miss my plane back to the states (or will I??) lol

I had a 4.5 hour layover in Frankfurt (PDX to FRA flight). My experience was that passport control was overwhelmed by several flights arriving at once - I was personally glad that I had that cushion because passport check took nearly an hour. Buy some snacks, find your gate, and people watch. Also, prepare yourself for the possibility that you'll have what appears like a very early gate check in time - Frankfurt is so busy, they park planes very, very far away from the terminal, and actually load you on a bus and drive you to your airplane (took about 10 minutes for my flight). You load up on what looks like the taxiway. You'll kill 5 hours in no time.

We were there for 3 hours on a layover to Florence. Once you tranisition into the domestic terminals from international, we found one small place to buy something to eat. There were also machines to buy cigarettes and places to smoke them (we don't smoke). In the, it was OK and off we went on time.

I looked on www.bahn.de and Frankfurt Airport is about 18 minutes away from the Hauptbanhof in Frankfurt. Thus, it might be worth it to spend money to go downtown for just two hours and walk around the city and then return to the airport with at least an hour to pass through security. Perhaps, I'm wrong, but I was looking at the airport on Google Maps and the airport seems to be in good proximity to downtown Frankfurt. Consider this image with the airport in the foreground and the skyscrapers of the city in the background. It should give an impression of the proximity of the airport to the city center: http://i.ehow.com/images/GlobalPhoto/Articles/2355287/FrankfurtAirport468x320-main_Full.jpg

"the airport is VERY far away from the city"

Jarrod, either your definition of "VERY far" is a lot different than most people's or you have never been around FRA. It only takes 11-15 minutes by S-Bahn to town, depending on where you are going. The S-Bahn leaves every 15 minutes from the station under the building across the street from Terminal 1. I don't know that I would risk going into town, but it couldn't be much closer.

The original post is almost 2 years old. I think Kelly might have already been to Frankfurt by now.

Perhaps she is still over there people watching at the airport and lost track of time! lol

lol at this getting bumped years later - I sure wish I was still in Europe (but not lost in the airport)! I did just hang out in the airport and was very bored for the 5 hours :)

Kelly, we can have coffee next time and you can catch me up on the Columbus news!

Well be happy you don't have (my) 11 hour layover....I might just start my MBA Degree while waiting!

Why would you wait at the airport with an 11 hour layover when you could be in downtown Frankfurt in 11 minutes? Frankfurt is very walkable, and you could see quite a bit in a few hours. No way would I sit at the airport!

I have a 5.5 hour layover in FRA on 23 May 10. I am really hoping to go on into town and find a Schnell Imbiss (sp). I haven't been to Germany since July 1981. Wow... almost 30 years ago. My luggage should be checked through from Venice to SFO, right? I'm hoping I will only have a backpack to deal with. I like the idea that you can catch the bahn into town every 20 minutes or so. I also WANT to get a GERMAN stamp on my passport. (My two oldest daughters were born in Germany). Aloha! - Kris

There is a casino in the Frankfurt Airport and the Lufthansa Business Class lounge has beer on tap...FOR FREE! Pour your own!

The toilets also clean themselves between users.

Best lounge EVER!

So, Kris, I'm curious if you ended up going into town on your trip? We, too, have an upcoming long layover and would love to know the final determination on just how feasible it is to get into town and how much time you really had to spend. Thanks!

In that time you can learn to yodel.

If you go over to Trip Advisor, there are dozens and dozens of posts about how to spend your time on a layover in Frankfurt. Seeing how the city is only 11 min. away by train, the idea of sitting in the airport for hours becomes rather silly. I have posts on here too, but finding them with this woefully outdated dino of a website, is something I will leave to the more skilled techie types.

Okay so I have a 16 hour layover in the Frankfurt airport BUT I land at 5:30pm and my plane for the states leaves at 10:15am the next morning. Oh and woman traveling alone... I really hate the idea of not getting out of the airport to do something, see something but those are pretty lousy layover hours. Suggestions? Go in to Frankfurt? What to do, see? Or should I just suck it up and get a room at the Sheraton?

When will you be travelling here? Winter, spring, summer? If it is summer time, it is light until really late. Winter, it will be dark, but the Frankfurt is really pretty at night. I would go ahead and come into town rather than stay at the Sheraton. There is nothing to do there. At least come into Frankfurt and walk around a bit. The trains run every 15 min. at least and even more often in the morning, and take 11 min. to the main train station, the Hauptbahnhof. Train tickets cost 3.90 euro one way. Once you land, you should be walking out of the airport with-in 30 min. If you get a hotel near the train station, such as the Hotel Monopol or Excelsior Hotel, you won't have far to walk.

We like going to the restaurant on the bottom floor of the Sheraton. It's a cozy little spot with a small buffet and great cheese, beer, and gemuchlichkeit. It's a real surprise to find in a Sheraton!