Düsseldorf Airport to Cologne
About 45 km south; direct ICE and regional trains from the airport station reach Köln Hbf in 22–40 minutes for €13–25.
The cathedral that took six hundred years to finish, standing directly beside the main station, with a Roman city underneath and the Rhine running past it.
Every way to get there
Our verdict: for Cologne, a private transfer is the easiest door-to-door option (from €90).
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 | €90 | Private transfer |
| Couple · 2 travellers | €90 | Private transfer |
| Family of 4 · 4 travellers | €90 | Private transfer |
Which option should you choose?
| If your priority is… | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest price | Cheapest fare | From €13, 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
The ICE Sprinter does it in 22 minutes; regional services take 35 to 40 and cost less. Köln Hbf is directly beside the cathedral, so you walk out of the station into the main sight.
Where to catch it: Take the SkyTrain to Düsseldorf Flughafen station and board a southbound DB service — many run direct to Köln Hauptbahnhof without entering Düsseldorf.
Best for budget travellers near a stationPrivate transfer
Note that Cologne has its own airport, CGN, twenty minutes from the city — if you are still booking flights and Cologne is the destination, compare the two.
Where to catch it: Forty minutes on the A57 or A3. Worth it for a group or a late arrival after the trains thin out.
Best for families, groups & late arrivalsTaxi
Rarely the right choice against a €13 train that takes less time. Use it only if you have missed the last service.
Where to catch it: Metered over 45 km, which produces a substantial fare. Agree an estimate before setting off.
Best for small groups in a hurryCar rental
Only worth it if you are continuing into the Eifel or along the Rhine afterwards. For the city itself the train is faster, cheaper and drops you at the cathedral.
Where to catch it: Straightforward motorway run; parking in central Cologne is expensive and the centre has an environmental zone.
Best for travellers who want to exploreCologne & Düsseldorf in photos
Buying tickets in Düsseldorf
The step that catches people out at Düsseldorf is the SkyTrain — the automated monorail linking the terminals to Düsseldorf Flughafen railway station, running about 03:45–00:45, every 3.5–7 minutes, seven minutes end to end. It is not free. It runs on a VRR public-transport ticket, so buy one in the terminal before boarding — and the same ticket then covers your onward train, meaning you pay once rather than twice. From the station, the S11 reaches Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof in 12 minutes for about €3.40, three times an hour, valid 90 minutes so an onward U-Bahn leg is included. DB regional and ICE services also call at the same station and reach Hauptbahnhof in about 10 minutes on a pricier ticket. The wider point: this station has direct services across the Rhine-Ruhr — Duisburg 15 minutes, Cologne 22–40, Essen 25, Dortmund about 50 — so for a great many arrivals Düsseldorf is not the destination at all.
Taxi scams & safety in Düsseldorf
Fares here are regulated and disputes are rare — a metered taxi into the centre is around €20, which for three or four people travelling together costs about the same as four train tickets. The genuine risk is the SkyTrain fare: it looks like an airside shuttle, behaves like one, and is legally part of the public transport network, so boarding without a VRR ticket is the most common inspection case at this airport. Buy before you ride. Two further points. Düsseldorf's centre is an environmental zone needing a sticker, and the Altstadt's inner streets are pedestrian, so a car reaches the edge and no further. And Düsseldorf hosts some of the largest trade fairs in the world — drupa, K, boot, Medica — during which hotel rates across the whole region rise several-fold and transfer capacity tightens; if your dates coincide, book rooms before you book flights. Finally, if Cologne is your actual destination, note that CGN is twenty minutes from Cologne while DUS is forty-five: worth comparing while the flights are still open.
Getting from DUS to Cologne
Cologne is forty-five kilometres from Düsseldorf Airport, and the way to cover it is not by road. Direct ICE and regional trains leave from the airport's own station and reach Köln Hauptbahnhof in twenty-two to forty minutes for €13 to €25 — and that station stands directly beside the cathedral, so you walk out of it into the thing you came for.
The journey
SkyTrain to Düsseldorf Flughafen station, then a southbound DB service. Many run direct without entering Düsseldorf city at all. The ICE Sprinter does it in twenty-two minutes; regional trains take thirty-five to forty and cost less.
Say this plainly first
Cologne has its own airport. CGN is twenty minutes from the city centre by S-Bahn, against forty-five from DUS. If your flights are still open and Cologne is the destination, that comparison is worth making before you book. This page exists because a great many people land at Düsseldorf anyway — it takes more traffic and more routes.
The cathedral
Begun in 1248, abandoned for three centuries with a crane standing on the unfinished tower, and completed in 1880 to the original medieval plans. It is the largest Gothic church in northern Europe and it survived the war standing in a flattened city — partly because Allied bombers used its towers as a navigation landmark.
Kölsch
Pale, top-fermented, served in 200ml glasses called Stangen, replaced continuously by waiters known as Köbes until you put the beermat on the glass. The system is identical to Düsseldorf's and the beer is the opposite, which is the entire basis of the rivalry between the two cities.
Roman Cologne
Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium was a provincial capital, and the evidence is under the modern city — the Roman-Germanic Museum holds the Dionysus mosaic in situ, and a stretch of the Roman sewer can be visited beneath the town hall. The medieval city walls incorporated Roman gates.
The museums
Museum Ludwig for twentieth-century art, with one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe, sits beside the cathedral. The Wallraf-Richartz has the older material. The Chocolate Museum on the Rhine is more interesting than it sounds and is the city's most visited after the cathedral.
Karneval
Cologne's is the biggest in Germany. From Weiberfastnacht on the Thursday through Rose Monday the city effectively stops — offices close, the trains run to special timetables, and the centre is impassable. If your dates fall in that week, plan around it deliberately in one direction or the other.
The Hohenzollern bridge
Rail and pedestrian only, running from the cathedral across to Deutz, covered in padlocks, with the trade fair grounds on the far side. Walking across it and looking back gives the standard view of the cathedral with the river in front.
By road, and why not
A taxi is €100 to €140 metered over forty-five kilometres, and a private transfer €90 to €130. Both are hard to justify against a €13 train that takes less time. They make sense only outside train hours or for a group with a great deal of luggage.
Hiring a car
Only if you are continuing into the Eifel, along the Rhine or towards Belgium afterwards. Central Cologne has an environmental zone, parking is expensive, and the cathedral quarter is pedestrian.
A day trip that works
Because the train is quick and frequent, Cologne is entirely feasible as a day out from a Düsseldorf base — twenty-two minutes each way on the fast service. A good many business visitors staying in Düsseldorf for a fair do exactly that on their free evening.
The last trains
Services between the two cities run late, but the SkyTrain at the airport end stops around 00:45. If you are returning to a flight the following morning that is not an issue; if you are returning to the airport itself late at night, check both legs.
Deutz, and the other station
Köln Messe/Deutz on the right bank is a stop before the Hauptbahnhof on some services and is the one for the exhibition grounds. If you are heading to a fair rather than the cathedral, get off there — it saves crossing the river twice.
