Eifel Loop from Cologne: Maars, Monschau and the Nürburgring in 3 Days

The Eifel is the upland between Cologne, Aachen, Koblenz and Trier, and it spills over the border into Belgium. It is not high — rolling forest and farmland rather than Alps — but it is volcanic, and that is what makes it unlike anywhere else in Germany: round crater lakes called maars sit in the fields, each one the mark of a gas explosion. Add a half-timbered town in a river gorge and the most famous race track in the world, and three days from Cologne make a loop of about 390 km.

The practical side is easy. Germany has no motorway toll or vignette for cars, and the Eifel roads are quiet outside summer weekends. The one rule to know before you set off is about the track: a normal rental car is not allowed on the Nürburgring, even on the public tourist days — more on that below. You drive on the right.

Day 1 — Cologne to Monschau (115 km)

Pick up the car at Cologne — at the airport if you can, which keeps you out of the city’s low-emission zone (it needs the green sticker; German rental cars carry it). Head south-west to Monschau, which sits deep in the narrow valley of the Rur close to the Belgian border.

Monschau is the best-preserved small town in the Eifel: slate roofs and half-timbered houses packed along the river, a castle on the ridge above, and the Rotes Haus, a cloth merchant’s mansion from the eighteenth century that is now a museum. The old town is a traffic-calmed zone and is closed to cars at busy times, so leave the car in one of the car parks at its edges and walk in. Stay the night: the town is at its best once the day visitors have gone.

Day 2 — Vogelsang and the Nürburgring (115 km)

Drive into the Eifel National Park, founded in 2004 around the reservoirs and beech forests south of Monschau. At its centre stands Vogelsang, a vast complex built in the 1930s as a Nazi party training school, used by the Belgian army after the war and now an exhibition and visitor centre. It is an uncomfortable place and a well-told one, and the view over the Urft reservoir is the best in the park.

Then cross the hills east to the Nürburgring. The old northern loop, the Nordschleife, is around 20 km long and was built in the 1920s; drivers call it the Green Hell. On public tourist-drive days — from 7 March to 15 November 2026 — anyone can drive a lap in their own road car for €30 on weekdays or €35 at weekends and on public holidays. But the terms of almost every rental company forbid race tracks and the insurance lapses if you go on one, so in a hire car the lap means renting a dedicated track car near the ring, or watching from the stands and the viewing points. Motorcycles have been banned from the tourist drives since 2025. Continue south to Daun for the night.

Day 3 — The maars, Manderscheid and back to Cologne (160 km)

Above Daun lie the three Dauner Maare, the classic image of the Vulkaneifel. The Gemündener Maar is a dark round lake in the woods with a summer bathing spot; the Weinfelder Maar beside it has no village left, only a small church on the rim; the Schalkenmehrener Maar is the largest of the three. A short walk links them, and the lookout tower on the Mäuseberg between them looks down into the craters.

South of Daun, Manderscheid has not one castle but two — the Oberburg and the Niederburg — facing each other across the gorge of the Lieser, a view worth the short walk down. Then drive north to Bad Münstereifel, a walled medieval town on the Erft whose old houses now hold an outlet shopping street, and finish at Cologne.

Costs

Use the cost calculator to price fuel and nights for your dates. There are no tolls on this route. Budget for accommodation, fuel for about 390 km, car rental, parking in Monschau, entry to the Vogelsang exhibition, and a Nordschleife lap or a track-car rental if you want to drive the ring. Hotels near the Nürburgring fill up and get expensive on race weekends, so check the circuit’s calendar before you book.

This trip is also in the free Roadcut trip planner: change the number of days and where you sleep each night, pick your vehicle to see the fuel cost, check the weather on the road, and open each day in Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze.