Tour during 8-hour layover in Frankfurt?
 

Hi. We have an 8-hour layover in Frankfurt in August so, rather than sit in the airport for 8 hours, we'd like to see a bit of the city. Any chance of arranging for a private tour? Otherwise, any ideas about things we should do during that 8 hour layover would be greated appreciated. Thanks!

Good afternoon!

We were in pretty much the same situation last year on our way to Italy. Below is an excerpt from my travelblog:

"We arrived in Frankfurt without incident….and tried to find our way around the airport.

It is not the easiest airport to navigate, and we took a couple of wrong turns, but eventually made our way down to the U-bahn station to take the train into Frankfurt.

To say that the map and timetable, etc., is confusing is putting it mildly that is for sure. I suppose we looked thoroughly confused, because some nice train lady come over and asked us where we wanted to go. We said we wanted to go in to town and she took us over to the ticket machine and got our tickets for us! How great is that! 2 round trip tickets in to the center of town cost us a total of €13. She pointed us in the right direction….5 stops from the airport and we would be in the middle of the shopping district - or to Frankfurt au Main.

Frankfurt au Main is like a really big Robson Street in Vancouver. All closed off to traffic, lots of different stores (including H&M!!!) and also stalls down the middle of the street. Imagine Robson with kiosks down the middle. Very neat. The weather was lovely (probably around 23 degrees and sunny with some clouds) and we just wandered around, trying to get our bearings.

We stopped for lunch at an outdoor restaurant, called the Birmingham Pub, har har…We both had 1/2 liter Henniger beers and Bratwurst with fries. Got a great picture of DH with the beer. As we were starting to eat, someone started playing the accordian…good ol’ German tunes….we knew we weren’t in Vancouver anymore at that point. Sat and soaked in the sun, and the fact that we were in Germany!!! Lunch cost us a total of €16.30. Very reasonable. Didn’t know whether we should tip, so we didn’t. Wouldn’t have made a difference because the gypsies would have taken it off the table anyways. We were approached a few times for change – a firm no (repeated several times) seemed to make them go away. DH was quite stunned that I was that confident…..

Off we wandered around some more, headed to the Dom (main Catherdral). By this time we were getting tired and thinking about wandering back to the airport…but decided to just wander a bit more, and ended up in the old part of Frankfurt - just outside the main area. This is where the old, old buildings were…with the typical German facade. Very cool! We could see the river Main just a ways down, so made our way down there…

Stopped in a little Italian cafe (I know, I know) and had espresso and water…chatted with the owners, practiced some Italian, and people watched. Nice little break to get off of our feet.

Went down to the river, and it turns out that there is a little boat cruise (can't miss it) which take you up and down the river so you can see the Frankfurt skyline (which is very cool with big tall glass towers). We just missed a boat, so wandered around for a while longer and then took a 55 minute cruise (€6.20 each).

It was gorgeous sunny, not too hot, and we just sat in the front of the boat and relaxed. DH had a little snooze….

We caught the train back to the airport..muddled our way back through security and wandered around - there really is nothing there…except smoke (I’m a smoker and I could hardly handle the smoke!!) and really bad coffee. There are pretty much no restaurants to speak of once you get back through security. We had about 2 hours to kill and just sat and watched the planes landing and taking off, being loaded and unloaded. Pretty neat to watch 747’s going through their routine before heading back out again."

*****

All this was managed in less than 8 hours...so catch the U-Bahn and head into the city...it was a very nice little break...we were glad we did!

Some years ago, I was in your situation: 6 hours in Frankfurt, firdt timr there. I knew that the city is not far from airport, and I asked at Information desk where is the train station. They recommend me to take a private tour from airport to city. it was a nice iedea; a good guide came with his car, took me, show me the city, ihad some free time in the center, then took be back to airport.
I think all this was 50 DM (there was not Euro then). Probably you can find info in internet about sightseeing tours from airports.
I was very glad that i had a nice and interesting morning, instead to wait in airport.

camelbak I'm sorry for the ignorance but what does HD mean.
thanks

DH means "darling husband" or "dear husband" or better yet..."the guy that I had to drag onto the plane to go to Italy, and he didn't want to come home!".

:D

got it.

Cochem. I am wanting help from Valtor. You mentioned Pension Albers in a previous post.(Berlin to Munich to Frankfurt). Apologies to Kathy for jumping in. Would that be at 16 Herren Strasse Cochem where they have guesthouse and apartments? They call their website Gästehaus Albers.

Thanks for all the recommendations! Can anyone recommend any PRIVATE TOUR GUIDES in Frankfurt? Rather than wander around on our own - I'm thinking having a guide would enable us to make the best use of the short time we are there.

Wiesbaden and Mainz are great cities nearby as well. You can get to both on the S-bahn at the airport.

Wiesbaden has beautiful parks and nice smaller city center. If you want to shop, most of the stores are on the high street as well. One can go up neroberg in the hills overlooking the city.

Mainz is just across the rhine river. Its lively as a college town. Its guttenberg's home town, so they have an original bible and musuem on it and the printing press if that interests you.

If you rent a car - you could potentially hit some area wineries. (However note that traffic can be bad on the A3 near the airport)

Answer for Ballarat:
Yes, you are right; the address is:
Schloßstr. 1 OR Herrenstr. 14 (as the hous is at the intersections of two streets 9one of them the main pedestrian comercial street).
The internet site does not show pictures and does not give details, but we loved the place, big rooms very well equipped, the location, .. every thing.
Their email address is:
[email protected]

I hope this will help.

