Berlin is a well-connected city, where most attractions and monuments can be reached even within a slightly longer walk. Its unique atmosphere and an unusual mixture of colors, inhabiting different communities, make a weekend in Berlin an original idea for spending free time.
Yes, you can’t visit everything in two days, but you can actually see the top five most popular and recognizable places in the German capital even in one day.
However, the best way to visit Berlin on a weekend is not to run from one point on the Berlin tourist map to another. It is better to walk the streets of this city calmly and soak up its specific atmosphere along the way. Try various delicacies, visit small alleys where, even after so many years, you can sometimes see the tragic course of Berlin’s fate.
A city rebuilt after the war, which now focuses on diversity and modernism.
Visiting Berlin on a weekend
The capital of Germany is bustling with life and will therefore be the perfect weekend getaway for art lovers and shopaholics, but also for partygoers who go wild in Berlin’s clubs over two nights. A weekend in Berlin is enough to feel the local big-city atmosphere and get to know the most important objects of bygone times that did not spare this place. So how to plan a two or three-day stay in the German capital?
Getting to Berlin for the weekend
There are two airports in Berlin (Schonefeld and Tegel) that are well connected to the center of the capital. The route to the city center does not take more than a dozen or so – several dozen minutes. There is a bus from Tegel airport to the city center, while from Sochenfeld you can get by train, and in both cases the ticket for transport costs only a few euros.
Another form of travel to Berlin is your own car. It is slower than an airplane but faster than a train or a bus, you just have to remember that some areas of Berlin require an Umweltplakette sticker, which proves the environmental performance of our car. It can be ordered online.
Overnight in Berlin for the weekend
When coming to Berlin for a weekend, it is best to look for accommodation close to the city center or near the facilities that interest you the most. There is no point in saving 50 euro on sleeping and then wasting time traveling to the places we want to see.
If you really want the cheapest cost of your stay in Berlin, then it is worth choosing hostels located near metro or train stations. Then we will get to downtown, for example, relatively quickly.
Booking accommodation in Berlin well in advance also allows for slightly lower prices. The network of hotels, hostels and private accommodation in the German capital is well-developed, so everyone will surely find something for themselves, in the right location and at an acceptable price. However, you have to remember that Berlin is not the cheapest capital in Europe.
How to get around Berlin during the weekend?
Fortunately, Berlin is one of the European capitals with an excellent public transport network. It even prides itself on having the best-designed and most efficient communication solutions on the continent.
In Berlin, we have 10 metro lines, 22 tram lines and a dense bus and rail network to choose from. All this makes it much easier to reach all attractions and monuments in the city. A daily ticket for Berlin public transport costs 7 euro (for the two zones with the most to visit). If we want to see everything that we have planned, it is of course better to move around the city using public transport than on foot.
In addition, you can use the hop-on-off bus that runs between Berlin’s greatest attractions. The purchase of one ticket entitles you to get on and off it all day long.
Yet another option to explore the German capital is to rent a city bike. It is a very popular means of transport in Berlin, with perfectly prepared paths. The daily cost of such pleasure is about 12 euro.
In addition, it is also worth mentioning the rather peculiar possibility of moving around the city on a loan, usually a colorful trabant. However, it is not so practical – after all, you have to find a parking space each time. We advise you to treat it as a tourist attraction rather than an option for efficient transport.
If, on the other hand, you plan to visit a large number of museums during the weekend in Berlin, then it is worth using the Berlin Welcome Card.
It entitles not only to enter several / several dozen museums, but also gives a discount on other attractions in the city and, importantly, allows free use of public transport (zones A and B). It is about unlimited journeys both by metro, buses and regional trains. The cost of this card is 23 euro, valid for 48 hours.
What is worth eating in Berlin over the weekend?
As for the gastronomic map of Berlin, it is as extensive as the classic one with monuments. The capital of Germany is currently highly multicultural, which is also associated with the availability of cuisine from all over the world.
Therefore, during a weekend trip to Berlin, you do not need to base your diet only on currywurst and beer. There are pubs serving delicacies from all over the place. You can try Japanese, Lebanese and Brazilian dishes.
The somewhat hipster Kreuzberg will surely be such a district with such a diverse menu. Berlin’s neighborhoods are a tourist attraction in their own right to consider when planning your weekend trips to Berlin.
Berlin is also an ideal destination for vegans and vegetarians.
There are plenty of places where you can eat meals without meat and without animal products. On the other hand, donner kebabs are also very popular here, served in various ways. One of the iconic places in the German capital is Mustafa’s Gemüse Kebap, but waiting for food here can take up to several hours, due to the huge queue of people willing.
Therefore, we do not recommend this place during a two-day stay in Berlin. Better to eat something else and spend the time saved on seeing something interesting.
See also what are the attractions for children in Berlin.
What to see during a weekend in Berlin?
It all depends on whether we have already been to the capital of Germany, or are we here for the first time. Do we want to see the greatest attractions of Berlin, or only those that are of interest to us. For example, a weekend stay can be spent practically entirely on visiting other facilities on the Museum Island.
Seeing the collections there is really time-consuming.
On the other hand, it may take only one day to tick off the most important points on the tourist map of Berlin. Therefore, it is worth planning what exactly we want to see in Berlin.
Our proposal:
Day 1
- Aleksanderplatz square
- Berliner Fernsehturm TV tower (observation deck)
- Unter den Linden avenue
- Brandenburg gate
- Berlin Cathedral
- Museum Island (visit without entering museums)
- National Opera
- Humboldt University
- Reichstag (if you managed to do it online – https://visite.bundestag.de/BAPWeb/pages/createBookingRequest/viewBasicInformation.jsf book this free entrance to the viewing dome)
- seat of the Federal Chancellor’s Office (Bundeskanzleramt)
Day 2
- Potsdamer Platz
- Museum of Topography of Terror (a peculiar facility, not for everyone)
- Checkpoint Charlie
- remains of the Berlin Wall – East Site Gallery
- Charlottenburg Palace (interior tour if time permits)
The flea markets in Berlin are also worth visiting. They are an attraction in themselves.
How do you plan your weekend in Berlin? We invite you to discuss on the forum.