Frankfurt Travel Guide

Frankfurt Travel Tips – 9 unique and off the beaten track tips and travel ideas to help you discover what makes Frankfurt so much fun.

These Frankfurt travel tips will also help you get to know the locals and the places they love to go to.

Laugh around one of the city’s most humorous museum

By User: Pedelecs at wikivoyage shared, CC BY-SA 3.0

Caricatura Museum für Komische Kunst – Weckmarkt 17, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

One of the city’s most unique museums to visit is the Caricatura Museum Frankfurt.

The Caricatura Museum is dedicated to humorous drawings and will delight those who like comics, cartoons, satirical sketches and caricature drawings.

The museum displays the work of German cartoonists but there are English descriptions and translations for some of the works.

There are both permanent and temporary exhibits, which change regularly. The museum’s permanent exhibition shows a variety of works by F. W. Bernstein, Robert Gernhardt, Chlodwig Poth, Hans Traxler and F. K. Waechter. These five illustrators, together with the satirical writers of Bernd Eilert, Eckhard Henscheid and Peter Knorr, form the so-called New Frankfurt School.

There are also paintings of many famous people including Michael Jackson, The Rolling Stones, Sean Connery, Leonardo DiCaprio, Iggy Pop and Marilyn Monroe.

There is also a really great little museum to pick up some souvenirs and maybe a print of your favourite museum piece.

Learn the history of leather in this absorbing museum

By Deutsches Ledermuseum – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

DLM Deutsches Ledermuseum Offenbach – Frankfurter Str. 86, 63067 Offenbach am Main, Germany

The DLM Deutsches Ledermuseum (German Leather Museum) is located in Offenbach, Hesse, Germany. It is about a 20-minute drive from Frankfurt city centre or 15 minutes on the S-Bhan.

It is one of the largest leather museums in the world. There is a wide variety of leather items, including some exhibits that are believed to be more than 3,000 years old.

The museum showcases three collections: in the Collection of Applied Art, there are masterworks of European leather design from the Middle Ages to the present. Another collection is the Shoe Museum with over 15,000 exhibits of footwear spanning more than four millennia. A highlight of the Ethnological Collection are the shadow-puppet figures from Turkey, Egypt, China and South-East Asia, as well as significant collections from the cultures of Japan, China, Tibet and the Polar regions.

There are also temporary exhibits which change regularly.

Stock up on rare local Frankfurt wine

By Eva K. / Eva K. – Eva K. / Eva K., GFDL 1.2

Weinstube im Roemer – Limpurgergasse 2, 60311 Frankfurt

Frankfurt is one of the few major German cities that has its own vineyard within the city. There has been a vineyard at Lohrberg since 1803 and it is here that the grapes for the Riesling wine “Frankfurter Lohrberger Hang” grow, from which about 10,000 bottles are produced annually

You can buy a bottle of these local Frankfurt wines at the Städtischen Weinguts (Wine Tavern of the City of Frankfurt), but nowhere else outside of the vineyard. It is located directly in the Römer, around the corner of Frankfurt’s city hall, with its entrance located in the Limpurgergasse 2.

The bottles make nice Frankfurt mementos because they bear distinctive labels with the city seal and landmarks.

You can also drink the wines in the Weinstube im Roemer in the City Hall.

Take a tour of the Opel factory

Opel Werkstour – Friedrich-Lutzmann-Ring 1, 65428 Rüsselsheim am Main, Germany

The Opel Werkstour (Opel factory tour) in Rüsselsheim takes you through 150 years of history. In 1862 the first sewing machine of Adam Opel was produced in Rüsselsheim. Then in 1899, the first automobiles were produced. The factory was rebuilt in 2002 and now builds, among other things, Opel’s flagship model, the Insignia.

On the guided tour, you will get to see the production plant as well as highlights of the company’s history including some classic Opel models.

English speakers can go on an English-speaking tour if arrangements are made in advance. Otherwise, tours are conducted in German. The tours take place on weekdays at 10am, 1.15pm and 3.30pm and last two hours. Bus transportation is provided on the tour to shuttle you around the factory.

When the tour is finished make sure you check out the Opel shop which stocks classics car models from more than 110 years of car making.

Grab yourself a bargain at the local flea market Sachsenhausen

Schaumainkai 60594 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Every second Saturday (except public holidays) between 9am and 2pm, the Flohmarkt Sachsenhausen invites you for a “bargain hunt” in the Sachsenhausen Mainufer area.

The flea market is situated on the riverbank at Sachsenhausen between Eiserner Steg and Holbeinsteg.