We are a family of four, sons are adults -- booked to travel in May for our return flight from Prague to Frankfurt to JFK. There is a 10-hour layover in Frankfurt. Arriving 7a.m. departing at 5:00 p.m.for JFK. Where you able to arrange a private tour? If so, can you give me some info -- company, contact person, fee? Also, we love riding trains and we might go sightseeing on our own. It is possible we might go this route. However, how do we handle our carry-on bags? Is there a place at the airport where we can deposit them? If such exists, does anyone know how far it is from the Lufthansa departure gate? We are thinking of timeline -- time to pick up carry-on and make it on time to check in. Any response will be very much appreciated.

Camelbak,

Frankfurt airport might not be the easiest airport to navigate, but I doubt that any large airport could claim the title of “easiest”. Overall, I have found FRA to be a relatively easy airport to get around in.

Perhaps part of your confusion was a result of your apparent lack of any understanding of German, as evidenced by "Frankfurt au Main". The name of the city is “Frankfurt am Main”, not au Main. Frankfurt is located on the Main River. “Am” is a contraction for “an dem” (on the).

Also, the trains to downtown are S-bahns (Schnell or fast bahn). That large green circle with the white “S” stands for S-bahn, not U-bahn. The U-bahn is signified by a blue circle with the letter “U”. There are no U-bahns to the airport. If you tried to get back using the U-bahn, you would not get there. Both are underground in town, but the U-bahns are smaller, lighter cars and go shorter distances. The S-bahns go longer distances out into the suburbs and often share tracks with the regional trains. Hence they are larger and heavier, and go faster. Think of the S-bahns as the Long Island Railroad and the U-bahns as the New York subways.

I think the schedules posted at the airport follow a pretty standard format used all over Europe. Of course, sometimes the schedule shows multiple trains at the same time, but on different days of the week, with slightly different end stops. The explanation is in German.

Finally, according to what you said she bought, your friend in the station did pretty well by you. Fares today are probably a little higher than when you were there. Two round trips from FRA to downtown Frankfurt, bought as single trips, would cost €14,20 today. Alternatively, there is a group day ticket (Gruppentageskarte) for €13,70. It would have saved you only a little, but it would have allowed free use of any conveyances (S-bahn, U-bahn, buses, trams if there are any) all day long in the downtown area, not just travel to and from downtown. A Gruppentageskarte is also valid for as many as five people traveling together.

As for tipping, service (Bedienung) is generally included in the bill, and that will be indicated on the menu as “Service ist inclusive” or “Bedienung ist einbegriffen”. It is, however, considered polite to round the bill up to the next full Euro. You should have given the waiter 17 Euro. If you have the exact change, say “Stimmt so” (shtimt zo) meaning "that amount is correct, I don’t need change". It you only had a 20 Euro note, you would say “Siebzehn Euro” (Zeep-tsayn Oy-ro), and he would give you 3 Euro change. You always include the tip when you pay the bill; it is never left on the table.

I am new to Fodor Forum.I am familiar with AOL board. When I typed the message on 3/4, the message was intended for Kathysmail about her 8-hour layover in Frankfurt and arranging for a private tour. I am repeating it below. I hope other posters will respond also. Many thanks!

Author: Mscript
Date: 03/04/2007, 09:39 am
We are a family of four, sons are adults -- booked to travel in May for our return flight from Prague to Frankfurt to JFK. There is a 10-hour layover in Frankfurt. Arriving 7a.m. departing at 5:00 p.m.for JFK. Where you able to arrange a private tour? If so, can you give me some info -- company, contact person, fee? Also, we love riding trains and we might go sightseeing on our own. It is possible we might go this route. However, how do we handle our carry-on bags? Is there a place at the airport where we can deposit them? If such exists, does anyone know how far it is from the Lufthansa departure gate? We are thinking of timeline -- time to pick up carry-on and make it on time to check in. Any response will be very much appreciated.

Well, I stand corrected on everything I posted. :)

Honestly, I wasn't planning on going to Germany for my Italy trip. The layover was an anomoly not expected, and I was concentrating on Italian, not German. But considering I had never taken a European train before..I guess I managed to slog through okay in my day trip to Frankfurt.

Trust me...I am still confused about about where we were in Frankfurt. :)

I did go to the train station with map in hand of where we wanted to go, with the station names, etc. (I used the train website and printed out before we went). Of course the lady helped us figure out where we REALLY wanted to go and gave us the info that we needed. She was very nice.

You may have found the airport easy to navigate because you clearly have an understanding of the German language...I don't...and selfishly didn't feel entirely compelled to learn the necessary grammar and rail system of Germany for my 10 hour layover.

Unfortunately, part of the airport confusion was that we asked an Info Desk person in Terminal 2 if he could point the way to the train station because we lost sight of the train signs (it HAS to be around here somewhere!). I had train schedule AND airport map in hand....shly showing the nice man where we wanted to go....

He blinked at us a few times, shrugged his shoulders, turned around and started talking on the phone.

Alrighty....so....we backtracked a bit....found the sign again...and found out 10 minutes later that the entrance was about 50 feet from the information desk.

Now, alright, maybe MY fault for not speaking German...but I am not abrupt tourist...I asked nicely..had the train schedule in my hand, smile meekly (as us Canadians are wont to do in situations such as those).

As for the tipping....it was included in the price..and I paid by CC so couldn't hand her a 20E. Next time if I do pay cash I will know. Thanks for the heads up.

BUT we found our way...got to town and back. Liked the city..liked the visit..happy we went...will do it again if we are stuck in Frankfurt for another 10 hours enroute to our next holiday.

Larryincolorado... interesting. Next time I have a 7 to 10 hour layover in a country that speaks an entirely different language from the destinationm country I'm going to, I'll try to

1) read up on 5 guidebooks on the layover country to fully understand what I'm supposed to see within that 7 hours.

and

2) learn to speak the language fluently just so I can read the train schedules and ask the nice info desk guy where I should go.

In other words, I think your response is kinda harsh for a layover answer.