Some kids would rather ride the train than reach the place it goes. This list is for them: outings where the ride is the point. Frankfurt keeps a lot of old machines running and lets kids climb aboard, and the airport opens its apron to bus tours. Here's what we checked, from a cartoon-painted 1950s tram to a water-powered funicular up the Neroberg.
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 Frankfurter Feldbahnmuseum keeps about 75 narrow-gauge field railway locomotives and more than 200 wagons in three halls, from hand-pushed brickworks carts to the world's smallest articulated steam locomotive, built in 1909 for sugar cane lines on Java.
On running days, steam and diesel trains carry visitors along a 2 km line through Rebstockpark. The volunteer club restores its own engines, with teenagers working on some of them.
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.
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.
Alter Flugplatz Bonames was Maurice Rose Airfield, a US military airfield until 1992. Since the early 2000s it has been part of the GrünGürtel, the city's green belt: the fences came down, the asphalt was broken up, and ponds and wild meadows grew in.
Kids run, bike and scoot along the old runway, now narrowed and left to nature. A picnic meadow sits beside a snack kiosk with long tables.
Lampion-Fahrtag is the Frankfurt Feldbahnmuseum's lantern-season running day. Historic narrow-gauge trains carry visitors through Rebstockpark, and the exhibition hall and outdoor yard of old locomotives and wagons are open to explore.
Food comes off the grill, with coffee and cake, and a campfire is lit as dusk falls. It suits train-mad kids from toddler age up, and anyone with a lantern to show off.
A steam locomotive pulls heated historic carriages from the old Dotzheim station in Wiesbaden, along the southern end of the Aartalbahn line and on to Frankfurt-Höchst, then back the same way after a short stop to turn around. St. Nicholas walks the train handing small gifts to the children. The volunteer Nassauische Touristik-Bahn runs it, and it suits train-mad kids and families after an easy December outing.
The Frankfurter Feldbahnmuseum looks after field railways: the small narrow-gauge trains once used on building sites, farms and in industry. On running days its historic trains carry families through Rebstockpark.
The St. Nicholas edition is the museum's last running day of the year. One ticket covers as many rides as you like, so kids can get off to look at the engines and ride again.
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.
Some kids would rather ride the train than reach the place it goes. This list is for them: outings where the ride is the point. Frankfurt keeps a lot of old machines running and lets kids climb aboard, and the airport opens its apron to bus tours. Here's what we checked, from a cartoon-painted 1950s tram to a water-powered funicular up the Neroberg.
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 Frankfurter Feldbahnmuseum keeps about 75 narrow-gauge field railway locomotives and more than 200 wagons in three halls, from hand-pushed brickworks carts to the world's smallest articulated steam locomotive, built in 1909 for sugar cane lines on Java.
On running days, steam and diesel trains carry visitors along a 2 km line through Rebstockpark. The volunteer club restores its own engines, with teenagers working on some of them.
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.
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.
Alter Flugplatz Bonames was Maurice Rose Airfield, a US military airfield until 1992. Since the early 2000s it has been part of the GrünGürtel, the city's green belt: the fences came down, the asphalt was broken up, and ponds and wild meadows grew in.
Kids run, bike and scoot along the old runway, now narrowed and left to nature. A picnic meadow sits beside a snack kiosk with long tables.
Lampion-Fahrtag is the Frankfurt Feldbahnmuseum's lantern-season running day. Historic narrow-gauge trains carry visitors through Rebstockpark, and the exhibition hall and outdoor yard of old locomotives and wagons are open to explore.
Food comes off the grill, with coffee and cake, and a campfire is lit as dusk falls. It suits train-mad kids from toddler age up, and anyone with a lantern to show off.
A steam locomotive pulls heated historic carriages from the old Dotzheim station in Wiesbaden, along the southern end of the Aartalbahn line and on to Frankfurt-Höchst, then back the same way after a short stop to turn around. St. Nicholas walks the train handing small gifts to the children. The volunteer Nassauische Touristik-Bahn runs it, and it suits train-mad kids and families after an easy December outing.
The Frankfurter Feldbahnmuseum looks after field railways: the small narrow-gauge trains once used on building sites, farms and in industry. On running days its historic trains carry families through Rebstockpark.
The St. Nicholas edition is the museum's last running day of the year. One ticket covers as many rides as you like, so kids can get off to look at the engines and ride again.
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.