At the flea market, you can browse second-hand goods, books, artworks, clothes, all sorts of bric-à-brac and artisan items, while enjoying the backdrop of the Frankfurt skyline.

Buyers are expected to bargain, and the later in the day it gets, the better the bargains get. However, if you leave it too long, the treasure that you had your eye on may be snapped up by someone else. Having said that, the most valuable and desirable items are usually sold first thing in the morning.

When you have worked up an appetite, take a break at one of the many restaurateurs in the area and quench your thirst with the local beer.

Every other Saturday, the market can be found on Lindleystraße.

Visit the Monument to the Berlin Airlift

By Foto Wolfgang Pehlemann, CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Frankfurt Airport Berlin Airlift Memorial (Luftbrückendenkmal) – Am Luftbrückendenkmal, 60549 Frankfurt am Main

When you are landing and taking off from Frankfurt Airport, request a window seat and keep an eye out for the Luftbrückendenkmal: Monument to the Berlin Airlift. It commemorates the days of the Berlin airlift and all those who lost their lives in it.

Located at the now abandoned Rhein-Main Airbase,t he curved concrete structures have three claws facing westwards to symbolise the three air corridors and the three Allied occupying forces. The structure is flanked by two cargo planes, a C-54 and a Douglas C-47 Dakota, bearing the painted name Rosinenbomber on their sides, which is in tribute to the last takeoff from the base.

Located to the right of the plane’s nose is a piece of the Berlin Wall.

If you want to see the Luftbrückendenkmal up-close, it can be easily reached by foot from Terminal 2 of Frankfurt Airport. It is a walk of about 1.5km. However, the best way to get to the memorial is to take public transport or a taxi to the InterCity Hotel and then walk from there.

Eat stinky cheese and enjoy the views

Von Dontworry – Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 3.0

Lohrberg Schänke – Auf dem Lohr 9, 60389 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

For totally authentic German cuisine and local wine, with a fantastic view of the Frankfurt skyline, you have to visit Lohrberg-Schänke. This is a restaurant with a terrific terrace and beer garden, not to mention great local food and drinks.

The cheesecake here is legendary and it usually sells out by 3pm, even though it only goes on sale at about 2pm! So if you want to try it, you need to get your order in early.

But one of the other local specialities is handkäse mit musik (“handcheese with music”). This dish isn’t for the fainthearted. It is stinky, really stinky cheese made from curdled sour milk. The cheese’s pungent odour is exacerbated by a topping of raw, white onion vinaigrette. Servings are palm-sized hence the name ‘handcheese’ and it is usually washed down with the local apple wine or white wine. It doesn’t come with a fork, just a knife and you cut it and stab it and put it in your mouth. It is usually topped with caraway seeds too so there might be a little pot of them on the table.

As for the music part? Well, die musik kommt später “the music comes later”. This is a euphemism for the flatulence that the raw onions usually provide. Nice.

Pack a picnic and people watch at this urban oasis

By Simsalabimbam – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Mainkai 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Manikai is one of the best spots to chill out and people watch in Frankfurt. Just outside the city centre, Mainkai Street is a promenade with views of the river and Frankfurt’s skyline beyond.

Pack a picnic, open some apple wine and join the locals on the grass who come here to relax, and people watch. If you forget your picnic, don’t worry, there are plenty of bars, cafes and restaurants along the street to keep hunger and thirst at bay.

This stretch is also great for jogging and leisurely bike rides.

Hang around until sunset and then take a stroll across the left bank to just east of the Museumufer. This is where you’ll get some great photos of the skyscrapers which rear up on the opposite bank. The area is very pretty at night when the Bankenviertel is lit up.

Admire the classic cars and see the restoration process

By NearEMPTiness – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Klassikstadt – Orber Str. 4A, 60386 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Car enthusiasts and design aficionados will love Klassikstadt. It is a classic car attraction located in an old factory. The factory was built in 1910 and is made from brick and cast iron.

Klassikstadt is home to more than 45 companies spread over four floors, including McLaren, Bugatti and Lamborghini. The companies all have a direct link to vintage cars, sports cars and racing cars. Ten of these companies have workshops that maintain and restore rare cars. You can get up close and have a look at the restoration process. Different dealerships have rare cars dating back to the early days of automobiles as well as the latest sports cars.

Across the facility, there are over 400 cars on display. There are dealerships here too, so bring your credit card just in case.

If you come on Sundays you’ll see all the classic car owners drive up in their fabulous cars. It’s a truly wonderful place for petrolheads.