Cologne Travel Forum

Hi all!

I bought a ticket for Germanwings and I should land in Cologne in 17.40 on 15th June. I never used Germanwings before, do you think I can count on the schedule?

Then, I need to go from Cologne to Tilbourg, I read that the cheapest way is by train. And I need to book the train ticket now, cause later it would be much more expensive. Do you think this plan is OK?

I never was in Cologne before, can you please tell me how can I reach from the airport to the train station and how long does it take, in order to know what ticket to buy? And I am looking for some public transportation option, cause I assume that traveling by taxi would be more expensive...

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards,
Pipia

All European budget carriers are reliable (they lose money if they are not) so I don't think you need to worry. Many have better reliability stats than mainstream carriers, and Germanwings has a good reputation in this respect.

You should still make some allowance for possible delays, including in baggage reclaim etc, because the cheap-offer train ticket will only be valid for the time you have chosen. If you miss the train you will have to pay extra for the next one.

http://www.koeln-bonn-airport.de/main.php?id=112&lang=2

will give you details of bus and rail services from the airport. S-bahn from the airport to Cologne Hauptbahnhof (main station) only takes 15 minutes.

I flew Germanwings from Paris to Cologne in 2005 for 1 Euro per person (after tax I believe it was a total of 49E). It was one of the most pleasant flights I've ever had. I'll be using them again in the Spring and am looking forward to it.

You mean Tilburg near Eindhoven and Breda in the Netherlands.

DB timetable
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en?
From: CGN
From: Cologne
To: Tilburg

Specials are only available from Cologne (Köln Hbf). And also only for the "slower" connections (only with "fast" ICE trains and thus a detour). Airport to Köln Hbf needs 15 minutes and is EUR 2,40.
Disadvantage of the specials is that they are only valid for the booked connection. Thus not without risk if your plane arrives late.

Normal price ticket from the airport to Tilburg is EUR 32,90. Such a ticket is flexible. As an international ticket even valid 2 months and allowing stopovers en route.

I wouldn't rely too much on the germanwings schedule - there always is a chance that you have a delay. I flew with them only two times, and both times there was a delay of around 30 minutes.
About the baggage claim: Germanywings has the policy that you have carry-ons included in the ticket price only. If you have something you want to check in, you pay an aditional 5€ per item. I don't know whether you booked this option or not, but if you have carry-ons only, that will save you some time.

I think if leics (?) is right and the ticket is 32€ anyway, I wouldn't mess about the cheaper, connection-bound tickets. You won't save much money there. I couldn't find any special offers for that Köln-Tilburg, but I guess they are not *that* much cheaper, are they?

It wasn't me, it was abalada.

His/her transport information is always spot-on.

Pipia, from Koln to Tilburg is one heck of a journey. It took my friend and I almost two hours to travel from Niederrhein Airport on the Dutch border to Cologne. There is a train from Koln hbf at 18.25 but you have to change four times at Munchengladbach,Venlo,Nijmegen,and s-hertogenbosch and it doesn't get into Tilburg until 23.14. You don't say where you live but Eindhoven, Niederrhein and Masstrict/Aachen are all nearer to Tilburg but I don't know whether you can get to them from your home Airport. For example from Niederrhein you can get a bus to Nijmegen and then a train to Tilburg via s-hertogenbusch and the total journey time is about two hours but as I say I don't know where you are travelling from. I wish you the best of luck as it's a long journey and I fear an expensive one.

Sorry Pipia, I completely forgot you could take an ICE train from Cologne direct to Eindhoven which takes under two hours and then travel on to Tilburg. I think it costs about thirty euros.