Hesse

Frankfurt's skyscrapers are usually the first thing visitors see of Hesse, but behind them lie low mountain ranges, half-timbered towns and vineyards along the Rhine. A vacation in Hesse combines the Museum Embankment and apple wine taverns with the Rheingau, the Rhön, the mountain park in Kassel and the places of the Brothers Grimm.

Landscape and Location

Hesse lies in the middle of Germany and is largely forested. In the south, the Odenwald and the Bergstrasse, with their fruit blossoms, reach toward the Rhine-Main region, and to the west lies the Taunus with the Großer Feldberg. On the Rhine, the Rheingau stretches from Wiesbaden to Lorch, one of the country's best-known wine-growing regions. To the east rise the Vogelsberg, the largest contiguous volcanic massif in Central Europe, and the Rhön with the Wasserkuppe, the birthplace of gliding. Northern Hesse is characterized by forests, Lake Eder and the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park, whose ancient beech forests are part of a World Heritage Site.

Frankfurt am Main

Frankfurt am Main is home to the European Central Bank and the stock exchange, and its skyline has earned it the nickname Mainhattan. From the Main Tower you can look out over the city. But Frankfurt also has a long history: the German kings were elected and crowned in the Imperial Cathedral, the first German parliament met in St. Paul's Church in 1848, and the Römerberg is home to the city hall with its gabled facades. The rebuilt New Old Town between the cathedral and the Römer shows what the area looked like before the war. Along the Museum Embankment you'll find the Städel, the Film Museum and the Museum of Applied Arts in a row. In Sachsenhausen, you can drink Äppelwoi from a Bembel, the traditional stoneware jug, in apple wine taverns. Neighboring Hanau is the birthplace of the Brothers Grimm and the starting point of the German Fairy Tale Route.

Wiesbaden, Darmstadt and the South

Wiesbaden, the state capital, is an elegant spa town with 26 hot springs, the Kurhaus with its casino, and the Neroberg Railway, which runs on water ballast. From here the Rheingau begins, with Eltville, Eberbach Monastery, where the film The Name of the Rose was shot, and Rüdesheim with the Drosselgasse and the Niederwald Monument above the Rhine. Darmstadt calls itself the City of Science; the Mathildenhöhe with its Art Nouveau buildings has been a World Heritage Site since 2021. Very close by lies the Messel Pit, a fossil site that is also a World Heritage Site. Lorsch Abbey on the Bergstrasse dates from the Carolingian era.

Sights in Hesse: the North

Kassel hosts documenta every five years, the world's most important exhibition of contemporary art; the next one is planned for 2027. The Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe with its Hercules statue and water features that cascade down on summer days is a World Heritage Site. The Grimmwelt tells the story of the lives of the fairy-tale collectors. Gießen is a university town with a hands-on Mathematikum. Near Marburg, with its castle and St. Elisabeth's Church, you'll find the half-timbered towns of Alsfeld and Melsungen. Fulda is a Baroque episcopal city with the cathedral where Saint Boniface is buried, and a gateway to the Rhön. In the Odenwald lies the half-timbered town of Michelstadt with its town hall on wooden stilts. The Lahn, with Limburg, whose cathedral towers high above the river, and Weilburg with its palace, is well suited to canoe trips, and in summer Lake Eder offers a beach vacation in the middle of the forest.

Food and Drink

Frankfurt's Green Sauce, made from seven herbs, is served with eggs and potatoes, alongside Handkäs mit Musik, a sour milk cheese with onions, vinegar and oil. Frankfurter sausages and smoked pork ribs with sauerkraut belong in every apple wine tavern, and at Christmas people eat Bethmännchen and Frankfurter Kranz. In northern Hesse, Ahle Wurscht is a long-aged pork sausage. Rheingau Riesling is considered one of the best in the world, and along the Bergstrasse, wine grows in Germany's smallest wine-growing region.

Getting There and Best Time to Visit

Frankfurt Airport is Germany's largest hub, and the main train station is a central ICE junction from which Cologne can be reached in about an hour. ICE trains reach Kassel in about an hour and a half. The best time to visit Hesse is spring, with tree blossoms on the Bergstrasse, and fall, with the grape harvest in the Rheingau. In summer, Lake Eder and hiking in the Rhön are the draw, and in winter, the Christmas markets in Frankfurt and Marburg.