The Gothic church took direct hits and kept standing, blackened and battered above a flattened old town, and that accident of survival set the terms for everything since. What surrounds it now is reconstruction: postwar streets, modern shopfronts and a ring of Romanesque churches raised again from their own rubble, arranged around one immense survivor that UNESCO lists, begun in the thirteenth century, abandoned for roughly three hundred years and finished in the nineteenth to the original medieval plan. The Roman city keeps surfacing underneath all of it. Along the water the Hohenzollern bridge carries its weight of padlocks and trains across the Rhine, and the cathedral waits directly outside the station door, which is either convenient or overwhelming depending on your mood.
Köln Bonn airport has its own station between the terminals, and a local train reaches the Hauptbahnhof in about a quarter of an hour, which makes a transfer largely pointless. The station itself is among the better connected in Europe, with fast services to Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt. Entry is worth checking before you go. Germany sits in the Schengen area, so visitors from outside the European Union are held to a short-stay limit of ninety days within any rolling period of half a year, and the passport stamp has gone: the Entry and Exit System takes fingerprints and a facial image at the first crossing instead, which can slow arrivals at busy hours. A separate online travel authorisation for visa-exempt visitors has been announced and postponed more than once, so check the official European Union page rather than a commercial lookalike. Two periods fill the city completely, the carnival week before Lent and the Christmas markets, so it is worth a moment to compare flights and hotels for Cologne and to avoid both unless you are coming for them.
Where you stay sets the tone, and the bill carries a line you may not expect: the city adds an overnight tax of five percent of the room price to every paid stay, collected at the property rather than by the booking site. Around the old town and the cathedral, mid-range hotels put you a minute from the Hauptbahnhof and the river, at the price of noise. In the Belgian Quarter, boutique hotels and apartment rentals sit among the independent shops around Brüsseler Platz, which is where the city actually eats. Across the water in Deutz, modern business hotels stand beside the Messe and look straight back at the cathedral from the far bank. Out in Ehrenfeld, guesthouses and apartments gather near the old Helios lighthouse in the most creative district.
As a city break the bookings that repay themselves are the cathedral itself, a brewery walk through the old taverns and a train out somewhere, while a hire car is a nuisance you do not need, because trams, buses and local trains run on one ticket and the centre walks easily. The cathedral is where the terms have changed. After centuries of open doors the chapter now charges sightseeing visitors for admission, with a reduced rate, free entry for children and no charge for anyone attending a service or praying in the designated areas, and tickets can be booked ahead through the official shop. The tower climb and the treasury were always ticketed separately and still are, on top of the new charge. The Roman collection beside the cathedral has spent a long renovation at a temporary address across the centre, with the great mosaic left behind in the closed original building, so confirm where it currently sits before walking over. The obvious days out are close: Aachen with its imperial chapel, Bonn along the river, and the palaces at Brühl. You can check guided tour and day trip options for the Rhineland and leave at least one evening entirely free.
Season here is really a question of which crowd you want. Late spring and early autumn are the most comfortable and the least booked out. Carnival before Lent turns the whole city into a street party for a week, and the Christmas markets fill the squares through December, both spectacular and both impossible to arrive at without planning well ahead. Winter otherwise is grey and quiet, summer warm and busy along the river. Whenever you come, the evening belongs to Kölsch, which arrives in small straight glasses and gets replaced the moment one empties, without anyone asking, each round marked on your coaster; the only way to stop the flow is to lay the coaster flat on top of the glass. Order the other city's beer here and you will be corrected, cheerfully but firmly. Personally, I would skip the cathedral on arrival, walk the bank to Deutz for the view back across the water, and go inside first thing the next morning before the queue forms.
Q: Is Cologne Cathedral still free to enter?
A: Not for sightseeing. The chapter now charges visitors for admission, with a reduced rate and free entry for children, while anyone attending a service or praying in the designated areas goes in without paying. The tower climb and the treasury are ticketed separately, so check the current arrangement before you go.
Q: What gets added to a hotel bill in Cologne?
A: An overnight tax of five percent of the room price, levied by the city on every paid stay and collected at the property. It is not usually part of a prepaid booking, so expect it at check-out even if you paid online.
Q: When is the best time to visit Cologne?
A: Late spring and early autumn are the most comfortable. Carnival before Lent and the Christmas markets are spectacular but fill the city, so book far ahead or choose other dates.
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