We have an 8-hour layover in Frankfort enroute to Israel: Any ideas on what to do/see other than sitting in the airport? I know about the train from airport to center city.

Fodorites are brave and might give you some good tips, but 8 hours is tight for me these days. I'd sit tight . I had a Lufthansa flight cancel due to weather, and it took quite some time to get back and forth from the airport.

Go into center city. It is only 11 minutes by train from inside the airport terminal. Also there is a gigantic shopping mall in the airport. Frankfurt is the biggest, most modern airport in Europe. You should have no problem spending 8 hours.

Larry J

Frankfurt airport must have changed a bit since my last time there. I would not call it a great place to spend 8 hours. And it's definetely neither the biggest nor the most modern airport in Europe.

You can go to downtown Frankfurt easily, just keep in mind that flights from Germany to Israel have tighter security procedures so you may have to be back at the airport earlier than for connecting flights elsewhere. I would double-check the travel documents for that issue or e-mail the airline.

8 hours is a very long time to spend in an airport. The last time we landed in Frankfurt in the morning for a 7 hour layover, we took the S bahn into downtown. We checked into a hotel so my wife could freshen up and nap while I wandered around the famous food lane Fressgasse. The 4 star hotel charged only 50 euro for our day stay.

The domestic terminal in Frankfurt is okay, but the majority of the international terminal is pretty bad. There is a hotel attached to the airport (thru the domestic part) that is quite nice and we have used that a few times when we had a long layover. For most of our 4-5 hour layovers, we just relaxed in the Lufthansa or Red Carpet Club lounges.

Mainz is also on the S-bahn line from the airport, about 25 minutes. It is a nice city to explore with only a few hours to spend--cathedral, Gutenberg musuem, pleasant Altstadt

The city of Frankfurt is what it is -- a financial capital, not a cultural one (although its museums are quite nice). Also, the entire city was blasted to pieces during The War. Thus, you can wander about the rebuilt streets filled with banks and shops for a while, and perhaps visit the rebuilt cathedral. Spending a few hours doing this is probably better than spending it at the airport.