Does anybody know where the heck Frankfurt (Hahn) airport is?

Basically nowhere. It's roughly south-east of Cochem. The shortest shuttle bus run used to be to 20 km west to Traben-Trarbach, if you know where that is, on the Mosel. But that no longer runs. According to the Hahn timetable, the only airlines using the airport are Iceland Express, RyanAir, and Wizz Air. Also see here (www.hahn-airport.de/default.aspx?menu=airlines&cc=en, another BBC failure). Which ones are US flag carriers? Ans: none. All are 2-star airlines. Most 2-star airlines are based in the third world. (Actually, BMI Baby is a 2-star airline from UK, but so is Air Zimbabwe.) US airlines, like USAir and Delta, have a 3-star rating; European airlines like Lufthansa and Swiss Air are 4-star. See www.airlinequality.com.

Apropos of nothing, I have a side story regarding Hahn. My husband and I were checking out of our hotel in Heidelberg and there was a young Asian couple ahead of us asking the check-out girl if she was familiar with programming GPS units. They had one in their rental car and needed directions to "Frankfurt Airport." As the check-out girl was pretty busy, I offered to go out to see if I could help. We communicated in basic English, although that was not their first language. We got to the car and they told me they wanted it set to Frankfurt. As I was fiddling with the GPS, I noticed the woman had her boarding pass in hand and it said RyanAir. Largely due to this Helpline, I knew RyanAir didn't fly into FRA. I asked to see it, and sure enough, they were flying out of Hahn. They had a big map of Germany on hand, so I unfolded it and showed them where Hahn was in relation to Frankfurt, and told them that THAT is where they needed to go, that little airport waaaayyyy over there. They couldn't believe it and were absolutely stunned. I suspect that it would have been a real mess had they gone to FRA, especially with the complication of the language barrier.

Lee Bargain basement airport or not, when I checked yesterday as we were on the A1 it showed a DL flight from Hartsfield Jackson airport was on time into Hahn. Maybe a rogue flight, dunno. Actually we got pretty close to Hahn today. I was in Bernkastel-Kues enjoying a quiet meal when a low flying pair of turboprops flew over, disturbing the peace, which gave me a clue how close we were.

How long were you there? And you never learned how to spell Frankfurt? By jet, Hahn is about 8 hrs east of Frankfort, the capital of Ky. RyanAir airports are mostly former US Air Force bases. We built a lot of one runway bases far from populated areas. When we move out, Ryan move in. That's why most RyanAir airports (Beauvais, Hahn, Weeze) are a long way from the city they allegedly serve. ViaMichelin list the road distance from Hahn to Frankfurt as 125 km, 1h23m, and it's almost due east. The Rohr shuttle bus schedule shows 1h30m from Hahn to FRA, 1h45m to the Hbf.

It's about an hour northwest of Frankfort. It used to be an American Air Force base. I was stationed there in the late 80s. I went back with my kids in 2009 and the place is like a ghost town. Very tiny airport. Traben-Trabach is close by on the Mosel river, Sohren is not too far from it either.

It's not RyanAir but Ryanair; it's not Swiss Air but Swiss International Airlines; and it's not Frankfurt but Frankfurt am Main (to be precise).

What's your point. It is not FrankfOrt. Many of us leave off the (am Main), because everyone knows from context that we're not talking about Frankfurt am Oder, just as we omit "ob der Tauber" when referring to the medieval town in Bavaria. And many of us remember when Swiss International Airlines was just referred to as Swiss Air. Abbreviating something is not the same as misspelling it. Frankfort will never be the same as Frankfurt. And I don't write "City of our Lady, Queen of the Angels" (to be precise). Or The "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation" also to be precise. And she said "Frankfort", not Frankfurt am Main (or even Frankfort am Main). The best spelling of RYANAIR is really RyanError.

As an aside; I think a savvy traveler should hesitate to automatically shun these "3rd rate" airports. It all depends where you really want to be (since the airport, itself of course, is not where anyone wants to be unless they are on their way home). The first time I heard about the Frankfurt/Hahn dilemma I thought it was terrible to refer to it as Frankfurt, too. But then I saw exactly where it was located and thought it might make an ideal entry point for a trip to the Rhine/Mosel area. I've never been to that airport, myself, but assuming they have rental cars available there, I think it would be an ideal way to start the typical Rhine/Mosel toward Munich Bavarian tour so many people do. Certainly closer to Trier. It would seem much simpler and more pleasant than Frankfurt - unless you want to spend time in Frankfurt.

