Frankfurt Airport Hints
Written: May 14 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: You can get there from here.
Cons: It's still an airport.
The Bottom Line: These comments offer assistance with your visit at the Frankfurt Airport. No city comments are included.
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| norwich's Full Review: Frankfurt am Main |
I traveled into and out of Frankfurt/Main Germany International Airport in October of 2000. It is a huge airport spread over two terminals. If you are traveling either to the Frankfurt Airport or will spend some layover time there I suggest you:
Read this review and click the Very Helpful button and
Visit the Frankfurt Airport web page at
http://www.frankfurt-airport.de/
It is in German and English.
Frankfurt Airport Basics
Frankfurt/Main is Germany’s largest and busiest airport. By the way, Main is the name of the river through Frankfurt. It has nothing to do with the English meaning of main. It is used in the city name so as not to be confused with Frankfurt/Oder, a city in the east of Germany.
There are two terminals at Frankfurt/Main called Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. Terminal 2 is the recently built terminal added to ease the burden on the original Terminal 1. Most of the flights from North America to Frankfurt arrive and depart using Terminal 2. I think that’s why they put the McDonald’s in Terminal 2. A monorail called “Skyline Shuttle” links the terminals. The Shuttle trip needs about 90 seconds between the terminals and they arrive at your terminal about every 90 seconds.
My flights used Terminal 2 but I spent most of my time in Terminal 1 since that is the original terminal and has most of the services and infrastructure I wanted to use. Flights within Europe and any Lufthansa flight use Terminal 1. You will need to know which terminal your flight uses because all flight check-in counters are in the terminal your flight uses. It is easy to navigate between the two terminals. All signs in both terminals are in German and English and International Symbols. Visibly armed guards dressed in military green are everywhere in the terminals. They are part of the German Army and/or Border Control.
Arrival – Passport Control – Customs
I flew in on Icelandair (see my epinion recommending Icelandair) and arrived at Terminal 2. Before getting your luggage you go through passport control. Note they have separate counters here for passport control. One counter for EU citizen control and one counter for non-EU citizens. North Americans obviously need to report at the non-EU line up. The officer spoke English, asked a few questions about length and reason for stay, stamped my passport and I was off to luggage retrieval. By the way, I had the same routine when I walked to my departing flight. They asked me about where I’d stayed, my reason for being in the country, stamped my passport again and I was into the in-transit area. There was a pretty good sized line too, so don’t put off getting through outbound passport control. There are restaurants, duty-free shops, and services in the in-transit area too.
After passing incoming passport control, my bags took about 15 minutes to show up and then I went through the doors marked Customs (Zoll in German). I went through the doors and there were no officials on the other side. Counters and desks were there but they were not manned. Welcome to Germany. I had to pee.
Die Toiletten
In Terminal 2 the restroom signs are widespread and the restrooms are easy to find. Unlike the German train stations, relief at Terminal 2 was without a fee. No attendants in the rest room either. Terminal 1 has showers available too. There is a fee for showering and they provide washcloth, towel, soap, etc.
Baggage Carts
I had two heavy bags and a briefcase so the free baggage carts that are available everywhere in the terminals were helpful until:
You go up or down a level. I never did find a working elevator and the escalators don’t look safe for a luggage cart.
No carts are allowed on the Skyline Shuttle
Free carts were everywhere so it was merely an inconvenience to take everything off the cart at the escalator, find a cart at the top of the escalator and do it again when you have to change levels. If you are in Terminal 2 and heading over to Terminal 1, just lug your bags up to the Shuttle and get a cart when you get to the first level of Terminal 1. You don’t need to change terminals if you are just going to take a taxi or someone is meeting you. You do have to go to Terminal 1 if you are leaving the airport by rail, which was my plan, or if you are transferring to another flight and it departs from the other terminal.
Calling Home from Terminal 1
It is easy to make an international phone call from Germany. You do it at the post office. Find the large post office in Terminal 1. It is on the wall opposite the main entry doors. The symbol is a black horn on a yellow field. Go to the window and tell the clerk you’d like to make an international call. Behind you are about 24 phone booths each with a number stenciled on the glass door. The clerk will tell you which booth to use. When you go in to the booth, the phone will be ringing. Pick up the phone and you’ll have German dial tone. Now dial your call. International calls begin with 00. Then country code which is 1 for USA and Canada, then area code or city code and finally the telephone number. For example, you left your blue dress in the Lincoln Bedroom and want to call the White House from the Frankfurt Airport so they can mail it to you. Dial 00(international call prefix) 1(USA) 202(area code for DC) 4561414(probably not the Oval Office but still the White House). My call home (Minnesota not DC) seemed to take awhile to connect so don’t be impatient. Sound quality of the call was excellent. When you are finished, hang up and go back to the window to pay the clerk. My two-minute call home during the daytime cost just under DM4.
The ATM Cash Machine
Just in front of the post office is a Deutsche Bank ATM cash machine. Instructions are in about any language you’d like, just press the flag for your country and that’s the language the instructions will appear in. My transaction for cash with a checking debit card on the Cirrus network required less than 30 seconds to provide me DM500. Cash Machines are everywhere in Germany and I used my card every other day without problem. More importantly, there was never an access fee and the rate of exchange was better than any exchange bank rate.
The Airport Train Stations (Bahnhöfe)
Access to the train stations is from Terminal 1. There are two train stations: Long Distance Train Station (Fernbahnhof) and Regional Train Station (Regionalbahnhof). It is a heck of a long walk to the Long Distance Train Station. The fast German trains, Inter City Express (ICE), all arrive and depart from the Long Distance Train Station. Frequent service to the Frankfurt Central Station (Hauptbahnhof) is from the Regional Train Station. I had tickets on the ICE to Kassel in the north of Hessen so I made the hike to the Long Distance Station. Both stations offer ticketing services as well as information and schedules. Credit cards are accepted for ticket payment. Coming soon is my epinion about using Deutsche Bahn the German Railway System.
The Frankfurt Airport Web Page
http://www.frankfurt-airport.de/ is great. You can print up a map of the terminals and take it along. You can see where the train stations, taxi, car rental counters etc. are located. The page tells you current status of all flights. I appreciated being able to check many days in advance how timely my Icelandair arrival and departure flights were. I did this daily for about 2 weeks before my trip so I knew if my train connection was too close.
Gute Fährt!
Recommended:
Yes
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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Epinions.com ID:
norwich
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Location: Rural SE Minnesota
Reviews written: 11
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