Relay

Gate-side grab at Terminal 1: Relay is your basics stop

Right in Cologne Bonn’s Terminal 1, Relay fills the newsstand slot: drinks, snacks, magazines, and last‑minute travel bits before security closes for the night. Expect standard airport pricing, with bottled water and soft drinks landing around €3–4 and chocolate bars and crisps in the €1.50–3 range. It’s the shop you hit when you realise at 21:30 that your phone cable is dying or you still don’t have a pen for landing cards.

Relay in Terminal 1 typically opens early enough to catch the first wave of departures around 05:00 and trades through the evening bank, though exact hours track flight schedules and can tighten on quieter days. You’ll find German and international press on the shelves, so grabbing a Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger or an English-language paper before an 07:00 flight is easy. For quick gifts, they usually stock logo mugs, keyrings, and fridge magnets in the €5–15 bracket.

This is a walk-in, grab-and-go layout just off the main Terminal 1 departure flow, so you can be in and out in under 5 minutes if your boarding pass says “final call” at Gate B or C. Expect the usual lineup of travel chargers, EU plug adapters, and basic headphones, often in the €10–25 range. Snacks skew toward branded chocolate, Haribo, and packaged pastries that survive a short-haul hop without crumbling everywhere.

Tip: if you need water for the flight, buy a 0.5L bottle here in Terminal 1 and then refill it at the restroom sinks near your gate rather than paying again at a cafe closer to boarding.