By plane. There are two major airports near Cologne, Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN) and Düsseldorf International Airport (DUS). The Cologne Bonn airport is approximately 15 minutes by S-Bahn (local train) to the centre of Cologne, and the ticket costs €2.60. The train ride from the Düsseldorf airport train station to Cologne central station takes approximately 40 minutes. For more information on the two airports, see their respective website: for Cologne-Bonn Airport click here; for Dusseldörf International Airport, click here.
By train. Two major train stations, Köln Hauptbahnhof and Köln-Deutz serve the city of Cologne. The latter is within walking distance of the Cologne Fair Ground. Thalys and ICE High Speed trains link Cologne with Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt and Paris. From Frankfurt airport it is only a 90 minute ride on the fast train. The high speed trains only stop at the main station (Hauptbahnhof) and you need to take a local train to get to Köln-Deutz.
Getting around. Cologne has a very good subway, tram and bus network, run by the municipal transport authority KVB (Kölner Verkehrsbetriebe); one- and three-day-passes are available. The tickets are valid for subway, tram and regional train within the network. Trips within the city limits require zone 1b tickets, which cost €2.60 one-way. For short trips of up to 4 stops on subway, tram or bus there is also the slightly cheaper “Kurzstrecke” (short trip ticket). A map of the network should be found at any station
Cologne’s subway and tram-system, or U-Bahn, is a mixture of both systems: a subway line can go on street-level and end up as a tram or vice versa. There are vending machines or ticket-offices at larger stations. The trains and buses also have vending machines.
Regional Trains are known as “S-Bahn”, “Regional-Bahn” and “Regional Express”. Not all the trains have ticket vending machines so be sure to buy a ticket at the station. For more information and time table, you can visit the website of the transit authority, KVB (in German only).
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