During last week of March I decided to take my family and go to short trip to Berlin instead of sitting and eating for the whole Easter in Poland. It was my first visit in Berlin, what is a little bit shameful as my home city is only 3 hours drive from the capital of Germany.

Below you can find list of the best destinations in Berlin and itinerary that shows how to visit them in ultimate manner! If you need more details on when to go, how to move around or what are the prices – visit this page: FAQ – Berlin travel

Why you should go to Berlin?

Berlin nowadays is one of the most interesting cities in Europe. It has many faces and all of them are worth discovering – governmental and business buildings, historic sites, hipster districts and interesting history makes this city such a popular spot. And for people who really like techno music – Berlin scene is one the best in the world (as far as I heard from others, I am not an expert here). This city is non-obvious and it takes a moment to understand its dramatic past and today vibrant character.

Top destinations in Berlin

There are few spots you cannot miss, but otherwise just go around and discover the city! My recommendations:

• Go around Raichstag dome in early morning.

• Take a look at Berlin Wall in East Side Gallery and think for a moment how lucky we are that we don’t have to live in divided Europe anymore.

• Take a picture of most iconic landmark of Germany – Brandenburg Gate.

Itinerary

Below there is the tour we took in our one day visit. It took us from very early morning until late evening. Order was following: 

• Brandenburg gate 
• Reichstag dome
• Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
• Potsdamer square
• Berlin Wall Memorial & Topographie des Terrors
• Checkpoint Charlie
• Berlin Wall Memorial, East Side Gallery
• Pergamonmuseum, Alexander platz & Fernsehturm

Brandenburg gate (#435 on the 500 list of ultimate traveller)
Built in 18th Century after 7-years war, Brandenburg gate is a symbol of freedom and peace. This landmark was restored after Germany unification in 1990. Usually it’s full of people around it, but we arrived there so early in the morning (07:45) that there was almost no one, so we could take nice pictures. We also visited it the day before in the night when it is even more amazing. It’s one of the most iconic landmarks of Berlin and you just have to visit it!

Reichstag dome (#221 on the 500 list of ultimate traveller)
Built by Norman Foster after unification of Germany it is really rare combination of new architecture and historic construction. Dome represents that the parliament is under the power of people. Initial design from Norman Foster did not include the dome, but under pressure this famous architect added it to the project – quite fortunate as Dome became one of the symbols of the Germany and Berlin.

You have to book tickets upfront. You can do it 1 month in advance and choose 3 time slots when you will be allowed to enter. We went for the earliest possible hour (8:00) as Dome is just stunning in the light of sunrise. Also the amount of people is lower and lines are shorter, so I recommend adopting the same solution. We also thought about going there in the evening, but according to Internet the Dome is not so stunning after sunset.

Remember to take passport with you and be 10 minutes earlier at the spot so you will manage to do security check. On the side note, I don’t think they really look at the booked hour too strictly. Once you get upstairs, take the audio guide. It’s one of the best audio guides I have ever used – it tracks your position and plays proper explanation in relevant places. It will take you around 45 minutes to go around the dome listening to most of the information provided in audio guide.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
After dome we went to Holocaust memorial – square with many blocks that represent Jews killed during second world war. It makes strong impression, especially if you enter part where the blocks are higher then you. You will be kind of scared of emptiness of surrounding. 

Potsdamer square
Potsdamer square is one of the business centres of Berlin. We visited it also during night and its tall buildings are also amazing at that time. This is one of the faces of modern and rich Berlin. Most of the buildings have interesting architecture – it is worth going around and just appreciate it.

Berlin Wall Memorial & Topographie des Terrors
Since the Berlin wall fell down, the reminescence of it are still present around the city. The main Berlin Wall Memorial is located at the Bernauer street, but it you will put this phrase in google maps, it can direct you to the part of the wall at Niederkirchnerstraße. It’s next to the museum called “Topographie des Terrors”, which describes history of Nazis rise to power. I think it’s worth visiting as long as you will go also to the main Berlin Wall Memorial. On the side note – it’s for free.

Checkpoint Charlie
It used to be a checkpoint between Eastern and Western part of Berlin. It was used mainly by the diplomates. It’s interesting to know that for the long time people from Eastern Berlin used to work also in Western Berlin and only Berlin Wall ceased that process. Nowadays Checkpoint Charlie is a little bit touristic trap, but it was on the way and it’s for free so we have decided to take a quick look at it.

Berlin Wall Memorial (#63 on the 500 list of ultimate traveller)
Proper Berlin Wall Memorial is located at Bernauer street and the easiest way to get there is to combine metro with tram (you can still use ticket for metro in trams). It consists of the small exhibition and tower and next to it. When you get to the top you can see preserved part of the wall the way it looked originally – with space in between to make crossing even harder for escaping people. Exhibition is full of dramatic stories of people who tried to cross the wall to get to Western Berlin and were killed on the way. Fortunately there were also many people who managed to escape.

East Side Gallery
Located in the East Berlin part of the preserved wall which was given to street artists who painted more than 100 paintings over the distance of more than 1km. It’s like a gallery of murals  (and entrance is for free). I enjoyed it a lot and it is one of the nicest “art galleries” I have ever visited. Generally, Eastern Berlin is completely different than the Western – it’s more hipster and freaky. You can feel much more freedom on the streets and young people celebrating their own choice of a slow lifestyle. I really regret I didn’t have chance to visit some bars and clubs in that part of the city, I guess they must be amazing.

 

Pergamonmuseum
The most known museum around Museumsinsel (Museum district). It is dedicated mainly to Islamic and Assyrian art and culture. It has few highlights as gates brought to Berlin from Middle East, but generally it’s not the same quality of museum as for example British Mseum. However, it’s still worth visiting, especially because some things you cannot see anymore in Syria due to the war damages made to ancient sites there. On the separate note – we booked tickets upfront, but I don’t think it would be any problem with buying them at the spot.

There are also other museums around Museum district, but unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to visit them. Generally the whole district is very lively with a lot of people sitting next to the river and just enjoying sun. I really liked the nearby Berlin Cathedral and the square full of people in front of it. Nice place to sit for a moment and rest during intensive sightseeing.

Alexander platz & Fernsehturm
Television tower is one of the most iconic parts of the Berlin city skyline, but unfortunately I didn’t manage to check how the view looks like from the above – the line to enter was so long that we decided to give up and quickly go to Alexander square. There was Easter market there and after a while we decided to come back, going through the city centre and taking last pictures of Berlin after the sunset. I really didn’t see anything special about the Alexander square, so I’m not sure why guides advice to go there. The only reason could be nice restaurant and bars nearby.

Summing up
All in all, I think Berlin is amazing city. I felt very positive vibe there and I would like to come back there to discover rest of its different faces!