Looking for a Cologne Ferienpass? Where Holiday Activities and Discounts Come From Instead

What the City Actually Offers

Searching for a “Ferienpass” in Cologne leads nowhere on the city’s own pages. The Stadt Köln Ferienprogramm page gives you no pass, card or booking number. It sends you to the family portal guterstart.koeln and to the event calendar, and names the Stadtbibliothek festival MINTköln, the Musenkuss site for cultural education and the city museums as further holiday sources. If you come from a city with a holiday card, this is a different system: a loose network of free city offers, provider programmes and a general discount pass for lower incomes.

Free Holiday Offers

The clearest example is the Juppi-Mobil. According to a city press release of 7 July 2026, it ran for six weeks in the summer holidays, Monday to Friday from 13:00 to 18:00, in a different park each week, and was open to children and teenagers from six without registration. The programme included table football, shuffleboard, painting, upcycling and ball games. The locations moved between Kalk, Mülheim, Porz and Roggendorf. That was the 2026 programme, so look in the event calendar for the next holiday and do not rely on the same locations.

The city also ran a stamp-collecting campaign, Veedel Ferien Feez, in the summer holidays of 2021 (its press release calls it the second edition), with playground activities and prizes for collected stamps. We found no later edition, so do not plan around it.

Finding the Offers

1. Open the family portal and choose the category for holiday offers. The portal has an automatic translation function that includes English, offered without guarantee, so check details with the provider.
2. Check the event calendar for free events in your district.
3. Ask your child’s school or Kita which providers families use, and check the OGS closing weeks, covered on our page on the OGS summer closure gap.
4. Look at the date first. Our school holiday calendar lists the holidays.
5. Book early for paid camps. See the 2026 listing below.

For overnight trips, church and association providers dominate, covered on our page on overnight holiday camps.

The Köln-Pass: the Real Discount Mechanism

The Köln-Pass is the city’s pass for people with low incomes. For holidays, the city’s list is the most useful part.

The city page lists more providers, such as boat trips and sports clubs. Season dates and conditions are on the page, so read the entry for each provider.

Who qualifies and how to apply

According to the city’s application page, you can apply if you receive ongoing SGB II benefits from the Jobcenter Köln, Wohngeld or the Kinderzuschlag, or war victims’ welfare, or if your monthly income is at most 30 percent above the SGB II or SGB XII rates. Documents are a copy of the current notice, or income documents and your regular monthly burdens in the low-earner case. People on social assistance, basic security in old age or with reduced earning capacity, child and youth welfare or asylum seeker benefits receive the pass without applying.

The FAQ adds:

• Apply online, no visit needed, and the pass comes by post.
• Processing takes up to four weeks. The city gives no receipt.
• The pass is valid twelve months, 24 months for SGB II recipients.
• The city names no income limit. It says low earners should apply with documents, since some costs can be deducted from income.
• It is a voluntary service, and the city does not refund extra costs if the pass arrives late.

Since the wait can reach four weeks (an older easy-language page of the city still says up to eight), apply well before a holiday you plan to use it in.

The Bildungspaket

The city’s Bildungspaket page describes support for children from low-income families with leisure, school and learning offers. The city says the Köln-Pass is not a condition for it, and that you very likely have a claim to both if you are entitled to the pass. Apply separately.

Private Camps and What They Cost

Many families rely on private weekly camps. A regional family magazine listed several for summer 2026 in an advertising listing, which is not an official source:

• Day camps ran from 229 euro (an archery club camp, drinks and snacks included, lunch not included) to 389 euro (outdoor camps with meals included) per week.
• One climbing-hall camp stated a 259 euro price, with a 30 euro reduction for siblings and Köln-Pass holders.
• Kinderstadt Kartause, a children’s city project in the Südstadt in the last weeks of the holidays, cost 90 euro for a week.

Those were 2026 prices. Ask each provider whether the Köln-Pass or a sibling discount applies, and whether the camp covers your working hours, since camps often end earlier than a workday. For museums, see our page on free entry under 18, and for childcare emergencies our page on emergency care and your legal right.

Planning Around the Calendar

Two dates matter most: when the holiday starts and when the Köln-Pass will arrive. The city says the pass takes up to four weeks, so a family that applies on the first day of the holiday gets it after the holiday is over. Work backwards: apply at least a month before the first booking. The family portal also has a category for children’s and youth meeting places and youth centres, where holiday programmes may be posted. Our school holiday calendar lists the weeks, and families who rely on after-school care should read the page on the OGS closing weeks.

Step by Step

1. Check whether you qualify for the Köln-Pass, and apply online if so.
2. Open guterstart.koeln and the event calendar for your child’s age and district.
3. Note which offers are free and which need registration.
4. Book paid camps as soon as the holiday dates are known.
5. Show the Köln-Pass when you book and ask about sibling discounts.
6. Keep proof of the booking and the pass number handy.

Compliance Note

This page summarises information published by Stadt Köln as read in October 2026, plus an advertising listing for price examples. Holiday programmes, locations, discounts and prices change every year. It is not legal or social-law advice. For your own entitlement, contact the Servicebüro Bildung und Teilhabe, Köln-Pass or the Amt für Kinder, Jugend und Familie.