Cross the Main to the south bank for museums, forest and room to run. Sachsenhausen has the museum riverbank and cobbled lanes of apple-wine taverns, and behind it the city forest opens up with wooded playgrounds and trails. Niederrad, Oberrad and the airport round out the district. Here's what we checked south of the river, from museum workshops to forest afternoons.
St. Martin's Day is when German kids carry lanterns through dark streets singing "Ich geh mit meiner Laterne". Most parades start at a church with a short service or the story of Martin sharing his cloak, then walk the neighborhood with brass music, sometimes behind St. Martin on horseback.
Some end at a Martin's fire with sweet bread and kids' punch. Nobody needs German to walk along.
On St. Martin's Day, kids across Germany carry glowing lanterns through dark streets, singing songs their parents still know by heart.
In Frankfurt, parishes lead short neighborhood walks, and some have St. Martin riding ahead on horseback. Several end at a bonfire with Martinswecken, sweet buns shared in honor of the soldier who split his cloak with a beggar.
A small Christmas market at the edge of the Stadtwald, right under the Goetheturm, Sachsenhausen's wooden lookout tower. Stalls sell crepes, roasted chestnuts, potato pancakes, raclette and hot apple wine, alongside handmade crafts like glass-bead jewelry and lambskins.
For kids there is a carousel, and the big forest play park sits next door, so it suits families who want a run-around between snacks.
Henni Nachtsheim reads from his book De Grüffelo auf Hessisch, the Gruffalo story told in Hessian dialect. He also reads from the classic Grüffelo and, if time allows, from Die Oma vom Grüffelo, the newest book by Axel Scheffler. A book signing follows.
It suits kids who already know the story and follow German well. The dialect can be hard going for families still learning the language.
Wäldchestag is Frankfurt's own folk festival, a fair that sets up among the trees of the Stadtwald around Oberforsthaus. Kids get a Ferris wheel, chair swings, carousels and prize stalls, while parents sit in beer gardens with apple wine and sausages in the shade.
Afternoons suit families best. Evenings lean toward adults, with stage music and drinks until late.
The DAM fills an old villa on the Museumsufer with a white "house within a house" that architect Oswald Mathias Ungers built in 1984, climbing from the basement to a gabled top floor under a glass roof.
The permanent exhibition, "From Primitive Hut to Skyscraper", tells the story of building through 25 model dioramas. Temporary shows on cities and design change through the year.
Achter is a restaurant and café in the Rudererdorf, the row of rowing clubhouses on the south bank of the Main in Oberrad. Out back, a garden has a treehouse and a sandbox where kids play while the grown-ups eat, plus deck chairs and a kiosk selling ice cream. The kitchen mixes hearty German cooking, vegetarian dishes, big salads and Frankfurt classics, with apple wine and homemade cake.
Oberschweinstiege is a large forest inn in the Stadtwald, with a beer garden under old chestnut trees, a covered winter garden, and a lake terrace looking over the Jacobiweiher. Kids get a playground, a children's menu, and coloring sheets with crayons.
The loop path around the pond next door passes animals and tree art, so a walk fits easily before or after lunch.
Gerbermühle is a historic former mill on the south bank of the Main, now a restaurant and small hotel. Its beer garden sits under the trees by the riverbank, looking across the water to the skyline, and a glass-walled winter garden and terraces take over on cooler days.
Goethe spent almost a month here in 1815 and celebrated his 66th birthday in the house.
Waldspielpark Tannenwald is a forest playground run by the city of Frankfurt on the edge of Neu-Isenburg. The big draw is the water play area: a spray field and jets on a natural-stone surface, with a red fish sculpture that spits water.
Frankfurt and Neu-Isenburg rebuilt it for €1.3 million after a four-year closure, adding a new building with toilets. It suits kids who want to get soaked on a hot day.
Textorbad is an indoor pool in Sachsenhausen run by BäderBetriebe Frankfurt, the city's pool operator. The main hall holds a 25m lane pool, and the building also has a gym room used for aqua and fitness courses.
