Berlin
Berlin is a capital spread across a plain, with the Brandenburg Gate, an island of museums, and a wall that is now a gallery and a scar. The centre is larger than a walk suggests. Pick a district for the day rather than trying to collect the whole city.
Photo: FOTO:Fortepan — ID 58321 : Adományozó/Donor: Nagy Zoltán. · CC BY-SA 3.0
What to see
Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate stands at the west end of Unter den Linden, a neoclassical screen that has been a border, a backdrop, and a traffic island. You do not go inside. You stand in Pariser Platz, look through the columns, and then choose a direction: the Tiergarten, the Linden, or the memorials just to the south.
Pariser Platz, Berlin
Photo: Norbert Nagel · CC BY-SA 3.0
Open in Google Maps , Brandenburg Gate
Reichstag
The Reichstag is the parliament building just north of the Gate, famous now for the glass dome you can visit with a free, timed ticket ordered ahead. The dome is a walk and a view over the flat city. Book before you arrive; turning up without a slot is how people spend an hour on the pavement.
Platz der Republik 1, Berlin
Photo: Jürgen Matern · CC BY-SA 3.0
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Museum Island
Museum Island holds five museums in the Spree, with the Pergamon and the Neues Museum among them. You will not do them all. Pick one collection, book a time, and spend the hour you saved on the outside: the cathedral, the Lustgarten, and the bridges. The island is the densest serious culture in the centre.
Bodestraße 1–3, Berlin
Photo: Aniket Mone · CC BY-SA 3.0
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East Side Gallery
The East Side Gallery is the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall, painted after it opened and standing along Mühlenstraße by the Spree. It is outdoors and free. Some of the painting is famous, some is faded, and the street behind it is ordinary. Go for the fact of the wall, not for a polished museum.
Mühlenstraße, Berlin
Photo: Pudelek (Marcin Szala) · CC BY-SA 3.0
Open in Google Maps , East Side Gallery
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
The memorial is a field of concrete stelae just south of the Gate, free to walk, with an underground information centre that should not be skipped. The field is disorienting on purpose. Give it quiet. It is not a backdrop, even though people treat the edge of it as one.
Cora-Berliner-Straße 1, Berlin
Photo: Slaunger · CC BY-SA 3.0
Open in Google Maps , Memorial to the Murdered Jews of EuropeFood and restaurants
Restaurants and hotels change hands. These listings were last checked on 26 October 2026.
Zur letzten Instanz
Zur letzten Instanz, in a small house on Waisenstraße near the old court quarter, has been a restaurant since the early seventeenth century and still claims that age without turning into a costume show. The cooking is Berlin and German. It is small. Book, and do not arrive expecting a beer-hall roar.
Waisenstraße 14–16, Berlin
Illustration: Pasaulis · CC0 1.0
Open in Google Maps , Zur letzten Instanz
Prater Garten
Prater Garten in Prenzlauer Berg is Berlin’s oldest beer garden, under chestnut trees off a street the locals actually use. It is a long way from the Gate in mood and a short tram in distance. Go when the weather allows sitting outside. In winter the indoor rooms keep the address, with less of the point.
Kastanienallee 7–9, Berlin
Illustration: Pasaulis · CC0 1.0
Open in Google Maps , Prater Garten
Augustiner am Gendarmenmarkt
Augustiner am Gendarmenmarkt pours Munich beer in a large hall by the concert square, a dependable Bavarian room in a Prussian city. It is popular and not subtle. Use it when you want a sure table, a pork knuckle or a simpler plate, and a walk afterward across the Gendarmenmarkt.
Charlottenstraße 55, Berlin
Illustration: Pasaulis · CC0 1.0
Open in Google Maps , Augustiner am Gendarmenmarkt
Café Einstein Stammhaus
Café Einstein Stammhaus occupies a villa on Kurfürstenstraße, a Viennese-style coffee house with cakes, newspapers, and a garden, and it has been doing that long enough to be an institution rather than a theme. It is west of the old centre. Go for coffee and a slow hour, not for a quick lunch between museums.
Kurfürstenstraße 58, Berlin
Illustration: Pasaulis · CC0 1.0
Open in Google Maps , Café Einstein Stammhaus
Lutter & Wegner
Lutter & Wegner is the wine restaurant by the Gendarmenmarkt, a nineteenth-century name that still means a white-tablecloth meal and a cellar rather than a snack. It sits almost next to the Augustiner, which is a useful contrast: one is beer and noise, this one is the quieter dinner. Book.
