Amazing list of 50+ best day trips from Frankfurt (2/3)

About this list

This post is the second part of a three-post series on the in my opinion 50+ best day trips from Frankfurt.

In the first part, I focused on the best day trips from Frankfurt that can be reached within 1 hour.

The focus of this part is my 23 personal best day trips from Frankfurt that can be reached within 1-2 hours by car.

Finally, the third part will focus on the best day trips from Frankfurt that can be reached within 2-3 hours by car.

If you are planning to go on trips using public transport, make sure to also check out my post on public transport around Frankfurt.

The best day trips from Frankfurt you can reach within 2 hours

Just as in the first post, the time estimations for distance by car are based on Google Maps estimations. Depending on where you start in Frankfurt, the real time needed can differ slightly.

The time estimations for distance by train are from Deutsche Bahn. They only include the time from Frankfurt central station to the central station of the destination. Keep in mind that sometimes the train station will be located at the edge of the city and you might still have to walk some distance to get to the main attractions.

Rheingau

The Rheingau area is an extremely popular tourist region, especially with international tourists. Naturally, it cannot miss from my list of best day trips from Frankfurt. It is popular because of it’s numerous castles, the vineyard covered hills on both sides of the river and the many small towns with idyllic old town centers.

It is important to know that there is no bridge across the river in this area! The only way to cross the river is by ferry.

Whether you are traveling by car or train, it is still very easy to hop from place to place here. Therefore, I have grouped the places in Rheingau together.

Rüdesheim am Rhein

Rüdesheim am Rhein is the most famous and touristic place in Rheingau. It is particularly popular because of its picturesque vineyards, the easy accessibility with the cable car and the many restaurants in the old town.

The cable car is part of a particular tourist route called the “ring”: You take the cable car up to Niederwalddenkmal. From there you “hike” 30 minutes through the forest to the Assmanshausen cable car station. You then descend to Assmanshausen with the cable car. Finally, you take a ship back to Rüdesheim.

The most popular spot in the old town of Rüdesheim is Drosselgasse, an alley full of half-timbered houses with restaurants inside.

Trechtingshausen

Trechtingshausen is located across the river from Assmanshausen. It is famous for its two castles and the hiking trail with cute tree carves.

The first castle is Rheinstein castle, located 30 min on foot from the Trechtingshausen train station. It has been renovated over the course of 30 years. The castle is in private ownership but open to the public. When you visit the castle, you can climb the castle tower. From there you get an amazing view across the Rhine valley and Assmanshausen.

The second castle is Reichenstein castle. It is located right above the train station. It today serves as a luxury hotel and event venue.

Another highlight near Trechtingshausen is the “seven castles view”, from where you can spot SEVEN castles at the same time! Hiking there from Trechtingshausen takes about 1:15 h. Alternatively you can make this hike from Niederheimbach, which takes about 50 min.

Finally, another popular hiking route from Trechtlingshausen is called the “Steckeschlääfer-Klamm”. The “Steckeschlääfer-Klamm” is a gorge where countless forest spirits have been carved into the surrounding trees.

Bacharach

Bacharach has the in my opinion nicest old town of all the places in Rheingau. What’s especially cool about Bacharach is that a large part of the historic city wall is still intact. It also has a castle, Stahleck castle, which today is a youth hostel.

Kaub

The most famous site of Kaub is Pfalzgrafenstein castle, a castle located on an island in the Rhein. It is one of the few undamaged and unaltered castles in Rheingau.

Aside from Pfalzgrafenstein castle, Kaub has a nice old town and some remainders of the historic city walls. There is also another castle, Gutenfels castle, which is in private ownership and not open to the public.

St. Goar

St. Goar is another place in Rheingau with a small old town. The main sight of the town is Rheinfels castle, which used to be the biggest castle between Koblenz and Mainz.

St. Goarshausen

St. Goarshausen is home to one of the most mystical sites in all of Rheingau, the Lorelei. The Lorelei is famous because of local folklore regarding the area. In medieval times strong currents and a small waterfall caused sounds that sounded like murmuring or singing. And because a lot of ships run on ground here, it lead to tales of a mesmerizing woman leading ships astray.

Today, the Lorelei is depicted with the statue of a woman on a peninsula in the Rhein. There is also an amphitheatre on top of the cliff that is mostly used for rock concerts. And although there is no cultural connection to the Lorelei, there is a summer toboggan run.

Finally, there is Katz castle, which is privately owned and unfortunately not open to the public.

Boppard

Boppard is the last place in Rheingau in this series. It has a nice old town with remainders of the city wall, nice churches and a castle.

