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 ?

 

[Cossie]

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 ?

Personally I'd go into town. the hotels located within the Airport complex are not cheep, some nearby, like the Accor are reasonable with a shuttle. However, going into town only takes 20 minutes or so and you have a much better choice of everything.
There are others nearby in a newly developed area, a bit of a walk, depending on which terminal, or it's 1 or 2 stops on the metro. However you don't have the variety of things to do as in downtown.

I haven't used the new system, I flew into Munich the day it was introduced and it was the old system there.

 

[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.