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Is layover time of 5 hours and 25 minutes enough to visit Frankfurt ?

Both flights are international with Lufthansa and on one ticket, so I will have the boarding pass of the second flight with me. Will arrive and departure to/from terminal 1 and do not need visa to enter Germany.

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    Are you arriving from within the Schengen area or will you need to go through immigration? Are you willing to splurge on a taxi? – mts Jul 17 '16 at 9:12
  • I need to go through immigration – yaya Jul 17 '16 at 9:25
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    I'll answer later on if nobody else has but personally I would not do this, mostly because Frankfurt does not have that much to see, but this is a judgement call. Timewise it seems doable even with public transport but you have little margin for delays. What time of the day are your flights? – mts Jul 17 '16 at 9:40
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Yes you could I guess but I am not sure I would do it, for two reasons:

Timing

I made a quick ideal case scenario:

which leaves you with ca. 2h by my calculations to see the city. However that was a best-case scenario and your calculation could go wrong at any time above:

  • delays of your incoming flight
  • queues at immigration and/or security
  • questions at immigration
  • once the tracks where blocked on my train into the city and I waited 30min on the train stopped at a station before resorting to alternative means
  • get lost in Frankfurt

I am a fairly risk-averse person and honestly would not do it unless I had an important errand to run and could fall back on taking a taxi back in case, but this is up for your judgement. If you do go, plan ahead every detail, i.e. what terminal you arrive, how to get into town, where to get off, where to walk around, when and how to get back, ...

Attractiveness

Personally I don't find Frankfurt that attractive for a visit and if I had a friend come to Germany and could show them only one place, it would be among the last to come to my mind, but hey, you might have only this chance to see Germany and it is better than nothing. Have a look at what to see beforehand and plan how to get around.

Alternatively, sometimes (and only sometimes) you get pretty good views of the "skyline" at take-off and landing, see this question of mine.

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    Frankfurt can be insanely beautiful at night and there are a few must-see places ... of course there are also a lot of ugly places - its like heaven and hell merged into one city. Just sayian. Prepare your tour with the utmost attention to detail and you will be (very) fine. Ignore the crazy people while you're there. – specializt Jul 17 '16 at 18:42
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    Well ... some of the homeless people will approach you for ... weird things, some of the drug addicts will annoy you, some of the ... weird people will try to scam you -- and even some of the "normal" people there will blatantly stare at you, point at you for no reason, try to touch you and so on. Frankfurt is filled with weird people and everone knows it. Just ... ignore all of them, do not answer them and enjoy the city ... its some kind of gathering point for mentally ill people, nobody knows why – specializt Jul 18 '16 at 6:07
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    @specializt let me rephrase my comment: my general impression does not match with your comments. There is an open drug scene around the central station but I personally (male) do not feel unsafe or it a nuisance, even alone at night. I do however avoid some of the train station underpasses at night. – mts Jul 18 '16 at 12:11
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    I also think @specializt is painting a very bad picture. Every mayor city has some problems around the city center, but Frankfurt does not feel any worse (to a German male) than most other cities of comparable size even at night. Definitely feels saver than touristy areas of Hamburg at night. – simbabque Jul 18 '16 at 12:34
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    Allow me to add my 2 cents here: The problem with visiting Frankfurt for a short period of time is that by default, I would take a local train from the airport to the main station and from there walk to the city center. But in Frankfurt, this is exactly where a part of the city that feels like a red light district is! It is slowly changing though. But taking a "S-Bahn" right to the city center or the banking part of the city is probably a better idea. – DCTLib Jul 31 '16 at 10:13
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I basically second mts’ answer about the time you have being on the short side. It would be a lot easier if you wouldn’t have to pass immigration entering Frankfurt. And I also second that Frankfurt in itself is probably not worth the visit.

But while you’re there, why not go to Mainz instead? The train ride is 26 minutes rather than 12, so you lose some thirty minutes of city time. In return, you get a beautiful city near the river Rhine with a nice centre. In my opinion, Mainz is much more worth a visit than Frankfurt. You can either take the S8 or one of the regional trains that go on to other destinations after Mainz.

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