Frankfurt travel guide, in your ear
Frankfurt am Main, the city of banks, books and museums on the river Main, with a skyline of towers, a rebuilt old town, the Goethe House and the apple-wine taverns of Sachsenhausen.
- 13 narrated stops
- ~39 minutes of stories
- 6 languages
- Offline ready
What is the Gingerguide Frankfurt tour?
Frankfurt has 13 narrated sights on Gingerguide's self-guided audio walking tour. Plan about a full day to walk them all. The app is free to download, every city has a free preview, and the tour works offline in six languages.
It is a self-guided audio walking tour of Frankfurt, Germany, inside the Gingerguide travel guide app. The tour maps 13 sights and tells the story of each one in a two to three minute narration with a lifelike AI voice. When the story is not enough, ask the built-in AI guide about the place and keep the conversation going. Everything is available in six languages and works fully offline after a one-time download.
Which audio guide app is best for Frankfurt?
It depends on the trip. For Frankfurt, Gingerguide gives you all 13 sights on one offline map, narrated in six languages, with an AI guide to ask. Other apps are better for a single human-narrated walk, for museum guides, or for driving. We compared the main options honestly, with sources.
About Frankfurt
Welcome to Frankfurt am Main, the city on the river Main in the middle of Germany. It is a city of contrasts: a skyline of glass towers, home to the European Central Bank and the German central bank, and below it, an old town of half-timbered houses and churches, and taverns that serve apple wine. With about three quarters of a million people, it is the fifth largest city in Germany.
Frankfurt is first recorded in 794, as Franconofurd. From 1372 it was a free imperial city, and for almost five centuries it governed itself, until Prussia annexed it in 1866. Here the kings of the Holy Roman Empire were elected, and from 1562 they were also crowned in the cathedral.
Frankfurt was also a city of trade, books and ideas. Its fairs go back to the Middle Ages, and its modern Book Fair has been held every October since 1949. In 1749 Goethe was born here, and in 1848 the first parliament elected for all of Germany met in St Paul's Church. And for centuries the city was home to one of the great Jewish communities of Germany, until the Nazi era.
In the air raids of 1944 the old town, famous for about one thousand two hundred and fifty half-timbered houses, was almost totally destroyed, and about five thousand five hundred people died in the bombing of the city. Frankfurt was rebuilt, first mostly in a modern style; much later, between 2012 and 2018, part of the old town was rebuilt in its historic form.
Start at the Römerberg, the old square with the town hall, then walk through the New Old Town to the cathedral. See St Paul's Church and the Goethe House, and find lunch in the Kleinmarkthalle. Take the lift up the Main Tower for the view over the skyline, and visit the Jewish Museum by the river.
Then cross the Eiserner Steg, the iron footbridge, to the south bank. There, the Museumsufer, the museum bank, leads you to the Städel and its old masters, and in the evening the taverns of Sachsenhausen pour apple wine from grey stoneware jugs. A little further out, the Palmengarten and the dinosaurs of the Senckenberg Museum are waiting for you.
Many of these places were first paid for by the citizens of Frankfurt themselves: the iron footbridge, the Palmengarten, the opera house and the Städel. It is a city that its people have built, and rebuilt, many times. Enjoy discovering it.
One day in Frankfurt
A simple way to walk the highlights, following the route order in the app. Swap anything; Frankfurt rewards detours.
Afternoon and evening
Have more than a day? Frankfurt in 2 days →
What to see in Frankfurt: all 13 stops
Every place below has its own narrated story in the app, and its own answers when you want more. Walk them in any order; the map shows what is around you.
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Römerberg and Römer
The Römerberg, the old central square of Frankfurt, with the stepped gables of the Römer, the city's town hall since 1405, the Fountain of Justice and a row of rebuilt half-timbered houses.
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New Old Town (Dom-Römer Quarter)
The New Old Town of Frankfurt, the Dom-Römer quarter between the Römerberg and the cathedral, built from 2012 to 2018 with 35 houses, 15 of them reconstructions of houses lost in 1944.
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Frankfurt Cathedral
Frankfurt Cathedral, the Gothic church of St Bartholomew with its tower of 95 metres, where German kings were elected for centuries and where ten coronations took place from 1562 to 1792.
