Cologne Bonn Airport to Aachen
About 90 km west; trains via Cologne take around 75 minutes for €20–35, and it is the closest German city to three borders.
Charlemagne's capital, where his octagonal chapel of 800 still stands at the core of the cathedral and where thirty German kings were crowned — at the point where Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands meet.
Every way to get there
Our verdict: for Aachen, a private transfer is the easiest door-to-door option (from €140).
What it costs for your group
The bus is charged per person, while a taxi or private transfer is one price for the whole car — so the more of you there are, the better door-to-door value looks.
| Group | Private transfer | Best value |
|---|---|---|
| Solo · 1 traveller | €140 | Private transfer |
| Couple · 2 travellers | €140 | Private transfer |
| Family of 4 · 4 travellers | €140 | Private transfer |
Which option should you choose?
| If your priority is… | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest price | Cheapest fare | From €20, though slower with a change in the city. |
| Speed & comfort | Private transfer | Door-to-door, fixed price, a driver waiting for you. |
| A group of 3–4 | Transfer or taxi | One flat fare splits cheaper than several bus tickets. |
| A late-night arrival | Transfer or taxi | Both run 24/7 when buses and the tram have stopped. |
By transport mode
Train
An hour and a quarter in total. Aachen Hauptbahnhof is a ten-minute walk from the cathedral and the old town, which is compact and largely pedestrian.
Where to catch it: Airport train to Köln Hauptbahnhof, then a westbound service — the ICE does it in fifty minutes, regional trains in about seventy.
Best for budget travellers near a stationCar rental
Aachen is twenty minutes from both the Belgian and Dutch borders — Maastricht is half an hour and Liège forty minutes. Crossing in a German hire car is normally permitted but should be confirmed.
Where to catch it: Motorway west; car parks around the ring road, and an environmental zone in the centre.
Best for travellers who want to explorePrivate transfer
The Carolingian chapel is the oldest cathedral in northern Europe and Charlemagne's throne is upstairs in it, visible only on a guided tour that should be booked ahead.
Where to catch it: An hour and a quarter by road. Mostly booked by conference visitors — Aachen's technical university is one of the largest in Europe.
Best for families, groups & late arrivalsTaxi
Hard to justify against a €25 train. Aachen's printen gingerbread and its thermal springs — the Romans and Charlemagne both came for the water — are the other reasons people visit.
Where to catch it: Ninety kilometres on the meter produces a substantial fare; agree an estimate first.
Best for small groups in a hurryAachen & Cologne in photos
Buying tickets in Cologne
The station sits directly beneath Terminal 1, and the airport genuinely serves two cities: the S13 and S19 reach Köln Hauptbahnhof in about 15 minutes and Bonn Hauptbahnhof in about 25, every 20 minutes, for roughly €3.20–4.00 on the VRS tariff. Cologne's station is beside the cathedral, so you walk out of it into the main sight — no city in this guide arrives closer. Köln Messe/Deutz, for the exhibition grounds, is a stop before it. Buy from the VRS machines on the platform. From Köln Hauptbahnhof the high-speed network reaches Brussels in under two hours and Paris in about three and a half, which makes this a useful airport for onward European rail. One caution specific to CGN: it is one of very few German airports without a night flight ban, because it is a major cargo hub, so passenger arrivals at 02:00 are routine — while the S-Bahn at that hour is not. Check the last train before assuming it will be waiting.
Taxi scams & safety in Cologne
The taxi tariff here is unusually transparent and published: €4.00 base, €2.10 per kilometre for the first seven, €1.90 thereafter, which is why the Cologne run lands consistently at €40–50 and Bonn at €45–55. Ranks are outside Terminal 1 (Arrivals A and B) and Terminal 2; there is no touting problem. The things to plan for are structural. Night arrivals are common here and public transport is not — budget for a taxi if you land in the small hours. Both Cologne and Bonn have environmental zones requiring a windscreen sticker, and the streets around Cologne cathedral are pedestrian, so give a street address rather than the Dom. Finally, Cologne's event calendar is extreme even by German standards: Gamescom in August and Karneval in February each fill accommodation across Cologne, Bonn and Düsseldorf at once, with rates to match. During Karneval the city centre closes to traffic for days and the trains run to special timetables — check before you plan a transfer through it.
Getting from CGN to Aachen
In about 800, Charlemagne built a palace chapel at Aachen — an octagon with a dome, modelled on Byzantine work he had seen in Ravenna, using columns shipped from Italy. It still stands, at the core of the cathedral that grew around it, and thirty German kings were crowned in it over six centuries. It was the first site in Germany on the UNESCO list.
Getting there
The airport train to Köln Hauptbahnhof, then a westbound service — the ICE takes about fifty minutes, regional trains around seventy. An hour and a quarter in total for €20 to €35. Aachen's station is a ten-minute walk from the cathedral.
The chapel
Smaller than you expect and considerably older than anything around it. The upper gallery holds Charlemagne's marble throne — six plain slabs, worn by the knees of pilgrims — which is visited on a guided tour that should be booked ahead. His remains are in a golden shrine in the choir.
The treasury
Beside the cathedral, holding the Cross of Lothair, a bust reliquary of Charlemagne and a Carolingian gospel book among a good deal else. It is among the most important church treasuries in northern Europe and it takes an hour.
Where three countries meet
The Dutch border is twenty minutes away and the Belgian one about the same. Maastricht is half an hour, Liège forty minutes. The Vaalserberg, where all three countries touch, is a short drive and has a marker you can stand on.
The hot springs
Aachen sits on sulphurous hot water at 74°C, the hottest in central Europe, and the Romans built baths here — Aquae Granni. Charlemagne chose the site partly for the water. The Carolus Thermen spa complex uses it today.
Printen
The local gingerbread, hard, spiced and made to a guarded recipe since the eighteenth century, sold in shops around the cathedral. It is closer to a biscuit than to English gingerbread and it does not go stale in any useful timeframe.
The university
RWTH Aachen is one of the largest technical universities in Europe, with around forty-five thousand students, and it shapes the city — the population is young, the bars are cheap and there is a substantial engineering research sector attached to it.
The town hall
Built in the fourteenth century on the foundations of Charlemagne's palace hall, with the coronation hall upstairs holding copies of the imperial regalia. The square in front of it is the centre of the city.
Karneval
Aachen runs its own, and the Order Against Deadly Seriousness — an award for humour in public life — is presented here during it, which is a genuinely good idea for a civic institution.
By car
Seventy-five minutes on the motorway. Aachen has an environmental zone and car parks around the ring road. Crossing into the Netherlands or Belgium in a German hire car is normally permitted but should be confirmed with the company.
Worth the hour and a quarter?
For the chapel, yes — it is the oldest cathedral in northern Europe and there is nothing else quite like it. As a day trip from Cologne it is a long one; as an overnight or a stop on the way into Belgium it works better.
The Charlemagne Prize
Awarded in the town hall each year since 1950 for work towards European unification, and given to Churchill, Adenauer, Havel, the euro itself on one occasion, and a long list of others. It ties the city's Carolingian past to its present position on three borders in a way that is more than ceremonial.
The Elisenbrunnen
A neoclassical colonnade in the centre where the sulphur spring emerges, free to approach and unmistakable by smell before you see it. Drinking the water is traditional and not pleasant. It is a two-minute walk from the cathedral and it explains why the city is here at all.
Staying rather than day-tripping
Aachen has student prices and a considerable number of small hotels, and the evening in the streets around the market square is livelier than a cathedral city usually manages. Given the hour and a quarter each way from the airport, an overnight makes more sense than a long day.
