Berlin travel guide: itinerary and where to stay
At dusk the silver sphere of the TV Tower catches the last light over Alexanderplatz, while S-Bahn trains rumble across brick arches above the Spree. Berlin is a city of broad avenues, hidden courtyards and canal banks, and its recent past is set into the pavement: a double row of cobbles still traces the line of the Wall through the centre. This guide helps you decide how long to stay, how to spend three days, where to go when it rains and which neighbourhood to base yourself in.
How Berlin fits together
Berlin was stitched together in 1920 from a royal capital, a handful of independent towns and dozens of villages, and it still behaves that way. Each district has its own high street, market and pace, and there is no single old town where everything happens. Most first visits stay inside the S-Bahn ring, the circle line around the inner city.
Mitte is the historic core. Its backbone is Unter den Linden, which runs east from the Brandenburg Gate past the State Opera and Humboldt University to Museum Island, with the TV Tower and Alexanderplatz just across the river. The Reichstag, the Holocaust memorial and Potsdamer Platz are all a few minutes' walk from the gate. For 28 years the Wall cut straight through this area, which is why so much of it looks newer than the history it tells.
North of Mitte lies Prenzlauer Berg, with its restored tenements and cafés. To the south-east, Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain face each other across the Spree at the Oberbaum Bridge, and Neukölln begins beyond the Landwehr Canal. The old centre of West Berlin, around the Zoologischer Garten station and the Kurfürstendamm, feels like a different city, with Charlottenburg Palace further out. Distances are real here, so build each day around one or two neighbouring districts rather than criss-crossing the map.
How many days do you need?
- Two days cover the classic line from the Brandenburg Gate to Alexanderplatz and an afternoon at the East Side Gallery, but you will have to settle for one museum and leave the neighbourhoods for another trip.
- Three days suit a first visit: the historic centre, the story of the divided city, and a third day either in the districts where Berliners actually live or out in Potsdam.
- Four or five days let you add Charlottenburg Palace, a long morning on Museum Island and a full day out to Sachsenhausen, the Spreewald or Dresden without rushing.
Three days in Berlin, day by day
Day one: from the Brandenburg Gate to the TV Tower
Start at the Brandenburg Gate before the coaches arrive. If you have a morning slot for the Reichstag dome, it is two minutes away; otherwise walk south to the Holocaust memorial and keep the dome for the evening. Then follow Unter den Linden east, with a short detour to Gendarmenmarkt, until you reach Museum Island. Give the afternoon to one museum (all of them close on Mondays, so swap days one and two if you arrive at the start of the week) and climb the cathedral dome before last admission at 5 pm. Finish at Alexanderplatz: the TV Tower is open until 11 pm, so you can wait for a clear evening and go up after dark.
Day two: the Wall, Kreuzberg and the river
Spend the morning on the divided city. The Topography of Terror, with one of the last stretches of the Wall along its edge, is a short walk from Checkpoint Charlie. From there take the U-Bahn east to the East Side Gallery and walk its full length to the Oberbaum Bridge. Cross into Kreuzberg for a late lunch around Schlesisches Tor or along the Landwehr Canal. In the early evening, ride the U1 west from Warschauer Straße: the line runs on an iron viaduct above the streets of Kreuzberg, and from the window you see how the city changes from one district to the next.
Day three: Potsdam, or a district of your choice
If the forecast is good, take the S7 or a regional train to Potsdam and give the whole day to Sanssouci Park and its palaces. If you would rather stay in town, pick one direction. To the north, the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Straße has kept a section of the border strip with its watchtower; from there it is a short walk through the Mauerpark, with its Sunday flea market, into Prenzlauer Berg. To the west, Charlottenburg Palace and its gardens fill the morning, and the Kurfürstendamm the afternoon.
What to do when it rains
Rain does less damage to a Berlin trip than you might fear. The great collections stand side by side on Museum Island, the trains reach almost everything, and the two key places for understanding the twentieth century, the Topography of Terror and the Information Centre beneath the Holocaust memorial, are indoors. What rain spoils are the views. Under low cloud the TV Tower and the cathedral dome show you nothing, so move them to the next clear day and spend the grey one inside.
- Morning: Museum Island, from opening at 10 am (Tuesday to Sunday). The museums are a few minutes apart, so you are never long in the rain between them.
- Afternoon: the Topography of Terror and the Information Centre under the Holocaust memorial, both free; the Information Centre is closed on Mondays.
- Evening: a concert at the Konzerthaus on Gendarmenmarkt or the Philharmonie, or, on a Thursday, the Bode-Museum, open until 8 pm.
- Any time: a long lunch in Markthalle Neun, a restored nineteenth-century market hall in Kreuzberg, or the food hall on the sixth floor of the KaDeWe department store.
Which neighbourhood to stay in
- Mitte, between Museum Island and Hackescher Markt
- You can walk to the sights of the first two days, and the S-Bahn at Hackescher Markt runs straight to the main station and Zoologischer Garten. Rooms cost more than elsewhere, and many restaurants by the monuments cater mainly to visitors.
- Prenzlauer Berg
- Restored nineteenth-century tenements, leafy squares such as Kollwitzplatz, cafés and playgrounds: a good base for families. Trams and the U2 reach Alexanderplatz in a few minutes, and the evenings are quiet.
- Kreuzberg
- Plenty of places to eat, bars along the canal and late nights. The streets around Kottbusser Tor are loud and scruffy after dark; the area around Bergmannstraße and the Graefekiez by the canal is calmer. The U1, U6 and U8 run to the centre.
- Friedrichshain
- Next to the East Side Gallery, with the monumental East German architecture of Karl-Marx-Allee and the weekend market on Boxhagener Platz. Clubs make weekends noisy. From Warschauer Straße and Ostkreuz, trains run in every direction.
- Charlottenburg and the City West
- The old western centre, with the Kurfürstendamm, Savignyplatz and quieter residential streets. Charlottenburg Palace is close, but every morning starts with a ride east to Museum Island.
- Neukölln
- Usually cheaper than Mitte, in a busy, mixed district around Hermannplatz and the Landwehr Canal, with Tempelhofer Feld, the former airport now a park, on the doorstep. The U8 runs to Alexanderplatz without a change.