Where in Amsterdam are you heading to once you get to the Amsterdam Centraal?
While you have only mentioned traveling during the day, an alternative is to travel at night. Train is not a good option in this case as such travel involves insane number of changes late at night. For example, there is a KLM flight leaving around 7:20pm and a Lufthansa leaving at 9:00 pm. If you have nothing special you were thinking of doing in Germany on your last evening, just travel the night before to AMS. The queues in the evening are usually shorter. This saves day time in Amsterdam without giving up day time in Germany. If you are going to Museumplein/Leidesplein/Elandsgracht area in Amstredam, the bus 397 would get you there faster than going via Amsterdam Centraal especially at that time of the night. You don't even have to get tickets before boarding the Connexxion bus 397. You hop on and pay cash to the driver.

Yes you would be. It would also go a lot towards solving your luggage issues.

Why this advice, when travel time by ICE from Frankfurt to Amsterdam is 4.5 hours without changes? a 7.20PM flight means needing to be at the airport between 4 and 5 PM. It means having to get back to your hotel to pick up the bags and being homeless during the day. Never my favorite way of spending time. Also I don't think Conexxion buses take cash anymore, but I could be mistaken.

Well, I absolutely adore going by train, and do it even if it is 1 or 2 hours longer. It's simply more comfortable for me, and much more straightforward. I've lived in Germany for 10 years, and have done most of my travel by train.

If you are in first class, chances are there will be room for your luggage.

Also, I am a short and thin 64-year-old woman, and have NO problems taking a 24-inch case as well as a smaller pack or bag. I have started making my connections longer, though, so I don't have to rush between trains.

Unless you are disabled, I just don't understand the aversion to actually walking with luggage or lifting it for a moment...

s

when travel time by ICE from Frankfurt to Amsterdam is 4.5 hours without changes?>

8:20 am train including travel from Mainz to Frankfurt Flughafen is just 4:28 according to www.bahn.de/en. Train is again a no-brainer IMO - shuffling baggage inside a crowded airport is no fun either.

It's easy to compare:
If you take the 12.40 flight, you must leave Mainz Hbf at 10.10
If you land at Schiphol at 13.50, have to fetch your luggage and to move to the train station, you may arrive at Amsterdam Centraal at 14.51

If you leave Mainz Hbf at 10.20 by train along the Rhine river and change at Cologne at the same platform, you will arrive at Amsterdam Centraal at 15.28

Advantages of the flight solution:
you are about half an hour faster;
you have the opportunity to do 2 rather long walks through 2 airports (if you take the train, the change at Cologne is on the same platform);
you have the opportunity to queue at the check in counter;
you will not be disturbed by views through the train windows to the scenic Rhine Valley;
you will have a (very slight) chance to get your luggage missrouted.

Check in counters hardly exist anymore. Check in is done online or at the airport using a kiosk which often can also be used to print luggage label and send bag on it's way to the hold.

As they will already have seen the Rhine Gorge (rest of Rhine to Cologne is so-so with lots of industry and few cute towns - the 8:20 from Mainz and airport to Amsterdam CS again takes 4 h 28 min - no reason to take longer Rhine route for OP unless they want to get off at Cologne. But for baggages putting them on the direct train to Amsterdam C S is to me better than taking train to airport and shuffling to check-in with bags and then waiting to pick them up in Amsterdam airport, etc.

Getting bags at Schiphol Airport and taking them on a potentially mobbed commuter train to Amsterdam also a hassle with bags. Taxis of course nice but cost a lot.

" rest of Rhine to Cologne is so-so with lots of industry"
I like the leg around Remagen, however

But there is just another thing I cannot unerstand:
The OP finds it to long to go from Frankfurt Flughafen S-Bahnhof to Frankfurt Fernbahnhof but seems to prefer now the much longer way from Frankfurt Flughafen S-Bahmnhof to the flight check in:

Yes train is easiest with bags - there will be lots of places to stow luggage near you as train begins in Frankfurt so unlikely to be really crowded -especially in first class.

Until today we were leaning towards flying.
Now I think the train might be better for us. We get 4 hours on the train to relax. Not so if we fly.
In both cases we would arrive around the same time 1:00-1:30.

