Navigating Frankfurt Airport

Arguably, the best gateway for trips to continental Europe is Germany’s centrally located Frankfurt Airport (FRA) (www.frankfurt-airport.com). In addition to a vast array of long-haul and short-haul air connections, it has an attached long-distance rail station with direct routes to a wide range of cities.

I suspect FRA is often overlooked by leisure travelers when they plan European vacations, since the city of Frankfurt, itself, isn’t a major tourist draw. However, there are a number of popular tourist destinations in the vicinity, including the most scenic portions of the Mosel and Rhine rivers. 

Over the past dozen years, my wife and I have often traveled through FRA, most recently in November 2014. The airport is such a huge complex that, despite its being well organized, travelers can find it confusing and intimidating. 

Before you leave for FRA, spend some time on its exhaustive website (www.frankfurt-airport.com/content/frankfurt_airport/en.html) to familiarize yourself with it in advance. The airport even has its own phone app*, which can be downloaded for free, offering information about flights, shops and parking facilities.

If you’re flying Lufthansa (www.lufthansa.com), the airport’s dominant carrier, check their website for additional information.

Frankfurt’s airport has two terminals. The sprawling Terminal 1 is home to Star Alliance (http://staralliance.com/en/about) carriers. Sky Team (www.skyteam.com) and oneworld (www.oneworld.com) carriers are typically based in the compact and less convenient Terminal 2.

While Terminal 2 is reasonably self-sufficient, with separate car rental operations, Terminal 1 offers considerably more services, shopping and direct ground connections. 

The SkyLine elevated train connects the two terminals with a quick, 2-minute ride every two or three minutes but is located airside (i.e., inside security). It’s primarily useful for flight transfers that don’t involve leaving the secure zone.

It’s more likely that you’ll use the shuttle bus that connects the two terminals and runs every 10 minutes. Trips from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 take only five minutes, but going the opposite direction takes a few minutes longer, since the shuttle bus has to follow a fairly circuitous route. 

It’s a rare airport that has a long-distance train station. FRA’s modern Fernbahnhof is connected to the airport via a long, elevated (Level 3) walkway that extends in a perpendicular direction from Terminal 1’s Hall B.

As you approach the Fernbahnhof, there’s a DB (Deutsche Bahn, or German Railway) travel center (Reisezentrum), where you can buy tickets or get your rail pass activated. The station has a café plus a first-class lounge downstairs on Level (Ebene) 2. Tracks (Gleisen) 4 to 7 can be found below.

A local train station (Regional­bahnhof) is located snug up to Terminal 1’s Hall B at Level 0. This station also has a DB travel center. In addition to regional trains, S-bahn lines 8 and 9 stop there. These S-bahn lines connect to Frankfurt’s central station (Hauptbahnhof) in one direction and go to Mainz (S8 only) and Wiesbaden (both S8 and S9) in the other direction. Tracks 1 and 3 are located downstairs.

There are many options for overnight stays. A few hotels are physically connected to FRA’s terminals, while several others are less than a kilometer away and have good shuttle connections. These hotels are listed on FRA’s website.

In nearby towns, you’ll find numerous hotels with free airport shuttles. These shuttles stop outside of Terminal 1’s Hall A, Door 1 at Level 1 (i.e., ground level). A few shuttles also stop at Terminal 2, but not as many as FRA’s website implies. (Verify this with your hotel.)

Twice we’ve stayed at the inexpensive Hotel Ibis Frankfurt Airport in Kelsterbach (Langer Kornweg 9a-11; phone [+49] 6107 9870, www.ibis.com), which uses the same shuttle bus as the Mercure Hotel. 

We’ve also stayed twice in Frankfurt’s quirky Manhattan Hotel (Düsseldorfer Strasse 10; phone +49 69 269597 0, www.manhattan-hotel.com), located near the entrance to an underground passageway linking to the Hauptbahnhof. The Manhattan Hotel provides an excellent breakfast starting at 6:15 a.m. (7 a.m. on Sunday). 

Other travelers have recommended staying in Mainz and Wiesbaden.

With few exceptions, we’ve found FRA’s security staff to be thorough and professional. At check-in, expect to be questioned intensively about your belongings and preparations.

After clearing the usual Immigration and security checks and arriving airside, you may not be done. There will be another security check at, or just before, the gate unless your flight is for destinations within Germany or in the Schengen Area (26 border-free countries). Factor in time for this final check so you don’t miss your flight.

STEPHEN O. ADDISON, Jr.

Charlotte, NC

*Links to Android and iOS versions of the “New FRA Airport App” can be found in the right-hand column of the homepage at www.frankfurt-airport.com.