Koln & Dusseldorf

How long will you stay in Köln? Although I'm sure Düsseldorf is probably a very livable city (particularly the district of Oberkassel on the west side of the Rhine), it didn't strike me as a place I'd want to go out of my way to visit again. A very vibrant city, yes, but not all that attractive. If you have several days to spend in Köln, then perhaps a trip to Düsseldorf would be worthwhile, if for nothing else than to contrast the two cities. But if time is tight, I would skip it. Bonn, on the other hand, is much more attractive and more worth a daytrip. PS- The Rick Steves' Germany books are kind of weak. They've improved them in the past few years, but they still skip over too much of the country. And it has a habit of over-playing fairly routine destinations as if they're one-in-a-million gems. If going to Germany, don't use the Blue Book as a primary source. Use it as a supplement.

I confess that I haven't been to Dusseldorf. But I've been to Cologne twice, and still haven't seen everything. Referring to Rick Steve's excellent coverage of the most scenic part of the Rhine, have you done the KD Boat downstream/Train upstream outing? Another train possibility is Koblenz, or Aachen.

Daura, our eldest daughter lives in a suburb of Dusseldorf, Neuss. I think Dusseldorf is worth at least half a day, maybe 1 full day. Compared to Koln, I liked Dusseldorf better. High end kind of City, but walking around the river and wharf area is interesting. BTW, there is an indoor Skihall in Neuss, similar, if not,just as nice as the one in Dubai. Neuss is accessible by train, Skihall not.

Thanks for the detailed info on Dusseldorf. I appreciate the thoughtfulness and will have to decide if it's worth taking time away from Cologne.

Hi, If you had not booked your hotel in Köln yet, I would have suggested doing the visits to Düsseldorf and Köln this way: stay in Düsseldorf and do a day trip to Köln. Some pretty nice and inexpensive small hotels are located close to the train station in Düsseldorf. Düsseldorf is an opulent city, see the Königsallee and you'll know why. From Düsseldorf Hbf. you can take the U-Bahn to Neuss. The train RB goes there too before going on to Mönchengladbach in the direction of Venlo, Holland, the terminus. I liked Neuss as a place to get out of the big city.