Frankfurt to Stuttgart Help
 

I am looking for help getting from Frankfurt airport to Stuttgart on the train. I will be with my daughter (13) and son (12) and we arrive in FRA on a Wednesday morning (June 25). If anyone can provide suggestions, tips, experiences, etc. I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks, Anne

This is easy as pie. There are trains about every 30 minutes right from the airport train station to Stuttgart.

No need to buy or reserve anything ahead, as it is not a holiday or peak travel day if you are traveling before rush hour.

Just buy your tickets at the window.

www.bahn.de shows a one way 2nd class at Euros 54, which seems a lot for a 1 hour 20 min ride, but it is the good and fast train service (ICE). Rouss

Yes, go to www.bahn.de and click on English. Then just do your research from there. Sometimes there are specials if you buy way in advance. If you are sure that you are not going to change your plans, you can book your ticket online and print it out at home. Then bring it along with the credit card you used for payment as verification (this is a must). You can also reserve a seat for a few Euros to make sure you sit together or take your chance.

If your plane is delayed, you can still use your ticket on the next train or the day after. Of course, your seat reservations, if any, will be gone.

If you pay attention to the train listings given, you will see that they mention the number of times you have to change trains. Look for one that has 0 changes. Some will require that you go from Frankfurt airport to Frankfurt city and then change trains. If you are fit and don't mind, then this is no problem. The downside is you may have to wait longer for a train with no changes.

Note also, that your children are under 15 so on German Rail they ride with you for free. You should make sure that the ticket agent knows that when issuing the ticket. I think that even though they are free, they have to be listed on the ticket.

To get an ICE express train at FRA you need to go to the "Fernbahnhof" (Long distance train station). You get to it from Terminal 1 by going to the 2nd floor mezzanine and taking the bridge over the access road to the building across the street, then taking the hallway out to the station.

MUNICH MADL:
Are you sure that a special bargain ticket can simply be used on the next train if you miss the specifically assigned train? If that's true, then everyone would just buy the bargain ticket and use it anytime they like.

As a rule if a change is needed it would be in Mannheim. The connecting train will be directly across the platform and will wait a reasonable time. Go to bahn.de and you should be able to see how easy it is.

The real Bahn schedule and fare webpage is at http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en. You can get to it from bahn.de, but why not go directly.

DAX, you are absolutely correct. Full fare tickets can be used on any train after the first day of validity, but Spar (Savings) fares have a Zugverbindung (they are for a specific train on a specific day). With at least SparPreis fares, you can cancel up to the day before and get a partial refund, but that doesn't help much if you flight is late. From the time of validity on, they are non-refundable, non-exchangeable.

However, as was pointed out, the full adult fare from FRA to Stuttgart via ICE is €54. Since children under 15 travel free with their parent, it's effectively €18 per person. Savings fares don't come with the child-free feature, and aren't as low as €18 per person, so €54 is as low as you are going to get.

Thanks everyone for your help with this! Sounds like it will be straight forward. The fare info for the kids is great to know.

Thanks again, everyone!!
Anne

We too are trying to figure out the best way to get from Frankfurt Airport to Stuttgart. With five adults, might renting a large car be more economical?

Renting a car, particularly if just for that trip is likely to be more expensive and more time consuming than going by train. Five adults, with luggage, would require a pretty large, and expensive, car. And you have the time to pick it up and return it.

If you are traveling on a weekend, all five of you can go by regional trains for a €35 Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket. If you are going during the week, it might be a little harder because the Länder-Tickets are just for one Land (state) and you are crossing several state borders. As long as you make sure you cross from Hessen directly into Baden-Württemberg, you can do it with a €30 Hessen-Ticket and a €27 Baden-Württemberg-Ticket, €57 (about $90) for all five of you.

Something to remember about renting a car - it's a little over 120 miles from Frankfurt to Stuttgart. If you rent a BIG car (for 5 people, and their luggage), it might get 30 mpg. That's 4 gallons of gas. At $8/gal (that might be conservative), you'll pay over $30 for gas. Add that to whatever you would pay for the car rental.

I'm actually trying to do the SAME thing on Monday - FRA to STR. I've been looking at the trains via the links - Sadly to the STR airport there isn't a nonstop train - I have to connect to the main train station downtown if I'm reading it right?? I'll report back!

You read it right. You'll arrive at Stuttgart Central station with your long distance train. Follow signs for S-Bahn ("S" logo"), to the subterranean platform of the surburban trains. You can take any S2 or S3 train with destination "Flughafen/Messe" or "Filderstadt" to the airport.