I checked the Frankfurt station diagram and the entrance and tracks are all on ground level with no going up or down.

The price is pretty close both ways.

On the German railway site I notice that there's a Frankfurt (MAIN) and a Frankfurt (MAIN) Hbf. station.

Is that the same station or are they different?

>>> On the German railway site I notice that there's a Frankfurt (MAIN) and a Frankfurt (MAIN) Hbf. station. Is that the same station or are they different?
One way to find this out is to have www.bahn.com show you the station locations on a map.
Once you find an itinerary of interest, hit "Show Details." The "Map View" button at the bottom shows you the route, the departing and the arrival stations on a map.
The "Station Information" shows info on departing and the arrival station. For large stations like Frankfurt HBF or Köln HBF, it also shows you the station layout map.

>On the German railway site I notice that there's a Frankfurt (MAIN) and a Frankfurt (MAIN) Hbf. station.

Is that the same station or are they different?<

Yes, it should be the same station. 'Hbf' means Hauptbahnhof, which is 'main train station'. And in case of confusion, the (MAIN) means Frankfurt on the River Main (as opposed to Frankfurt an der Oder, which is on the Polish border).

>I checked the Frankfurt station diagram and the entrance and tracks are all on ground level with no going up or down.<

Does this mean you are going to the Hauptbahnhof instead of the Flughafen Fernbahnhof? Probably the train to Cologne (if that is your train, I have lost track) passes by the airport - usually that is so - and you can shave off a bit of your distance by simply leaving from there. I don't see any advantage by leaving from the Hbf, even if you are trying to avoid a move between tracks by escalator or stairs. I don't remember how to access the platforms at the Fernbf but usually if you have difficult luggage there is a lift you can take down to the main concourse (or indeed up to it). Many thousands of people change between tracks every day and manage just fine, and you will too. I promise, you won't miss your train!

Lavandula

Lavandula,

The main reason I'd get on the train at Hbf instead of at Flughafen Fernbf would be to board the train at its point of origin to make sure we don't have a luggage storage issue.

It has nothing to doing with changing trains (which I wouldn't have to do) nor does it have anything to do with tracks or platforms.

I did check the layout diagram for the Hbf station just to see if there were any changes in floor level between the station entrance and the track / platform level and there isn't.

OK, I can't fault that, if you get on at the point of origin you will have your choice of luggage storage, that is true.

At Frankfurt/ Main Hbf the platforms all culminate at the same point, they are not 'through' platforms as you get in other stations, so you don't need to think about going over or under the tracks to access the platform. So if lifting the bags is an issue, well, you have eliminated both of those sticking points by going that extra 12 minutes to the Hauptbahnhof. Schöne Reise! (Happy travels!)

Lavandula

Now let's see if we can regress a little.

Let's assume we were being driven from Mainz.

If we go to Frankfurt Central Station, the advantage is that we are at the beginning of the line with no luggage storage issues.

If we go to the airport train station (not the airport regional train station), the disadvantage is that we are at the second stop and not the line starting point. However, we have a shorter ride to the train station.

We will most likely be going at a busy time (around 8:00AM)

What are the chances the luggage storage area would fill up in one stop (first class), which train station would be easier to navigate and would there be more road traffic going to either train station?

Below is the diagram of the train car though not for the actual date. The only place I see where luggage can be stored is in those two slots about a quarter of the way from the right end of the train car. Is that correct?


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...8a16a297ae.jpg

If it were me, I'd start at Frankfurt HBF. Just for the ease of knowing that luggage storage will be there. You can bet that at Frankfurt Airport, many people will get on.

Menachem,

It looks like you were waiting for me to post. Very quick response. Thanks.

That kind of settles which train station. Are those 2 slots (car diagram above) about a quarter of the way from the right end of the train car for luggage storage? I don't see any other place.

I'll discuss again with my wife when she gets up and I get back from the gym. Then most likely buy train tickets this morning. There is only one set of single width, face-to-face seats with a table between on that train car. So I should buy the tickets quickly.

Thanks again Menachem. Excellent information on all of your posts that answer people's questions. I will get back to you on Rotterdam and possibly Utrecht soon.

Forgot to ask one more thing.

How much time should we allow to drive from Mainz to Frankfurt Central train station leaving around 8:00AM on a weekday?