I’m planning flights to Africa for August and one option is via Frankfurt on Lufthansa. It’s the cheapest(and quickest, overall) business class fare from Atlanta. The downside is a 15 hour layover in Frankfurt. Is there anything there worth seeing or should I just book a hotel room at the airport.

Frankfurt is a great city with some fine hotels, pubs/bars, high end shopping and some great French restaurants around the opera district. Are you traveling with firearms?
4WD

quote:

Originally posted by 4WD:
Frankfurt is a great city with some fine hotels, pubs/bars, high end shopping and some great French restaurants around the opera district. Are you traveling with firearms?
4WD

No. There will be 4 of us. Since it’s an overnight flight, I figure we will get some sleep so resting/sleeping isn’t a big deal but if there isn’t much to see, I will just book 2 rooms at the airport and hang out there.

Several years ago, we flew that same route to Namibia.

We hired a car and toured the city. I remember the World Cup was in town.

We had an excellent lunch at a fine restaurant situated in an ancient cobblestoned plaza.

But, all said and done, we found it rather staid and boring, and couldn’t wait to get back to our hotel for a long nap.

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
I’m planning flights to Africa for August and one option is via Frankfurt on Lufthansa. It’s the cheapest(and quickest, overall) business class fare from Atlanta. The downside is a 15 hour layover in Frankfurt. Is there anything there worth seeing or should I just book a hotel room at the airport.

When I last had an overnight layover in Frankfurt (10 yrs ago), I stayed at the Steigenberger Airport Hotel. For dinner, the hotel's Restaurant Unterschweinstiege provided excellent regional food. I would happily stay there again.

Frankonia Darmstadt is pretty nice.

https://www.frankonia.de/servi...lialen/dortmund.html

It is 25km from the airport.

Nothing else is around there, it is a pretty depressing part of town.

If you have chicks with you they have really fancy female hunting clothing there. Well they have it for everyone, but that store is really nice. Ask to look at their used binos and scopes. They often have some smoking deals.

Zoo is ok, really nice for Europe but not spectacular.

Tons of Brothels in Frankfurt. Never been to one, maybe not a super idea to be around more people with Covid. Could wreck your safari.

One of the active duty guys I took to the Frankfurt hunting show (horse and hound or something like that) wanted to get dropped off at a big on there, not sure about it. Mostly happily married, haven't seen another naked woman since we got married over 13 years ago, if your single they are handy.

Ask Charlie, maybe there are some good hunting shops near the airport. Kettner used to be next to the airport, but I think https://www.waffen-bock.de/impressum is pretty good.

https://feine-jagdwaffen.de/ Is also in Frankfurt I have never been there.

You could also take a River Cruise if the timing worked out with your flights. https://www.rhine-river-tours.org You can see alot of castles really quickly from about 500 yards away.

Thanks, guys. I will be traveling with my wife, stepson and his wife. Sounds like tourism possibilities are limited so next question is where to stay. The hotel within the airport( My Cloud Hotel) is expensive and rooms are REALLY small. Other suggestions??

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
Thanks, guys. I will be traveling with my wife, stepson and his wife. Sounds like tourism possibilities are limited so next question is where to stay. The hotel within the airport( My Cloud Hotel) is expensive and rooms are REALLY small. Other suggestions??

See my post above. This hotel currently is just over 100 Euro/night.

Sounds good. My Cloud is 200 euros/night for a room the size of a closet.

I would advise against getting a room and sleeping while in Frankfurt. Stay up and active so that you'll sleep on the overnight trip to Africa. When you land in Africa, which is in about the same time zone as Frankfurt, you're internal clock will be much better adjusted than if you sleep all day in Frankfurt then are up all night on the plane. Sleeping in Frankfurt just delays getting over your jet lag by another day, which is a day in Africa that you could be hunting.

We took the train downtown where there were pubs and shops to enjoy. Ate a great lunch and drank some fine German beer. Seems like it was about the fifth stop from the airport, but schedules and stations may be different now. Had plenty of time to while away much of the day there then return to the airport to await our next flight.

My wife and I did the same thing on a similar 15 hour layover in Amsterdam in 2019. We enjoyed the day and it made it easier to sleep on the next leg of the flight.

The airport has a train station, where you can get a train and head to Heidelberg, see some sights and have a few real beers. Are you a Leica fan, another easy train trip. Koln is also a very easy trip, but other than a big church, much to see.

https://www.bahn.com/

Bacharach is just west of there - a great little town.

Ive had many long layovers, but mostly in South America. I wish I had taken better advantage and toured around more.

Thanks a lot, guys. During long layovers in London( times 3), Paris, and Zurich, I have taken the train into town and enjoyed it a lot.

.

15 hours ! Assume an hour to get out of the airport and 1.5 hrs to get back through customs, security etc, so working on 12 hours, I would ....

Get the ICE train (inter city express) from Frankfurt Airport to Cologne
- travel time 60 minutes - and the visit the Cologne Cathedral, have lunch on the River Rhein embankment at any of the top restaurants there, spend an hour walking about the old town or even a 90 minute Rhein cruise round it off with Kaffee und Kuchen in on of the many bakeries, have a glass or two of Kölsch, and then take the ICE back to FFM Airport.

All easily done with excellent public transport and as easy as going into Frankfurt for the day....

Sure beats the heck out of an airport hotel.

Plus August you will have great weather!

.

Jerry:
Frankfurt Zoo is one of the finest in the world.

I found it mighty easy to spend the whole day

there.

There's a great many things to see in that city.

Do a search: 'what's to see in Frankfurt".

You'll regret not playing tourists while there.

George

Frankfurt Zoo is great!

If you are not into Zoos, then I would definitely consider Charlies advice.

We've done the Frankfurt long layover a good number of times. We usually book a dayroom outside of the terminal ( Mercure Hotel) grab a nap/shower and go do a little sightseeing walk just around the area of the hotel - just to stretch the legs. Have a late lunch/early dinner at a local restaurant. Then a nap/shower and back to the airport.

If you're not planning on getting a dayroom in or outside the terminal then I highly suggest you grab a shower HERE within the terminal before you catch your last leg on the way in or going home. We've used this every time on the way home. Just pack a change of clothes in your carry-on. LIFE and WIFE saver!!

Twice I have had Layovers in Frankfurt. The last one was for 6 hours. I had no firearms to worry about. My wife and I jumped on the S ban into the city. Picked up a picnic lunch at a deli and walked down to the river. Had a really nice lunch. The train ride was not very long. A time before that, when returning from a boar hunt in Tunesia, I stopped in Germany for two weeks. Traveled to Augesburg for a hunting show, then on to Berlin. At that time, I was able to stash my guns with coustoms at the Frankfurt airport. They charged me 0.05 Euro per day. Apparently, the Germans flip/flop all the time on this program. One time they offer it, then they don't. Travel with Guns travel agency got me a letter from the Boss at Frankfurt Customs saying that they had this system in place. That letter came in handy, cause when I arrived at the customs office, no one there knew anything about keeping guns there. Not a gun friendly group there at all.