Berlin December 2022

Museum passes in large cities like Berlin aren't necessarily a good deal, financially. You need to take a hard look at what you want to see (this needs to be the first step--take a look at a guidebook, not at the list of sights covered by a pass), which of those sights are covered by the pass(es) you're considering, and how many of those sights you'll actually have time to see. You can spend a lot of time in Berlin just traveling from one sight to the next, so you may not have as many productive sightseeing hours per day as you're expecting.

If you want to see a mixture of places covered by a pass and places not covered, you may find yourself traveling back and forth to the same neighborhood twice--once during the validity period of the pass (to see the covered sights) and once outside the validity period (for free and non-covered sights). That is not an efficient way to sightsee; a traveler's most precious commodity is time, not money.

The Museum Island museums, naturally, are close together. If they are your top priority, that makes the Museum Island pass worth serious consideration. I used the Welcome Pass in 2015 during a six-day visit to Berlin. I had to work very, very hard just to break even on that, and I don't think I ever had a sit-down lunch. I wouldn't do it again, because I did waste time traveling back and forth in order to squeeze the covered sights into the days of pass validity.

I also found, to my considerable displeasure, that one of the M.I. museums had a special, extra-cost exhibition. (I had purchased the Museum Island add-on for the Welcome Card.) Usually pass holders have to pay the extra fee for a special exhibition. That's reasonable. That's not the way it worked in 2015. I had to buy the full-price combo ticket for that museum, so I got no benefit from the pass at the museum. Perhaps that policy has changed; the 2015 policy wasn't documented anywhere as far as I know. I also had to stand in line for over an hour to get into one of the M.I. museums; I believe that may have been due to my not having checked with the right person at the museum.

I assume you can still buy a one-day transit pass (most likely also longer transit passes), so the transit component of a sightseeing pass isn't necessarily a big deal. One thing about Berlin: It is highly likely you will be hopping on public transit from time to time; it's just a question of whether you'll use it often enough to justify purchase of a pass rather than individual tickets.

Thank you very much, I appreciate your response.

Acraven's observations are characteristically thoughtful and I'm sure useful to you. I had two Museum Island museums on my agenda and timed them on separate days to use some kind of limited pass and save a little money. It was easier for me because I was staying a few blocks from the island so no trouble to get there.

What worked for me was a 7-day transit pass, covering the S-Bahn, U-Bahn, trams, and buses. I rode one or more of them every day. I had a three-zone pass (A-B-C I think), which got me to Potsdam and back one day and also to and from the airport. Depending on your plans, the two-zone pass might be enough. Mine paid for itself pretty quickly and made it easy to take short rides as well as longer ones.

I had a great half-day city tour with Original Berlin Walks on my first full day in the city. The guide was very well-informed and the group was manageable (about 20). We started at the Hackescher Markt, crossed the river to Museum Island and then walked down Unter Den Linden to the Brandenburg Gate, through the holocaust memorial and on to the old air ministry and a section of the Wall, ending near Checkpoint Charlie. There was about a half-hour break for coffee, a snack, and restrooms. It was a great introduction to the center. Afterward I took a short river cruise that was also fun and informative.

For a group tour, I recommend Insider Tours. https://insidertour.com/
For a private tour, Jeremy, the Berlin Expert. https://www.theberlinexpert.com/

Either of these companies will give you a great tour.

Thank you very much, the information from all of you is very helpful. I appreciate it.

we found the Welcome pass to be very good value, it covers the integrated transport system and we paid a little extra to cover all zones as we wanted to get to Potsdam and Wansee, it covers even local buses and trams in these areas, also gave a good discount on some places we visited.
As to tours we did one of the free tours which was very good and gave a tip of 50euros for the 4 of us.

can i just add a bit about the museums, in May this year when we visited one of our group (4 older guys) wanted to visit one of the museums on Museum island but could not get a time slot, not sure if this was because they have a strict booking system or was because of Covid restrictions.

Thank you very much, I appreciate your taking the time to respond. May I trouble you to ask which Free Tour did you take and how did you find out about it?

https://freewalkingtour.com/tours/welcome-to-berlin/
this was the company we used, i had just done a google search and it was one of several that came up

Thank you very much.