Visit to Koln in September

Javan Rhino

Javan Rhino

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Hi guys,

Me and AgileGibbon will be visiting Koln in September for Zoohistorica and will finally be taking in a selection of zoos I've been wanting to do for about 3-4 years now.

We are flying with GermanWings and have flights booked from Manchester to Koln Bonn to arrive on 2nd September. We leave on the 9th September.

The plan thus far is:

3rd: Visit Duisburg Zoo and Krefeld Zoo.
4th Visit Wuppertal Zoo
5th Visit Koln Zoo
6th Zoohistorica and Koln Zoo
7th or 8th Visit ZOOM Gelsenkirchen

I'm just doing the usual pre-trip post to try and get some advice. We're still looking for any ideas for reasonable hotels, ideally within a few minutes walking distance of Koln Hauptbahnhof. Also looking for any info on travel between places [i.e. train times, useful or cheaper tickets etc].

Apart from the 6th, none of the days are set in stone so I can swap which zoos I do when if it makes any difference to price/ease of travel etc.
 
Acc. to "reasonable" Hotels:
It depends what you consider reasonable. I for myself recommend you the Ibis Hotel in the Köln-City (you know, the Ibis-chain is for hotels as McDonalds for fast food - whereever you are, you always know what you get).
Afaik, this hotel is just a few tram stations away from the Köln Hauptbahnhof. I don't know the actual rates, but last time I went there, the prices for a double room was about 70.-/80.- Euros per night (breakfast not included).

When in Köln, don't expect large beer portions. They prefer to drink their "Kölsch" in tiny glases (I know, it's a shame for Germany, but fortunately the Bavarians does it better).
 
You could also fit a day in Burgers Zoo in, that is only 1 hour and 40 minutes by train (and then 15 minutes bus) away from Cologne and every 2 hours there is a train if you would book the tickets now it should cost about 40 euro per person. If you go the the seventh I could give you a tour :p

Apart from that it could be really worth it to buy a Nordrhein-Westfalen ticket /Schönes Wochenende ticket for the train, that should also include most others ways of public transport. Trains go very regularly to all zoos you want to visit, allthough for Wuppertal you probably have to change trains in Dusseldorf, look at www.bahn.de for details ;).

For cheap hotels, you could check if there are any hostels in Cologne who have a private room for 2, that is far more cheap than an Ibis hotel and most of the times completely fine (In Berlin I had one of those for a total of 20 euros per night for 2 persons). Use hostelworld.com to find one, cheaper hotels are also included on that website.
 
zoomaniac said:
Acc. to "reasonable" Hotels:
It depends what you consider reasonable. I for myself recommend you the Ibis Hotel in the Köln-City (you know, the Ibis-chain is for hotels as McDonalds for fast food - whereever you are, you always know what you get).
Afaik, this hotel is just a few tram stations away from the Köln Hauptbahnhof. I don't know the actual rates, but last time I went there, the prices for a double room was about 70.-/80.- Euros per night (breakfast not included).

When in Köln, don't expect large beer portions. They prefer to drink their "Kölsch" in tiny glases (I know, it's a shame for Germany, but fortunately the Bavarians does it better).
Click to expand...

You Name"Kölsch" a Beer ? Shame on you-it is "Spülwasser"...;)
 
Javan Rhino said:
Hi guys,

Me and AgileGibbon will be visiting Koln in September for Zoohistorica and will finally be taking in a selection of zoos I've been wanting to do for about 3-4 years now.

We are flying with GermanWings and have flights booked from Manchester to Koln Bonn to arrive on 2nd September. We leave on the 9th September.

The plan thus far is:

3rd: Visit Duisburg Zoo and Krefeld Zoo.
4th Visit Wuppertal Zoo
5th Visit Koln Zoo
6th Zoohistorica and Koln Zoo
7th or 8th Visit ZOOM Gelsenkirchen

I'm just doing the usual pre-trip post to try and get some advice. We're still looking for any ideas for reasonable hotels, ideally within a few minutes walking distance of Koln Hauptbahnhof. Also looking for any info on travel between places [i.e. train times, useful or cheaper tickets etc].

Apart from the 6th, none of the days are set in stone so I can swap which zoos I do when if it makes any difference to price/ease of travel etc.
Click to expand...

Try this link to find a cheap Hotel in cologne, but I think, it is very hard now-not only because of the Zoohistorica, Cologne is also a very, very popoluar City at this time for vistors from all over the world.I hope, you have luck!;)

http://www.booking.com/country/de.e...3d51968e5d0f944be83e328ec9c690a;dcid=4;inac=0
 
zoogiraffe said:
Well I believe he arrived back in the UK alive,so he didn't starve to death in Germany!!!
Click to expand...

The plan changed slightly, however a very enjoyable time [I lived off the breakfasts at the hotel, which were very nice]. Other than the first Koln day and the Wuppertal day being swapped around, the only major thing was that we dropped ZOOM and just did the 4 collections. We plan on going back next year and doing ZOOM, Dortmund and Dusseldorf, whilst taking in more of the city of Koln [non-zoo-wise, we visited the Koln Dom museum and climbed the tower, and we also took a quick boat trip up the Rhine]. Can't think of any major no-shows, even got excellent views of the wombats at Duisburg.

Only news I can think of was that Krefeld now have a single Yellow-backed duiker from Wuppertal.
 
Javan Rhino said:
The plan changed slightly, however a very enjoyable time [I lived off the breakfasts at the hotel, which were very nice]. Other than the first Koln day and the Wuppertal day being swapped around, the only major thing was that we dropped ZOOM and just did the 4 collections. We plan on going back next year and doing ZOOM, Dortmund and Dusseldorf, whilst taking in more of the city of Koln [non-zoo-wise, we visited the Koln Dom museum and climbed the tower, and we also took a quick boat trip up the Rhine]. Can't think of any major no-shows, even got excellent views of the wombats at Duisburg.

Only news I can think of was that Krefeld now have a single Yellow-backed duiker from Wuppertal.
Click to expand...

I was pleased to hear about the adventures Agile gibbon and yourself had.
The non-zoo stuff sounds as interesting as the zoos.
 
Next trip back, if you head to Burgers Zoo from Koln, may I recommend you try to fit in a visit to the Wildpark in Gangelt, north of Aachen. A very nice little zoo.
 
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