In detail: by train by plane by car

External links Deutsche Bahn (trains) Cologne/Bonn airport Map24 homepage Cologne public transport

More information Looking for a hotel in Cologne? Use the accomodation page.


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By car A motorway circle surrounds entire Cologne with 6 major junctions that linking it to a dozen of motorways that cross Germany in all possible directions. The river Rhein (Rijn, Rhine, Rhin) runs right through the city, splitting it into a east and west bank. As the youth hostel is located right aside the west bank meadows of the river in the northern part of the city, there's basically two access routes once you arrived in the closer surroundings.
GPS navigation at hand? If you have the right maps at hand (or on your storage card...) simply enter the hostels adress:
Jugendherberge Köln-Riehl
Street name:     An der Schanz
City:     Köln (or "Koeln")
Zip code:     50735
And for the boy scouts among you (or those with high-tech GPS) the longitude/latitude coordinates of the Youth Hostel are...:
50°57'48.68"N
6°59'07.41" E
Online route planning Besides entering the hostels adress in your favorite route planner, you can also use the following link to the Map24 route planner. We have set up a routing point for the youth hostel. All you need to do after using the link is to specify your starting point and optionally specify additional options. The route planner will do the rest, including a detailed printout of the route upon request. Initially, the route planner should not start in interactive map mode which would require a functional current java runtime. And sometimes, the darn think takes ages to come up so give it some time. If that doesn't work, better use the right side link that will take you to the map24 site directly.

Map24
The "plain" and simple mode To get you started, we've prepared a map that gives you an overview of the motorway network of the Cologne area. Click on the thumbnail picture to the left to view the full-sized picture.

If that doesn't explain you how to get to Cologne—no problem. Look up the detailed description based upon the country that you come from when entering into Germany. That means, that if you actually start from Spain, you'll enter Germany through France. . . and if you arrive from the UK by car, you'll probably go through Belgium (and previously France) before arriving in Germany...
If you are familiar with maps and know how to get to Cologne, you might also skip the following descriptions and proceed directly to the inner city descriptions arriving on east bank / west bank at the end of this page. Be aware that the following descriptions are provided for those visitors having not the faintest idea of how to get to Cologne. They are not intended to be the holy grail of routing—so if you know better, don't blame us for them. . . :-).
Note: Sometimes, on the German motorway signs, the name Autobahnkreuz for motorway junctions is also abbreviated to read "AK". Also, note that the blue numbers are the German motorway IDs and the green numbers represent the according European numbers.
Also note that the road signs in Germany quite often lack the presence of the European numbers! I would recommend you to follow the German numbers mentioned in the descriptions.

Getting to Cologne east/west bank These are the routes that get you to Cologne first. After arriving at their end points, you'll either find yourself at the west or east bank inner city. Then follow the instructions in the menitioned paragraphs below to be guided to the youth hostel.
  • From the Netherlands (northern part)
    If you drive in from the north of the Netherlands, you'll arrive via Oberhausen on the A3 / E35 Keep going on until you arrive at the Cologne east junction named Autobahnkreuz Köln-Ost. Take the rightmost lanes to change onto A4 / E40 in direction of Zentrum / Koelnmesse. Now follow instructions at arriving on east bank.

  • From the Netherlands (via Nijmegen / Venlo)
    You'll arrive on the A61 passing Viersen and Mönchengladbach. Follow the motorway until the junction Autobahnkreuz Kerpen. Now change onto the A4 / E40 in direction of Köln and drive up to the Cologne west junction Autobahnkreuz Köln-West. There, change onto the A1 / E31 in direction of Dortmund / Krefeld. Stay on the motorway passing the exits Lövenich and Bocklemünd until you arrive at the north junction Autobahnkreuz Köln-Nord. Change onto the A57 / E31 in direction of Zentrum Now follow instructions at arriving on west bank.

  • From Belgium (Liège/Luik) or The Netherlands - via Aachen (Aken)
    This will get you arriving on A4 / E40 At the west junction Autobahnkreuz Köln-West, change onto the A1 / E31 in direction of Dortmund / Krefeld. Stay on the motorway passing the exits Lövenich and Bocklemünd until you arrive at the north junction Autobahnkreuz Köln-Nord. Change onto the A57 / E31 in direction of Zentrum and follow instructions at arriving on west bank.

  • From France / Luxemburg via Trier (Trèves)
    The short way is to take the B51 national road at Trier in direction of Bitburg/Köln and continue in direction of Cologne. This will take you onto the A1 / E31 which starts at Blankenheim. At the Bliesheim junction, change onto the joined motorways A61/A1 / E31 in direction of Cologne. 5 Kilometers later, the motorways will split up back with the main route going towards Venlo. Take the rightmost lanes to drive towards Cologne, back on the A1 / E31 again. This will make you pass the Cologne west junction Autobahnkreuz Köln-West. Stay on the motorway passing the exits Lövenich and Bocklemünd until you arrive at the north junction Autobahnkreuz Köln-Nord. Now change onto A57 / E31 in direction of Zentrum and follow instructions at arriving on west bank.

    Alternatively, if you prefer staying on motorways until Cologne, take the A48 / E44 in Trier in direction of Koblenz. At the Autobahnkreuz Koblenz change onto the A61 / E31 in direction of Cologne (Köln). Stay on that motorway until you pass the Cologne west junction Autobahnkreuz Köln-West and the exits Lövenich, then Bocklemünd. Next, you'll arrive at the north junction Autobahnkreuz Köln-Nord. Now change onto the A57 / E31 in direction of Zentrum and follow instructions at arriving on west bank.

