FRA for 24 hrs - stay in Frankfurt or stay at the Airport?

[BCons]

Quick Q for recent travellers to Frankfurt.

I have 24+ hrs between arriving with SQ on a Sat morning and departing 1230 Sunday on domestic/Schengen flt. Had thought to stay in the city rather than the airport to maximise touristic time on this my first visit.

So: whats the new ETIAS process like on arrival, are there any 'must do's' in Frankfurt, and would anyone recommend airport rather than city accom for the night ?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Quick Q for recent travellers to Frankfurt.

I have 24+ hrs between arriving with SQ on a Sat morning and departing 1230 Sunday on domestic/Schengen flt. Had thought to stay in the city rather than the airport to maximise touristic time on this my first visit.

So: whats the new ETIAS process like on arrival, are there any 'must do's' in Frankfurt, and would anyone recommend airport rather than city accom for the night ?

The ETIAS registration is fairly simple… disembark, head to the immigration hall, join the queue to fist do the ETIAS part and then the queue to get seen by a border person.

The second bit was painfully slow a couple weeks ago. We were around #20 in the queue and it took 30 mins to get seen, with four counters open.

The officers were being exceptionally err… thorough. Even calling educational institutions or places of employment at 730pm to check the bona fides of arriving passengers. Lots of folk had to provide evidence of accommodation.

About half the queue had Japanese passports… they weren’t from our flight, so I suspect they were on the flight leaving Tokyo about 90 mins before ours!

Allegedly - from later this month once the system is fully operational - you’ll only need to do the registration and be seen by an officer once, and after that you’ll be able to use e-gates? But that wasn’t available for us on this trip.

The officer also didnt stamp my passport, which presented problems when I tried to leave the schengen area. Although thankfully Prague officials were a little more pragmatic than some and let me go anyway

As we were leaving Prague and walking through the terminal (around 10am) the queues for arriving pax to complete ETIAS were long… i’d reckon about two hours or more. There was another large area with a massive snake queue… not being used as we passed, but obviously is/was at some time.

Recommendation… leg it from the plane to the immigration hall! Do your toilet break before leaving the plane and have a bottle of water with you!

 

[BCons]

The ETIAS registration is fairly simple… disembark, head to the immigration hall, join the queue to fist do the ETIAS part and then the queue to get seen by a border person.

The second bit was painfully slow a couple weeks ago. We were around #20 in the queue and it took 30 mins to get seen, with four counters open.

The officers were being exceptionally err… thorough. Even calling educational institutions or places of employment at 730pm to check the bona fides of arriving passengers. Lots of folk had to provide evidence of accommodation.

About half the queue had Japanese passports… they weren’t from our flight, so I suspect they were on the flight leaving Tokyo about 90 mins before ours!

Allegedly - from later this month once the system is fully operational - you’ll only need to do the registration and be seen by an officer once, and after that you’ll be able to use e-gates? But that wasn’t available for us on this trip.

The officer also didnt stamp my passport, which presented problems when I tried to leave the schengen area. Although thankfully Prague officials were a little more pragmatic than some and let me go anyway

As we were leaving Prague and walking through the terminal (around 10am) the queues for arriving pax to complete ETIAS were long… i’d reckon about two hours or more. There was another large area with a massive snake queue… not being used as we passed, but obviously is/was at some time.

Recommendation… leg it from the plane to the immigration hall! Do your toilet break before leaving the plane and have a bottle of water with you!

Good advice ! Flying up the pointy end so shudnt be too far back at arrivals, tho I'll monitor FRA arrivals list to get a sense of numbers.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Good advice ! Flying up the pointy end so shudnt be too far back at arrivals, tho I'll monitor FRA arrivals list to get a sense of numbers.

Even #20 in the queue was 30 mins! Run like the wind!

 

[Lux]

Go to Mainz. It’s on the river. Super cute town.. About 30 min from airport by taxi. Great for this sort of stopover.

 

[BCons]

Mainz - interesting. Will investigate as I like smaller places...

Had an unplanned night tks to LH delays at Munich. Put into a hotel near the airport on LH's $. When we asked what there was to do, the receptionist suggested taking the bus (here's a timetable) to nearby town of Erding. Charming place, good walk around, nice dinner and back on the bus. Would never have seen the joint otherwise..

 

[Cruiser Elite]

SQ Crew stump up at Marriott Frankfurt - there is a pretty good sports bar there called Champions - if in FRA I always stay here - there are always Crews from other flts there also - you can knock back a couple with the Crew that are on your flt that eve

Hotel itself is quite dated and nothing special about it apart from its adjacent to Messe so trade show central. Walking distance to substantial shopping complex to kill a couple hours

 

[lovestotravel]

Frankfurt is nice for a day or so, but nothing really stands out as a must visit

I'd stay at the airport but that's just me

 

[OZDUCK]

Go to Mainz. It’s on the river. Super cute town.. About 30 min from airport by taxi. Great for this sort of stopover.

You could also catch the S8 (S Bahn) direct to Mainz for €6.90 and also around 30 minutes. It runs 24 hours per day. Just remember to go to the regional station (Regionalbahnhof) not the long distance station (Fernbahnhof)

 

[harryhv]

Another vote for Mainz - attractions include the Gutenberg museum of printing & books, the cathedral with stained glass windows by Chagall and of course the Rhine

 

[jase05]

Frankfurt is nice for a day or so, but nothing really stands out as a must visit

I'd stay at the airport but that's just me

Yeah, we have stayed in Frankfurt a couple of times previously and to be honest it’s not a great city so last time when we only had a 22hr stay we just stayed at the Sheraton airport hotel. We arrived in the arvo and freshened up before catching the train into town and having some dinner.

 

[lovestotravel]

Yeah, we have stayed in Frankfurt a couple of times previously and to be honest it’s not a great city so last time when we only had a 22hr stay we just stayed at the Sheraton airport hotel. We arrived in the arvo and freshened up before catching the train into town and having some dinner.

We have been for the Xmas markets twice, but outside of that it's nice but nothing is a must do!

 

[BCons]

Another vote for Mainz - attractions include the Gutenberg museum of printing & books, the cathedral with stained glass windows by Chagall and of course the Rhine

What none of you Mainz-pushers mentioned is that Mainz is the (ok, self-declared) wine capital of Germany!

Thats it, I'm in.. There's an AC hotel (Bonvoy) opposite the Hbf (direct from FRA), oodles of Culture, and there are several Cellar doors on the outskirts of town. Altogether a vvry vvry attractive proposition, as HG wud say.

 

[andye]

Not been to the city myself but I remember stories of UK banking people being petrified of being transferred from London to Frankfurt post-Brexit