Where to stay in Cologne: the best neighbourhoods and hotels

Few cities introduce themselves as dramatically as Cologne. You step out of the main station and the cathedral is simply there, twin spires soaring 157 metres overhead. Next to it are the Roman-Germanic Museum and Museum Ludwig, with its Picassos and pop art, and behind it the Hohenzollern Bridge carries trains and several hundred thousand padlocks across the Rhine.

For a weekend, this is the easiest place to stay. The city's grand old luxury hotel stands 120 metres from the cathedral; a big, family-friendly five-star is 200 metres from the station; and others have terraces and rooms that look straight on to the Gothic stonework. The main shopping streets begin just to the south.

Between the cathedral and the Rhine, the old town is a few blocks of narrow lanes, pastel gabled houses and the Romanesque tower of Great St Martin. It was rebuilt after the war, but the atmosphere is real enough, especially in the brewery taverns, where blue-aproned waiters keep the Kölsch coming until you put a beer mat over your glass.

Alter Markt and Heumarkt, the two main squares, host Carnival crowds in February and Christmas markets in December. One hotel sits right on Alter Markt, serving homemade cakes in its café; a luxury hotel stands by the river at the start of the pedestrian zone at Heumarkt; and a large hotel near the Rhine is ten minutes' walk from the cathedral. Expect noise on big weekends.

West of the centre, inside the curve of the old city ring, the Belgian Quarter is where Cologne's creative types live, shop and drink. Its streets, named after Belgian cities, are full of independent fashion labels, record shops and cafés, and on warm evenings the crowd spills out around Brüsseler Platz. Friesenplatz, next door, is the hub of the bar and club scene.

Hotels here have more character than most. One on Friesenplatz bills itself as a slice of the neighbourhood, with a different local theme on every floor. A designer hotel in an 1897 building has mid-century furniture and its own art gallery. Further north, beside a lake in the green belt, a Jean Nouvel-designed hotel adjoins the Mediapark.

South of the old town, the Severinsviertel and the Südstadt are Cologne at its most neighbourly: a medieval city gate, a long shopping street of bakers and wine bars, and corner pubs where everybody seems to know each other. On the riverbank, the old Rheinauhafen docks have been rebuilt with striking crane-shaped towers, a promenade and the Chocolate Museum.

The area has some of the city's most interesting places to sleep. A five-star occupies a 19th-century water tower on a quiet street; an art-themed hotel in the Rheinauhafen is decorated with the work of a Korean artist; and there are reliable four-stars in the Severinsviertel and beside the Chocolate Museum. The old town is about 15 minutes' walk along the river.

Locals joke that Deutz is the wrong side of the Rhine. Visitors heading for the Koelnmesse exhibition centre or a concert at the Lanxess Arena will disagree, and so will photographers: the view back across the river to the cathedral and the old town is the best in the city.

A modern five-star right on the riverbank makes the most of it, with many rooms facing the Rhine and the cathedral and an indoor pool. Another hotel sits opposite the entrance to the exhibition centre, a few minutes’ walk from the arena, and a third looks over the river beside the Rheinpark gardens. The old town is a walk across the bridge.

Bonn was the unlikely capital of West Germany for forty years, and it still carries itself with a certain quiet importance. Beethoven was born here, in a house you can visit; the Museum Mile holds some of the best galleries in the Rhineland; and the old government quarter runs along the river beside the vast Rheinaue park.

It's a gentler base than Cologne, and the two are linked by frequent trains. The showpiece hotel is a flamboyant five-star on the Rhine with an outdoor pool and a spa. Others sit a few steps from the Rheinaue, have indoor pools and saunas, or put you in the centre near the Beethoven house. Across the river, the wooded Siebengebirge hills are made for walking.

East of Cologne the land rises into the Bergisches Land, a region of wooded hills, slate-hung houses and reservoirs. Bergisch Gladbach is its gateway, close enough to the city for an evening out and far enough for birdsong in the morning.

The reason most visitors come is a grand hotel in a Baroque palace, with an indoor pool, a hot tub, a spa and a view that reaches to the cathedral spires on a clear day. If the budget does not stretch to a palace, a romantic forest hotel serves regional cooking on its terrace, and a smart smaller hotel has a rooftop terrace near the nature park.

South of Bonn, the little River Ahr cuts a steep valley through slate hills planted with vines. This is one of Germany’s few red wine regions, and Bad Neuenahr, its elegant spa town, has been pouring Pinot Noir and drawing thermal baths for well over a century. The walled old town of Ahrweiler is next door.

It makes a rewarding detour from Cologne, about 60 km from the airport. A stylish hotel beside the river invites you to taste the local reds in its own cellar; another, steps from the Ahr and a few minutes' walk from the thermal baths, has an indoor pool and sauna. In Ahrweiler, a historic family-run hotel has a beer garden and wine cellar of its own.