Düsseldorf wheelchair accessibility guide

Rheinbahn runs the trams, the underground Stadtbahn, and the buses in Düsseldorf and the surrounding Rhine cities. The tram fleet has been entirely low-floor in regular service since 2012, so boarding from a curbside stop is usually level. The Stadtbahn network has lifts at most underground stations; check the route in the Rheinbahn app before you set off because lift outages are the main thing that catches wheelchair users out.

If you have a German disability pass with the B mark on the back, your registered companion travels free on every Rheinbahn tram, Stadtbahn, and bus. The pass itself, if it carries the orange-print right-hand panel, also covers free travel for the holder. Show it to the inspector on board; no advance booking is needed for a wheelchair boarding.

Düsseldorf's Hauptbahnhof has lift access from the regional and S-Bahn platforms down to the Rheinbahn level, and the airport's SkyTrain people-mover connects the terminal to the long-distance station at a level transfer.

Düsseldorf's old town clusters around the Marktplatz and Burgplatz on the east bank of the Rhine. Most of it is a pedestrian zone, with more than 300 pubs and restaurants packed into about half a square kilometre, the reason locals call it the longest bar in the world. The main streets between them (Bolkerstraße, Flinger Straße, Andreasstraße) are flat and well-paved.

Cobblestones appear on smaller side alleys and around the Burgplatz waterfront; the routes most tourists actually take are smooth. The Rhine promenade running along the western edge of the Altstadt is level its full length, with curb-cuts at every cross-street.

The K20 Kunstsammlung at Grabbeplatz and its sister site K21 at the Ständehaus are both barrier-free and lend wheelchairs at no cost. The Klee, Picasso, and Mondrian collections are on lift-served floors.

Museum Kunstpalast at the Ehrenhof has a step-free entrance with an automatic door, multiple lifts that serve every floor, and accessible toilets on the ground floor and the first floor.

The Rheinturm has two public lifts up to an observation deck at 166 metres and a rotating restaurant above it; both decks are wheelchair-reachable from the lifts.

The Königsallee, the city's mile-long luxury shopping boulevard, is the widest street in Germany at about 87 metres facade to facade; the canal in the middle has level approaches at each cross-bridge.

The MedienHafen redevelopment on the river south of the old town has paved promenades the full way around, with level views of the Frank Gehry buildings from the water side.

The big discount in Düsseldorf is admission for the registered companion. At the K20 and K21 Kunstsammlung, at Museum Kunstpalast, and at KIT Kunst im Tunnel, a German disability pass with the B mark on the back gets the companion in free of charge. At the Tonhalle concert hall, the disabled visitor and the companion each pay about half the standard ticket.

Bring the pass itself; the discount applies on the spot at the ticket counter. Foreign disability cards are not automatically recognised but are usually accepted along with a passport.

Late spring and early autumn are the easiest seasons. The Altstadt fills with weekend crowds from Thursday evening onwards and the Christmas market on the Marktplatz is dense from late November to the new year; come at opening rather than in the evening if you want room to manoeuvre. Carnival in February shuts most of the Altstadt to traffic but also draws standing crowds that are hard to roll through.