Frankfurt Hotels

Frankfurt is the mother of all transport hubs. Flughafen Frankfurt-am-Main is Germany's main gateway and continental Europe's busiest airport. Frankfurt's Hauptbahnhof is Germany's busiest main train station, and 90 long-distance trains also stop daily at the airport's train station. Long-distance buses connect Frankfurt with most eastern and western European countries, as well as North Africa. With most of Germany's Autobahnen converging on the city, cars can often seem to outnumber people in Frankfurt. The city hosts the country's biggest Los Angeles-style spaghetti junction, Frankfurter Kreuz, and parking is a nightmare proposition.

You'll get footsore pretty fast in Frankfurt, but luckily the public transport system is excellent and integrates the city's bus, tram, S-Bahn and U-Bahn lines. It's expensive but effective, and you can buy hourly or daily tickets at almost any stop (as long as you can decipher the ticketing machines' enigmatic instructions). The underground S-Bahn and U-Bahn train lines are convenient and run more frequently than buses. Trams run on major routes and offer above-ground views. Cycling isn't a bad way of getting around, and most streets have designated bike lanes. The maze of one-way streets in the centre of the city makes driving a somewhat frustrating experience, so you're better off parking as close as you can get and hoofing it or hailing an expensive but easy-to-find taxi.

Flughafen Frankfurt-am-Main is a mini-city of two massive terminals linked by the Sky Line elevated railway, and just about every major airline flies here from around the world. You can get to central Frankfurt by bus 61 to Südbahnhof in Sachsenhausen from Terminal 1, level 1, but the fastest and cheapest route is via the S-Bahn No 8 or No 9 from Terminal 1 to Hauptbahnhof. Taxis are also an easy, albeit expensive, option. Expect to spend about for a trip into town. Departure tax is included in the price of an airline ticket purchased in Germany.

Long-distance buses leave from the south side of the Hauptbahnhof, where there's a Eurolines office catering for most European destinations; an interesting domestic option is the Romantic Road bus. German Eurolines services are operated by Deutsche Touring (Am Römerhof 17).

The Hauptbahnhof west of the centre handles more departures and arrivals than any other station in Germany. The information office for connections and tickets is at the head of platform 9; for train information call 01805-996 633.

Frankfurt features the Frankfurter Kreuz, Germany's biggest autobahn intersection - modelled, it would seem, after the kind you might find in Los Angeles. All major (and some minor) car-rental companies have offices in the Hauptbahnhof and at the airport.

The city is good for cyclists, with designated bike lanes on most streets. Bikes are treated by the law as cars, so watch out for red lights. You can rent bikes from the Hauptbahnhof or Radschlag (Hallgartenstrasse 56, Bornheim); Deutsche Bah's remote operated scheme (tel:07000-522 5522) costs a minute.

Frankfurt's excellent - if expensive - transport network (RMV) integrates all bus, tram, S-Bahn and U-Bahn lines.

Traffic flows smoothly in central Frankfurt, but the one-way system makes it extremely frustrating to get to where you want to go. Throughout the centre you'll see signs giving directions and the number of places left in nearby car parks.