Trier Day Trip from Frankfurt Airport

Step back 2,000 years on a private day trip from Frankfurt Airport to Trier — Germany's oldest city and one of the best-preserved Roman urban centres north of the Alps. Covering 185 km via the A60 and A48, your FrankfurtRide driver takes you through the Moselle wine country to a city where Roman emperors once held court, and where the streets still follow the grid of the ancient Roman colony Augusta Treverorum.

Trier (German: Trier; Roman: Augusta Treverorum) was founded by the Romans around 16 BC at a ford on the Moselle River. Within two centuries it had grown into the largest city north of the Alps and served as the western capital of the Roman Empire under Emperor Diocletian and later as the residence of Constantine the Great. The city's Roman heritage is almost incomprehensible in scale: four UNESCO World Heritage Sites are concentrated within a compact walkable area — the Porta Nigra (Black Gate), the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps; the Imperial Baths (Kaiserthermen), whose arched ruins stretch across an entire city block; the Amphitheatre, which seated 20,000 spectators for gladiatorial contests; and the Barbara Baths (Barbarathermen). The Trier Cathedral (Dom) and the adjacent Church of Our Lady (Liebfrauenkirche) add Romanesque and Gothic layers over Roman foundations. The city's compact pedestrian centre also contains the Karl Marx birthplace museum and the Electoral Palace (Kurfürstliches Palais) facing the cathedral. Trier sits in the heart of the Moselle wine region, and a walk along the Moselle riverbank to the Roman bridge (Römerbrücke — still standing after 2,000 years) is one of the most evocative afternoon excursions in Germany.

The Frankfurt Airport to Trier tour follows the A60 west from Frankfurt, skirting the southern edge of the Westerwald hills, then joins the A48 toward Koblenz before turning south-west on the A48/A1 into the Moselle Valley and Trier. The route passes through the Eifel highlands and descends to the Moselle on the final approach to Trier — scenery becomes increasingly dramatic past Cochem.