Grandparents landing next week, or old friends in town for the weekend? These are the sights we take visitors to when the kids come along too: old-town squares and towers, the river, a market hall lunch, and a few day trips out of town. Here's what we checked, from the cathedral tower climb to the Roman fort at Saalburg.
Römerberg is Frankfurt's historic main square. On one side stands the Römer, city hall since the 15th century, with stepped Gothic gables; facing it is the Ostzeile, a row of half-timbered houses, each with its own name.
Kids can spot Justitia on the Justice Fountain, holding scales and a sword without a blindfold. Most buildings are reconstructions: the old town was largely destroyed in 1944.
The west tower of the Kaiserdom, the church where Holy Roman emperors were crowned, rises 95 meters over the Altstadt. A narrow spiral staircase of 328 steps climbs to a viewing platform 66 meters up, with views over the Römerberg, the Main and the skyscrapers, and on clear days the Taunus hills. There is no elevator, so it suits kids who can manage a steep, steady climb.
Main Tower is a skyscraper in the banking district with Frankfurt's highest viewing platform, 200 meters up. A high-speed elevator climbs to the enclosed 55th floor, then stairs lead to the open-air deck above.
On a clear day kids can trace the river Main and spot the Taunus hills, and a free AR app labels cities on the horizon. A poor pick for anyone uneasy with heights or wind.
Eiserner Steg is an iron footbridge over the Main, linking the old town by the Römerberg with Sachsenhausen. From the middle, kids can watch boats pass underneath, with the skyline on one side and the Museumsufer on the other.
Sightseeing boats leave from the old-town bank, and electric boats can be rented on the Sachsenhausen side, next to a restaurant ship.
A sightseeing boat on the Main that leaves from the Eiserner Steg footbridge, a short walk from the Römer. One loop heads upriver toward Gerbermühle, the other downriver toward the Griesheim lock, and the long trip does both. Kids can sit on the open top deck and watch the bank towers and bridges slide past. Commentary is in German and English, and food and drinks are sold on board.
The Ebbelwei-Express is a 1950s tram painted inside and out as a traveling cider pub, with cartoon artwork and seats for 22. It runs a one-hour loop from the Zoo past the Römer, the main station, the trade fair and Sachsenhausen. Every rider gets a bottle of apple juice, water or cider and a bag of pretzels. No guide rides along, but the website has an audio tour.
Kleinmarkthalle is the city's covered food market, open since 1954, with more than 60 stalls across over 1,500 square meters. Traders sell fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, cheese, bread and international deli food, and small food stands serve meals to eat on the spot.
Kids can try the local specialties at the stalls, like Frankfurter sausages and Grüne Soße, the city's green herb sauce.
One of Frankfurt's oldest apple wine taverns, open since 1886. Families sit at long shared tables and benches in a wood-floored hall with art nouveau lamps, or in a courtyard garden for about 200 under a plane tree in the warmer months.
The kitchen cooks Frankfurt classics like schnitzel with green sauce, boiled beef and Taunus trout, plus a weekly changing menu. The Affentorplatz playground is a minute's walk away.
A 20-hectare botanical garden in the Westend with around 13,000 plant species. Indoors, kids walk through the 1869 Palm House, the Tropicarium's rainforest and desert glasshouses, a carnivorous plant collection with Venus flytraps, and a butterfly house where pupae hatch in view.
Outside are a large playground with a water play area, a shaded playground above the pond, rental boats in summer and a mini golf course.
A natural history museum built around a dinosaur hall, where a Tyrannosaurus, a Triceratops and a long-necked Diplodocus stand over the floor. Other galleries cover whales and elephants, the deep sea, coral reefs, insects, and 47-million-year-old fossils from the nearby Messel Pit.
In the Aha?! Science Lab, kids handle more than 100 natural objects, look at them under microscopes and help sort samples for real research projects.
A small museum about Der Struwwelpeter, the picture book of cautionary tales, and its author, the Frankfurt doctor Heinrich Hoffmann, set in two houses in the Neue Altstadt.
