"The most Un-German City in Germany " a Frankfurt am Main Travel Page by antistar

Frankfurt has pretensions to be Germany's "Capital that Never Was". Given its central location and huge economic influence, you'd think that it has been robbed by history, but a visit to the city can change that view. It doesn't feel like a capital at all. It's certainly a big international city. It also has many important businesses and institutions, like the European Bank, but it feels a lot smaller and more provincial compared to Berlin.

Frankfurt is not much of a tourist city, but it is a great place to live. Despite it's bad reputation among Germans, and its relatively high rate of crime compared to other German cities, it is consistently rated as one of the ten best cities to live in the world, as well as one of the ten safest.

The reasons for this are obvious once you live here; it's a relaxed, cosmopolitan city, with a great city transport system and fantastic transport connections. Frankfurt airport is the busiest in continental Europe, and Frankfurt's Hauptbahnhof is practically the hub of the German rail system. It's also an incredibly cheap place to live compared to similar cities, like London, New York, Milan and Paris.

Frankfurt's main tourist appeal, above its famous name and convenient location, lies in its amazing museums. Along both sides of the river, on an easily manageable stretch, are some of the greatest museums in Germany. My personal favourite was the Städel museum, which hosts an array of exceptional paintings to rival any city in the world. It's also quite a pleasant city to wander around, and the contrast of the old buildings with the modern skyscrapers is wonderful, as are the old streets of Sachsenhausen across the river from the center.

The city also makes a fantastic base for visiting a number of Germany's greatest tourist attractions. Within an hour's train journey of the city are Heidelberg, Mainz and the popular Rhine river cruises. The cities of Cologne and Stuttgart are only a little further away on the ICE, and every major city is within a few hours journey thanks to the amazing connections the city has. Even Berlin on the other side of the country is only four hours away by direct ICE link.

One of Frankfurt's other greatest strengths is that it is so uniquely un-German. It is extremely cosmopolitan, especially for a German city, and claims to have 180 different nationalities residing in the city. Many of these work at the banks that operate here and make Frankfurt one of the major financial centers in the world. This makes for possibly the best restaurant scene in Germany.

The city is also super hip, with many great clubs that are not super exclusive or super expensive. You can get into some of the best clubs in Germany for as little as 10 euro cover charge. Along with the investment bankers and lawyers, there are movie stars, artists and sport celebrities to rub shoulders with. And now also world famous computer game developers :).

Things I Love

Great food; cosmopolitan people; skyscrapers; Sachsenhausen; Bergerstrasse; Das Staedel; walking along the Main; great transport connections.

Surprises

Extremely relaxed city; very little obvious crime; not that expensive.

Disappointments

Not a great deal for the tourist to see in the city itself; the weather.