Speyer

Speyer is among the oldest German cities. It is famous mostly for its cathedral, where eight German emperors are buried. The cathedral of Speyer is the largest, well-preserved romanesque church in the world.

Aside from the Cathedral, Speyer doesn’t have too much to offer. There is the old town gate, Altpörtel, and some churches.

Bad Dürkheim

Bad Dürkheim is a spa town best known for a buidling shaped like a huge wine keg.

While it is mostly popular to hike in the surrounding area, there are also a number of ruins- the former monastery of Limburg as well as the castle ruins Schöneck and Hardenburg. At the Hardenburg ruins there is a museum where you can get an audio guide to learn more about the ruins.

Würzburg

The charm of Würzburg is that it has architectures from many different eras. The variety of styles makes it incredibly fun to explore Würzburg. In addition, the location at the Main with Marienberg fortress overlooking the city makes for amazing photos both from the castle and the river.

Another very notable sight is Würzburg residence, a baroque style palace with lush gardens. There are also a number of churches in Würzburg, of which I think Marienkappelle is the most beautiful.

Fulda

Fulda is another town with a nice Altstadt with half-timbered houses. It is also home to one of the oldest churches in Germany, Michaels Church. The church was originally built in the 9th century.

Another highlight is the St. Salvator cathedral where St. Bonifatius, a famous christian missionary, is buried. Just across from St. Salvator cathedral is Fulda city palace, a baroque palace built for the prince-abbots of Fulda.

Next to the city palace, there are lush gardens with an orangery in the center. Nowaydays, the orangery hosts a fancy restaurant.

If you want to get a panoramic view of Fulda, you can walk up to Frauenberg monastery, where you have a great view of the city.

Koblenz

Koblenz is located at the intersection of the Rhein and the Moselle. The confluence is known as the “Deutsches Eck”. There is a large statue of the first German emperor and thus it is a symbol of German unification.

The confluence of Moselle and Rhein was a place of high strategic importance. Therefore, there was a large-scale connection of fortifications around Koblenz.

Nowadays, the most interesting part of these fortifications is Ehrenbreitstein fortress. It is located on a cliff across the river from Koblenz and provides a great view over the city.

The fortress is open to visitors. To get there, you can make use of another one of the biggest attractions of Koblenz: the cable car across the river! The Koblenz cable car is the biggest aerial cable car in Germany and provides amazing panoramic views of the Rhine valley.

Aside from the fortress and cable car, Koblenz also has a palace to offer. Electoral palace is a frech neoclassical style palace located at the edge of the Rhein river. Nowadays, the palace serves as an event location.

Neckarsteinach

Neckarsteinach is sometimes also referred to as four castle town. Unsuprisingly, the four castles are also the main sights of Neckarsteinach.

The first castle is Vorderburg, which is also known as Landschadenburg. The castle sits above the old-town of Neckarsteinach and was connected to the city walls. Unfortunately, today only part of the castle remains.

The next castle is Mittelburg. The Mittelburg is well preserved and inhabited. Just like the Vorderburg, it is located above the town. The castle serves as an event location, mostly for weddings. It is also possible to stay in the castle overnight.

Hinterburg, also known as Alt-Schadeck, is the third castle. The Hinterburg is the oldest of the four castles. Unfortunately, today only one tower and the ruins of some walls remain.

The final castle is the Schwalbennest. Like Hinterburg, only ruins of the Schwalbennest remain.

Landau

The main highlights of Landau are the town hall and old market hall located on the citys main square as well as the art-nouveau style “Festhalle”.

The town hall still serves its original purpose, while both the “Festhalle” and old market hall are nowadays used for theatre plays, concerts and events.

Idar-Oberstein

The most famous sight of Idar-Oberstein is the “Felsenkirche”, a church sitting in a cliff overlooking the old town.

Aside from the church, Idar-Oberstein is known for gemstones. There is a gemstone museum and a lot of shops selling jewelry with gemstones. There is also a former gemstone mine where you can see how gemstones are mined and refined.

Finally, Idar-Oberstein has a palace, which was originally erected as a castle. It is nowadays used as an event location.

Melsungen

Melsungen has a fantastic old town full of half-timbered houses. It is special compared to other German old towns as it has an extremely high density of old buildings which really creates a medieval atmosphere you can hardly find anywhere else.

Schweinfurt

The old town of Schweinfurt is dominated by renaissance era buildings. The main sights of the old town are the old town hall and the armory.

Another highlight of Schweinfurt is the Kiliansberg area with many beautiful mansions.