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St Paul's Church (Paulskirche)
St Paul's Church in Frankfurt, the oval sandstone church where the first parliament elected for all of Germany met in 1848 and 1849, rebuilt after the war as a hall and a memorial to democracy.
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Goethe House
The Goethe House in Frankfurt, where the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born in 1749 and grew up, rebuilt after its destruction in 1944, with the German Romantic Museum next door.
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Kleinmarkthalle
The Kleinmarkthalle, the covered food market in the old town of Frankfurt, built in 1954, where about sixty traders sell fresh produce, meat and local specialities such as green sauce and Frankfurt sausages.
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Main Tower
The Main Tower, a skyscraper of 200 metres in the banking district of Frankfurt, opened in 2000, with a public viewing platform high above the city and the towers of its skyline.
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Alte Oper
The Alte Oper, the old opera house of Frankfurt, opened in 1880, burned out in 1944 and rebuilt with the help of its citizens as a concert hall that reopened in 1981.
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Jewish Museum Frankfurt
The Jewish Museum of Frankfurt, in the Rothschild Palais by the river Main and in the Museum Judengasse, tells more than eight hundred years of history of one of the great Jewish communities of Germany.
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Eiserner Steg
The Eiserner Steg, the footbridge of 1869 over the Main between the old town and Sachsenhausen, rebuilt several times, with a Greek line from Homer and wide views of the skyline.
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Städel and the Museumsufer
The Städel, the art museum on the south bank in Frankfurt, founded by the will of the banker Johann Friedrich Städel in 1815, with seven centuries of European art, among the museums of the Museumsufer.
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Sachsenhausen
Sachsenhausen, the district on the south bank of the Main in Frankfurt, with the cobbled lanes of its old quarter and the taverns where apple wine is poured from grey stoneware jugs.
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Palmengarten and Senckenberg Museum
The Palmengarten, the botanical garden of Frankfurt opened in 1871 with its great palm house, and nearby the Senckenberg Natural History Museum, known for its dinosaurs.
Three things most visitors miss
Römerberg and Römer
The Römer has been the town hall of Frankfurt since 11 March 1405, when the city council bought the houses Zum Römer and Zum Goldenen Schwan.
New Old Town (Dom-Römer Quarter)
The New Old Town of Frankfurt has thirty-five buildings: fifteen reconstructions of houses lost in 1944 and twenty new designs in the historic style.
Frankfurt Cathedral
Frankfurt Cathedral has never been the seat of a bishop; its name Kaiserdom, imperial cathedral, recalls the elections and coronations of the Holy Roman Empire.
Frankfurt tour: questions and answers
How many days do you need in Frankfurt?
To see Gingerguide's 13 narrated highlights of Frankfurt on foot, plan about a full day. The tour is self-guided, so you set the pace: cover the whole route in a day or spread it across a trip. Each sight has a two to three minute story, roughly 39 minutes of audio in total.
What are the top things to see in Frankfurt?
Gingerguide narrates 13 sights in Frankfurt, starting with Römerberg and Römer, New Old Town (Dom-Römer Quarter), Frankfurt Cathedral, St Paul's Church (Paulskirche). Each one has its own audio story on a live map, and you can ask the built-in AI guide anything the story leaves open.
Do I need a tour guide in Frankfurt?
Not a human one. Gingerguide covers Frankfurt with 13 narrated sights, so you get the stories a guide would tell, at your own pace and on your own route. And if a story leaves you with a question, you can ask the built-in AI guide and discuss the place right there, the way you would with a guide.
How many stops does the Frankfurt audio tour have?
The Frankfurt guide covers 13 sights. Each one has a researched story of roughly three minutes, about 39 minutes of listening in total. You choose the order and the pace; the tour is self-guided.
Does the Frankfurt tour work offline?
Yes. You can download Frankfurt in the app, audio, photos, and offline map tiles included. After the download, the full tour works without an internet connection.
Which languages does the Frankfurt guide support?
Every Frankfurt narration is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Turkish, and Chinese. You can switch the language in the app at any time.
Is the Frankfurt audio guide free?
The Gingerguide app is free to download, and Frankfurt includes a free preview: you can see all 13 sights on the map at no cost. A premium subscription unlocks the full stories, audio narration, and the offline download.
Hear Frankfurt tell its own story.
Preview all 13 Frankfurt stops free in the Gingerguide app.
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