Kids follow a game trail, roll dice to race Herr Fix around the world in 77 days, pose with giant figures from the book, and dress up to act out the stories on a real stage.
Fraport's Visitors' Center is built around hands-on stations: kids can guide an Airbus A320neo into its parking spot with real marshalling sticks, fight a simulated fire, play apron controller, and explore a 55 m² model of the airport on tablets. A panoramic window looks onto the apron.
Guided bus tours also drive out past refueling planes, takeoffs and landings, with a live guide taking questions.
The Saalburg is a Roman fort that guarded the Limes, the frontier wall now listed by UNESCO. Rebuilt around 1900 on Kaiser Wilhelm II's orders, it is the only fort on the Limes reconstructed almost completely, so kids walk through the gate and into the buildings.
The museum inside covers Roman life on the frontier with hands-on activities, and the Taberna café serves dishes from Roman recipes.
Hessenpark is an open-air museum of more than a hundred old buildings rebuilt here from villages across Hesse: farmhouses, barns, craft workshops, a 15th-century church and a 1950s pub. About a hundred animals from rare old breeds live on the farms, and the museum theater runs tours that show how villagers lived and worked. The half-timbered market square has shops, inns and benches for a break.
Small gondola cabins, each fitting two adults and two kids, glide about 10 minutes over the Rheingau vineyards from Rüdesheim up to the Niederwald Monument, a huge Germania statue built between 1871 and 1883 to mark German unification.
At the top are wide views across the Rhine to Bingen, places to eat, and an easy forest loop past the Adlerwarte bird of prey station.
The Nerobergbahn is a funicular railway from 1888 that climbs 438 meters up the Neroberg, Wiesbaden's home hill, in about three and a half minutes. It runs on water: the top car fills a tank and its weight pulls the lower car up. At the top sit the Neroberg temple viewpoint, the gold-domed Russian Orthodox church, a high-ropes climbing forest, a forest trail and the Opelbad outdoor pool.
Grandparents landing next week, or old friends in town for the weekend? These are the sights we take visitors to when the kids come along too: old-town squares and towers, the river, a market hall lunch, and a few day trips out of town. Here's what we checked, from the cathedral tower climb to the Roman fort at Saalburg.
Römerberg is Frankfurt's historic main square. On one side stands the Römer, city hall since the 15th century, with stepped Gothic gables; facing it is the Ostzeile, a row of half-timbered houses, each with its own name.
Kids can spot Justitia on the Justice Fountain, holding scales and a sword without a blindfold. Most buildings are reconstructions: the old town was largely destroyed in 1944.
The west tower of the Kaiserdom, the church where Holy Roman emperors were crowned, rises 95 meters over the Altstadt. A narrow spiral staircase of 328 steps climbs to a viewing platform 66 meters up, with views over the Römerberg, the Main and the skyscrapers, and on clear days the Taunus hills. There is no elevator, so it suits kids who can manage a steep, steady climb.
Main Tower is a skyscraper in the banking district with Frankfurt's highest viewing platform, 200 meters up. A high-speed elevator climbs to the enclosed 55th floor, then stairs lead to the open-air deck above.
On a clear day kids can trace the river Main and spot the Taunus hills, and a free AR app labels cities on the horizon. A poor pick for anyone uneasy with heights or wind.
Eiserner Steg is an iron footbridge over the Main, linking the old town by the Römerberg with Sachsenhausen. From the middle, kids can watch boats pass underneath, with the skyline on one side and the Museumsufer on the other.
Sightseeing boats leave from the old-town bank, and electric boats can be rented on the Sachsenhausen side, next to a restaurant ship.
A sightseeing boat on the Main that leaves from the Eiserner Steg footbridge, a short walk from the Römer. One loop heads upriver toward Gerbermühle, the other downriver toward the Griesheim lock, and the long trip does both. Kids can sit on the open top deck and watch the bank towers and bridges slide past. Commentary is in German and English, and food and drinks are sold on board.