Fridays are warm-water day, with the pool heated to 32°C, a gentle temperature for babies and toddlers. It suits families after a plain swim rather than slides and wave machines.
KeramikZauber is a paint-your-own-pottery studio on Schweizer Straße in Sachsenhausen. Kids pick a blank piece from the shelves (mugs, plates, bowls, vases or figures) and decorate it with brushes, stamps, sponges and stencils. No experience needed.
The studio glazes and fires every piece afterward, and the finished work is collected later. It suits kids happy to focus on one project; younger ones need a parent painting alongside.
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.
Harmonie is one of Frankfurt's oldest cinemas, showing films on Dreieichstraße in Sachsenhausen since 1920. It runs mostly arthouse films, plus a kids' film every weekend and on most days of the school holidays. Preschoolers get Maxis Kinoabenteuer, a one-hour Sunday program of short films with hands-on bits about how cinema works. Both screens have bright, comfortable retro seats, and the bar serves coffee, cake and homemade lemonade.
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 Städel holds 700 years of European art, from Dürer and Botticelli to Rembrandt, Monet, Picasso and Gerhard Richter, in a building on the Museumsufer riverbank.
Kids get their own program: family tours that turn paintings into stories, studio workshops where they paint or draw and take their work home, and Imagoras, a tablet game for children. It suits kids who like to draw and look closely.
Waldspielpark Louisa is a city-run play park among the trees of the Frankfurt Stadtwald, with sandy play areas, swings and a big wooden ship to climb. In summer, a splash field and a paddling pool no deeper than 35 cm give kids a way to cool off.
Toilets are on site, and a kiosk sits on the road in front of the park. Dogs are not allowed inside.
A former villa garden on the northern edge of the Stadtwald, now a city park of about 10 hectares. The play area is kept separate from the garden and built for under-12s: climbing castles, slides, swings, seesaws, sandpits, a merry-go-round and table tennis.
A big lawn draws older kids for football and frisbee, while clipped hedges and rhododendrons keep the garden side quiet.
The Stadtwald covers about 5,000 hectares on the city's south side, with some 450 km of paths for walking, biking and running. For kids, the main draws are the forest playgrounds (Waldspielparks).
The one at the Goetheturm sits under tall trees, with slides, swings, climbing towers, a wooden maze and a mud play area. Next door, 196 steps climb the 43-meter wooden tower to a skyline view.
A forest play park in the Stadtwald, built around a water spray field where kids run through the jets on hot days. There is a separate children's play area and an 18-hole mini golf course with large wooden figures.
The sports side has a roller skating rink, table tennis, a basketball court and a soccer field. A kiosk and toilets are on site.
A forest playground of almost three hectares at the foot of the Goetheturm, a 43-meter wooden lookout tower in the Stadtwald. Tall trees shade slides, swings, climbing towers, a wooden maze and a mud play area.
Climb the tower's 196 steps for a view over the southern woods to the skyline. The Goetheruh restaurant sits next door, and the Goetheweg walking trail passes right by.
A high-ropes climbing forest beside the Waldstadion, the Eintracht Frankfurt stadium, with 13 courses and about 150 climbing elements. Younger kids start on the Bambini courses, older ones move up through intermediate and expert routes to the Skyline course 30 meters up. Five tall towers look out over the stadium and the skyline. Everyone climbs on a continuous safety system after a briefing from staff.
A film museum on the Museumsufer in Sachsenhausen, with a permanent exhibition over two floors. Kids spin zoetropes, peer into peep-boxes, work a magic lantern and watch the Main and the skyline appear in a camera obscura.
The second part centers on the Film Room, with clips playing across four big screens, plus stations on how camera angles, sound and editing change a scene. The basement cinema runs regular family screenings.
The Museum für Kommunikation traces how people send messages, from cuneiform tablets to glasses with built-in AI, across 2,500 square meters and 46 themed islands with no set route. Kids can try dozens of interactive stations and put questions to a talking painting of the computer scientist Alan Turing, which answers visitors. It suits curious school-age kids more than toddlers.
