Düsseldorf Airport is a major international airport and a good place to fly into for any of the host cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, i.e., Düsseldorf, Cologne, Gelsenkirchen and/or Dortmund. BA, Lufthansa and Eurowings all provide direct flights from the UK.

The airport is located about 4 miles from Düsseldorf city centre and you can get into town in just 12 minutes with the S11 S-Bahn (metro), which departs from directly beneath the terminal building. 

If you're going straight to the Merkur Spiel-Arena (Düsseldorf Arena for the Euros), you can get there in 22 minutes by bus and then underground (the 760 bus heading for D-Roßpfad from in front of the terminal building, getting off at Freiligrathplatz. Then, from across the square, the U78 heading for D-MERKUR SPIEL-ARENA/Messe Nord). You can plan your journey on the VRR local public transport website. 

Travelling by mainline train from Düsseldorf Airport Station to Cologne main station (Hauptbahnhof / Hbf) will take you 45-55 minutes, to Gelsenkirchen Hbf about 35 minutes and to Dortmund Hbf around 45 minutes. The airport is linked to the railway station by an automated monorail Sky Train.

In terms of fares, you're covered for any of the rail or S-Bahn journeys mentioned above if you have an Interrail pass, for all the above journeys if you have a Deutschlandticket and for all except the journey down to Cologne if you have a regional WelcomeCard Ruhr.

If you're planning on  picking up a hire car at the airport, the leading rental firms operating there are Avis, Budget, Enterprise, Europcar, Hertz and Sixt. You can see which offer the best prices here at Rentalcars.co.uk.