Cologne Travel Guide

Cologne, Germany — Travel Tips

Getting There By Air

Airlines offering flights to Cologne from the UK include Lufthansa, easyJet, Germanwings and TUIfly.

Köln-Bonn Airport
Tel: (022) 0340 4001.
Website: www.koeln-bonn-airport.de

Köln-Bonn Airport lies 10 miles (16km) south of the city center.

Airport facilities
Köln-Bonn Airport is a thoroughly modern international gateway with all the usual leisure and business facilities, including banks, ATMs, a post office, restaurants and cafés, shops and duty-free shopping.

Transport to the city
The airport has its own train station connected to the city center by the suburban (S-Bahn) line 13 (to Troisdorf). Central stops are Hansaring, Central Station (Hauptbahnhof), Trimbornstrasse and Frankfurter Strasse. Trains run daily (journey time - 15 minutes). Alternatively you can catch the RE (Regional Express) train 8, though this is much less frequent. Bus 170 runs for most of the day from the airport to the city center. The bus station is at the rear of the Hauptbahnhof. Taxis take around 15 minutes. The excellent airport website includes detailed information on all public transport connections including timetables.

Getting There By Road

Germany is covered by an excellent and extensive system of roads and toll-free Autobahnen (motorways). In Cologne, traffic drives on the right and the minimum age for driving is 18 years. Generally, there are no speed limits on Autobahnen but individually marked speed limits appear on a large percentage of motorway miles. A maximum of 130kph (81mph) is recommended. Speed limits of 130kph (81mph) or 100kph (62mph) apply outside built-up areas and 50kph (30mph) in towns. Foreign drivers require proof of insurance and their national driving license - a Green Card is strongly recommended. A country identification sticker must be displayed on the vehicle. The main German automobile association is the Allgemeine Deutsche Automobil Club - ADAC (tel: 01805 101 112; www.adac.de).

Emergency breakdown services
ADAC (tel: 8922 2222).

Routes to the city
Cologne is linked to the rest of Germany by fast Autobahn (A) routes. The A1 leads north to Hamburg, forking east to become the A2 to Berlin; the A3 leads southeast to Frankfurt; the A4 leads west to Belgium via Aachen; the A61 (off the A4) leads due south towards Switzerland. Driving from the UK to Cologne is about 400km (250 miles) via Calais. Cologne is a Low Emission Zone (LEZ). As a result only motor vehicles equipped with a red, yellow or green 'Low Emission Labels' may access the city center and parts of the boroughs of Deutz and Mülheim (Business travelers might like to note that the visitors parking Kölnmesse and the LANXESS arena lies outside the environmental zone, so no sticker is needed.) For more details and information on where to obtain stickers visit www.koeln.de/tourismus. Or simply use the city's Park-and-Ride system.

Coach services
Eurolines (tel: 0871 781 8181; www.eurolines.com) runs coach services to Cologne, including a direct service from London (journey time - 11 hours 30 minutes to 13 hours).

Getting There By Rail

Rail Services
Trains from all over Europe run to Cologne, terminating at the main central station Hauptbahnhof (Hbf). Its satellite, Bahnhof Deutz, on the opposite side of the river Rhine, is located next to the Messe (trade fair grounds). Both are connected to the city's U-Bahn (underground railway) and S-Bahn (overground light railway) network. In fact, some of the U-Bahn network also runs overground.

Rail Operators
There is no direct rail link between the UK and Cologne. However high-speed Eurostar (tel: 08432 186 186; www.eurostar.com) trains link London St Pancras with Brussels Midi/Zuid in around three hours. From Brussels, high-speed Thalys and German ICE (Inter City Express) trains run to Cologne. The total journey time can be as short as 5 hours 45 minutes.

Getting Around in Cologne, Germany

Public Transport

The Cologne transport authority, KVB (tel: (0221) 5470; www.kvb-koeln.de), runs an integrated system combining rapid transit rail, regional rail and buses. However, the city center's main attractions are within a short walking distance of each other and aside from using the S-Bahn to and from the airport, it is most likely that you will only use the U-Bahn to hop the short distance between Neumarkt and the main shopping square of Rudolfplatz, or perhaps a little further, on to the nightlife of the Univiertel (University Quarter).

You must buy tickets for all trains in advance. There are no ticket barriers, but if you are caught by an inspector without a ticket, you will be fined heavily. You can buy individual tickets per journey (Einzelfahrten) or a day ticket (Tages Ticket), though as an individual you would have to make five journeys before the latter paid for itself; a day ticket for up to five people is better value. The Köln Welcome Card gives unlimited travel on all public transport and also enables reduced-price admission to most attractions and excursions.

You can buy all travel-only tickets from automated ticket machines at the stations or from bus drivers. The Welcome Card is available at the tourist office.

The Bimmelbahn (tel: (022) 347 7226; www.bimmelbahnen.de) is a tourist land train that departs every half hour from Roncalliplatz, at the side of the Dom, with an itinerary that includes the chocolate museum, the zoo and (during December) the Christmas Markets.

Taxis

For all taxis call (0221) 19410 or 2882.

Driving in the City

Driving into Cologne has all the drawbacks of driving and parking in any other major city and is not recommended unless absolutely necessary.

Car Hire

Car hire operators in Cologne include Avis (tel: (022) 0340 2343; www.avis.de), Budget (tel: 1805 217 711; www.budget.de), Europcar (tel: (022) 0395 5880; www.europcar.de) and Sixt (tel: 1805 252 525; www.sixt.de).