Frankfurt punches well above its weight culturally. The Museumsufer along the south bank of the Main is one of the best museum strips in Europe — the Städel for old masters and 20th-century painting, the Liebieghaus for sculpture, the Deutsches Filmmuseum, the Museum Angewandte Kunst, the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, and the small but excellent Icon and Jewish museums. North of the river, the Schirn Kunsthalle stages major touring shows and the MMK is one of the strongest contemporary art museums in Germany.
The reconstructed Altstadt around the Römerberg, the cathedral and St. Paul's Church is a 30-minute walk that captures the city's pre-war history. For modernity, ride the lift to the top of the Main Tower for the only public skyline view, or wander the western Bahnhofsviertel for the dense layering of migration, finance and nightlife that gives the city its real flavour.
The four neighbourhoods worth wandering are Altstadt (the reconstructed old town), Sachsenhausen (apple wine and museums), Bahnhofsviertel (the bohemian-financial mash-up around the central station) and Bornheim (where locals live, eat and drink along the Berger Strasse). For green space, head to the Palmengarten in the Westend, the riverside Mainufer, or the zoo over by Bornheim.