Cross the Main to the south bank for museums, forest and room to run. Sachsenhausen has the museum riverbank and cobbled lanes of apple-wine taverns, and behind it the city forest opens up with wooded playgrounds and trails. Niederrad, Oberrad and the airport round out the district. Here's what we checked south of the river, from museum workshops to forest afternoons.
St. Martin's Day is when German kids carry lanterns through dark streets singing "Ich geh mit meiner Laterne". Most parades start at a church with a short service or the story of Martin sharing his cloak, then walk the neighborhood with brass music, sometimes behind St. Martin on horseback.
Some end at a Martin's fire with sweet bread and kids' punch. Nobody needs German to walk along.
On St. Martin's Day, kids across Germany carry glowing lanterns through dark streets, singing songs their parents still know by heart.
In Frankfurt, parishes lead short neighborhood walks, and some have St. Martin riding ahead on horseback. Several end at a bonfire with Martinswecken, sweet buns shared in honor of the soldier who split his cloak with a beggar.
A small Christmas market at the edge of the Stadtwald, right under the Goetheturm, Sachsenhausen's wooden lookout tower. Stalls sell crepes, roasted chestnuts, potato pancakes, raclette and hot apple wine, alongside handmade crafts like glass-bead jewelry and lambskins.
For kids there is a carousel, and the big forest play park sits next door, so it suits families who want a run-around between snacks.
Henni Nachtsheim reads from his book De Grüffelo auf Hessisch, the Gruffalo story told in Hessian dialect. He also reads from the classic Grüffelo and, if time allows, from Die Oma vom Grüffelo, the newest book by Axel Scheffler. A book signing follows.
It suits kids who already know the story and follow German well. The dialect can be hard going for families still learning the language.
Wäldchestag is Frankfurt's own folk festival, a fair that sets up among the trees of the Stadtwald around Oberforsthaus. Kids get a Ferris wheel, chair swings, carousels and prize stalls, while parents sit in beer gardens with apple wine and sausages in the shade.
Afternoons suit families best. Evenings lean toward adults, with stage music and drinks until late.
The DAM fills an old villa on the Museumsufer with a white "house within a house" that architect Oswald Mathias Ungers built in 1984, climbing from the basement to a gabled top floor under a glass roof.
The permanent exhibition, "From Primitive Hut to Skyscraper", tells the story of building through 25 model dioramas. Temporary shows on cities and design change through the year.
Achter is a restaurant and café in the Rudererdorf, the row of rowing clubhouses on the south bank of the Main in Oberrad. Out back, a garden has a treehouse and a sandbox where kids play while the grown-ups eat, plus deck chairs and a kiosk selling ice cream. The kitchen mixes hearty German cooking, vegetarian dishes, big salads and Frankfurt classics, with apple wine and homemade cake.
Oberschweinstiege is a large forest inn in the Stadtwald, with a beer garden under old chestnut trees, a covered winter garden, and a lake terrace looking over the Jacobiweiher. Kids get a playground, a children's menu, and coloring sheets with crayons.
The loop path around the pond next door passes animals and tree art, so a walk fits easily before or after lunch.
Gerbermühle is a historic former mill on the south bank of the Main, now a restaurant and small hotel. Its beer garden sits under the trees by the riverbank, looking across the water to the skyline, and a glass-walled winter garden and terraces take over on cooler days.
Goethe spent almost a month here in 1815 and celebrated his 66th birthday in the house.
Waldspielpark Tannenwald is a forest playground run by the city of Frankfurt on the edge of Neu-Isenburg. The big draw is the water play area: a spray field and jets on a natural-stone surface, with a red fish sculpture that spits water.
Frankfurt and Neu-Isenburg rebuilt it for €1.3 million after a four-year closure, adding a new building with toilets. It suits kids who want to get soaked on a hot day.
Textorbad is an indoor pool in Sachsenhausen run by BäderBetriebe Frankfurt, the city's pool operator. The main hall holds a 25m lane pool, and the building also has a gym room used for aqua and fitness courses.
