Cologne: Getting there & around

Köln-Bonn Airport (www.airport -cgn.de) offers connections to around 30 European cities.

The bus station (Busbahnhof) is just behind the Hauptbahnhof, on Breslauer Platz. Eurolines (www.eurolines.com) buses go to Paris ) and back daily (8 hours; some trips overnight) and to Warsaw daily (21 hours). Trips to Prague (12 hours) are scheduled three times a week.

Cologne is a major train hub with regional and main-line train services to Bonn (40 minutes), Düsseldorf (30 minutes) and Aachen (1 hour) several times an hour. Superfast ICE trains make hourly trips to Frankfurt (1.25 hours) and Berlin (4.25 hours), and every two hours to Munich (4.5 hours). Hamburg is served by IC trains (4 hours).

Cologne is also a major autobahn hub and is encircled by the immense Kölner Ring, with exits to the A1, A3, A4, A57, A555 and A559 leading in all directions. Note that this ring road can often get jammed with traffic.

Driving in Cologne can be awful. You can all too easily end up in a tunnel you don't want to be in, or on a bridge you don't want to cross. And most streets in the centre have residential parking only, so you'll often be forced to pay too much for the pleasure of leaving your vehicle. Note that some parking lots close at night and charge an overnight fee, while taxis can be ruinously expensive. It's much better to hire a bike or take public transport. Cologne's mix of buses, trams, and U-Bahn or S-Bahn trains is operated by the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg in cooperation with Bonn's system. Buy your tickets (either short-trip or 24-hour) from the orange ticket machines at stations and aboard trams; be sure to stamp them.