Need advice on Frankfurt for two days
 

Flying into Frankfurt in early Sept. and staying for two nights at the Quality Hotel Kaiserhof City Center. I enjoy beer gardens, some shopping, and seeing beautiful old buildings. My wife likes to shop. Want would be a good 2-day itinerary for my wife and I? Should we rent a car? Is it easy to travel by bus? Are there what we want within walking distance of the Hotel Kaiserhof City Center? Any input on other things to see and do would be greatly appreciated. Please advise and thank you.

Please tell us why you are going to Frankfurt. Frankfurt is a huge city and there isn't much to see that is any different than any other huge city. There are much better places outside of Frankfurt.

You could drive for under 2 hours and be in the Mosel River or Rhine River area where there are castles and vineyards and lovely little towns.

You could drive any any direction for around 2 hours and see many places much nicer than Frankfurt especially if you want to see old buildings.

You could drive for about 2-1/2 hours to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a wonderfully preserved medieval town.

If you don't want to drive, there are still many beautiful towns accessible by train.

The only reason we're staying in Frankfurt is that where the least expensive flight came in from the U.S. We plan on traveling south the Bavarian section of Germany. But, since we're touching down at 9:30AM in Frankfurt, maybe it would be better to cancel my Frankfurt hotel reservation and rent a car at the airport and stay the first night at one of the great places you mentioned. I was only interested in that we may be tired after the long flight and would simply want to relax, but I guess we could sleep on the long flight to Frankfurt. What do you think about driving from the Frankfurt airport to those beautiful towns you mentioned. Would we be too tired?? Robert59

"I enjoy beer gardens, some shopping, and seeing beautiful old buildings. My wife likes to shop. Want would be a good 2-day itinerary for my wife and I?"

I don't suggest a long drive on day 1. You may or may not sleep well on the plane. From FRA, it's about 15 minutes into Frankfurt proper by train, but you could head over to Mainz, on the bank of the Rhine where it meets the Main River, in about 20 minutes, and spend 2 nights there before moving on. Mainz was damaged heavily in WW II but there is an old-town area south of the Cathedral (Dom) that you'd enjoy - several nice cafes and wine bars along Augustinerstrasse. The Dom is on the main town square, which is surrounded by a pedestrians only zone and lots of shopping. The city park (Stadtpark) is within walking distance to the south of the old town area - and inside the lovely park at the Hotel Favorite is a nice outdoor Biergarten.

I'd relaz in Mainz on Day 1 and spend day 2 on a train outing north along the Rhine. The really scenic section lies between Bingen and Koblenz - lots of attractive villages here including Bacharach, Oberwesel, St. Goar, and Boppard on the west bank. Marksburg Castle is on the east bank - a very good tour:

www.marksburg.de

You could probably pick up a car in Mainz more cheaply than at the airport (heavy airport fees normally apply) on day 3 for the balance of your trip - or even on Day 2 if you wanted to use a car along the Rhine instead of the train. (The train stops in all the Rhine towns and would likely be more convenient than driving out of and back into Mainz; it's only 26 Euros for a train daypass (Rheinland-Pfalz ticket) good on the Regional trains for the Rhine outing, so the train is probably a lot cheaper than a day's car rental.)

I second Russ's suggestion to stop in Mainz for two nights--or at least for your first jet lagged arrival day/night. In addition to the sights he mentioned, there are some famous Chagall stained glass windows at St. Stephen's and the Gutenberg museum.

Mainz is on the S-bahn from the airport so easy to reach.

We usually limit our first day drive to 2 hours or less. This puts us at our first destination by Noon or earlier.

We always rent a car, but since our trips are 2-3 weeks, we save quite a bit of money by picking up our car in the small town of Kelsterbach, which is a couple of miles from the airport or a 15E taxi ride. We use www.gemut.com for our car rentals. The arrangements are made through AutoEurope and we pick up our car at the Avis location in Kelsterbach.

For our first overnight, we usually do one of the cities along the Rhine or Moselle River as this fits nicely in our under 2 hr driving limit.

We have never been to Mainz so I can't offer any comments on that itinerary.