Frankfurt, Germany, gets a bad rap. Reddit is filled with dismissive comments like, “It’s a business town, for business people,” and I hear the same thing from my German friends and family. As a financial center, Frankfurt is seen as lacking the traditional charm of cities like Munich and the creative verve of Berlin.
And yet, German tourists are choosing Frankfurt in record numbers, a promising local seal of approval. The Frankfurt RheinMain region — encompassing more than 70 cities, including Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Wiesbaden, and Offenbach — was named World Design Capital 2026 by the World Design Organization, building on the area’s history of innovation with lofty goals of strengthening democracy and sustainability through design. Around 60 million travelers pass through Frankfurt Airport (FRA) each year, many of them Americans laying over or starting a trip here.
If that’s you, you deserve the truth: Frankfurt is less crowded than its German counterparts, more compact and walkable than many major cities worldwide, and home to more than finance professionals and business travelers — if you know where to go. To understand why I’ve long been a defender of the destination, head just south from the main train station to the neighborhood that neatly blends traditional and modern, exemplifying the charm of Frankfurt.
A table of dishes at The FlorentinCredit: Courtesy of the Althoff Collection
Avocado toast at The FlorentinCredit: Courtesy of the Althoff Collection
Dessert at The FlorentinCredit: Courtesy of the Althoff Collection
A cocktail at The FlorentinCredit: Courtesy of the Althoff Collection
“Everyone talks about Paris and not enough talk about how cool Lyon is. I think we’re the Lyon of Germany, like the B city that people who have spent time in the A cities might want to explore instead,” says Rebecca Itt, who points out that encountering fewer international tourists can be a benefit for travelers tired of the masses in Berlin or Munich. Itt, who grew up in a small town outside of Frankfurt, moved to the city several years ago, and now works as a marketing and PR executive at The Florentin by Althoff Collection, one of the best new reasons to visit Frankfurt.
Just a 15-minute walk or a single tram stop across the attractive Main River from Frankfurt’s main station, the beautifully renovated 20th-century villa opened in December 2025 and is quietly hip, much like the neighborhood it’s in. The hotel offers a central yet serene respite complete with a large inner courtyard, chic and comfortable rooms, luxurious spa facilities, and impressive dining options, from breakfast through dinner, including at fine dining headliner The Dune, led by chef Niclas Nußbaumer and his life partner, Lea Rupp, the restaurant manager. He’s the kind of chef earnest enough to write a love letter to his sourdough starter (“Sir Frederick II”) and skilled enough to pull off delicate dishes like sea bream yubiki in sherrylike vin jaune.
Nußbaumer and Rupp moved to Frankfurt from the Black Forest in 2025, and Rupp says she loves how much more local Frankfurt feels than more famous food cities. “You see the same people, you get to know each other, it’s friendly.” Some of her favorite spots are a short stroll from The Florentin along the riverfront street Schaumainkai, also home to many of Frankfurt’s museums, such as the excellent Städel Museum with its collection spanning 700 years of European art. Rupp’s top pick is Emma Metzler, inside the Museum Angewandte Kunst (Museum of Applied Arts) with a lovely terrace overlooking a park, serving modern European fare like salmon trout with ramson kimchi or gnocchi malfatti made with local ricotta alongside fermented mushrooms. For the best schnitzel, she says, go to white-tablecloth Austrian specialist Lohninger, which offers globe-trotting tasting menus.
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The Sachsenhausen district is also the epicenter of apfelwein (apple wine), aka ebbelwoi in the local dialect, arguably Frankfurt’s biggest claim to fame and most underappreciated specialty. There was a time when the hard cider’s quality plummeted due to commodification, but the tradition has rebounded thanks to UNESCO recognition for its cultural heritage and a new wave of craft producers dedicated to preserving Greater Frankfurt’s biodiverse meadow orchards and fermenting heirloom apples with the care they deserve.
Just as Munich is riddled with lively, gemütlich (cozy) beer halls, Sachsenhausen is peppered with homey yet boisterous cider halls serving old-school apfelwein — still, dry, tart, and easy-drinking, poured from gray-and-blue stoneware pitchers called bembel into crosshatched tumblers called Geripptes — and reimagined versions, perhaps made from a single varietal or Méthode Champenoise and enjoyed in delicate wine glasses. The customary chaser is a shot of mispelchen, or Calvados infused and served with a preserved loquat (Japanese medlar).
Kleinmarkthalle, an indoor market hall
Credit: Photo by Walter Bibikow / Getty Images
The best place to experience this culture is Daheim, whose owners, Frank and Pia Winkler, are two of apfelwein’s greatest champions. Daheim has been expanding over the past several years, and now has three locations within a block of one another in Sachsenhausen, plus another on the second floor of the Kleinmarkthalle, the incredible indoor market hall across the river. The growth helps the Winklers’ many fans find a seat without too much of a wait.
Before digging deeply into the extensive menu, set a baseline with the high-quality but still quaffable housemade apfelwein from the cask, a delightful foil for unique local foods like the hearty green sauce called grüne soße and handkäse mit musik, a hard, pungent cheese with raw onions, hence the “music” it may evoke.
You can take some apfelwein home from Daheim or from nearby retail shops Apfelweinkontor, in Frankfurt’s oldest house, a half-timbered building built in 1292, and Apfelweinhandlung JB, which occupies a former pharmacy. Jens Becker (the JB in question) was a pioneer when he opened the city’s first shop dedicated to apfelwein, in 2014, and he was clearly onto something. Much like Frankfurt, apfelwein has long been overlooked internationally and by Germans themselves — thankfully, times are changing.
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