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I am planning to fly to Frankfurt and I saw that there are two airports: FRA (Frankfurt Airport) and HHN (Frankfurt–Hahn Airport). Which one is more convenient and closer to cultural places including Mainz and the Rhine Cruise?

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  • 27
    Which is closer can be answered instantly with Google maps, instead of waiting for somebody to find your question here.
    – David Richerby
    Jun 10, 2016 at 22:15
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    What do you mean by "closer to (...) the Rhine Cruise"? The river Rhine spans much of Germany from North to South, and there are boat cruises that for much of the way use the river Rhine starting in the Netherlands that go all the way down to Basel. Anywhere in Western Germany is somewhat close to that.
    – O. R. Mapper
    Jun 10, 2016 at 22:29
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    There are not two airports in or for Frankfurt. There's only one, FRA. You have been misinformed.
    – Fattie
    Jun 10, 2016 at 23:48
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    This begs the question of what exactly makes an airport belong to a certain city.
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Jun 11, 2016 at 6:46
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    @JonathanReez The decision of the airport itself. For example, Oxford airport, which has no scheduled commercial flights, recently renamed itself London-Oxford. *sigh*
    – David Richerby
    Jun 11, 2016 at 8:41

3 Answers 3

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FRA is one of the largest international airports in the world, and right next to Frankfurt itself.

HHN is a small airport and was completely unknown, until RyanAir started flying there and simply declared it as 'Frankfurt'. It is nowhere near Frankfurt (or near anything).

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    Perfectly stated.
    – Fattie
    Jun 10, 2016 at 23:48
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    See also Words most misleadingly named airports. HHN is 4th only to Sandefjord (mislabelled as Oslo Torp), Memmingen (mislabelled as Munich) and Châlons Vatry (mislabelled as Paris) in distance to the city they're named after.
    – gerrit
    Jun 11, 2016 at 14:14
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    Fun fact: HHN is closer to Luxembourg City than it is to Frankfurt. Nearest reasonable sized German city is probably Koblenz and that's still 84 km away. In German context HHN is about the perfect definition of "middle of nowhere".
    – Hilmar
    Jun 11, 2016 at 16:32
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    That "most misleading" article seems to think that people expect airports to be downtown, and that cities don't have some miles of radius anyway. I wonder what they'd think of my home-town DFW? It's not misleading because it's exactly beteween Dallas and Ft Worth, but it's a 30 to 50 mile drive to get to the farther edges of either metropolitan area. The parking lot is bigger than the distances listed on the "closest" cities!
    – JDługosz
    Jun 11, 2016 at 17:37
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    I am not comparing an airport with Frankfurt international, I am answering the OP's question. Did you read it? The OP did not ask if HHN is an impressive airport with lots of people and freight going through that beats small airports in the US by volume. I recommend you fly through HHN to Frankfurt downtown, and then consider the OP's questions.
    – Aganju
    Jun 11, 2016 at 18:24
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FRA is about 15 km from the center of Frankfurt. HHN is about 125 km away. FRA is also closer to Mainz than HHN is.

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    HHN is a 2h bus ride from Frankfurt Central station with departures every hour during daytime roughly, FRA is 20mins by suburban train that run every few minutes with transport options also at night.
    – mts
    Jun 10, 2016 at 22:25
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    @JoeBlow according to Wikipedia "The addition of Frankfurt to its name, however, is not an invention of low-cost carriers as is the case with some other airports – Frankfurt-Hahn is the airport's official name as it positioned itself as an alternative to Frankfurt Airport for low-cost and cargo traffic"
    – Martin Smith
    Jun 11, 2016 at 5:45
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    @JoeBlow That comment is wrong in two different ways. First, Ryanair is an Irish company. Second, as Martin points out, the airport calls itself "Frankfurt-Hahn".
    – David Richerby
    Jun 11, 2016 at 8:38
  • @JoeBlow Ryanair is not a UK company
    – Calchas
    Jun 11, 2016 at 12:08
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    The airport did actually change the name from 'Hahn' to 'Frankfurt Hahn' at the same time as Ryanair started flying there. In 2002 Lufthansa processed against Ryanair, claiming the usage of 'Frankfurt' in the airport's name to be deceptive advertising, but lost. It's an oddity, that the airport is not even in Hahn, but partially in Lautzenhausen and Büchenbeuren. Being originally built as a French and then later US military airport, the names were considered too difficult to pronounce and hence 'Hahn' was chosen as the name of a nearby municipality.
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Jun 11, 2016 at 18:01
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Frankfurt Flughafen is the right choice for what you have described.

There is a tube stop in the airport where you can take the "S-Bahn" to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof. It leaves every 15 minutes between 0500 and 2330 and it's a 15 minute ride.

From Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof it's a 10 minute walk along the river to the Römer Platz (the cultural center of gravity) where there are riverboats waiting to take you on an excursion up the Rhine river to scenic locales like Rüdesheim am Rhein (wine tasting in season).

The same "S-Bahn" leaving from the airport can also take you west to Mainz and Wiesbaden.

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