Beautiful small towns around Frankfurt

Hello everyone,

A friend of mine told me that although Frankfurt is not particularly charming, there are small towns close by that are beautiful...

Any suggestions??

Follow the Rhine, and you will come across many places. You will find the Hessen side of the river quieter and more upmarket than the Rhineland Palatinate ( where I live ).

Its a vast area and you will find many places off the A5 as well.

If you want city life you should consider Mainz or Wiesbaden.

Kronberg's nice... in the middle of the forest, small oldy worldy town with lots of parks and walking paths and outdoor pools...

I love Kronberg! Königstein is also really nice, but its even more expensive than Kronberg.
Other nice places in Taunus (about 20 mins out of Frankfurt) are Bad Soden, Sulzbach, Hoffheim ...

My sister lived in Gelnhausen while her husband was stationed at Hanau. It's a lovely town, maybe 20 minutes from Frankfurt. Even though it's small, they're accustomed to English speakers there because of the nearby US base and officer housing in the old German Konzern.

Limburg is a cute little town close the Frankfurt.

I live in Königstein and it is a superb place to live. Thousands of trees, great places to eat and short train ride to Frankfurt. Some may find it a little sleepy but for quality of life it great. Yes - House prices are high.

Places that come to mind in the vicinity of Frankfurt are:
-Friedberg & Bad Nauheim. If you have a car you can do both these in one day and add Steinfurth (a charming little town overflowing with roses) and Münzenberg (with a great old fortress you can explore).
-Bad Homburg

A little farther out are:
-Braunfels
-Marburg
-Limburg An Der Lahn and Runkel (a little east of Limburg, and also with an old fortress you can explore)
-Rudesheim

Ones I would skip:
-Büdigen was highly recommended to me, but it failed to live up to expectations... I'd recommend making the trip to Rothenburg ob der Tauber if you want to see a walled city (I'm sure there are others in Germany, but these are the only two I have been exposed to thus far!).
-Hanau (I took a visitor from the US there once and desperately tried to find the "charming" part of town that I had seen the first weekend I moved to Germany... we never did find the charming part of Hanau, and that is b/c the spot I'd seen my first weekend here was actually in Hanau but an outlying town).

If you have a car, drive until you see a brown sign that seems interesting and pull off, find a parking space and explore. I've enjoyed exploring the lesser known towns in Germany... they can't all make it into the guide books!

I think that Mainz and Wiesbaden are beautiful towns. They may be a bit of a travel probably 20-30 min but there is such nice scenery. I am a photographer and love taking pictures in Wiesbaden near the casino.

The Taunus area with all the small towns around Frankfurt is beautiful and the Rhine river with its castles is great to visit, too. However, I love Frankfurt itself, too. I just moved here 6 months ago and love it. What are you looking for in particular?

Just some places where I can go for the weekends, the places mentioned up here sound perfect. I know that Frankfurt is not too bad, but it's got too many sky scrapers for my taste

Hi there,

I'm in Frankfurt for the day and didn't have time to do any research beforehand, but I've heard that there are quite a few pretty, historic towns within easy driving distance that are well worth seeing, and the weather's good for a roadtrip today : )

What would you recommend? Is Wurzburg a good choice, for example?

Thanks!!

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Würzburg is well worth a visit, but you're leaving it rather late in the day...

If you want a shorter drive and a nice, quaint town to have a stroll around followed by Kaffee und Küchen, then I'd recommend Miltenberg.

Würzburg, Limburg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber... all nice places to spend a day.

Bad Homburg, Oberursel, and the rest of the villages up near/in the Tanus..

Heidelberg, The wine strasse villages are also worth a look.

Bornheim... (SP)

Quite a nice area of FFM

The Rhein river valley is very beautiful and very close to Frankfurt. I love Rudesheim-Assmannshausen, but all of the towns are very quaint.

If you go to Würzburg, you need to see the Residenz, the former bishop's palace, in the center of the city not far from the Kiliansdom (cathedral). Get to the Residenz before it closes (18 h) and see the famous Tiepolo fresco on the ceiling of the entry hall. Before leaving, buy some Frankenwein in the Bürgerspital or Juliusspital (both also restaurants).

Thanks a lot for your helpful responses!

Wertheim is another one... near Miltenburg

I just moved to Wiesbaden this week. It's "in the valley" and you see the fall colours all around. VERY nice! I'm so glad I moved.

I am a little bit surprised that you did not like my local town of Büdigen. How could you have not liked the witches tower (complete with stones to whitch the witches were chained to stop them flying away!), the Castle and surrounding buildings (Büdigen still has its own Prince and Princess) and of course the story about the frogs and the fun that can be had searching for them all over the town. Add to that some great beer gardens and restaurants and I think it is well worth a day out!

Dale

We just got back from Maastricht, Netherlands and it was a great little town! Perfect for a weekend away. From frankfurt, should be a little less than 3 hours by car. I consider that 'close by' since it took us 6.5 hours from munich...

enjoy!

Hmm- if we are going down that line then - what about Strasbourg? (yes I know its a city not a town) but rather beautiful. It takes us about 2 hours and gives us a chance to stock up with French goodies - including legs of lamb which we struggle to find here in Germany!

Dale