Tips for what to see on Prague-Berlin-Krakow trip

Three wonderful cities!

My personal recommendations are:

Berlin: Hotel Adlon (lots of Nazi and Soviet history); East Germany Museum; Spionage Museum (don't miss this!)

Prague: Charles Bridge; Vyšehrad; Strahov Monastery Brewery (best beer I've ever had, and good food besides); Memorial to the Victims of Communism

Kraków: the Main Square, especially at night; Auschwitz and Birkenau; Schindler Factory

Don't miss the Head of Franz Kafka in Prague. Giant revolving public art. I was fascinated!

I second the Kafka Museum! A suitably surreal experience. (Just realized that wasn't what the above poster said, but still - Kafka Museum!)

In Prague, I enjoyed the Museum of Communism, the Mucha Museum, Charles Bridge and all the sites on Castle Hill (especially St. Vitus Cathedral), and the synagogues of the Jewish Quarter. You might also enjoy the Black Light Theater.

In Krakow: Auschwitz; climbing the tower of the St. Mary's Church; the Schindler Museum (although it was quite crowded when I went and, depending on your level of interest/tolerance, it might be too much Holocaust when combined with Auschwitz - and you should definitely go to Auschwitz); eating dinner on the Main Square; Wieliczka Salt Mines; Czartoryski Museum (although for a first/quick visit I would put this at a lower priority); Wawel Castle is bland but the Cathedral shouldn't be missed.

I haven't been to Berlin in over 15 years, but I most vividly remember the Berlin Wall Memorial; you see that it wasn't just one wall but a no man's land strip. After that, with only two days I would say do whatever activity/site most interests you. But do try to squeeze in a visit to the KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens)!

Is the order set in stone? I wonder if it would make more sense to go more east-west/west-east (so Berlin-Prague-Krakow or the reverse), but I don't know your timing or what flights look like.

Enjoy the trip!!

Thank you all very much for your responses! The only thing set in stone is that we need to go to Prague first, due to our friend’s schedule. It also seems that the flights that go in to Prague and out of Krakow are less expensive than out of Berlin, but I will take a closer look at them.

As much as I love Prague, if you had to choose one of these cities for an additional day above the others, I would choose Berlin. There is just so much to do and see there. In addition to the museums (the five museums on Museuminsel, the Deutsches Historiches Museum, the DDR Museum, the Ethnologisches Museum, and many others I'm sure I'm forgetting) you can enjoy a nice walk down Unter den Linden to the Brandenburg Gate and through to the Tiergarten (and the zoo), see old parts of the wall at the East Side Gallery, walk thru some of the cooler neighbourhoods like Kreuzburg, walk down KuDam and visit the half bombed Kaiser Wilhem church, take a boat ride down the Spree, visit Charlottenburg, and a lot more. I've been half a dozen times and feel like I've only seen a fraction.

In Prague, the main sites are the old town (and square), Charles Bridge, and the castle. In Krakow, you have the main square and cathedral, Wawel Hill, and if you have time for partial day trips, Auschwitz and the Wieliczka Salt Mine (I have not personally been to the salt mine yet but it looks amazing and I hope to get there one day). Good luck with your planning!

There are many interesting museums in Berlin (I can't speak to Prague or Warsaw), but it also depends on what you are interested in as well. The Deutsches Historisches Museum (German Historical Museum) is good. If you are interested in WWII history, the Holocaust Memorial has a very good museum located underneath the memorial. The Topography of Terror is a museum that covers the role of the SS/Gestapo/police in the Third Reich and is located on site of the former the headquarters of the SS and Gestapo. Sachenhausen is an early concentration camp located in what is now a suburb of Berlin, and is about a 30 minute transit ride outside of central Berlin. The Reichstag (German parliament building) gives access to their glass dome, and it gives a good overview to the rest of the city (and had a good audio guide from what I recall). You do need to apply for a free ticket/time slot online ahead of time.

Three very nice cities to visit! Given your relatively short stays in each city, the Rick Steves online info for each city gives a nice overview of his take on sights under the "At a Glance" tab for each page. If you haven't found these online pages, I'm including a link to Rick's page for each city below. Also... you may already be aware, but Rick's self-guided walking tours (also available in app form) are a great way for first-day exploration of a city.

Prague

• Rick's page: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/czech-republic/prague
• How Dave chose to spend eight days in Prague in Oct 2025: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/eight-days-in-prague-in-october-a-solo-traveller-s-trip-report
• I like architecture. I really like Art Nouveau architecture. I really, really like the Municipal House. Dinner in the main restaurant is a bit overpriced but one is paying for dining in a glorious art nouveau atmosphere in addition to the cost of food. Classical music is high on my list of enjoyed activities; attending a performance in Smetana Hall in the Municipal House is grand. On a tour of the Municipal House, one learns about the symbolism in the architecture and the progression of themes in the rooms to subversive themes (at the time) of Czech national identity and pan-Slavic greatness; the building was built with locally-raised funds from 1906-1912 when Prague was under Habsburg rule. The Municipal House in its entirety is an amazing, cohesive work of art.
  
