Flying in to Germany to visit the Green Hell? This article lists the closest airports to the Nurburgring, both domestic and international, and driving times between the airports and the circuit. Plus we have listed some example flight prices.
Contents
Why fly to the nurburgring?
Perhaps you are coming for the ride or a lifetime and have booked a passenger lap in one of the Nurburgring taxis. Or you want to experience driving the track yourself and have hired a Ring rental car.
Or maybe you are a regular visitor to the Ring and have stored your track car nearby. Or is it none of those things, and you’re just going for the German beer and bratwurst?
Either way, whether you’re from far overseas, mainland Europe or the UK flying is an option that’s worth considering. Driving to the Nurburgring can be a long, tiring trip, and costs can easily add up when you consider fuel prices, train tickets or ferry crossings. Check the circuit opening times before planning your trip.
Some of the example flight tickets below to the four closest airports to the Nurburgring show how cheap it can be to fly to Germany from various destinations.
Is there a nurburgring airport?
Unfortunately, there isn’t an aiport at the Nurburgring, or in the town of Nurburg, that we can fly in to. Whilst the area is a massive tourist hotspot for us petrolheads, we will all have to turn up in Nurburg by car for the time being.
Which is fine by us; when you get within about 30 minute’s drive of the circuit, every third car you see is a track prepped BMW, or a Porsche, or some stripped out VW Golf race car, and that is an awesome thing to behold.
So whilst there’s no airport at the circuit itself, the closest airports to the Nurburgring are only an hour’s drive away. Below we list the nearest airport, in order of shortest driving times.
Don't make these mistakes
Two quick warnings for you first, before we look at the list of airports:
1 – Don’t fly to Nuremberg! Yes, Nuremberg has an airport, but Nuremberg is NOT Nurburg! That is 400km, and a 4 hour drive away from where you want to be! You wouldn’t be the first to make the mistake, but don’t be the next.
2 – If you’re flying in to one of the below airports, it’s likely you’ll get a hire car to drive you to the Nurburgring. Whilst you can see what its VMAX is on one of the nearby autobahns, don’t be tempted to take your rental car for a lap of the Ring. The hire car companies will have location tracking, and should anything go wrong they can see where you’ve been and void your insurance, making you financially liable for any damage. Get a proper Ring rental instead.
Cloest airports to the nurburgring
1. Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN) – not worldwide
Driving time to Nurburgring: 1 hour 05 minutes
UK & Ireland direct flights from: London, Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh, Dublin, Knock
All direct flights: Click here for full list
Rental car agencies in airport: Avis Budget, Buchbinder, Enterprise, Europcar, Hertz, Sixt
The nearest airport to the Nurburgring is Cologne Bonne Airport. There are direct flights from the locations listed above, and indirect flights from elsewhere.
If any of those indirect flights have layovers at any of the airports listed further down this page, then you may as well fly directly to those and drive a little further to save some time over the additional flight connection.
You can get direct flights from London Gatwick to Cologne Bonn. Say you are going for a long weekend at the end of August, LGW to CGN direct price examples are below.
If you wanted a hire car for the same period, using one of the comparison sites for a better price means you can get some very reasonable deals. The prices below are for the full 4-day rental, plus the optional excess insurance.
If you shop around with your dates, however, you can get some crazy cheap flight tickets. Check out the cost of this trip from Bristol in September. £21 return, direct!
2. Frankfurt-Hahn Airport (HHN) – not worldwide
Driving time to Nurburgring: 1 hour 06 minutes
UK & Ireland direct flights from: London, Dublin, Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh, Dublin, Knock
All direct flights: Click here for full list
Rental car agencies in airport: Europcar
Pretty much the same distance away from the Ring as the previous airport, Frankfurt-Hahn could also be classed as the one of the closest airports to the Nurburgring.
For the UK and Ireland direct flights, the link above lists direct flights from Manchester, Bristol and Edinburgh. We searched ourselves, however, and could only find direct from London Stanstead or Dublin. Overall the direct flight choice to HHN seems to be a little worse than to CGN.
Below is the comparison for flying to Frankfurt Hahn on the same weekend in August as we looked at for CGN. However there were no direct flights from LGW so this time we have to go from London Stanstead.
Hire cars from HHM are around twice as expensive for this weekend, probably to Europcar having no competition directly within this airport.
If you shop around with your dates, you can find some cheap deals again. Here’s a £38 direct return ticket from Dublin.
3. Frankfurt Airport (FRA) – worldwide
Driving time to Nurburgring: 1 hour 45 minutes
UK & Ireland direct flights from: London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol, Newcastle, Liverpool, Dublin, Cork
All direct flights: USA, Canada, Japan, UAE and more… Click here for full list
Rental car agencies in airport: Alamo, Avis, Buchbinder, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Europcar, Hertz, National, OK Mobility, Sixt, Thrifty
Only a 1 hour 45 minute drive and with direct flights from the USA, Canada, the UAE, Japan, South Africa, UK, Ireland and many more, this airport is truly international. It is the closest airport to the Nurburgring that has direct flights to these worldwide destinations.
Below is an example price to fly from San Francisco to Frankfurt on the same weekend in August, pretty pricey.
Hire cars at Frankfurt are reasonably priced, only a little more than CGN. Lots of different companies offer rentals at this airport, so lots of competition and options.
As ever, being more flexible with dates can save you heaps. Here another example of SFO to FRA, but this time in September. Half the price of the previous example, a saving of around £600 just by waiting a month. September is less likely to have great weather, but it should still be pretty good and worth a visit.
4. Dusseldorf Airport (DUS) – Semi worldwide
Driving time to Nurburgring: 1 hour 45 minutes
UK & Ireland direct flights from: London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle, Dublin,
All direct flights: Japan, Dubai, Iceland, Mexico and more. But NOT the USA or Canada.
Click here for the full list.
Rental car agencies in airport: Avis, Buchbinder, Enterprise – National – Alamo, Europcar, Hertz – Dollar – Thrifty, Sixt
This is a semi-worldwide airport. There are no flights from the USA or Canada, and fewer in general from far flung destinations with a few exceptions. Hit the link above for the full list. Lots of flights from UK and Ireland, though, so worth adding to your comparison when looking for the best prices.
This is also around 1 hour 45 minutes away from the Nurburgring, again though you should allow some extra time for getting out of Dusseldorf and passing Cologne if it’s rush hour.
Below is an example price to fly from Birmingham, UK, to Dusseldorf on the same weekend in August.
Hire cars at Dusseldorf are the cheapest of all the airports near the Nurburgring, with prices of less than £100 available for the same August weekend which, for 4 days’ rental, is a great deal.
Shopping around with dates and places we found some good prices. Here’s a cheap return direct ticket from Dublin to Dusseldorf in December for £61.
