Alexanderplatz
Alexanderplatz is the large public square in former East Berlin, dominated by the Fernsehturm (TV Tower), the World Clock, and the Galeria department store. Free to walk through.
City in Germany
Berlin
29 things to see
Berlin is one of Europe’s most budget-friendly capitals, where its biggest landmarks cost nothing to see. You can walk right up to the Brandenburg Gate, climb the glass Reichstag dome for free with advance online registration, and trace history outdoors at the Berlin Wall Memorial and the open-air East Side Gallery. The Holocaust Memorial, the Topography of Terror exhibition, and the vast Tempelhofer Feld (a former airport turned public park) are all free to wander, and cheap street food like currywurst and döner keeps meals to a few euros. Spring and autumn bring milder weather and lower room rates than the busy summer months, making them the smartest seasons for a budget trip. Berlin also sits within easy day-trip reach of Potsdam and its palace gardens, with fast rail links to Dresden, Leipzig, and Hamburg.
What to see
Things to do in Berlin
What each one costs, where the cost is known.
Bebelplatz
Bebelplatz is the square on Unter den Linden where the Nazi book burning of May 1933 took place. Free.
Berlin Cathedral
The Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom) is the largest church in Berlin, a baroque revival building on Museum Island with a green copper dome. Entry is paid at a modest price and includes access to the dome walkway with views over the Lustgarten, the Spree, and the TV Tower.
Berlin Wall Memorial
The Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse is the central memorial site of German division, with a preserved section of the Wall, the death strip, a watchtower, and an open-air exhibition documenting escape attempts and the lives disrupted by the border. Free.
Bernauer Strasse
Bernauer Strasse is the street where the Berlin Wall divided neighbors, families, and apartment buildings overnight on August 13, 1961. Free to walk.
Boxhagener Platz
Boxhagener Platz is a neighborhood square in Friedrichshain with a Saturday food market and a Sunday flea market. Free to browse.
Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate is the symbol of Berlin and of German reunification, an 18th-century neoclassical triumphal arch at the western end of Unter den Linden. Free, always accessible, and floodlit at night.
Charlottenburg Palace Gardens
Charlottenburg Palace is the largest surviving palace in Berlin, a Baroque building with a Rococo interior (paid). The palace gardens behind it are free: a formal French garden, an English landscape park, a mausoleum, and the Belvedere tea house extending along the Spree River.
Checkpoint Charlie
Checkpoint Charlie was the most famous crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War. The guardhouse replica and the open-air exhibition boards on Friedrichstrasse are free to see.
East Side Gallery
The East Side Gallery is the longest surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall, 1.3 kilometers of concrete covered in over 100 murals painted by artists from around the world in 1990. Free, open-air, and always accessible.
Gendarmenmarkt
Gendarmenmarkt is widely considered the most beautiful square in Berlin, flanked by twin churches (the French Cathedral and the German Cathedral) with the Konzerthaus concert hall between them. Free to enjoy.
Hitler's Bunker Site
The site of Hitler's bunker (Fuhrerbunker) is now an unmarked car park and residential area near the Holocaust Memorial. Free.
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
The Holocaust Memorial covers an entire city block south of the Brandenburg Gate with 2,711 concrete stelae of varying heights. Free, open, and always accessible.
Jewish Museum Berlin
The Jewish Museum Berlin is housed in a zigzag zinc-clad building by Daniel Libeskind, a piece of architecture that tells the story of absence, rupture, and memory before you see a single exhibit. The permanent exhibition is free.
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg is Berlin's most diverse and culturally vibrant neighborhood, home to a large Turkish community, street art, cheap eats, and a nightlife scene that runs until Monday morning. Free to wander.
Museum in der Kulturbrauerei
The Museum in der Kulturbrauerei is a free museum inside a former brewery complex in Prenzlauer Berg, documenting everyday life in East Germany (GDR). Free.
Landwehr Canal Walk
The Landwehr Canal runs through Kreuzberg and Neukolln, lined with willow trees, houseboats, and waterside cafes. Free to walk.
Mauerpark
Mauerpark sits on the former death strip of the Berlin Wall in Prenzlauer Berg. Free.
Museum Island
Museum Island is a UNESCO-listed complex of five museums on an island in the Spree, housing collections spanning ancient Egypt, classical antiquity, Byzantine art, and 19th-century European painting. Individual museum tickets are paid.
Neue Wache
The Neue Wache is Germany's central memorial to the victims of war and tyranny, a small neoclassical guardhouse on Unter den Linden. Free.
Pergamon Museum
The Pergamon Museum on Museum Island houses monumental archaeological reconstructions including the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, the Market Gate of Miletus, and (when accessible after renovation) the Pergamon Altar. Entry is paid.
Potsdamer Platz
Potsdamer Platz was the busiest square in pre-war Europe, then a wasteland in the death strip between East and West, and is now a modern complex of towers, cinemas, and the Sony Center (a free glass-canopied plaza with cafes). Free to walk.
Reichstag Building
The Reichstag is the seat of the German parliament, rebuilt after reunification with a glass dome by Norman Foster that visitors can walk through for free. Registration is required in advance online.
Rotes Rathaus
The Rotes Rathaus (Red Town Hall) is Berlin's city hall, a red-brick building near Alexanderplatz named for its facade color, not its politics. Free to view from outside.
Tempelhof Airfield Picnic
Tempelhofer Feld on a summer evening is the quintessential Berlin experience: thousands of people barbecuing, cycling, kite-surfing, skating, and drinking on the runways of a decommissioned airport. Free.
Tempelhofer Feld
Tempelhofer Feld is a former airport turned public park in the middle of Berlin, with two runways, taxiways, and hangars surrounded by open grassland. Free.
Tiergarten
The Tiergarten is Berlin's largest inner-city park, a sprawling green space stretching from the Brandenburg Gate to the zoo. Free.
Topography of Terror
The Topography of Terror is a free museum on the site of the former Gestapo and SS headquarters, documenting the institutions of Nazi terror. Free.
Unter den Linden
Unter den Linden is Berlin's most famous boulevard, a lime-tree-lined avenue running from the Brandenburg Gate to Museum Island. Free to walk.
On foot
Walks and free tours in Berlin
Tip-based tours and self-guided routes, which is usually the cheapest orientation there is.
Berlin Wall Trail
The Berlin Wall Trail is a self-guided walking route following the path of the former Wall through the city. Free. A 10-kilometer route from the Berlin Wall Memorial through Mitte to Checkpoint Charlie and the East Side Gallery covering Cold War history through the places where it actually happened.
Berlin City Free Walking Tour
The Berlin City Free Walking Tour covers the city's history from the Prussian Empire to the Cold War in one 2.5 to 3 hour walk, passing the Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, and remnants of the Wall. It is the definitive budget orientation for a city defined by its modern history.
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