A gateway to Germany from the west

Cologne's location within Germany

Cologne could be a good place to base yourself if you're going be travelling around by car.  For one, it's a nice city!  It's also very close to two of the other World Cup venues, i.e. Gelsenkirchen and Dortmund.  If you're driving to Germany via any of the ports on the coast of France, Belgium or Holland, it's also a convenient location to make your first World Cup destination in Germany, being only 40 miles from Aachen on the German-Belgian border.

Driving to and from Cologne to several of the other venues will therefore be quite manageable, while the trip to cities to the east and south-east (e.g. Berlin, Leipzig, Nuremberg and Munich) will be a much longer trek.

The German autobahn network runs around the city, with the A4 and A1 crossing within a mile of the Rhein Energie Stadium.

From other World Cup venues to Cologne:

World Cup City	Distance in km	Distance in miles	Main motorways en route
Berlin	566	354	A1, A2, A10
Dortmund	96	60	A1
Frankfurt	190	119	A3
Gelsenkirchen	91	57	A43, A42
Hamburg	422	264	A1
Hanover	294	184	A1, A2
Kaiserslautern	241	151	A61, A63
Leipzig	493	308	A4, A45, A4, A9
Munich	565	353	A3, A9
Nuremberg	411	257	A3
Stuttgart	366	229	A3, A67, A6

See also Expedia.co.uk for Cologne hotels, flights and rental cars.