Germany - 5 hours in Frankfurt on transit

Hello folks, those of you regular Europe transiters, what should one do if one has 5 hours to kill at FRAport?

Hello folks, those of you regular Europe transiters, what should one do if one has 5 hours to kill at FRAport?

5 hours....

Hmmm, a very quick trip to Mainz perhaps. The Gutenberg Museum is pretty cool. Exit security and do some shopping at the underground mall?

Doesn’t FRA have a good planespotting platform? I might be imagining that, maybe I’m thinking of MUC?

I have 3h45 minutes on the outbound, and 45 on the inbound coming up for the first time. I dont know to lounge hop, or to try and explore for a bit. Will be doing OKA-NGO-BKK-FRA so I might be a bit out of it.

Please follow the discussion as the thread moves to the Travel->Germany forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

Hi Coffeeblack,
Could you provide just a few more details? For example, what day of the week will you be here, and at what time? That might already set some limit our suggestions...

Hi Coffeeblack,
Could you provide just a few more details? For example, what day of the week will you be here, and at what time? That might already set some limit our suggestions...

Thanks for the kind suggestion David,

I am a *Silver so no Lounge hopping available. The day would be friday, mid june, and I am coming in at around half 12 and leaving again at 1720.

I find Frankfurt to be one of the least interesting cities in Germany. Therefore, I tend to agree with the first suggestion of visiting Mainz. Here's a URL for more information, maps, etc.:

http://www.mainz.de/WGAPublisher/online/html/default/tourismus

Now, the problem is, you will have a very tight schedule. You can leave the Frankfurt Airport *Regional* train station at 12:37, 12:59 or 13:24 for Mainz, and the trip takes 26 minutes. If you're later than that, I wouldn't bother... Please note: there are *2* train stations at Frankfurt Airport, one for long-distance trains ("Fernbahn") and one for local trains ("Regionalbahn"). Luckily, the Regionalbahn station is the closest to the terminal.

You can return from the Mainz main station at 16:02 or 16:10, and be at FRA 26 minutes later. That will give you almost an hour to get through security. (Or leave at 15:32 if you're nervous...)

Alternatively, you could head into Frankfurt. This is actually more convenient, as the train only takes 11 minutes and runs at least every 15 minutes. There is an old central portion of Frankfurt (Römerplatz), which you can see in about 10 minutes, but I would find something else to do. I happen to love contemporary art, and the Frankfurt Modern Art Museum is small but quite good. There is a very famous botanic garden, the "Palmengarten", which will be quite beautiful in June, and easy to reach with public trasit (see their website, http://palmengarten.frankfurt.de/englisch/englisch.htm) Or, you could take a 50-minute boat trip on the Main river. The website (http://www.primus-linie.de/de/index.html) is only in German, but there is a 50-minute cruise every hour on the hour. You get there by taking the S-Bahn from the airport to the "Hauptwache" station and then a short walk.

If this is all too hectic for you -- there is the usual shopping at the airport, and as usual, it is overpriced, so you won't want to actually buy much, but it could keep you occupied...

There's always the casino in the airport if you like to gamble.