BERLIN · GERMANY
The Wall came down. The city never looked back.
Cold War history and the Berlin Wall, Museum Island and the Reichstag dome, Spree cruises and street art, currywurst and craft beer, and the palaces of Potsdam an hour away.
Only in Berlin
Three things you can only do here.
Plenty of cities have museums and river boats and good food. Tracing the Wall on the ground, driving a Trabi through the old East, and climbing the glass dome over a working parliament belong to Berlin alone.
The divided city
Walk the Line of the Wall
For 28 years a wall ran straight through the middle of Berlin, with a death strip, watchtowers and Checkpoint Charlie between them. Guided walks trace the line on the ground where it stood, from the East Side Gallery to the last preserved stretches. No other capital carries its Cold War this openly.
- 1 Berlin: Third Reich and Cold War 2 Hour Walking Tour
- 2 Berlin: Berlin Story Bunker Entry Ticket
- 3 Berlin’s Best: 2 Hour Walking Tour Third Reich and the Cold War
GDR nostalgia
Drive a Trabi Through the East
The Trabant was the car of East Germany: two-stroke, fibreglass-bodied, and the thing families queued years to own. Take the wheel of one in a convoy and putter through the former East, past the old border line and the Plattenbau estates, two-stroke engine ringing. Pure Ostalgie, only in Berlin.
- 1 Berlin: 75-minute Trabi Safari
- 2 Berlin: Sightseeing Tour in Classic Volkswagen T1 Samba Bus
- 3 Berlin Self-Drive Trabi Tour with Guide
Inside the Bundestag
Climb the Glass Dome
Norman Foster set a glass cupola on top of the Reichstag, the working German parliament, with a mirrored cone funnelling daylight down into the debating chamber below. You spiral up the ramp inside it for a slow 360 over the government quarter and the rooftops. Free, and nowhere else.
- 1 Berlin: Reichstag, Dome and Government District Guided Tour
- 2 Berlin: Government District around the Reichstag Guided Tour
- 3 Berlin: Reichstag, Plenary Chamber, Cupola & Government Tour
Start here
The first stop on most Berlin trips.
More visitors build a day around this one than anything else in the city.
The essentials
Berlin's Most Popular Tours
The Reichstag dome, the Wall, the Spree by boat and the Museum Island galleries. The days most visitors come to Berlin for.
Where to begin
The Berlin every trip is built around.
The Wall and the Cold War, the river and the museums, the food halls and the palaces at Potsdam. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The big decision
There are two Berlins.
Berlin spent the 20th century at the centre of the storm, then spent the decades since reinventing itself. Most trips really come down to how you split your days between the two.
The other Berlin
The city's biggest gallery is outdoors.
When the Wall came down the empty East filled up with squats, clubs and spray paint, and it never really stopped. The East Side Gallery turned 1.3km of the Wall into the longest open-air gallery in the world, and the courtyards of Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain are still painted floor to roofline. Guided walks read the murals and the stories behind them.
Read the guide: Berlin street art & alternative tours →The Spree
The river runs straight through the story.
The Spree loops through the middle of Berlin, past Museum Island and the government quarter and out east under the red-brick towers of the Oberbaum Bridge, the old crossing between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain. An evening cruise is the easiest seat in the city.
Spree & boat cruises →The Berlin Wall
The city was split here for 28 years.
From 1961 the Wall ran straight through the middle of Berlin, past the Brandenburg Gate and along the Spree, with a death strip, watchtowers and Checkpoint Charlie between the two halves. Guided walks trace the line on the ground where it stood, from the East Side Gallery to the last preserved stretches.
- 1 Berlin: Third Reich and Cold War 2 Hour Walking Tour
- 2 Berlin: Berlin Story Bunker Entry Ticket
- 3 Berlin’s Best: 2 Hour Walking Tour Third Reich and the Cold War
By area
The places to build a day around.
The Government Quarter for the Reichstag dome. Museum Island for the great collections. Kreuzberg for street art and street food. The Wall for the Cold War, Sachsenhausen for the memorial, and Potsdam for the palaces.
By experience
Pick how you want to see the city.
On foot for the history. By boat for the river. By bike for the distance. The Wall and the Cold War, the museums, the street art, and the road out to Potsdam.
Plan it
Three days across both Berlins.
Never been? A first long weekend that takes in the history, the reinvention and a day beyond the city, without a wasted hour.
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