GUIDE Best things to do in Berlin for tourism

Berlin has become in recent times one of the European cities most visited by Spaniards.

What's more, it is a very ideal destination for a trip taking advantage of a bridge since in the capital of Germany You will find numerous and very varied attractions.

If you are preparing your first trip to Berlin, these will be useful to you tips for your tourism visit, which will allow you to have a first vision of what you are going to find.

I give you these tips as a conclusion to my last tourist trip to Berlin, where I was four days visiting the city.

What Berlin is like today

Looking ahead to your visit, I tell you that Berlin is a huge city.

It is the largest city in Europe, surpassing cities like London y Paris, although with its 3,4 million inhabitants it has a much lower population density, which you will appreciate on your tourist days.

Berlin airports

When you fly to Berlin, you still have two possible airports where to arrive.

El Tegel airport Located in the old western area of ​​the city, it is very close to the city center, just 6 kilometers (about 15 euros if you prefer to go by taxi).

El Shonefeld airport It is further away, outside the urban center, about 18 kilometers, and its inauguration has suffered successive delays in recent years, so we are still waiting for its final launch.

From then on the Berlin airport will be called Berlin-Brandenburg airport Willy Brandt and it will become the only option to fly to the German capital since the aforementioned Tegel airport will be closed.

For your trip, you will surely find the option of reserving in advance the transfers between the airport and the center of Berlin.

And of course it will be useful for you to search booking.com tu hotel in Berlin.

How to get around Berlin by public transport

Due to the large area that I have mentioned that the German capital has, you have to keep in mind that when it comes to visit berlin, it will be essential that you use the public transport.

Specifically, the not very new subway lines, buses and trams; You only find the latter in the area of ​​influence of what was the ancient Democratic Republic GDR.

In all cities there are usually formulas or bonuses that allow you save when using urban transport.

In the case of Berlin, if you go in a group of family or friends of up to five people, I advise you to buy the one-day transportation card for a small group.

For only 23,50 euros that the card will cost you, you will be able to move around the entire city for a full day.

Tourism card with discounts in Berlin

Another alternative is tourist cards, such as Berlin Welcome Card, which allows you unlimited use of public transport and access to Berlin's main museums and attractions at a discount.

For its part, the Berlin Pass card for visit more than 60 attractions and museums in the city, you have the option with transportation included.

Berlin sightseeing by bike

Now, you can also consider get to know Berlin by bike, at least during part of your visit.

As a curiosity I will tell you that There are 3,5 million bicycles in Berlin and, on the other hand, only 1,2 million cars.

When you go to visit it you will see that it is a city completely designed and taken over by bicycles.

El price of renting a bike in Berlin For a day it ranges between 10 and 12 euros, and many visitors choose this means of transport to get around the most touristy areas of the city.

If you prefer, you also have the option of signing up one day for a Berlin bike tour, with the company of a guide in Spanish and a duration of four hours.

What to see and do on your sightseeing visit to Berlin

Tu sightseeing tour in Berlin should focus on four thematic axes.

Visit monuments of Imperial Berlin

On one hand, Berlin as capital of German empire of the dynasty Hohenzollern from the beginning of the 18th century until its fall at the beginning of the First world war.

In this regard, the Charlottenburg Palace It is one of the essential visits that you should make, and during it you will be able to see a sample of the great importance that said empire had.

You should complete the visit with a walk through the extensive Charlottenburg gardens, with French-style areas and a later expansion of English gardens.

Visit Berlin of Nazi Germany

Then the later Berlin as capital of Nazi Germany, with numerous memorials located in different places in the city, especially those dedicated to the Jewish people.

Visit the old Berlin Wall

El Wall which separated the east and west of the city from 1961 to November 9, 1989 should be another of the protagonists of your visit, with highlights such as the Checkpoint Charlie or the East Side Gallery.

El Checkpoint Charlie It is one of the most photographed places in the German capital today.

It is the emulation of one of the control booths that existed to go from one side of the Wall, and is located on the site where one of the most used border crossings in the city was.

For its part, with the name of East Side Gallery the longest stretch of the few that remain of the Berlin Wall, which after reunification became an art gallery with more than one hundred mural paintings.

Visit museums in Berlin

And finally, Berlin as museum capital, which is shown more evidently in the so-called Museum island, declared city area Heritage.

They say that Berlin houses 170 museos, but if you are not very fond of spending time on your trip touring these cultural institutions, in any case you should make a note of an essential visit, the Pergamon Museum.

It is the most visited museum in the city and there you can see great works of the antiquity and Ishtar Gate of Babylon o pergamon altar, although it is currently undergoing a major remodeling and expansion process that will end in 2025.

On the same island you have other outstanding options such as Bode museum (Bode-Museum), with treasures of Byzantine art, or the New Museum (Neues Museum), which houses the bust of nefertiti.

