Cologne-Bonn Airport (Cologne Bonn Airport) is a commonly used airport of those living in the Spangdahlem & Rammstein, Germany areas, especially those who are taking advantage of some of the great RyanAir prices! We recently flew out of Cologne-Bonn in January 2015. I’ve seen several people asking questions, and of course I had a ton of questions for our first visit so I wanted so share.
Location
Cologne-Bonn Airport is a driving distance of about 1 hour 36 mins from Spangdahlem, and 2 hours 20 mins from Ramstein. Make sure you factor in enough time for the road work and if your driving in rush hour traffic. The drive that was supposed to take us 1.5 hours ended up being 2 hours with the road work & traffic. Although the drive home was better and was the expected 1.5 hours.
Yes, Cologne-Bonn is a little further than Frankfurt Hahn but there may be some reasons why you’d chose this airport. First the prices differ between the 2 airports, Cologne-Bonn is generally a bit cheaper. For our flight to Rome we were just going to pay a little more and fly out of Hahn but then we realized that if we left from Hahn we’d be getting in during the evening time and thus wasting a day. Flying out of Cologne-Bonn allowed us to arrive in Rome at 11:30 am and still have the afternoon to explore and make the most of our time. So when checking for flights make sure to compare between the 2 airports.
Parking
They have a great parking website and if you reserve your parking online you will get the discounted rate. We paid €29 which was good for a week, in the P3 parking area.
When you enter P3 you can either scan the Q code on your reservation ticket or slide your credit card that you reserved it with. We chose to scan the code and it was quick and easy. You also do the same getting out of the parking lot when you return.
P3 is the furthest parking area, so also to the cheapest. And by furthest I only mean a 5-10 minute walk. We walk fairly fast and were able to walk it in 5 mins. Also know this is a covered parking garage (unlike the uncovered parking at Frankfurt Hahn) but the spots are fairly tight so if you have a van like us know it can take a few mins to get parked. We just drove until we found one that was open with 2 spots together to make it easier for Mr. B to get in the spot.
There are 2 closer parking areas as well, but they are also more expensive. Use what works best for you and your family.
You then take the elevator or stairs down and walk towards the main terminal building.
Airport Facility
When you enter there will be bathrooms to the left and info signs to the right so you can see where your check in area is for you airline. It’s fairly easy to find and you’ll use the escalators or elevators to get up to the upper floors.
There is a McDonald’s there, which always makes my kids happy, and they serve breakfast (Frankfurt Hahn does not, unless you want a hamburger for breakfast). We ate at McD’s before heading through security. You can see a list of the stores & restraints here on their website.
Security was a fast & easy process, they have several lines open so it moves quickly and it wasn’t real busy when we were there in January. As we were walking towards security a Opah & Omah were walking near us and stopped for a minute so the Omah could finish her drink before going through security. Bill and the kids were walking towards the security and the next thing I know the poor Omah had fell onto the floor, spilling her drink, and the Opah was trying to help her up. I quickly walked over and helped to get her up and get her things situated, the security staff noticed and sent people out to check on her as well. By the time I got to the security lane Mr. B and the kids were almost through the line, Mr. B had no idea I was behind them helping out the Omah.
Next time I want to go check out the free Observation Deck as well.
The facility itself was well kept and clean.
Wifi
Yes, we all know this is important to us Americans 🙂 There is free wifi! You just have to do a simple log on, you can read more about that here.
Waiting at the Gate
There is limited seating and if you get to your gate later (meaning about 45 mins to boarding) you probably won’t find any seats, or at least not any together for several people.
There is a little store if you want to buy some water, snacks, etc. And a few little stores to shop in.
Here after you line up & check in at the gate your all loaded onto the ramp until the last person is checked in and then they let you load onto the plane.
Baggage Claim
Upon return back the baggage claim is on the lower level. There are restrooms in that area as well. After you get your luggage you’ll walk out of the secure area near the main entrance.
I think this is a great sized airport, it’s not too small and its not too big. We had a great experience using it. I can easily see us using and enjoying this airport again!
Have you been to Cologne-Bonn Airport? What was your experience like? Any good tips?
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