Fridays are warm-water day, with the pool heated to 32°C, a gentle temperature for babies and toddlers. It suits families after a plain swim rather than slides and wave machines.
KeramikZauber is a paint-your-own-pottery studio on Schweizer Straße in Sachsenhausen. Kids pick a blank piece from the shelves (mugs, plates, bowls, vases or figures) and decorate it with brushes, stamps, sponges and stencils. No experience needed.
The studio glazes and fires every piece afterward, and the finished work is collected later. It suits kids happy to focus on one project; younger ones need a parent painting alongside.
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.
Harmonie is one of Frankfurt's oldest cinemas, showing films on Dreieichstraße in Sachsenhausen since 1920. It runs mostly arthouse films, plus a kids' film every weekend and on most days of the school holidays. Preschoolers get Maxis Kinoabenteuer, a one-hour Sunday program of short films with hands-on bits about how cinema works. Both screens have bright, comfortable retro seats, and the bar serves coffee, cake and homemade lemonade.
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 Städel holds 700 years of European art, from Dürer and Botticelli to Rembrandt, Monet, Picasso and Gerhard Richter, in a building on the Museumsufer riverbank.
Kids get their own program: family tours that turn paintings into stories, studio workshops where they paint or draw and take their work home, and Imagoras, a tablet game for children. It suits kids who like to draw and look closely.
Waldspielpark Louisa is a city-run play park among the trees of the Frankfurt Stadtwald, with sandy play areas, swings and a big wooden ship to climb. In summer, a splash field and a paddling pool no deeper than 35 cm give kids a way to cool off.
Toilets are on site, and a kiosk sits on the road in front of the park. Dogs are not allowed inside.
A former villa garden on the northern edge of the Stadtwald, now a city park of about 10 hectares. The play area is kept separate from the garden and built for under-12s: climbing castles, slides, swings, seesaws, sandpits, a merry-go-round and table tennis.
A big lawn draws older kids for football and frisbee, while clipped hedges and rhododendrons keep the garden side quiet.
The Stadtwald covers about 5,000 hectares on the city's south side, with some 450 km of paths for walking, biking and running. For kids, the main draws are the forest playgrounds (Waldspielparks).
The one at the Goetheturm sits under tall trees, with slides, swings, climbing towers, a wooden maze and a mud play area. Next door, 196 steps climb the 43-meter wooden tower to a skyline view.
A forest play park in the Stadtwald, built around a water spray field where kids run through the jets on hot days. There is a separate children's play area and an 18-hole mini golf course with large wooden figures.
The sports side has a roller skating rink, table tennis, a basketball court and a soccer field. A kiosk and toilets are on site.
A forest playground of almost three hectares at the foot of the Goetheturm, a 43-meter wooden lookout tower in the Stadtwald. Tall trees shade slides, swings, climbing towers, a wooden maze and a mud play area.
Climb the tower's 196 steps for a view over the southern woods to the skyline. The Goetheruh restaurant sits next door, and the Goetheweg walking trail passes right by.
A high-ropes climbing forest beside the Waldstadion, the Eintracht Frankfurt stadium, with 13 courses and about 150 climbing elements. Younger kids start on the Bambini courses, older ones move up through intermediate and expert routes to the Skyline course 30 meters up. Five tall towers look out over the stadium and the skyline. Everyone climbs on a continuous safety system after a briefing from staff.
A film museum on the Museumsufer in Sachsenhausen, with a permanent exhibition over two floors. Kids spin zoetropes, peer into peep-boxes, work a magic lantern and watch the Main and the skyline appear in a camera obscura.
The second part centers on the Film Room, with clips playing across four big screens, plus stations on how camera angles, sound and editing change a scene. The basement cinema runs regular family screenings.
The Museum für Kommunikation traces how people send messages, from cuneiform tablets to glasses with built-in AI, across 2,500 square meters and 46 themed islands with no set route. Kids can try dozens of interactive stations and put questions to a talking painting of the computer scientist Alan Turing, which answers visitors. It suits curious school-age kids more than toddlers.
