We (5 ladies) will arrive via air in Frankfurt late on Saturday Sept. 19, 2009 and depart Frankfurt on Wednesday Sept. 23, 2009 for the states. We have 3-days to see as much as possible and are looking for recommendations.....preferably via public transportation. We are committed to making a stop in Wiesbaden so are looking for a recommended itinerary from there.

Two words; Search "Mainhattengirl"

Better yet, she will come to you............ let's see how long it takes

Hmmmm, it's 1 a.m. in Frankfurt - I guess she is sleeping.

Hotels will be expensive in Frankfurt during that time due to the International Auto Show.

I'd head to Cochem or Koblenz on the Mosel River. From here you could take a boat trip and the train to many of the riverside towns along the Mosel and the Rhine.

A stop in Wiesbaden and a couple of days on the Mosel and Rhine would be a great way to spend your time IMO.

I am awake now! Yes, the IAA is during that time, and you will be lucky to find a hotel room in Frankfurt, and if you do, it will be expensive. You might do well to look in Wiesbaden or Mainz for hotels, though even they book up for this trade fair.

What are your interests? It is easy to take the S-bahn into Frankfurt. Mainz itself has a lot of interesting Roman ruins and the cathedral there is very impressive as well as being 1000 years old. What are you planning on seeing in Wiesbaden?

I agree with M-girl. I'd stay in Mainz. Use the s-bahn for transportation. Spend one day in Mainz, one day in Frankfurt and one day in Weisbaden.

Hi; What are your interests? If it's old towns, then 'bettyk' suggested very good thoughts. There is so many towns on the Mosel to visit. Dick

If I had that little amount of time, I would head for Assmannshausen on the Rhine, stay at the Hotel Krone, and enjoy all the sights and sounds, and restaurants, in that wonderful little town. Gradyghost

OOOH. Too bad you arrive late on Saturday 9/19. That's the night of the "Rhine in Flames" fireworks displays in St. Goar, NW of Frankfurt. But the wine festival continues on Sunday in both St. Goar and neighboring Oberwesel, so get there as soon as you can. Rooms should be much easier to get for the 20th and on.

Besides the boat trips mentioned above (schedule: http://www.k-d.com/englisch/schiffst...hein-peak.html ) you will want to see a medieval castle, no doubt. Marksburg Castle in Braubach - www.marksburg.de - can be reached by river boat (10:35 if you start in Oberwesel, arrive 12:20 in Braubach.) It's a very good tour of the only never-destroyed castle on the Rhine. The above boat ride takes you through the most scenic part of the Unesco World Heritage-protected Rhine Gorge.

Then do some wine tasting and sightseeing in the other Rhine villages - Boppard and Bacharach are great little places.

I'd stop in Wiesbaden on the way back rather than first so you can get to the wine fest.

By the way - Mainz is a very nice city. I lived there for a year once. I'd visit it if you have extra time or if you're only interested in staying somewhere more citified, but I think the Rhine villages are much more enchanting overall.

When is your flight departing from Frankfurt? If it isn't early in the morning, you've got plenty of options where to spend the last night (you need to figure in the time for security checks and I think it's also advisable to plan for a delay of the train of half an hour when catching a flight).

Frankfurt airport sits on the high speed railway link from Mannheim to Cologne and you just walk over from the railway station to the terminal. From Mannheim it's about 30 minutes, from Cologne only a little more than an hour, so basically there is no need to spend the night prior to departure in Frankfurt.

Within a radius of about 60-90 minutes by train you get for example to Würzburg, Heidelberg, Speyer, or Cologne.

A possibility already mentioned is going up the Rhine valley by regional trains. You could end after 3 days in Cologne and then take the high speed train from there to the airport. Or you stay around Frankfurt and make day trips to some of these places.

For planning the train rides, best use www.bahn.de

For hotels, I like www.hrs.de By the way, I checked for 19.-23. September and the prices still seem pretty normal to me.