Berlin does not queue up neatly. Book the good bits early.
Whether the Reichstag dome really needs registering weeks ahead. What an hour on the Spree costs. Which Sachsenhausen tours go by train and which by coach. Reviews of every tour and ticket you can book in Berlin.
The four days a first Berlin trip is usually built from.
A walk that covers both dictatorships, the bus that swallows the distances, the water, and the palaces an hour down the line. What each costs and how long it takes.
01The first walkThird Reich and Cold War 2 Hour Walking TourThird Reich in the morning half, Cold War in the second. Two hours on foot around Mitte, and the rest of the week makes more sense afterwards.
02The distancesHop-on Hop-off Bus Tour with Live CommentaryBerlin is nine times the size of Paris and the sights are spread across all of it. One ticket, all day, hop off when something looks worth it.
03On two wheelsSights and Highlights Bike Tour with a Local GuideFlat city, wide bike lanes, and a guide who knows which side streets skip the traffic. The fastest way to understand how the districts fit together.
04The day outCity and Castles TourHalf an hour by train to Potsdam and a park full of Prussian palaces. The one day trip that belongs in a short Berlin itinerary.
Berlin is too big to walk. Pick a hull, a saddle or a top deck.
The centre spreads from Charlottenburg to Friedrichshain and the good stuff sits at both ends. Three ways of covering it, what each costs to board, and the day each one suits.
Berlin keeps its evidence above ground.
A double line of cobbles where the Wall stood, bunker floors under a car park, a memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe across the road from the ministries that ordered it. Guides here deal in addresses and dates rather than anecdotes.
- 1Third Reich and Cold War 2 Hour Walking Tourfrom $23
- 2Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Tour in Englishfrom $36
- 3Berlin’s Best: 2 Hour Walking Tour Third Reich and the Cold Warfrom $24
Mitte in the morning, Kreuzberg after dark, Potsdam when the weather holds.
The districts and subjects the city is actually booked by. Each one opens on the tours and tickets we rate inside it.
The Berlin bookings that outsell everything else.
Every Berlin tour we have reviewed →More travellers take these than anything else in the city. What each one is, what it costs and why it keeps its slot.
1
Reichstag, Dome and Government District Guided Tour
Meet near the Bundestag U5 station for a 2 to 2.5 hour English or German tour of Berlin’s government district and Reichstag. Guides such as Stefan, Andy, and Eva explain the building’s past, politics, Foster’s design, and the dome’s clever ecological features. Bring photo ID.
From · $18
Read our review →
2
1-Hour City Tour by Boat with Guaranteed Seating
from $25
3
Boat Tour Along the River Spree
from $34
4
Discover Berlin Half-Day Walking Tour
from $24
5
Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour with Live Commentary
from $22
6
Government District around the Reichstag Guided Tour
7
Reichstag, Plenary Chamber, Cupola & Government Tour
from $18
8
Third Reich and Cold War 2 Hour Walking Tour
from $23
Potsdam is twenty-five minutes on the S7 and a different century.
Sanssouci sits at the top of six terraced vineyards, and the park behind it runs for two square kilometres past a Chinese teahouse, an orangery and a mock Italian villa. Palace entry is timed, so the tours that include it are worth more than the ones that walk you past the gate.
- 1City and Castles Tourfrom $29
- 2Palace Tour by Boatfrom $27
- 3Sanssouci Palace and Prussian Palaces Entry Ticketfrom $25
What a day in Berlin actually costs.
Every tour and ticket on the site, grouped by price. Berlin is one of the few capitals where the best day out can still cost less than lunch.
Museum entry, walking tours, the boat hour, and most of the comedy nights.
Full-day trips to Potsdam and Sachsenhausen, bike days, small-group tours with a real guide.
Private guides, photo shoots and cars with a driver for the day.
Three things you can only do in Berlin.
Plenty of European capitals have palaces and a river. A double line of cobbles across four districts, a two-stroke Trabant convoy and a dome you walk up the inside of are local.
The Wall trace
A double row of cobbles runs 20 kilometres through the middle of the city, laid where the Wall stood. It crosses Bernauer Strasse, cuts the Reichstag lawn off from the Brandenburg Gate and disappears under a Kreuzberg supermarket. Once a guide has shown you the first stretch you cannot stop noticing it.
- 1Skip-the-Line: Berlin Wall Museum at Checkpoint Charlie★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 2,041 reviews
- 2Cold War, Berlin Wall, Spies and the East Side Gallery★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,024 reviews
- 3THE WALL: asisi Panorama Berlin Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 580 reviews
Driving a Trabant
The Trabant was the car most East Germans waited a decade for, and a convoy of them still rattles round Mitte with a guide talking over the radio. You drive it yourself. The gearstick is on the steering column, the engine sounds like a lawnmower and the whole thing smells faintly of oil.
- 175-minute Trabi Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 2,854 reviews
- 2Berlin Self-Drive Trabi Tour with Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 410 reviews
- 3Private Tour: Berlin by Trabant Stretch-Limousine★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 186 reviews
The Reichstag dome
Norman Foster put a glass dome on the old parliament and ran a spiral walkway up the inside of it, over the debating chamber, so voters look down on their government rather than up at it. Entry is free but registered, and the ramp turns a full circle twice on the way to the roof terrace.
- 1Reichstag, Dome and Government District Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 18,288 reviews
- 2Government District around the Reichstag Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 8,447 reviews
- 3Reichstag, Plenary Chamber, Cupola & Government Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 8,422 reviews
Four Berlin bookings that will not wait until you land.
Most of this city can be arranged over breakfast on the day. These four run on registration lists, closing days and timed entry slots that have nothing to do with when your flight gets in.
- 01Reichstag, Dome and Government District Guided TourDome access runs on a registration list with named visitors and fixed slots. Turning up at the door does not work.
- 02Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Tour in EnglishThe memorial closes its indoor exhibitions on Mondays and the guided groups leave Berlin at a set morning time.
- 03Sanssouci Palace and Prussian Palaces Entry TicketSanssouci sells timed entry and caps the number inside the palace, so the good slots go before the weekend.
- 04Berlin Christmas Markets Walking TourThe markets run about four weeks a year and the guided evenings inside that window sell out first.
Berlin is grey from November to March. Plan indoors and it stops mattering.
The city was built for bad weather. Five state museums on one island, a natural history hall with the tallest mounted dinosaur anywhere, English-language comedy most nights of the week, and enough underground bunker floors to fill an afternoon.
- 1Berlin Story Bunker Entry Ticketfrom $21
- 2Illuseum Berlin Entrance Ticketfrom $18
- 3Madame Tussauds Admission Ticketfrom $25
Berlin nights start later than you think and last longer.
Nothing much opens before ten and nothing closes at a fixed hour. Between the two there is English-language stand-up in Kreuzberg cellars, a guided crawl through Friedrichshain, and the skyline from the water once the government quarter lights come on.
- 1Live-Guided Evening Sightseeing Tour by Open-top Busfrom $35
- 2Pub Crawl with Shots and VIP Club Entryfrom $22
- 3Bus Tour by Night with Live Commentaryfrom $28
A first day in Berlin, in the order the city works best.
Reichstag
The Wall
Kreuzberg
East Side Gallery
A showBy subject — what you came to see
By kind of day — foot, saddle, deck or table
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