Cologne to Nuremberg - fly, drive or train ?
 

Visiting ISM at Cologne Messe, then Toy Fair at Nuremberg.

Leaving the Cologne show at say 4pm, and will be staying in a hotel in Forchheim which I understand is about 40k north of Nuremberg.

Train time is +/- 4 hours, but involves going to Nuremberg and then coming back again, and is not frequent (and no miles ;) ). Flight sounds like hard work, so I'm thinking about hiring a car and driving. How busy is that route likely to be ?

Any suggestions welcome.
ta

Air Berlin seem to have a once daily frequency from CGN to NUE, leaving at 6:30 though...

Car - well, you're likely to hit rush-hour around Frankfurt, and then you'll be on the A3, which is under construction permanently...

Tough choice.

How about best of both worlds: Direct ICE Cologne - Wuerzburg ( 2,5 hrs ) and rental from there. Spares you the backtracking and possible nasty surprises on the Autobahn.

Edited: There seems to be a very convenient direct connection both to Wuerzburg and Nuernberg from Cologne Messe station ( at least ICE 821, possible more ) that uses the highspeed track between Cologne - Frankfurt

I would not go by car .. heavy traffic Cologne - FRA and FRA Nuremberg.
Would go by train. You may get a rental car in Wuerzburg or Nuremberg for Forchheim ... however, I am not familiar with Forchheim.
But going by car Cologne to Nuremberg is not a good idea.

thanks guys - sounds like my bright idea to hire a CLK and drive 240 miles in 2 hours is a little unlikely ;)

train (and a few beers) it is then. will just have to route my Lon-CGN via FRA in order to pick up the miles I'll miss on the car hire :D

It is an ICE train from Cologne to Nuremberg - is it worth going for first class on this ? and can I get a proper meal or is there only snacks ?

There is a dining car on the ICE train where you can get proper meals that are actually pretty tasty. I think in first class they will even serve these at your seat, but I'm not sure since I always travel second class on trains. Not that there's anything wrong with first class on trains, but for me personally, I would rather save the money.

Still, first class can come in handy, especially if you're travelling on certain days of the week (Friday, Sunday, Monday morning) when trains tend to be packed in second class. First class tends to still be relatively open even then.

I believe there is also a car rental counter at the train station in Nuremberg, absolving you of the need to drive from Würzburg to Nuremberg. Still, as this can be a fun drive, or at least much more fun than the roads around Frankfurt, you might not want to strike this option entirely.

I personally think that first class is definetely worth it, especially if you are traveling during peak times. Much more relaxed. As far as food is concerned that depends on the train, some have a full-fledged restaurant car, in other's you can only buy snacks ("BordBistro"). It seems that the newer ones come with BordBistro only, go figure. But then again, it's Deutsche Bahn... :-)

well, if you want to route the LON-CGN via FRA you won't get any extra BA or AA miles anyway... only LH will go there, but you can still earn extra miles when flying direct from LON to Cologne.
Just book the first part of the train journey from cologne to nuernberg up until FRA airport train station as a "Lufthansa flight" and continue from there to Nuremberg. YOu will probably have to change trains in FRA though, but you won't loose much time.

You're from UK you should know about trians. Its us poor Yanks who think all trains are like Amtrack products--slow and rough.

Last month on an ICE south of FRA we hit 241 km/hr. That is close to an airplane speed, yet the ride was so smooth that water in a glass barely had ripples. I am impressed, DB can lay a smooth rail and run a smooth train.

Trains are one of the few places in central Europe that have No smoking cars, allowing me to get a few hours rest away from the choking clouds. :td: Seems like most Euros smoke. :td: Know what that means? Reserve a seat on an ICE or EC in first class non smoking in a compartment, and there is a good chance you will have the six seat compartment for your self. None of the locals want to sit there! :D It's like a journey in a private rail car. Very nice way to travel.

need to update my sig - also UA 1P, so I am using LH to/from to get a few miles.

looking forward to the train now ;)

Of course not, because we consider First Class just a terrible waste of money. I'm a regular on ICE'S and can assure you that Second Class is very comfortable and travels at the same speed as First. ;) So why pay more? During peak times, a seat reservation is highly recommended, though. In First Class you'll meet only business people for whom the ticket is paid by their company and tourists from overseas who have been told by greedy travel agents they can't travel Second Class...

Sometimes there are good reasons for travelling First... "flexibility" being one of them. As you said, seat reservations are highly recommended... which means that you have to plan ahead, you can't just turn up and go.

I spent some time travelling round Germany in August 2004 using a Eurodomino pass, and I decided to buy the first class version to give me more flexibility. I knew that with a first class ticket I could just hop on any train without worrying about whether or not I would find a seat - it was worth the extra money for that alone.

Are there buses from the Cologne airport to Dusseldorf? or from the Dusseldorf airport to Cologne? Seems like they are very close to each other.

CGN to DUS: The only direct rail connection CGN - Duesseldorf main station is an ICE train every hour ( 40 min ). The same train also stops at DUS airpot rail terminal ( 47 min ). Otherwise you can take the local train to Cologne main station and switch to local/IC/ICE trains bound for Duesseldorf there.

DUS to CGN: You can either take the local train from underneath the main terminal to Duesseldorf main station and switch to local/IC/ICE to Cologne there. If you want a "direct" connection, you can connect to the DUS rail terminal by the annoying "Skytrain" or shuttle bus. From there you get essentially the same train choices as from Duesseldorf main station and the hourly ICE connection to CGN.