Three things in life are unavoidable: (1) Death, (2) Taxes, and (3) A regular poster harassing other posters about: misspelling Frankfurt, omitting umlauts, flying Ryanair, staying somewhere other than in the spare room of an old lady's house, visiting someplace in Germany that isn't the "real" Germany, renting a car, visiting Italy, getting the plural form of Euro wrong, etc., etc., etc. And the most legitimate reviews of Ryanair (good or bad) are posted by those who have actually had first-hand, real-world experience flying with the airline. Repeating information gleaned from the Internet doesn't demonstrate one's superior travel prowess. Kathleen shared her first-hand knowledge specific to the original poster's question, and I appreciated her response, even if she used "o" instead of "u" in Frankfurt. BTW, my guess is that Kathleen sees "Frankfort" a million times a year when one considers how close she lives to the capital of KY. An honest mistake. Kent: As an elder statesman of the board, your travel prowess is assumed. :)

Good points made above. But now we have to "... demonstrate one's travel prowess." Dang, I thought we were just trying to answer travel questions. And so, what is travel prowess? :)

When I think 'prowess', I think Kent. "What's your point."......Nope, Lee - it's 'What's your point ?' ;-) So, Nigel - have you named your SatNav yet? Perhaps 'Hahny"?

Well, the Frankfurt-am-Main is also tricky. Buy a train to the wrong "Frankfurt" and you end in the border town (with Poland!!!) of Frankfurt-am-Oder This being said, the European costumer relations board had forbidden Ryanair and competition to advertise flights to Hann as Frankfurt. They argued it was deceiving. Solution: the airport changed its official name to Frankfurt-Hann or something, so then, as the move was legal under German law (nobody ever thought that any airport would want to be actively misinforming its passengers on the name!!!), the advertising could keep going on. =============
To sum it up: when looking for an airport on a GPS, map or site, use the IATA 3-letter code. They are unique and never lie.

Ryanair should have called it "Mosel Valley Airport" as it's really only 20 minutes from Bernkastel-Kues. The Mosel river valley is - as you all know very well - one of the most scenic places in Germany. And with the border of Luxembourg being so close you can fill up your rental cars at favorable rates. Funny enough the first Luxembourgish town right after the border is called "Wasserbillig" meaning "Cheap Water". They may want to rename to "Benzinbillig" or "Dieselbillig" respectively ;-). HHN airport is probably closer to Luxembourg as it is to Frankfurt...

One cool thing about fueling up in Luxembourg, besides the seriously cheap prices, is all the stations, rural, country, and motorway charge exactly the same. When I was there last week normal diesel was €1.129 which is only £0.99 a litre. Compare that to Belgium at €1.33 or worse UK at £1.37. That's only €4.27 a US gallon, at whatever the exchange rate is. We did fill up at Wasserbillig, getting from Trier on fumes.

I used it a few times when I was living in Heidelberg a few years back. It's one of Ryanair's main hubs which means many of the flights out of there are dirt cheap. Last time I was there the ywere doing a lot of road work and it looks like they're either expanding the autobahn all the way to the airport or at least upgrading the road to accomodate the increased traffic. The Germans have done a great job turning a defunct American Air Foce Base in the middle of nowhere into a major money making commercial airport. You can even see the outline of the words "BASE OPS" on the control tower. As other posters have mentioned, it is in a great location to explore the Mosel valley. We dropped my brother off for an afternoon flight to London once and left the house in the morning so we could drive the scenic route along the river. Enjoyed it immensely.

Is Brussels-Charleroi in the same category as Frankfurt-Hahn? Seems to me like it would be, since the only airlines I remember seeing there were Wizz Air, Ryanair, and (maybe?) Easyjet. Anyway, the airport was small, but no worse than any other airport I've been to, it was just out of the way. Now, if Hahn doesn't at least have a shuttle bus to/from Frankfurt proper, that would be a problem.

Yeah, Brussels-Chaleroi, Amsterdam-Eindhofen, Duesseldorf-Weeze, Frankfurt-Hahn, Paris-Beauvais, Munich West-Memmingen, Venice-Treviso and to some extent Rome-Ciampino are all part of the deliberate misrepresentation of Ryanair. Out of the way and in most cases without any rail access.

You can add Milan-Bergamo to that list. Bergamo (which is a pretty decent tourist town in its own right) is actually a half hour outside Milano although there are regular buses going back and forth. Milan-Bergamo is also considered a main hub so I used to get flights between there and Frankfurt-Hahn for 1 euro cent. With all the taxes and fees it would still only be about 20 euros. I hate flying Ryanair but you can't beat the price...

