Is this a fairly easy commute? We are attending Eruoshop in February and the hotel prices in Dusseldorf are just plain crazy for this show so we are thinking of spending our last night, after the conference, in Mainz and the taking the train to to DUS on the day of our departure. Is this reasonable?

How much time should we allow? How much should it cost?

You can look at schedules in English here:
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Use Dusseldorf HBF as your departure station, otherwise it seems to default to the airport.

I played with it for an itinerary for this Monday and it was 39-69 euro one way depending on service (ICE most expensive--2 hr ). I know they have some discounts so you may be able to get prices lower than that, particularly for weekend travel.

Hopefully you can start with this until someone else comes along with info.

Had you thought about Cologne? It's only 24 mins away from Dusseldorf. Plenty of shopping there, starting right across from the Cathedral as you exit the train station.

Have you looked at hotel prices in Essen and Dortmund as well?

I think Dortmund is about an hour north of DUS by train; Essen is about 1/2 hour if memory serves.

I wouldn't suggest going to DUS for a conference, then going to Mainz for a night, and then returning to DUS to fly back. If you were flying out of FRA, Mainz would be a great place to spend your last night.

If you have a specific reason to go to Mainz and don't have an early AM departure from DUS, then it would be a possibility. Trains from Mainz to DUS will take 2.5-3 hours.

I'd recommend staying somewhere within the VRR (Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr--regional transit network)--Dortmund, Essen, Bochum, Duisburg, etc. In fact, you could do this during the event itself, as the trade show passes in DUS (Euroshop included--I just checked) include free transit to the show and back within the VRR regional transit network on the days of the event.

I fully agree. You might to check hotel prices on www.hrs.de (you can select English as your language) for (I am going along the railway mainline to the East):

Ratingen
Duisburg
M�lheim or Oberhausen
Essen
Bochum
Gelsenkirchen
Recklinghausen
Dortmund

Ratingen is 15 minutes by tram, Duisburg is 12 minutes, Dortmung about 40 minutes by train. The other towns are in between. Going to the west you will have

Neuss
Krefeld
M�nchengladbach

Neuss is Krefeld is accessible by Tram, M�nchengladbach is about 30 minutes by train. Going to the south you will find

Leverkusen
Cologne
Bonn

Well that's crazy. The Hilton site said that Mainz was only 19 miles from the center of Dusseldorf. It is a good thing that I asked here.

I will go back and check for Cologne, or maybe even become adventerous and try a non-Hilton hotel.

You are so right, soitgoes, our show passes do include local rail fares. I will check out Essen. We actually have friends who live there so it would be a good chance to see them as well.

Hilton Koeln might be 19 miles from the center of Duesseldorf (nice Hilton, BTW). Mainz is a very good distance away. You could do a lot worse than the Cologne Hilton. It is easy walking distance to the train station, numerous restaurants, the cathedral, and the main shopping street.

I think that you (or the website) may have inadvertantly switched the search location to Frankfurt. Mainz is 19 miles from Frankfurt. As others have suggested Dortmund is often a good location for inexpensive Hilton prices - but only if there isn't a convention in town.

LOL...I was wondering "Why Mainz?" I mean, Mainz is a nice town, but it seemed sort of random given your location in DUS.

If you are relying on public transit, you should know that Cologne (VRS) is *not* in the same transport association as D�sseldorf (VRR).

How much is the train from Dusseldorf to Cologne and how long does that take?

It depends on what train you take.

It looks like...
The InterCity/EuroCity trains cost 10�.
The ICE (high-speed) trains cost 16�
These trains take approx. 21-26 minutes from Hauptbahnhof to Hauptbahnhof, and these fares are Deutsche Bahn fares.

The regional trains (e.g., RE) trains are part of the regional transit network fares; those trains take just over 30 minutes to go from D�sseldorf to Cologne, if they are running on schedule. As I said, D�sseldorf and K�ln are in different networks, but they do work together and have a fare structure called the RegioTicket. For D�sseldorf-K�ln, you'd need 5�, which is 9,30� for a single ticket and 31,50� for a 4-trip ticket. A weekly ticket would be 48,20� (valid Monday-Sunday). A day ticket for one person is 19� and for up to five people traveling together, 23�.

There's also the Sch�nerTagTicket NRW, which is a day pass for all of the local transit in North Rhine Westphalia: 22� for one person and 29,50� for up to five people.

Now that I've thrown out too many numbers, I thought of something better.
Since your trade fair pass includes VRR travel, I think you'd just need an AnschlussTicket (extension ticket) to cover the trip from the tariff border to Cologne (Langenfeld-K�ln, most likely). I don't know the exact price, but it should be about 5� each way.

Probably too much info. There's a confusing array of tariffs and ticket options.

We were once trying to figure out train fares at a stop in DUS, shortly after the advent of the Euro. An old man with two small children who spoke little English was trying to help us. Finally he just gave up and claimed us as two additional children on his five person pass.

The first time I bought one they said it was for five persons and a dog. We laughed and asked if we had to rent a dog.