Frankfurt travel guide: where to eat, where to stay, and getting in from FRA
A personal Frankfurt travel guide. Getting in from FRA on the S-Bahn, where to stay near the center, and a casual food rotation across the dishes Frankfurt invented.
Frankfurt is the German financial capital that most travelers fly into and immediately leave for somewhere else. That is partly the right move (Frankfurt is not the destination Berlin or Munich is) and partly a missed call (Frankfurt has a denser apple-wine-and-traditional-cuisine scene than people expect, plus easy access to the Rhine and the Moselle wine valleys). One or two days at the center is enough. Pair with the Rhine cruise or the Heidelberg-and-Mannheim corridor for a week.
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Getting in from the airport
Frankfurt Frankfurt Airport (FRA) sits about 12 km southwest of the center. The S-Bahn S8 / S9 connects directly to the Hauptbahnhof in 12 minutes, which makes it one of the most efficient airport arrivals in Europe.
| Mode | Time | Cost | When to use |
|---|---|---|---|
| S-Bahn S8 or S9 | 12 to 15 min | €5.85 single, €11.05 day pass | The default. Direct from FRA Regionalbahnhof to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof every 15 minutes |
| ICE / IC train to Hauptbahnhof | 10 min | €5.85 to €15 depending on operator | Faster but the schedule is sparse. Useful only if your train continues onward to Cologne, Mannheim, or another city |
| Uber / FreeNow / taxi | 20 to 35 min | €35 to €55 | Late arrival, heavy luggage, or a group splitting the fare |
| Bus 61 to Südbahnhof | 30 min | €5.85 single | For hotels near Sachsenhausen. Less common but cheaper than a taxi to that side |
Festivals and big annual events
Frankfurt is one of the most trade-fair-driven cities in Europe (the city invented the international trade-fair format and the Frankfurter Messe has run continuously for over 800 years). The hotel market is built around trade-fair weeks, which means a few specific weeks of the year are unbookable or absurdly expensive, and the rest are reasonable.
| Event | When | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Frankfurt Book Fair (Frankfurter Buchmesse) | A week in mid-October | The biggest book fair in the world. Around 280,000 attendees over five days, with the last two days open to the public. Hotels triple or quadruple in price, often book six to nine months ahead. Even the suburban hotels along the S-Bahn fill. If you are not attending, do not visit that week |
| IAA Mobility (auto show) | Variable, recently moved to Munich | The Frankfurt Motor Show moved to Munich as IAA Mobility in 2021. Verify before assuming a Frankfurt edition for any given year |
| Light + Building / ISH / Ambiente / Christmasworld | Various weeks across January, February, and March | The other big trade fairs that fill the city. Each runs four to seven days and pushes hotel prices up by 2x to 3x. Check the Messe Frankfurt calendar before booking dates in the first quarter of the year |
| Christmas Market (Weihnachtsmarkt) | Late November to December 22 | Römerberg square and the surrounding Old Town. One of the older German Christmas markets (since the 14th century) and one of the bigger ones outside Bavaria. About three million attendees across the run. Less hotel-pressure than Nuremberg or Dresden because Frankfurt has more hotel inventory, but still a busy month |
| Museumsuferfest (Museum Riverbank Festival) | A weekend in late August | The free three-day festival along the Main riverbank. Free entry to the 26 museums that line the south bank. Concerts, food stalls, three million attendees. The single best free weekend on the Frankfurt calendar. Hotels stay reasonable |
| Apfelweinfestival | Mid-August, 10 days | The apple-wine festival on the Roßmarkt. Apple-wine tastings from the small Sachsenhausen taverns and producers, plus food. Smaller hotel impact, real reason to be in town if the apple-wine side of Hesse is the appeal |
| Frankfurt Marathon | Late October | Road closures across the center. Hotel inventory tightens but does not spike like the Book Fair |
| Wäldchestag | The Tuesday after Pentecost | A Frankfurt-only public holiday and folk festival in the Stadtwald (city forest). Beer tents, fairground rides, local. Worth knowing about as a closure day if your dates land on it |
| Sound of Frankfurt | A weekend in late August | The Zeil shopping street fills with free stages of pop, rock, and electronic music. The Saturday is the centerpiece |
The trip-shaping event is the Frankfurt Book Fair in mid-October. If you are visiting Frankfurt that week and are not attending, your hotel will cost double or triple. Push the trip a week in either direction. The Museumsuferfest in late August is the underrated free weekend most international travelers do not know about.
Where to eat
Frankfurt food has its own side: Handkäse mit Musik (sour-milk cheese with vinegar-and-onion), Grüne Soße (the seven-herb green sauce), Frankfurter sausage (the original), and the apple-wine taverns (Apfelweinwirtschaften) of Sachsenhausen across the river. The picks below cover the casual everyday side. The apple-wine sit-down is a different category and worth a Sachsenhausen evening.
| Spot | Rating |
|---|---|
| BonVivant Restaurant | Pinned |
| DaVinc Cucina e Vino | Pinned |
| Foods MyZeil Döner Styles | Pinned |
| Gref-Völsings Rindswurst | Pinned |
| Kaffeestube Gutleut | Pinned |
| Kebab Han | Pinned |
Keep reading
Companion pages on places and themes that overlap with this list.