  • From France via Saarbrücken (Sarrebruck)
    In case you're crossing the French/German border at the Saarbrücken (Sarrebruck) area, you should take the A1 / E422 in direction of Trier (Trèves), then follow the description above.

  • From France, Switzerland, or south-west Germany
    If you're passing via Mulhouse, Strasbourg, or Basel (Bale), you should take the A5 / E35 motorway until the Hockenheim junction and change onto the A61 / E31. Stay on that motorway in direction of Cologne (Köln) until you pass the Cologne west junction Autobahnkreuz Köln-West and the exits Lövenich, then Bocklemünd. Next, you'll arrive at the north junction Autobahnkreuz Köln-Nord. Now change onto the A57 / E31 in direction of Zentrum and follow instructions at arriving on west bank.

  • From Austria or south-east Germany
    From around Munich, take the A9 / E45 in direction of Nürnberg and change onto the A3 / E41 at the Nürnberg junction Autobahnkreuz Nürnberg. That motorway will then take you directly to Cologne (Köln) via Würzburg and Frankfurt. At the Cologne east junction named Autobahnkreuz Köln-Ost take the left one of the rightmost exit lanes to change onto the A4 / E40 of Zentrum / Koelnmesse. Now follow instructions at arriving on east bank.

  • From Denmark or northern Germany
    South of Hamburg, get onto the A1 / E22 and go in direction of Osnabrück / Dortmund which will get you straight to Cologne / Leverkusen. At the Kreuz Leverkusen junction, change onto the A3 / E35 Keep going on until you arrive at the Cologne east junction named Autobahnkreuz Köln-Ost. Take the rightmost lanes to change onto A4 / E40 in direction of Zentrum / Koelnmesse. Now follow instructions at arriving on east bank.

  • From Poland, Czech Republic, or eastern Germany
    Around the Chemnitz area, get onto the A4 / E40 in direction of Erfurt. At the Dreieck Kirchheim junction, follow the A7 / E40 in direction of Gießen / Frankfurt. Some kilometers later at Hattenbacher Dreieck junction, follow in direction of Gießen / Frankfurt again, with the motorway being renamed to A5 / E40. Stay on that motorway until the Gambacher Kreuz junction. There, change onto the A45 / E41. in direction of Siegen. At the Autobahnkreuz Olpe-Süd change onto the A4 / E40 in direction of Cologne. Now follow that motorway all straight up to the Cologne boundaries at Autobahnkreuz Köln-Ost. Keep going straight ahead in direction of Zentrum / Koelnmesse and follow instructions at arriving on east bank.

...arriving on east bank / west bank

icon for innercity map The image thumbnail to the left opens a map with the routes for arriving at the Youth Hostel once you've made your way to the inner city.

  • ...arriving on east bank
    At about 2 kilometers after the east junction Autobahnkreuz Köln-Ost, the motorway becomes a three-lane standard street and then goes slightly uphill. Do not exit at the Koelnmesse—keep straight on until you've arrived on a bridge crossing the river. Now take the first exit immediately after crossing the river called Zoo / Flora. The exit lane does a right turn and then splits into two lanes: Take the leftmost lane. This will take you straight up to a traffic light where you have to turn left onto a two-lane street that passes along the river. The river should be on your right side. Otherwise, you took the wrong direction... you should see a tall building in front of you with an AXA sign at its top (see right, upper picture). At that building, take the rightmost lane.
    Now follow the descriptions for the Youth hostel parking...
  • ...arriving on west bank
    A few kilometers after the north junction Autobahnkreuz Köln-Nord you'll be passing an exit named Ehrenfeld. Take the leftmost lane now - it will take you in a left turn towards Zentrum / Koelnmesse and the motorway will change into a usual two-lane street, then three-lane after the traffic light. Three crossings and traffic lights later, the street will do a slight left turn (and no more lights are ahead). Now take the rightmost lane and exit at Zoo / Flora. After a left curve, the exit lane joins back onto a street. Leave the rightmost lane now to arrive straight up at the traffic light. After passing the crossing straight ahead, take the leftmost lane up to the next traffic light. Now, there's only right or left turn possible with the river in front of you: Turn left. The river should be on your right side. Otherwise, you took the wrong direction... you should see a tall building in front of you with an AXA sign at its top (see right, upper picture). At that building, take the rightmost lane. Now follow the descriptions for the Youth hostel parking...

Accessing the Youth Hostels parking:

parking entry At the next traffic light, a right-turn lane is started. Get onto that lane. You will see a street going off right - do not enter, keep on straight on the same lane until it ends and take the right turn...

parking entry #2 Due to the constructions, half of the parking is not accessible. On Friday and Saturday however, the entry to the reserved part might be open. But it's not a parking! Your car might get towed or just locked up there. So turn right...

parking entry #3 ...and then back left. Next on your right is the entry for the campers parking. Some 100 or 200 meters ahead lies the entry to the Youth Hostel on your right. If there are no parkings left, leave the parking by going staright back and turning right after the access road that you took to enter...

additional parkings ...and turn right to get back onto the street you took to get to the Youth Hostel, continuing in direction of the bridge. Some 500 meters ahead, you'll notice a street going off right hand, also indicated by a sign 'Bus parking' (see picture, click for full-size). Take this street and continue passing under the bridge and up to where the bus parking is. You'll find enough free space in this area.