Berlin puts the last century in the street. Then it puts you on a boat.
Which Reichstag tour actually gets you up into the dome. What an hour on the Spree costs. Whether Sachsenhausen or Potsdam is the better use of the one day you have spare. Reviews of every tour you can book in Berlin.
The dome, the river, the walk, the bus.
The four bookings a first Berlin trip gets built around. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The first morningReichstag, Dome and Government District Guided TourInside the Reichstag and up the glass ramp of Norman Foster’s dome. Entry is registered in advance, so this is the one to fix before anything else.
02The hour on deck1-Hour City Tour by Boat with Guaranteed SeatingAn hour on the Spree, out past the museum quays and the government ribbon. The cheapest way to understand how the city is laid out.
03The half-day walkDiscover Berlin Half-Day Walking TourBrandenburg Gate, the empty middle where the Wall stood, Bebelplatz, Checkpoint Charlie. Four hours on foot and the map finally connects.
04The city in a loopHop-on Hop-off Bus Tour with Live CommentaryTwo decks, a live guide and a hop-off at every district you were going to walk to anyway. Worth it on day one, wasted on day three.
Berlin does not have one centre. It has six answers.
A parliament you can walk on top of, a river that threads the whole city, five museums on one island, a palace town half an hour out on the S-Bahn, and the kitchens of Kreuzberg and Neukölln. Pick the one your day is built around.
Berlin is enormous. Choose how you cross it before you choose what to see.
The centre is nine kilometres end to end, which is why the same sights read completely differently on foot, on two wheels and from the top of a bus. Four ways to cover it, what each costs to board, and who each one suits.
Berlin does not keep this history in one museum.
The Wall ran through the middle of the city and the ground it stood on is still open. The camp at Oranienburg is forty minutes out on the S-Bahn. Six subjects, each with its own reviews, each led by guides who work these sites every week.
- The Berlin WallThe line through Mitte, Bernauer Straße, the East Side Gallery.
- Third Reich sitesWilhelmstraße, the bunker ground, the Topography of Terror.
- Jewish Berlin and the memorialsThe Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the Jewish Museum, the Scheunenviertel.
- SachsenhausenThe memorial at Oranienburg, reached from the city in under an hour.
- Cold War BerlinCheckpoint Charlie, the airlift, the listening station on Teufelsberg.
- The DDR and East BerlinKarl-Marx-Allee, Stasi files, everyday life on the other side.
The Berlin days that more travellers take than any other.
Every Berlin review →These carry the biggest booking numbers in the city, and each one earns the slot for a different reason.
1
Reichstag, Dome and Government District Guided Tour
Review of Berlin’s Reichstag and government district tour, with history, Bundestag insights, dome views, practical tips, and honest value advice.
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
Discover Berlin Walking Tour
from $23
Potsdam is the softest day Berlin has.
Twenty-five minutes on the S-Bahn and the concrete stops. Sanssouci terraces down a vineyard, the Havel lakes carry passenger boats all summer, and the Glienicke Bridge is exactly as narrow as the films make it look. Most of it fits into an afternoon.
- 1City and Castles Tourfrom $29
- 2Palace Tour by Boatfrom $27
- 3Sanssouci Palace and Prussian Palaces Entry Ticketfrom $25
What a day out in Berlin actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Berlin stays cheap for a capital, and a good half of the best days here come in under the price of dinner.
Walking tours, museum entries, an hour on the Spree, the bus loop and the tower lifts.
Full days: Potsdam and its palaces, Sachsenhausen with a guide, the long boat runs, bike days with lunch.
Private guides, whole-day cars with a driver, and the small-group specialists worth paying for once.
The Spree shows you the joins the streets hide.
The river runs past the government ribbon, under the museum quays and out east to the Oberbaumbrücke, and from the deck you can see where the city was cut and re-stitched. An hour is enough. Three hours takes you to the canals.
Four Berlin bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this city can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on registered entry slots, restoration calendars and lift capacity, none of which care what time your flight lands.
- 01Reichstag, Dome and Government District Guided TourThe dome is free but entry is registered, names and all, and the slots go days ahead in summer.
- 02“Pergamonmuseum. The Panorama” Exhibition TicketsThe main building is closed for restoration; what you can see is the panorama, and it runs on timed tickets.
- 03Sanssouci Palace and Prussian Palaces Entry TicketThe palace admits a fixed number per half hour. Turn up without a slot in July and you walk the gardens instead.
- 04Ticket Admission to Berlin TV TowerOne lift, four hundred metres, and a queue that starts before it opens. The timed ticket is the whole point.
Berlin is grey for half the year and built for it.
From November the light is gone by four and the wind comes off the plain with nothing in its way. This is the city that answers that with five museums on one island, a comedy scene that runs in English, and dinners that start late and go long. Plan the indoor day first and treat the sunshine as a bonus.
- 1Illuseum Berlin Entrance Ticketfrom $18
- 2Natural History Museum Entrance Ticketfrom $12
- 3Neues Museum Entry Ticketfrom $16
The best eating in Berlin is not German.
A century of arrivals put Turkish grills on Sonnenallee, Vietnamese kitchens along Kantstraße and a döner counter on every second corner, and the city took all of it as its own. Come hungry and let somebody else choose the order.
By subject — the century, the sights, the river
Reichstag, Museum Island, the river, the walk, a table, then Potsdam.
The Reichstag
Museum Island
The Spree
Kreuzberg
PotsdamThe newest Berlin tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Transfer from Berlin Schönefeld Airport (SXF) to Berlin city Hotels – ROUND TRIP
Read our review →
Private Berlin One Day Tour with a Local: See the City Unscripted
Read our review →
Private Analogue Photography Experience in Berlin
Read our review →
Potsdam Highlights – Private sightseeing tour by minibus
Read our review →
Berlin By Night by Private Minivan Highlights and Taylor made
Read our review →
Promotion Berlin Rickshaw Shared Guide (Combo Vehicle Group)
Read our review →