The Ebbelwei-Express is a 1950s tram painted inside and out as a traveling cider pub, with cartoon artwork and seats for 22. It runs a one-hour loop from the Zoo past the Römer, the main station, the trade fair and Sachsenhausen. Every rider gets a bottle of apple juice, water or cider and a bag of pretzels. No guide rides along, but the website has an audio tour.
Kleinmarkthalle is the city's covered food market, open since 1954, with more than 60 stalls across over 1,500 square meters. Traders sell fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, cheese, bread and international deli food, and small food stands serve meals to eat on the spot.
Kids can try the local specialties at the stalls, like Frankfurter sausages and Grüne Soße, the city's green herb sauce.
One of Frankfurt's oldest apple wine taverns, open since 1886. Families sit at long shared tables and benches in a wood-floored hall with art nouveau lamps, or in a courtyard garden for about 200 under a plane tree in the warmer months.
The kitchen cooks Frankfurt classics like schnitzel with green sauce, boiled beef and Taunus trout, plus a weekly changing menu. The Affentorplatz playground is a minute's walk away.
A 20-hectare botanical garden in the Westend with around 13,000 plant species. Indoors, kids walk through the 1869 Palm House, the Tropicarium's rainforest and desert glasshouses, a carnivorous plant collection with Venus flytraps, and a butterfly house where pupae hatch in view.
Outside are a large playground with a water play area, a shaded playground above the pond, rental boats in summer and a mini golf course.
A natural history museum built around a dinosaur hall, where a Tyrannosaurus, a Triceratops and a long-necked Diplodocus stand over the floor. Other galleries cover whales and elephants, the deep sea, coral reefs, insects, and 47-million-year-old fossils from the nearby Messel Pit.
In the Aha?! Science Lab, kids handle more than 100 natural objects, look at them under microscopes and help sort samples for real research projects.
A small museum about Der Struwwelpeter, the picture book of cautionary tales, and its author, the Frankfurt doctor Heinrich Hoffmann, set in two houses in the Neue Altstadt.
Kids follow a game trail, roll dice to race Herr Fix around the world in 77 days, pose with giant figures from the book, and dress up to act out the stories on a real stage.
Fraport's Visitors' Center is built around hands-on stations: kids can guide an Airbus A320neo into its parking spot with real marshalling sticks, fight a simulated fire, play apron controller, and explore a 55 m² model of the airport on tablets. A panoramic window looks onto the apron.
Guided bus tours also drive out past refueling planes, takeoffs and landings, with a live guide taking questions.
The Saalburg is a Roman fort that guarded the Limes, the frontier wall now listed by UNESCO. Rebuilt around 1900 on Kaiser Wilhelm II's orders, it is the only fort on the Limes reconstructed almost completely, so kids walk through the gate and into the buildings.
The museum inside covers Roman life on the frontier with hands-on activities, and the Taberna café serves dishes from Roman recipes.
Hessenpark is an open-air museum of more than a hundred old buildings rebuilt here from villages across Hesse: farmhouses, barns, craft workshops, a 15th-century church and a 1950s pub. About a hundred animals from rare old breeds live on the farms, and the museum theater runs tours that show how villagers lived and worked. The half-timbered market square has shops, inns and benches for a break.
Small gondola cabins, each fitting two adults and two kids, glide about 10 minutes over the Rheingau vineyards from Rüdesheim up to the Niederwald Monument, a huge Germania statue built between 1871 and 1883 to mark German unification.
At the top are wide views across the Rhine to Bingen, places to eat, and an easy forest loop past the Adlerwarte bird of prey station.
The Nerobergbahn is a funicular railway from 1888 that climbs 438 meters up the Neroberg, Wiesbaden's home hill, in about three and a half minutes. It runs on water: the top car fills a tank and its weight pulls the lower car up. At the top sit the Neroberg temple viewpoint, the gold-domed Russian Orthodox church, a high-ropes climbing forest, a forest trail and the Opelbad outdoor pool.
