I am traveling to Frankfurt next March w/kids & am planning 6 days in Frankfurt. Is this nuts & ought I visit many other cities in GERMANY and conceivably fly into Frankfurt, spend 3-4 days ther & train elsewhere for another 2-3 days of traveling elsewhere in IE. Germany?? Please advise on whatif possible better use of 6 days in Frankfurt. We are visiting friends who live there. My hunch is they will want us to stay in Frankfurt the entire 6 days. I am open to suggestions on where else & what else to do as far as cities /sidetrips etc.

My suggestion would be to visit Munich, at least. And the hills of Bavaria, toward Fussen and Garmisch-Partenkirchen are beautiful. I think you would be missing some of the best parts of Germany if you confined your visit to Frankfurt. I have been there, but it never struck me as a tourist destination. There are areas around Frankfurt, to visit. Like the Neckar River Valley (at least get to Heidelberg) and other the historical cities. <BR>

Frankfurt certainly isn't my idea of a tourist destination--it's interesting but big and commercial. Very closeby is the Rhine River where you can take a boat and the wine towns such as Rudesheim. Certainly worth a day trip. Agree with Bavaria or Heidelberg too. You can go everywhere by very efficient trains. Actually, we did a similar trip with kids and they loved the trains, boats, old city of Rothenberg etc. They will drive you crazy in Frankfurt for 6 days--I would plan 2-3.

Give your friends one night with their house to themselves and do two days, one night in Trier. Fascinating, and not hard to get to by train (I think one changes trains in Koblenz).

Jim: Rothenburg on the romantic road is a 16th century medieval city that is wonderful for a day trip from franfurt (its about 110 miles). All the above mentioned areas are terrific too.

Definitely agree with the other posts. The Rhine area is beautiful and very doable for a day trip. We stayed in Bacharach there and took 1 1/2 hour cruise to St. Goar - lovely! <BR>Also, highly recommend Rothenburg mentioned above. And, you must do the Nightwatchman Tour departing at 8pm in front of The Town Hall and costs 6 DM. It's an excellent tour and your children will love it! There is also great shopping in Rothenburg, particularly Kathie Wolfhardt, for its wonderful Christmas things - you must go in there! <BR>Further South, we drove from Rothenburg to Bavaria/Fussen area in about 3 hours on the autobahn. Romantic Road is supposed to be beautiful, but will take nearly twice as long - we didn't have the time. Bavaria is beautiful as well, lovely to drive around and there's much to see, most notably, Ludwig's castles. <BR>So, you should certainly leave Frankfurt - you'd be missing so much if you didn't! Have a great trip!