• The locals will tell you to skip trdelník, a type of spit cake also known as chimney cake, that is sold every 6 feet in the touristy areas as a Prague/Bohemian traditional treat. It is not. The locals despise it. Outside of the touristy area, it is not sold in Prague. What is a traditional Czech treat is kolač, a pastry topped with sweet cheese, jams, poppy seeds, nuts, etc. A good place to get one is Kolacherie, which has a location in the Old Town across from the House of the Black Madonna.
  
• I also like food tours. I did three while in Prague. The Prague Food Tours tour was head and shoulders above the others. If it's in the budget, I highly recommend it. Kolacherie was on two of the food tours I did 🙂.
• If you want to get away from the touristy areas, Vyšehrad is a great place for a walk with nice views over the city and a very interesting cemetery to explore with the graves of notable Czechs. I liked Vitkov quite a bit, too. The National Monument at Vitkov is grand and also has nice views over the city.
  

Of course, it depends on your interests, not on mine, but here goes. First, how much time are you spending with your relatives, and will they sightsee with you? With only two days, I'd prioritize staying in town as the better option. You don't really have enough time for a day trip. There's an excellent ethnographic museum in Krakow, but I'd say only if you have Polish ancestry. St Mary's Basilica (but I didn't climb the tower) because the altarpiece is extraordinary and worth the trip alone (buy tickets on the right side as you look at the front door- don't just walk in). I went to Auschwitz, too, and it is definitely worth seeing, but I'd save it, or another camp, for the next trip. For me, Nowa Huta over Auschwitz, because you only have 2 days and Auschwitz and its depressing aftermath will eat up one of them. You can do a quick skim over Nowa Huta in a few hours, leaving more time for other Krakow sites. (If you can see the nuclear bunkers there, it's worth the effort, but I think you'd need a private guide rather than going with a small group tour.) Wawel is worth it, too, for Polish history, and a better-than-average European castle, but I'd prefer Kazimierz if you want a touch of not utterly depressing Jewish history during your time in Krakow. We enjoyed Wieliczka, but again, with only 2 days you'd be eating up a good chunk of one day to go there. And, it's a by-guided-tour only and there's usually a wait to get in, despite timed entries. . With so much to see in Krakow itself, my inclination would be to save Wieliczka as well for another trip. We spent 10 days in Krakow and didn't see it all. You'll have to be very selective, but even a little taste of Krakow is wonderful. And don't leave without eating a big plate of pierogis!

Berlin

• Rick's page: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/germany/berlin
• Dave has spent a lot of time in Berlin. Since 2015, 67 nights! It is full of history. And the place where I once walked down the wrong street and got propositioned by 4 prostitutes over 2-3 blocks.
  
• A half-day walking tour to explore the city center is a good first day activity. The Rick Steves walk works OR Insider Tour Berlin offers very good group tours OR if a private guide with a fascinating history is of interest and in the budget, consider a tour with Robert Sommer. Robert was the 15-year-old son of a high-ranking East German bureaucrat the day the Berlin Wall "fell" and was a punk rocker squatter in post-unification Berlin until he decided to get a PhD in history (thesis on prostitution in concentration camps). He married a woman who ended up serving in Germany's Parliament. Robert can tell you what it was like to grow up in East Germany, what happened in a high-ranking East German bureaucrat's home the night Berlin Wall fell, and what happened in punk rocker vs neo-Nazi clashes, along with a whole lot about Berlin. Oh yeah, that story about Robert's dad and OG (as the kids say) North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung is good one, too.
• What we each want to see is highly personalized, of course. One of the most important places for me to see in Berlin was the decommissioned Tempelhof Airport, one of the main airports used in the Berlin Airlift in 1948 and 1949 because, to me, the Berlin Airlift is one of the US's greatest moments. I tear up a bit just thinking about it as I write this 🙂. Gail Halvorsen -- a US Air Force pilot who started dropping candy attached to tiny parachutes to the kids of Berlin during his Airlift runs that resulted in Operation Little Vittles with many pilots doing this -- is my hero... and the nicest man I ever met.

Krakow

• Rick's Page: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/poland/krakow
• Dave's Krakow story is a 4 am kiss from a drunk guy while waiting for an early morning cab to the airport on the main square
• Krakow is great. My favorite activity was the Crazy Guide Deluxe Communism Tour. To give an idea of how much tourism has exploded in Poland (and also the impact of inflation!), I did this tour for 42 euro in August 2017; it's now well over 150 euro per person for a 2-person tour. The company has added a couple of extra things, in fairness. The pierogi lunch in a milk bar -- chef's kiss -- and cost almost nothing back then.
  
• I don't know if I would do Auschwitz if I had two whole days in Krakow and was visiting friends. It's jarring... depressing... disrupts the good vibes of a trip. By that, I'm not saying it's not something valuable to see, but the context of your trip would make me not want to do it.
• Another one of the biggest treats in Krakow (as mentioned above): walking the main square in the evening.
  

Our browsers are spying on us of course. So... YouTube gave me this Honest Guide video that starts at the National Monument at Vitkov. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRXyYVYNq-k