One day in Berlin: an hour-by-hour itinerary

The itinerary at a glance

The route covers about 6 km on foot, from west to east, not counting the museum galleries. It follows Berlin's historic axis: the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate in the west, the Unter den Linden boulevard in the middle, Museum Island and Alexanderplatz in the east. Start by securing your Reichstag slot, then plan the rest of the day around it.

Prices as checked in October 2026 on the official websites. The Neues Museum is free for visitors up to 18. On Mondays, the Neues Museum and the memorial's Information Centre are closed: follow the Wall variant described below instead.

Morning: the government quarter

9:00: the Reichstag dome

The glass dome of the Reichstag, seat of the Bundestag, is free to visit, but only with advance registration. Fill in the Bundestag's online form as soon as your dates are set, with the surname, first name and date of birth of each visitor. Registration by phone is not possible.

Without a booking, try your luck at the visitor service office on Platz der Republik, in front of the building. If places are left, it issues personal access passes for a time slot at least two hours later, or for the following two days. It opens from 8:00 to 20:00 on weekdays from April to October (8:00 to 18:00 from November to March) and from 10:00 to 18:00 at weekends. Every visitor aged 16 and over must show an original photo ID: copies are refused.

Up top, the spiral ramp climbs to the top of the dome. A free 20-minute audio guide, available in English, describes Parliament and the landmarks visible from the terrace. Watch out for closures: the dome is closed from 19 to 30 October 2026 for cleaning and maintenance (the roof terrace stays open), all day on 24 December and from 16:00 on 31 December.

10:15: the Brandenburg Gate

Five minutes' walk south of the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate closes off the Unter den Linden boulevard. Walk under its columns from the west side, then turn around on Pariser Platz to see the quadriga on top. Access is free at any time. In the morning, the square is still quiet.

10:45: the Holocaust Memorial

Two hundred metres further south, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe covers about 19,000 m². The architect Peter Eisenman laid out 2,710 concrete stelae on gently sloping ground. The field of stelae is open day and night, free of charge. Cross it in several directions: the ground drops and the blocks grow taller as you walk in.

Beneath the field, the Information Centre (Ort der Information), Cora-Berliner-Straße 1, traces the persecution and murder of the Jews of Europe through the stories of families and individuals. It opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00, last entry 45 minutes before closing. Admission is free; the audio guide costs €3. Allow at least 45 minutes.

Option: the Tiergarten and the Victory Column

If you would rather start with a view, take bus 100 to the Großer Stern stop, in the middle of the Tiergarten. The Victory Column opens from 9:30: 285 steps lead to the platform beneath the golden statue. Admission costs €4.50 (€3.50 reduced), payable in cash only. The climb is not accessible to people with reduced mobility. Then walk to the Reichstag through the park, in about 25 minutes, and shift your slot accordingly.

Midday: Unter den Linden

12:15: the walk and lunch

Head back to the Brandenburg Gate and follow Unter den Linden east. The boulevard passes Humboldt University, Bebelplatz, where the Nazis burned books in 1933, and the Neue Wache. Side streets such as Friedrichstraße offer plenty of places for a quick lunch. If you are tired, bus 100 runs along the same boulevard to the Museumsinsel station.

Afternoon: Museum Island

13:45: Berlin Cathedral

At the end of Unter den Linden, Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom) towers over the Lustgarten, Am Lustgarten. The €15 ticket covers the church, the Hohenzollern Crypt, reopened on 1 March 2026 after six years of works, the cathedral museum and the dome, which looks over the city from a height of 50 m. Allow about 1 hr 30 with the climb. Buy your ticket online. The cathedral opens Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 18:00, with shorter hours at weekends (from 12:00 on Sundays). Visits are suspended during services and concerts.

15:15: the Neues Museum

Two minutes' walk away, Museum Island brings together five major museums listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In a single day, pick one. We suggest the Neues Museum, home to the bust of Nefertiti and the Egyptian and prehistoric collections. It opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00 and is closed on Mondays. Tickets cost €14 (€7 reduced, free up to 18). They are sold online up to four weeks in advance, which saves you the queue.

The €24 Museumsinsel ticket gives access to every museum on the island for one day: it only pays off beyond one museum, which is rarely the case in a single day. The Pergamonmuseum is closed for renovation. Its partial reopening, with the north wing, the Pergamon Altar and the Hellenistic Hall, is announced for June 2027; the south wing will remain under works until 2037. In the meantime, the neighbouring "Pergamonmuseum. Das Panorama" building displays a selection of originals.

Late afternoon: Alexanderplatz

17:45: the TV Tower

Cross the Spree on the Liebknecht Bridge, walk past the Marienkirche and the Neptune Fountain: the TV Tower, Panoramastraße 1A, is a quarter of an hour away on foot. Its observation deck, 203 m up, is open daily from 9:00 to 23:00. Standard tickets start at €20, and the lowest price is always on the official website. In October the sun sets in the late afternoon: book a slot around that time to see the city by day and then lit up. The tower will be closed on 23 November 2026.

19:15: dinner at Hackescher Markt

Ten minutes' walk north-west of Alexanderplatz, the Hackescher Markt area and its courtyards are packed with restaurants and bars. Hackescher Markt S-Bahn station and Alexanderplatz station then take you back to most neighbourhoods.

Variant: a Wall-themed day

If the history of the divided city interests you more than archaeology, replace the Neues Museum with one of these places, or follow this variant on a Monday.

• Berlin Wall Memorial: the Bernauer Straße memorial, Bernauer Straße 111, preserves a section of the Wall and the border strip. The open-air exhibition is accessible daily from 8:00 to 22:00; the Documentation Centre opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00. Free admission. Tram M10 stops right outside; Nordbahnhof S-Bahn station is 400 m away.
• East Side Gallery: about 1.3 km of Wall painted by artists from all over the world, along Mühlenstraße, between Ostbahnhof and the Oberbaum Bridge. Free access at any time.
• Checkpoint Charlie: the former Allied border crossing, on Friedrichstraße, is a quarter of an hour's walk south of Unter den Linden. Today's guard hut is a replica; plan a short stop.

Practical tips for the day

Getting around

Bus 100 links Zoologischer Garten station to Alexanderplatz in about half an hour, via the Tiergarten, the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, Unter den Linden and Museum Island. It is a regular BVG line: a standard ticket is enough. A single AB ticket costs €4 and is valid for two hours; the 24-hour AB ticket costs €11.20 and pays off from the third journey. It is valid for 24 hours from validation and lets you take up to three children aged 6 to 14 free of charge.

Budget for the day

Prices as checked in October 2026. With the Victory Column (€4.50), the total rises to €64.70. If you keep only the Reichstag, the memorial and the Wall variant, the day costs no more than your transport ticket.

If it rains

Keep the Reichstag, whose dome is glazed, then spend longer at the memorial's Information Centre and on Museum Island. Swap the walk along Unter den Linden for bus 100.

Further reading

With an extra day, our weekend in Berlin itinerary covers these stops at a gentler pace and adds others. For a full stay, follow Berlin in 3 days. And to pick the right ticket, read our guide to getting around Berlin.