Cologne travel guides & articles
All 18 in-depth pieces we’ve published on Cologne — newest first.
Tours & tickets
Cologne Cathedral in October and the Smart Way In
The Dom now charges €12 at the west portal, the south tower keeps its late summer hours until 1 November, and the treasury stays open after the nave closes. All three fit into one October morning.
Tours & tickets
Roman Cologne Now Lives in the Belgian House
The Roncalliplatz building is shut until the end of the decade, so seeing Roman Cologne now means one door on Cäcilienstraße and five stops in the street outside.
The Fifth Season: Inside Cologne's Karneval, Where the City Loses Its Mind
A calm, practical field guide to Cologne's carnival week in February 2026 — which square, brauhaus, parade or gala actually suits your group, and how to survive the crowds.
Where Cologne Eats When It Isn't in a Brauhaus
Sixteen kitchens, counters and market stalls across the Belgian Quarter, Ehrenfeld and the old town, with the prices, the closing days and the door rules that catch visitors out.
The Rhine After Dark: Cocktails, Cruises, and the City Lights
A door-policy-honest map of how Cologne actually drinks after sunset — from lounge cruises and sand beaches to a rooftop you can't just walk into.
Cologne Day Trips to Castles, Forests and the Rhine
Eleven trips out of the city: a Rococo palace twenty minutes south, a cogwheel railway to a ruined keep, a cable car over the Rhine gorge, 5.4 km of level beech forest. Fares, opening dates and what groups need to know.
Cologne from Above and Across the Rhine
Where to stand for a cathedral view that works: the Deutz steps, the KölnTriangle deck, the cable car and the rooftops with a chair, plus prices, seasons and door rules.
An Afternoon in Sülz, Cologne's Café and Market Quarter
Two weekly markets, a 1919 Konditorei, a deaf-run café and a walk out to the lake: how to spend a slow half-day in the part of Cologne that isn't performing for anyone.
A Kölsch Crawl Through Cologne's Severinsviertel After Dark
Sixteen bars on one fifteen-minute stretch of Cologne's South City. Door rules, group limits and closing times, pub by pub.
The System in the Glass: Inside Cologne's Kölsch Ritual
Kölsch is not so much ordered as administered — here is how the ritual works, and the Cologne houses where it is poured best, whether you are two at the bar or twenty at a long table.
Cologne's Parks and Forests from the Rhine to Königsforst
Cologne's parks, riverbanks and forests one walk at a time, with the opening hours, fares and group sizes that decide where you end up.
Roman Cologne Beneath the Modern City — The Underground Ruins, the Mosaics, and the 2,000-Year-Old Streets Still Traceable Today
A room-by-room, door-policy-honest route through the Roman fragments still standing, sunk, and load-bearing under Cologne's modern streets in 2026.
The Kölsch Communion: Cologne's Brewery Halls and the Beer That Never Stops Coming
A calm, practical walk through Cologne's brauhäuser — the ritual of the endless 0.2-litre Stange, and exactly where to sit, book and behave.
Walking Cologne's Melaten Cemetery Like a Sculpture Park
A free, unhurried walk through 55,540 graves and a century of Cologne sculpture, with the gates, the rules, what a guided tour costs and the café that shuts at five.
How Cologne's Chocolate Museum Still Runs a Factory Line
The riverside museum on the Rheinauhafen tempers, moulds and wraps its own chocolate every working day, and the city around it has the workshops, confiserien and Veedel counters to match.
Inside Cologne's Kölsch Halls, Köbes, and Beer Mat Ritual
How Cologne's brewery halls actually work — the köbes, the small glass, the beer mat that stops the round, and which houses suit a group versus a couple.
Cologne Beyond the Cathedral: The Art Scene Germany Kept Quiet
Past the twin spires lies one of Germany's densest concentrations of serious art — the museums, member associations, blue-chip dealers and one-room off-spaces worth planning a trip around.
The Smell of Cologne: How This City Invented Perfume
Three hundred years after Johann Maria Farina first bottled Eau de Cologne, the streets where he and his imitators worked still smell like the invention — and you can walk through nearly all of them in an afternoon.