Fail to see the difference between taking a train from the airport to get to my end destination and taking a bus. Cost is minimal with the bus, so where is the problem? The shuttles run regularly, and are easy to use. As to mis-representation it is very clear on their website where the airports are located. If people aren't seeing this, then they need new glasses. I don't get the Ryanair bashing from someone who has never flown with them.

Jo, I agree with you. As long as there is a reliable shuttle bus available (as is the case with Charleroi), I don't see a problem. And as far as location being deceptive: in this day and age, all you need is Google Maps.

I think anyone who is flying into any airport in an area with which they are unfamiliar should have the basic sense to look up where the airport is and find the best way to get wherever they are going from there. Remember that major airports are not located in town squares, either. There is always going to be some further travel necessary by some means, whether the traveler is going to the nearest large city or into the countryside. Sometimes the small airport is more convenient to the final destination. Whether it is "out of the way" depends on where your destination is. I have flown Ryanair many times, and I have flown into Hahn many times. There are pros and cons to flying Ryanair and other smaller airlines. I continue to use them because they are usually cost effective and they get me where I want to go, or at least close enough for me. I dislike Ryanair for many reasons, but the fact that they fly into Hahn and similar places is not one of them. I don't feel that there is anything deceptive about that. I think attaching the name of the nearest large city may be helpful in narrowing down flights for people who would recognize those cities but wouldn't know to look for a flight to the smaller city. I just look on their website and look at the map, see where the airport is, and decide if it works for me. As someone who is sometimes "navigationally challenged", I have to say that in this age it is easier than ever before to locate a place. We have many tools at our disposal: internet sources, satellite navigation, maps, etc. We just have to use them, along with some sense.

It seems this erroneous charge of "deliberate misrepresentation" has been completely debunked by those who have actually flown with the airline many times. And the opinion that the airfields are "out of the way" has also been totally shot down using fairly straightforward logic, which suggests it's a matter of where one wishes to be. Perhaps this will finally put an end to posting inaccurate information about Ryanair taken from the Internet when one has no first-hand knowledge whatsoever. James: It was apparently a lot easier for the helpline mafia (as you say) to gang up on an outsider (Steve).

"by those who have actually flown with the airline many times". You apparently didn't bother to read the reviews by Skytrac off 1011 people who have flown Ryanair. They give it a rating of 2.7/10, somewhere between fair and poor. SkyTrac's own rating gives it one star (very poor) in 21 categories vs only 12 three star (fair) categories.

I seem to recall this direction from the Webmaster last year: "From now on, all responses to questions are to be based purely on your own real-life experience. To be clear, management has decided that searching for the answer to questions (using Google or any other search methods) does not provide the value that the Helpline intends to offer individuals who come here looking for help. The best way that we can provide value to people who come here asking their travel questions is to give answers based on your own experience."

Hello everyone, Overall, I'd like to say that we need to work on respecting others' opinions a bit better. On the one hand, there is an opinion here about Ryanair that isn't exactly uncommon and this person backed up that opinion with info from the internet (the banned user that was referred to frequently Googled topics and gave the search results as if it was his own opinion or just gave a link as his answer... quite different... and that was far from the only thing that got him banned). In fact, it's an opinion that I shared before using them myself, and I still hold that opinion after using Ryanair. On the other hand, there is an opposing opinion by people who have used Ryainair and found that company's offerings (including location, etc) useful. Both opinions are valid and are not more correct than the other. Both sides can stop and recognize that the other has valid points and the decision to use one airline over another is based on one's own personal preferences of price, location, and amenities. I'd also like to see less quibbling over misspellings and shorthand. Many here are acting like you've never incorrectly spelled something and missed it before submitting your post. I'll end this by repeating what I've already said. All opinions are valid and are not more correct than the other.

Well done Webmaster - beautifully put!! Thank you

Thank you Webmaster.

Thanks Webby.

The spelling-quibblers typically misspell place names themselves while deriding the spelling skills of others. This thread has some perfect examples of that. So your call for a halt to this sort of negative quibbling is quite welcome, Webmaster. There is a place for spelling correction and general place name accuracy, however. Foreign place names just aren't that easy for many, and lots of posters get stymied looking for this town or that rail connection because they are unable to get it right. Polite corrections in such situations should be encouraged as part of the discourse.