Welcome to Cologne
The world feels at home in Cologne, where people meet for a Kölsch, a chat or simply a laugh. Life in Cologne is vivacious.
The world feels at home in Cologne, where people meet for a Kölsch, a chat or simply a laugh. Life in Cologne is vivacious.
Take a trip through 2000 years of history and visit cultural monuments from the Roman Empire to modern times.
Cologne provides over 250 hotels with a total capacity of more than 26,000 beds.
"Drinking a Kölsch is more than just drinking a beer: it´s like drinking an entire culture." (NYT, 5/07)
Enjoy the world-famous traditional Cologne Carnival and several top events throughout the year.
Prime location in the heart of Europe and exemplary infrastructure also a multitude of highly specialised modern economy.
Cologne’s Schildergasse is the most-visited shopping street in Germany.
Public transport
Discovering the city by bus and tram is easy because Cologne is well connected to the bus and tram network. The tarif levels depend on the distance from the city or the place where you start your journey. Even you can get day tickets for one person or for groups, for one or four journeys, and, of course, for longer periods. With the Köln WelcomeCard (starting from 9 Euro) tourists can use the public transport for 24 hours and you also receive reductions of up to 50 % from more than 100 partners.
The different tickets are available at customer service centres. Even most of them are available at the ticket vending machines in busses, undergrounds and trams as well as at the ticket machines at most tram stops.
Day ticket for many desitnations: To the cathedral, the museums or for music and shopping - the 5 persons day ticket enables small groups to comfortably reach many destinations in one day - between 9 in the morning and 3 at night, on weekands and bank holidays, even from midnight. For all of Cologne simply select price category 1b on the ticket machine of the stop or in the KVB vehicle and pay with coins or card. This ticket is autmatically validated. If you purchase your ticket at a sales outlet, please validate as soon as enter the vehicle (red validating machine).
Tickets and prices, bus and tram network (KVB - Cologne's public tranport association)
Timetable information
Cologne Airport
The airport of Cologne lies between Cologne and Bonn. Several airlines flies to Cologne. Information about the flights you find at their homepage. The airport is well connected to the road network although to the bus and railway network. The new Intercity-Express (ICE) railway station is right in the centre of the Airport. From there you can get straightforward to the city of Cologne.
Parking
There is a great need for parking facilities in a city like Cologne. As well as business travellers and visitors from near and far, it is the residents of Cologne themselves - particularly in the city centre - who search for free parking spaces on a daily basis.
parking guidance system (German site) - The parking guidance system tells you where and how many free parking spaces can be found in Cologne's city centre car parks.
The historic Farina-house is situated opposite the Town Hall. In the world's oldest fragrance factory you can see where the fascinating history of Eau de Cologne and modern fragrances began. 