Cologne tickets

May to September for the weather, late November and December for the Christmas markets, and the week before Ash Wednesday if you want Carnival, which is not so much an event as a suspension of the normal city. Carnival falls in February most years; Weiberfastnacht opens it at 11:11 on the Thursday and Rose Monday brings a parade of around a million people. Hotels double in price and many museums close for part of it. Summer is warm rather than hot and the Rhine promenade is at its best in the long evenings.

Two significant ones. The Wallraf-Richartz Museum, which holds the medieval and old master collection, closed for a general refurbishment and will not reopen until the end of 2028; the museum states that its works will not be shown at other venues in the meantime. The Romano-Germanic Museum's building on Roncalliplatz beside the cathedral is also closed for renovation, with only the Ubiermonument opening on the first Thursday of the month from 14:00 to 17:00. Plan around both — several older guidebooks still send you to them.

A mid-range hotel runs 90 to 160 euros outside the trade-fair calendar and considerably more during one, so check whether a Messe is on before you book. Museums are cheap by German standards — the NS Documentation Centre is 4.50 euros, the municipal museums mostly 8 to 13 — and a KölnCard gives 20 per cent off all of them plus free public transport. A Kölsch is around 2.50 euros, a brewery dinner 15 to 25, and the cable car 5.50 each way.

Yes. Since 1 July 2026 visiting the cathedral requires a ticket, which is a change from the free entry it offered for centuries and catches out most people arriving with an older guidebook. Visiting hours are generally 10:00 to 17:45 daily with the last entry at 17:30, and 13:30 to 16:30 on Sundays and church holidays. The building itself opens at 6:00 for prayer, the tower climb is ticketed separately, and the central box office at Roncalliplatz 2 is staffed from 9:00 to 17:30.

Mostly on foot: the old town, the Belgian Quarter and the harbour are all within about three kilometres of the cathedral. Where you need it, the KVB runs a dense tram and light-rail network that goes underground in the centre, and a single ticket covers trams, buses and the S-Bahn. The airport is 15 minutes from the main station by S-Bahn. A KölnCard covers unlimited travel and museum discounts and pays for itself in a day if you use both.