If you plan to visit at least two of these museums, you may be interested buy a combined ticket for the museums on Museum Island.

It will be cheaper than buying tickets at each one.

What to do and visit in Berlin in three days

As for the areas to visit in Berlin, which you can do perfectly in three days, the great axis will be the one that starts from the Victory Column in the big park Zoo.

Brandenburg Gate

Next to it you can see the headquarters of the German parliamentarian, Reichstag, and you can pass through the famous and iconic Brandenburg Gate.

Monuments at Bebelplatzt

Then you will continue along the Unter Der Linten avenue, until reaching the enormous space of Alexanderplatz, and on the way to this great square you must not miss seeing Bebelplatzt el monument commemorating the Burning of the Books in 1933.

In this place you can also see the building of the St. Hedwig's Catholic Cathedral., which is going to be one of the surprises that the city of Berlin will have in store for you.

The most important church in the German capital is known as Berliner Dom, Which is the protestant cathedral.

But not far away you can see a church with an unusual circular plant, which to some extent will remind you of the Pantheon of Agrippa in Rome.

Alexanderplatz

Alexanderplatz It was the nerve center of the ancient East Berlin, and there you find monuments like the Marienkirche church, the oldest in the city, the building known as the Red Town Hall, or the great Neptune Fountain.

In this great enclave in the center of Berlin you should also visit the aforementioned Protestant cathedral Berliner Dom, from where you can now access the area of ​​the aforementioned Museum island.

Berlin medieval quarter

About Alexanderplatz find one of the essential visits in Berlin is the old medieval quarter of San Nicolás.

In reality you will not see historical buildings, but rather it is a completely rebuilt area in the place where in medieval times the population that gave rise to the current city of Berlin was located.

old saying medieval neighborhood suffered almost total devastation from the bombings of the WWII.

Do you know that all buildings in the San Nicolás neighborhood Were they rebuilt in the 80s following the architectural style of the only house whose walls remained standing?

Berlin neighborhoods

But you must complement this main tourist axis with visits to other areas of the city.

Specifically, the modern plaza Postdamer Platz o known as Jewish quarter o Farm DistrictNear Alexanderplatz.

And if you want to know a very popular area in today's Berlin, be sure to visit the Kreuzberg Turkish Quarter.

Of course, in the aforementioned Jewish quarter you won't be able to anymore visit Tacheles, home squat of alternative art that became so popular among tourists visiting Berlin, and which was closed in September 2012.

On the other hand, you can enjoy the great commercial and leisure atmosphere of this neighborhood, specifically in the Hackesche Hofe patios.

Keep in mind that the absolute majority of buildings in Berlin were destroyed during the Second World War, so all buildings and monuments which you will see have had to be completely rebuilt.

Rent a Trabant in Berlin

It will surely catch your attention in your Berlin visit that certain elements of the daily life of former East Berlin Now they have become tourist icons.

That is the case of the cars of the former East German brand, that Trabant, which are rented so that you can live the experience of driving them on your tour of the city, and you can even visit a museum.

Or also the old ones and curious traffic lights in East Berlin, which have not only been preserved, but have continued to be installed with the striking icons used in the lights.

City bus sightseeing tour

In Berlin You also have the typical panoramic double-decker buses for city ​​sightseeing tour.

But you have another, much cheaper alternative, also by double-decker bus, to visit the most touristic places in the city.

If you use the urban bus lines 100 or 200, whether with your transportation card or for the price of a ticket, you will travel the entire Berlin tourist area.

My advice is to check if either line passes through the area where you have your hotel.

If so, “you will kill two birds with one stone” = transfer to the tourist area + sightseeing tour by double-decker bus.

Tours in Spanish in Berlin

Looking ahead to your trip to the German capital, you can consider starting the first day with a guided tour of Berlin in Spanish.

This is how I have had the opportunity to do it on recent trips to various cities, such as Heidelberg, Toledo, Málaga or own Berlin,

start with a tour It has the advantage that in three-four hours you acquire an overview of a city, which then allows you to plan the visits that seem most interesting to you.

And if you have enough time on your trip, you may also find it interesting to write down some excursion around Berlinand Spanish tour to Potsdam or tour in Spanish to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

What to eat in Berlin

Respecto a what to eat in Berlin, you are going to meet the typical German cuisine.

And, specifically, you will see that sausages are very popular in Berlin Currywurst and the beer Berliner.

But you can also taste delicious chocolates in one of the most prestigious stores, Fassbender & Rausch, which you find in the center class Gendarmenmarkt.

Is Berlin an expensive city?

Finally I will tell you that Berlin is not a very expensive city.

What's more, it is somewhat cheaper than Madrid or Barcelona when looking for hotels, and the Prices They are very similar to eating in restaurants or drinking beers or soft drinks in bars.

Enjoy your trip.