Frankfurt Airport Bahn
 

I am still a little confused on the Bahn site which FrankFurt to use. My husband and I will be landing from an International Flight (I am guessing to Terminal 2) on 6/21.
I need a train ticket to Bad Windsheim. Which Frankfurt departure do I use ?
Frankfurt (MAIN) Hbf, Frankfurt (MAIN), Frankfurt (M) flughafen
And if I use flughafen, does it matter regional or fern (i.e. are they both reachable from airport)? I am thinking of using Regional trains as I can buy ahead and those are good all day.

Also a separate question - if we want to eat at the airport, how easy is that to get to ?

You want Flughafen if you want to go directly from the airport. Follow the signs to trains - they're at the lowest level.

I don't see any regional trains. They're all IC and ICE trains. All trains show flughafen fernbf except the one that goes to the main Frankfurt train station.

<< if we want to eat at the airport, how easy is that to get to >

I thought you were already at the airport? I don't understand the question. Do you mean is it easy to find a cafe at the airport? It looks like there are restaurants at the arrivals area.

http://www.frankfurt-airport.com/con...ide_en-fro.pdf

Let me correct myself. The trains from Wurzburg are regional but the trains from Frankfurt to Wurzburg are ICE. You could play around with the math for the tickets but I don't think there's a price advantage to buying 2 separate tickets.

"Frankfurt (MAIN) Hbf, Frankfurt (MAIN), Frankfurt (M) flughafen"

Frankfurt Hbf means the main railway station in Frankfurt city. It's 10 minutes by rail away from the airport.

Frankfurt flughafen means Frankfurt airport. This is what you want.

The fern and the regional train stations of the airport can both be easily reached. It takes maybe 5 minutes to get from one to the other. But you need to know which of the two you want to use. For both you need to go to terminal 1.

The (MAIN) is confusing to English speakers. It means Frankfurt at the river Main opposed to a different city, Frankfurt at the river Oder.

You'll find a lot of places which sell food. But as in any airport it's expensive. I actually recommend McDonalds in terminal 2 if you want a coffee and something to fill the stomach while you're too tired to really taste what you eat.

If you tell us which airline, we can tell you if you land at terminal 1 or terminal 2. Or you can check yourself by either typing your flight and # into Google or checking the Frankfurt airport website.

The Regional train station is directly under terminal 1, Hall B. The Long Distance train station (Fernbahnhof) is on the other side of the Sheraton, so you will have to go up to the 2nd level and walk a bit.

If you do land at terminal 2, you can either take the Skyline monorail to terminal 1, or a bus. I prefer the monorail, but if you have a lot of luggage, then maybe the bus is better.

There are a ton of food options all over this airport so there is absolutely no reason at all to go to a Mc Donalds. They aren't any more expensive either, unless you want a sit down meal. Over at the long distance train station there are even more. Terminal 2 which is smaller doesn't have quite as many options, so head on over to 1 for a bite to eat. Try Marche' Cafe' or Kemps bakery.

It does not sound really easy, and read the caveat below:

You probably did that already, but when you check itineraries at bahn.com you can switch the settings to "local trains only" (or a similar phrase).
Print the possible connections for the departure time from Frankfurt Regional train station that looks suitable for you (after you had your breakfast)

Get a Bayern Ticket (for 2 people) from www.bahn.de for that day and print at home = 27 euro
As 21 June is a Saturday, you don't have to worry about the caveat that these tickets are only valid after 9am on weekdays.
You don't validate the Bayern ticket anywhere, but you should write both your names on it.

At FRA airport, find your way to the Regional train station and get 2 adult single RMV (Rhine-Main transit authority) tickets from the desk or machine to Kahl (Main) - Main again is the river. = 7.80 x 2 = 15.60

These tickets usually have to be validated in stamp machines mostly called or labeled "Entwerter".
The RMV tickets will take you on S-Bahn or Regional trains to Kahl (border town for Hesse and Bavaria) from where your Bayern ticket will start to be valid. You can stay on the train and, as said before, do not have to validate your pre-purchased home-printed Bayern ticket.

Total costs: 32.60 euro for two. And full flexibility.
The amount of time you lose against connections that involve highspeed trains is not that huge, IMO. 3hrs vs 3 1/2 hrs.


Get on any S-Bahn or Regional train to Frankfurt central station (Hauptbahnhof)
S-Bahn trains arrive at underground level so you have to make your way up to street level for the main hall. (easy to find, just follow the "train" icons or those which say "DB" or "long-distance trains".
Regional trains arrive at the main hall anyway.

Change to the next Regional train towards Würzburg (according to your pre-printed itineraries) and so on.

"I am thinking of using Regional trains as I can buy ahead and those are good all day."

There are of course regional trains that serve your route, starting from the Regionalbahnhof. As Cowboy points out, you can make choices at the site to exclude high-speed trains from the options. Look for this wording... click on "only local transport" under "Connections - means of transport." Your search will then reveal prices for the regional trains in two columns on the right - a standard fare column and a savings fare column.

For regional trains: if you are buying full-price (standard fare) tickets for the regional trains at the DB site in advance, you'll pay €51 each - and that is time-flexible. But as Cowboy points out there are better options! The ticketing options Cowboy gave you are also time-flexible (but note that the price will be €42.60, not €32.60 - math error.) NOTE: You do NOT have to buy any of these tickets in advance to get these prices, which will be exactly the same at the FRA ticket machines. There is no advantage to advance purchase except a small saving of the time it takes to buy them. And you would have to use a separate website to pre-purchase the RMV tickets. I'd just buy them there.

There is one more option to tell you about - the Happy Weekend ticket, which also allows covers your trip on the regional trains and offers full time flexibility - for €44. - €1.40 more than the option Cowboy gave you. Why pay the additional €?? For the convenience of buying and traveling on one ticket. And just in case you have some important personal reason for pre-purchasing this day's train ride, you CAN do that at the DB site with the HW ticket:

http://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/pr...d_ticket.shtml


Note: For tickets using any high speed trains, the standard fare is also time-flexible.

Yikes.. With the proper maths at work, the option Russ described definetely is worth the extra 1 euro!
I knew I should have used the calculator instead of my brain :-)

Also, be aware that there are no validating machines in Frankfurt nor in the airport. Your ticket has a time stamp on it.

Just didn't want you running around looking for a place to validate your ticket when they don't exist.

Thanks to you all for your answers. They were extremely helpful. I found the booking for the regional train (the saver is the same as the weekend, you just did not see that until you clicked on it). Now on to the rest of the bookings !

"There are a ton of food options all over this airport so there is absolutely no reason at all to go to a Mc Donalds. They aren't any more expensive either, unless you want a sit down meal."

I've spent a lot of time at Frankfurt airport and I've eaten a fair share of crappy sandwiches from this ton of other food options.

Rather cheap and okay coffee and orange juice to go with the crappy McD food plus a seat to sit down is plenty of reason for me to think that it's an option.

I wouldn't spend much time to get there but in my opinion one doesn't miss out on gourmet food if one skips the other food stalls.