Using an eSIM in Frankfurt

What Frankfurt is like on a phone

More people pass through Frankfurt than stay in it, because it is one of Europe's biggest transfer points and a great many passengers are here for two or three hours between flights. The other group is banking and trade-fair visitors who stay longer. The city is smaller than the skyline suggests, and both the town and the airport are well served. The real decision here is not coverage but whether you want a line for a layover or for the whole trip.

When you land

Frankfurt Airport (FRA) has two stations of its own — the regional one beneath Terminal 1 and the long-distance station in a separate building — while trains arrive in town at the big covered terminus of the Hauptbahnhof. Switch the line on while still in the transfer concourse, because checking whether your gate has changed is the first thing you need to do. The ride into the city takes a bit over ten minutes with service nearly throughout, apart from the deep platform levels inside the stations themselves.

Where coverage changes

The terminals and the tower district both perform well, and even the very long inter-terminal walkways keep service for most of their length. The rebuilt old town around the central square is low-rise and tightly packed with no signal problem. What you notice is the multi-level basement of the Hauptbahnhof and the underground passages to the city trains, where speeds drop enough that a timetable takes its time to load. Out towards the wooded hills north of the city there are patches where it thins without failing.

What a day here costs in data

A pure layover usually costs under 200MB an hour, since it is mostly gate checks, messages and email. A day out in the city runs about 600MB to 1GB, which is modest because the distances are short. For a business trip with video calls or document sharing during the day, size it from meeting hours instead: that part is several times everything else combined.

Districts travellers ask about

• The terminals and transfer zone — Connected almost everywhere, including the inter-terminal shuttle — the point of having your own line is not re-registering for Wi-Fi at every sitting.
• The banking and tower district — Fine on the streets between the glass towers, though the enclosed ground-floor lobbies of some offices weaken enough that you end up moving towards a window.
• Römer and the old town — The square is open and busiest at weekends, which is when pushing out a set of group photos takes a little longer than usual.
• Sachsenhausen — The south bank, lined with restaurants and museums, is fine on the street; the cellar rooms of some old taverns have nothing.

Day trips out of the city

• The Rhine valley — The riverside train keeps service nearly all the way, with short breaks in the tunnels under the cliffs and where a castle bluff stands over the line.
• Heidelberg — A bit over an hour with service throughout; the wooded path up to the castle, shaded by trees and stone walls, weakens in patches.
• The Taunus hills — The low wooded hills north of the city thin out in patches, and some walking routes have no continuous service — load the map before you head up.