Moselle valley

The Moselle valley is another area with a lot of very beautiful places in close proximity to one another. The great charm of the area comes from the combination of a river surrounded by vineyards flowing through a low mountain range. So naturally, I have included several places in Moselle valley in my best day trips from Frankfurt list.

The area is generally accessible by public transport, although most of the time you have to take a considerable detour via Koblenz. There are also some popular destinations like Eltz castle or Geierlay suspension bridge which are not well connected via public transport.

Mörsdorf

Mörsdorf is technically not directly at the Moselle but instead in Hunsrück. However, you can reach there by car from places like Eltz castle or Cochem in less than 30 min.

Mörsdorf itself is not of any interest. The attraction for which everyone comes here is Geierlay suspension bridge. The bridge is 360m long and around 100m off the ground. The bridge is mostly crossed as part of a hike in the area surrounding Mörsdorf and makes for spectacular selfies and photos.

Eltz castle

Eltz castle is a picturesque castle sitting on a hill in the mountains near the Moselle. To this day, the castle is owned by the Eltz family. However, the inside of the castle is still open to the public and contains original interior.

Pünderich

Pünderich is famous mostly for two attractions, the castle Marienburg and the Pündericher viaduct.

Marienburg is a former monastery that is located on a hill overlooking the Moselle. Due to its unique location, it is possible to see meanders of the Moselle at the same time from here.

The Pündericher slope viaduct is the longest of its kind in Germany and it nicely fits into the countryside of the Moselle valley.

Traben-Trarbach

Traben-Trarbach is yet another town in the Moselle valley with a cute old town and some castle ruins. The most interesting areas are the Traben and Enkirch suburbs.

Bernkastel-Kues

The highlight of Bernkastel-Kues is the Landshut castle ruin. The remaining castle tower is a popular viewing point in the middle Moselle area.

Aside from the castle ruin, Bernkastel-Kues also has a small old town. In the old town the market square and the “Graarcher Tor”, an old city gate, are of interests.

Bremm

Bremm is not on this list for the town itself, but instead for its location at the “Moselle loop”, a particularly picturesque meander of the Moselle.

Cochem

Cochem is the biggest and most famous place among the towns in the middle Moselle area.

Cochem has a nice old town full of restaurants and bars. The main highlight, however, is the imperial castle towering above the town. From the imperial castle you also have a great view across the Moselle valley.

Bürresheim castle

Bürresheim castle is among the few castle on the left bank of the Rhine which were never destroyed. It became famous as a popular filming location, most notably for “Indiana Jones and the last Crusade”.

The castle today contains a museum.

Bonn

Bonn and Frankfurt have a bit of a special history. The two cities competed to become the capital of West Germany before German unification. Bonn won out by a narrow margin. In a controversial celebratory gesture, Bonn turned the butt (yes, butt!) of a statue that was originally meant to insult the neighboring town of Beueren, towards Frankfurt.

Putting regional feuds aside, Bonn actually has a lot to offer and is therefore included in my list of best day trips from Frankfurt.

Among the most popular is the electoral palace with palace gardens. Today, this palace is actually home to the university of Bonn!

The other important palace in Bonn is the baroque stlye Poppelsdorfer Schloss, which today houses the geological museum and several acedemic institutes.

Another highlight near Bonn is Drachenburg palace, a villa built on a hill overlooking the Rhine.

Aside from its architecture, Bonn is known as one of the biggest carnival centers in Germany.

Finally, Bonn has some streets with many cherry blossom trees. So it might be worthwhile to plan for your visit to be during cherry blossom season.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

When you google Germany, you find images of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. It is the number one postcard destination in Germany! And there are good reasons for that. Therefore, Rothenburg ob der Tauber couldn’t possibly miss from my best day trips from Frankfurt list.

Rothenburg has a large, well preserved medieval old town. The entire medieval old town is still surrounded by a city wall you can walk on for great views of the old town.

The most photographed spot in the old town is called Plönlein. This gate and forked road are the postcard image of Germany.

Aside from visiting the town itself, the area around Rothenburg is also a popular hiking area and Rothenburg looks especially stunning from the distance!

Eisenach

The undisputed highlight of Eisenach is the medieval Wartburg castle, which is also a UNESCO world heritage site. Naturally, it is included in my list of best day trips from Frankfurt.

The Wartburg is also related to some interesting historical events. It was the location of a legendary minstrel battle. It is also the place where Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German and the setting of the Wartburg festival where students protested for a unified Germany.

Aside from the Wartburg, there is a number of other palaces, old buildings and Gründerzeit masions.

Preview of Part 3

In part three, I will introduce the best day trips from Frankfurt that can be reached in 2-3 hours by car. I will include more places in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Thuringia and even in France!

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