If you have a Garmin GPS with European mapping, then life is very simple indeed: just download the file below and transfer it to your Garmin to find waypoints and routes to the Ring from Calais, Dunkerque, Frankfurt, Koln-Bonn and Hahn (what Ryanair likes to call 'Frankfurt Hahn'):

garmin.gdb

Right-click the link, select Save Target As, save to your PC, double-click to open in Mapsource, connect your GPS then select Send to Device.

Otherwise, you can find photo-directions below.

First, if you're flying Ryanair, don't expect to land at Frankfurt. They instead fly to an entirely ficticious place called Frankfurt Hahn, in the grand Ryanair tradition of choosing some tiny airport about 100km from your destination and then sticking the name of your destination in front of the real place name. (Their best one is 'Copenhagen' where they actually used to fly you to Sweden and you then have to take a ferry to Denmark.)

I don't have photo-directions from Hahn because I always land there at night, but the route is included in the Garmin file.

If you're flying in, you probably need to hire a car. If you already have a DRT and just need a shopping car to get you to the Ring, the airport rental desks will be able to sort you out. If you want something a little more Ringable, see my Car Hire page.

The drive from Frankfurt takes about 90 minutes in average to light traffic if you drive within say 20-30km of the many speed limits on this stretch of autobahn. This is a good plan due to the frequent mobile speedtraps in this area. If you hit rush-hour, the journey may take two hours.

Apologies for the poor quality of the photos - we were travelling into the sun most of the time, which made it very difficult indeed to get clear shots of the signs.

Exiting Frankfurt airport, follow signs to the A3 Köln/Bonn. We were passing the airport rather than coming from it, so no pics of that, but the airport terminal is literally next to the A3:

The terminal building as seen from the A3

You're going to keep following these signs for approx 80km until you start picking up signs for Koblenz instead:

An overview of the route

You turn off the A3 at J39 onto the A48, signposted Trier & Koblenz:

As the GPS shows, we take a slip-road to the right then pass under the A3

Turn off the A61 and J33 onto the B412. This junction is actually signposted Nurburgring & Adenau.

Warning: this slip-road is 270° and very tight!

Go under the bridge (the Ring) and take the first left:

Drive a few hundred metres to a roundabout and the Ring is on your left.