Charlottenstraße 56, Berlin
Illustration: Pasaulis · CC0 1.0
Open in Google Maps , Lutter & WegnerWhere to stay
Restaurants and hotels change hands. These listings were last checked on 26 October 2026.
Hotel Adlon Kempinski
The Adlon stands beside the Brandenburg Gate, the city’s ceremonial hotel, rebuilt and still the address people mean when they want to sleep next to the square. It is formal and expensive. The location is the luxury. A quieter room is the one that does not face the evening crowd on Pariser Platz.
Unter den Linden 77, Berlin
Illustration: Pasaulis · CC0 1.0
Open in Google Maps , Hotel Adlon Kempinski
Hotel de Rome
Hotel de Rome occupies a former bank behind the opera, a quieter grand hotel than the Adlon and closer to Museum Island than to the Gate. The building is nineteenth-century and serious. It suits a stay built around the Linden and the museums rather than around the memorial field.
Behrenstraße 37, Berlin
Illustration: Pasaulis · CC0 1.0
Open in Google Maps , Hotel de Rome
Regent Berlin
The Regent Berlin is a large luxury hotel by the Gendarmenmarkt, useful when you want a full-service desk within a walk of the concert square, the wine restaurant, and Unter den Linden. It is polished rather than historic-eccentric. Ask about weekend noise from the square.
Charlottenstraße 49, Berlin
Illustration: Pasaulis · CC0 1.0
Open in Google Maps , Regent BerlinShopping
KaDeWe
KaDeWe, on Tauentzienstraße by Wittenbergplatz, is the city’s old department store, and the food hall on the upper floors is the part worth a visit even if you buy nothing else. It is west of the Gate, next to the zoo edge. Go for the hall, not for another shopping street.
Tauentzienstraße 21–24, Berlin
Photo: Roger W · CC BY-SA 2.0
Open in Google Maps , KaDeWe
Hackesche Höfe
The Hackesche Höfe are a chain of linked courtyards off Rosenthaler Straße, art nouveau tile in the first court and shops, theatres, and cafés in the ones behind. They are the pleasant way into the Scheunenviertel. Walk through even if you are not shopping; the first courtyard is the one to see.
Rosenthaler Straße 40–41, Berlin
Photo: Raimond Spekking · CC BY-SA 4.0
Open in Google Maps , Hackesche Höfe
Markthalle Neun
Markthalle Neun in Kreuzberg is a restored iron market hall, quiet as a neighbourhood market most days and famous on the evenings when the street-food market takes the aisles. Check which day you mean. It is a trip from the Gate, and it is more like the city people cook in than the Linden is.
Eisenbahnstraße 42/43, Berlin
Illustration: Pasaulis · CC0 1.0
Open in Google Maps , Markthalle NeunHow to get there
Berlin Brandenburg Airport
Berlin Brandenburg, BER, is the city’s airport south of the centre, with a direct airport express and the S-Bahn into town. Allow a little under an hour to the Hauptbahnhof when trains behave, and more if you are aiming at a precise S-Bahn connection. Tegel is closed. Read BER on the ticket.
Willy-Brandt-Platz, Schönefeld
Photo: Arne Müseler · CC BY-SA 3.0 de
Open in Google Maps , Berlin Brandenburg Airport
Berlin Hauptbahnhof
The Hauptbahnhof is the glass station north of the government quarter, on several levels, and the place long-distance trains actually stop. It is not next to the Gate; it is a short walk or a shorter bus. Follow the level numbers. People miss trains here by being on the right line and the wrong floor.
Europaplatz 1, Berlin
Photo: Thomas Wolf , www.foto-tw.de · CC BY-SA 3.0 de
Open in Google Maps , Berlin Hauptbahnhof
ZOB Berlin
The ZOB, the central coach station, is at the radio tower in the west, not at the Hauptbahnhof. International buses use it. The S-Bahn and U-Bahn at Messe Nord or Kaiserdamm are the connection, and they take longer than a glance at the map suggests. Do not tell a taxi “the station” and hope.
Masurenallee 4–6, Berlin
Illustration: Pasaulis · CC0 1.0
Open in Google Maps , ZOB BerlinA travel company can place a labeled partner route here. Advertise with us