Around the cathedral

As of 8 November 2026. We do not sell tickets and only link to the operators’ own websites – no booking portals, no commission. We do not give prices; you will find them with the provider.

In brief

Three kinds of tours start at the cathedral: the CityTour hop-on hop-off bus (stop “Dom” at Burgmauer), the Kölner Bimmelbahnen – small road trains on tyres – to the Schokoladenmuseum (Chocolate Museum) and the zoo (stop Dom/Burgmauer), and the panorama cruises on the Rhine. Within ten minutes’ walk of the cathedral you reach Museum Ludwig, the Cathedral Treasury, the Alter Markt with the town hall, and Groß St. Martin. The Römisch-Germanisches Museum (Roman-Germanic Museum) on Roncalliplatz is closed for refurbishment; it shows its exhibition in the Belgisches Haus near Neumarkt.¹,²,³,⁴,⁵

City tours starting at the cathedral

Hop-on hop-off bus (CityTour)

According to the operator, the CityTour runs daily every 30 minutes; the first departure from the cathedral is at 10:00, the last at 17:00 (as of 8 November 2026). Stop “01 Dom” is at Burgmauer by the Tourist Information. Along the route you can get off and back on at the stops as often as you like; on board there is an audio guide via headphones in nine languages, including German, English, Dutch, French, Japanese and Chinese. According to the legal notice on its website, the operator is Willms Touristik GmbH & Co. KG.¹,⁷

According to KölnTourismus, the full loop takes about one and a half hours without getting off; in summer the bus runs with an open top deck.⁷

¹

Discrepancy: KölnTourismus mentions 15 stops, while the operator’s website lists 14. The operator’s website does not state a season, only “daily”. We follow the operator.⁷,¹

Bimmelbahnen (Schoko-Express, Zoo-Express)

The Kölner Bimmelbahnen start from the stop Dom/Burgmauer: the Schoko-Express to the Schokoladenmuseum and back via Rheinauhafen, the town hall and Heumarkt, and the Zoo-Express along the Rhine to the zoo and back via Eigelstein. According to koeln.de, the Schoko-Express runs from January to November from 09:45 every 30 minutes, and the Zoo-Express from April to October from 09:30 every 30 minutes; during Advent a Christmas Market Express links the markets.²

According to the operator (Wolters Reisen Köln, as of 8 November 2026), the Zoo-Express currently runs hourly on Saturdays and Sundays and is gradually heading into its winter break; the operator gives no date for it. The information from koeln.de and from the operator differs here; the operator is authoritative.⁸

Panorama cruise on the Rhine

The Köln-Düsseldorfer Deutsche Rheinschiffahrt (KD) offers a one-hour panorama cruise in Cologne, now also during Advent. It starts at the KD landing stage Cologne/Altstadt. During Advent, according to the operator, it runs from 20 November to 20 December 2026, Friday to Sunday at 12:00 and 13:30 (as of 8 November 2026; one place on the operator’s website gives 2027 for this period). The other departure times are given on the operator’s website – check there before you go whether all sailings are running.³

Our recommendation: If you are short of time, don’t take the hop-on hop-off bus for the cathedral itself – it is at the first stop – but for destinations beyond walking distance (zoo, Rheinpark, Deutz). Reason: by our estimate, everything in the table below can be reached on foot in 20 minutes at most.⁵

Sights within walking distance

How we calculated: straight-line distance from the cathedral from OpenStreetMap coordinates, multiplied by 1.3 for detours, at a walking speed of 4.5 km/h, rounded up to five minutes. Our own estimate, not an official figure.⁵

⁵,⁹,⁴,¹⁰,¹¹,¹²

Cathedral Treasury

The Cathedral Treasury (Domschatzkammer) lies in vaulted rooms beneath the cathedral sacristy and displays objects from the 4th to the 20th century, including finds from Frankish graves. It is open 10:00–18:00, last admission 17:30; according to the Cathedral Chapter it is closed on New Year’s Day, Weiberfastnacht, Carnival Saturday, Carnival Sunday, Rosenmontag, on 11 November, on Christmas Eve, on 25 December and on New Year’s Eve. More on the tour.⁹

Römisch-Germanisches Museum: currently not at the cathedral

The museum writes that its building on Roncalliplatz is closed for refurbishment work; the exhibition can be seen in the Belgisches Haus at Cäcilienstraße 46 near Neumarkt.⁴ According to the City of Cologne (31 August 2026), the general contractor has started work inside the building; the refurbishment is due to be completed in the third quarter of 2030, after which the museum on Roncalliplatz can reopen.¹³

What lies beneath the cathedral from Roman times is explained on the page Beneath the cathedral.

Museum Ludwig

According to its own description, Museum Ludwig lies “next to Cologne Cathedral, opposite Cologne Central Station” and is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00, and until 22:00 on the first Thursday of every month; it is closed on Mondays, except on public holidays.¹⁴,¹⁰

Old Town: Alter Markt, town hall, MiQua

Between the cathedral and the Rhine lies the Old Town with the Alter Markt (Old Market) and the Historic Town Hall (Historisches Rathaus), by our estimate about ten minutes’ walk away.⁵

In front of the town hall, MiQua – LVR-Jüdisches Museum im Archäologischen Quartier Köln (LVR Jewish Museum in the Archaeological Quarter Cologne) is being built. According to the City of Cologne (June 2026), construction is due to be completed in June 2028 and the museum to open at the end of December 2028. Until then it is a building site.¹⁵,¹⁶

Groß St. Martin

Groß St. Martin is one of Cologne’s twelve large Romanesque churches; its 75-metre crossing tower, together with the cathedral towers, shapes the city panorama. The church was badly destroyed in the Second World War and only reopened on 13 January 1985; since 2009 it has again been a monastery, today the city monastery of the Benedictine Gemeinschaft von Jerusalem (Fraternité de Jérusalem).¹⁷

Schokoladenmuseum

According to its own information, the Schokoladenmuseum (Chocolate Museum) at Rheinauhafen (Am Schokoladenmuseum 1a) is open from 10:00 to 18:00, with last admission at 17:00. It is closed on 9 and 16 November 2026 (Mondays) and on 24 and 25 December; on New Year’s Eve it is open until 16:00. On foot it takes, by our estimate, about 20 minutes along the Rhine; the Bimmelbahn and the CityTour also stop there.¹¹,⁵,¹,²

Frequently asked questions

Where does the hop-on hop-off bus stop at Cologne Cathedral? At stop “01 Dom” at Burgmauer by the Tourist Information; first departure 10:00, then every 30 minutes until 17:00 (as of 8 November 2026).¹

Is the Römisch-Germanisches Museum open? The building on Roncalliplatz is closed for refurbishment; the exhibition is in the Belgisches Haus, Cäcilienstraße 46.⁴

How far is the Schokoladenmuseum from the cathedral? About 1.1 kilometres in a straight line, by our estimate around 20 minutes on foot.⁵

All information without guarantee; timetables and opening times change. The operators’ websites are authoritative. Please report errors to redaktion@dom-zu-köln.de.