1

Frankfurt is not exactly a city for tourists but it makes a good base for trips in the region.Do a guided tour from the tourist information office the first day. Then decide if you like to visit some of the excellent museums there or if you rather go somewhere else.
Heidelberg, Speyer or Worms are south of Frankfurt and only a short train ride away.
Marburg is north and well worth a visit.
Mainz, Wiesbaden are a short hop on public transport.
Würzburg is not far.

2

The ford of the Franks on the Main river was the reason why it's called Frankfurt today. This town is the most important financial centre in continental Europe and the olny culture are bank systems here. As said in #1, all other places in the surrounding are much more nice to be for 2-3 days than this city.

3

Having read the often negative reports about Frankfurt on this forum, I was actually pleasantly surprised when I visited the city earlier this year. The Romerberg is quite charming, an evening stroll along the Main is pleasant, the Goethe House was interesting enough and I sort of enjoyed the area around Frankfurt Hbf with its Turkish and Middle Eastern eateries and shops.

The financial district is indeed very business-like and not really atmospheric; on the other hand, most bigger German cities I've been to are depressingly ugly once you get outside their Altstadt, while Frankfurt has shiny skyscrapers amidsts all the standard post-war reconstruction era eyesores.

Having said that, 3-4 hours was enough for me to get a quick taste for the place; I won't get bored if I need to go there again for work, but I'm not inclined to make a detour only to see more of the city.

4

If you're into nature a lot of people enjoy the Senckenbergmuseum http://www.senckenberg.de/root/index.php?page_id=71, the Palmengarten is also nice for a visit, info on that and more here http://www.frankfurt.de/sixcms/detail.php?id=317578, I agree that Frankfurt is not the prettiest city in Germany, but if you get bored or don't like it, there are a lot of things to do outside of Frankfurt that can be reached with a short train ride, I don't see why people always dismiss Frankfurt so quickly, if you like cities there is enough to do to entertain you for a few days.

Edited by: tempelton

5

I don't see why people always dismiss Frankfurt .... Maybe they know this town and as you wrote by yourself, there are a lot of things to do outside of Frankfurt.

6

I do know Frankfurt too and I think if a person likes cities and is tired of all those half timber houses, the cliche for Germany, Frankfurt is a nice contrast with lots of things to do.

7

Frankfurt is quite good if it comes to museums, shopping and nightlife. Also if you're into skyscrapers. Frankfurt is a historical business centre. And was also the city where the German emperors were elected and from the 16th century on also crowned. Also the site of the first German democratic parliament. While the core historical buildings (e.g. Paulskirche, cathedral, the Römer) were rebuilt after WWII the city lacks any historical ambiance. And these buildings are architecturally also not that outstanding.

Frankfurt is the center of the third biggest conurbation in Germany (after Rhine-Ruhr and Berlin). And it made it into the top 10 of a number of "best city to live" listings.

Also an advantage is the short distance from the airport into the city center and that it is really well connected by all means of transport. Which makes it also easy to get to nearby sites with more historical ambiance. See the listed ones in answer #1. I want to add here the Upper Middle Rhine Valley.

@7
This answer hurts any historically interested person. Frankfurt was once Europe's largest preserved medieval city. And that this is lost forever should make no one happy. And I don't think that the "lot's of things to do" has anything to do if there are half timbered houses or skyscrapers in a city center. This is in first place a thing of the number of inhabitants. Where the large conurbation helps to put Frankfurt before other cities which have as city the same number of inhabitants. It's just a result of WWII that all towns in Germany with an intact old town center are rather small.

8

It does not make me happy that the old Frankfurt is gone, but it's a fact, on the other hand they will rebuild some of it around the Roemer and I do hope they do a good job.

What gets me is that everytime somebody wants to visit Frankfurt the answer is, oh, there are much
better places to go, Mainz, Wiesbaden, the Rhine valley, that is true, these places are nice and I would love it if Frankfurt would have being spared by the war, it wasn't but still there are reasons to visit it, half timbert house isn't one of them.

9

If you like trains, take a local one up to Koblenz and back. Just for the scenery along the Rhine River.

Apart from this I have to second some of the above opinions: I also do like Frankfurt as it is a rather atypical German city.

10

Thank you all for the responses.

One thing I am most concerned about in Frankfurt is the nightlife scene. Like I mentioned earlier , I love to hit bars/clubs and not sure if Frankfurt has the nightlife like berlin , barcelona or some of the other cities in Europe famous for nightlife. Would I be better off going to Berlin?

11

Even though I don't really like Frankfurt as a city myself there will be enough bars and clubs to go and have fun. There are a lot of bars on the Bergerstraße.
You can't compare Frankfurt to Berlin I guess, bu Berlin is just to far to only go there for2-3 nights partying. As the others said, there are a lot of cities around Frankfurt, where you can go an enjoy your spare time and go back to Frankfurt for the nightlife.
You could also go to Cologne which is a 1-1,5 h train ride from Frankfurt.

12

Hi everyone, I need to ask :)I'm going to live in frankfurt but I read very negavtive comment about frankfurt , also peole wrote that it's very expensice city. Could you advise me if frankfurt is good for student or which city is better in germany. thanks in advance:)

13

Frankfurt is expensive, that's true. The best city to study in would be Berlin, and it's cheap, though it's getting more and more expensive as well.

14

This thread was about Frankfurt for tourists. To live in Frankfurt is something else. Frankfurt belongs to the 10 most livable cities on the planet. And at least among the 7 European cities among these 10 it's also the cheapest one.

Something about studying in Frankfurt.

Any city in Germany is better than the other. Don't under estimate the often centuries old rivalry between some cities. Esp. the former free ones - like Frankfurt - and the residential cities like Berlin.
"Better" is also relative. I studied in a big city and a not that big (~ 100.000 inhabitants) city. And preferred the latter. While I rank Berlin as a top destination for tourists, it was for me not even among the cities I considered to study at. Sure if you are looking for a study abroad term and your main aim is not the study but to have a good time than this is something else.