Berlin October 11-14

Do not miss the Festival of Lights 2025.

On Sunday morning you could visit flea markets, e. g. on Boxhagener Platz. Try Yorckschlösschen in the evening hours for some live music and a beer.

Berlin has 170 museums. What kind of art do you prefer? Overview of art museums in Berlin.

General overview of Attractions & Sights in Berlin. Berlin has also a lot of public art sculptures and murals.

If you like orchestra, definitely see if you can get tickets to a performance at the Berlin Philharmonic. The building alone is worth it!

Similarly, if you are interested in seeing a match, if there's a Hertha Berlin home game on while you're there, it's worth going for the architecture alone (in the former Olympic Stadium where Jesse Owens ran in the Berlin Olympics)- even if there's no match on you can still visit the stadium.

My favourite museums are Pergamon (antiquities, including famous Babylonian lion gate), the DDR Museum (about life in East Germany), and the Deutsches Historitsches Museum (German history). I also love the new Ethnologisches Museum (anthropological museum). In general, I'm sure you've heard of Museum Insel which is a small island in the Spree with five museums, including the Pergamon. The others are the art gallery, the Altes Museum (Greek/Roman), Neues Museum (includes a lot of Egyptian artefacts including head of Nefertiti), and the Bode Museum (haven't been to this one but believe it's medieval).

If you like eating fun and casual local things you'll definitely want to try currywurst, which is sausage with curry powder and some other seasonings. Some places have vegan versions if you're not a meat eater.

Good luck with your planning!

Recommend going on a general overview walking tour, to get some orientation to the city, plus tips on places to visit later or places to eat. This will show you a number of landmarks in an efficient way, and tell you the history of them too.

Tons of museums, so you will have to take your pick. I spent 6 hours in the History museum, but am a history buff. Topography of Terror is excellent. Haven't gone to the Stasi museum yet, but it is on my list. A visit to the Olympic Stadium, Track 17 and Wannsee Villa might be of interest.

Enjoy the light show. I am jealous not to be able to experience this.

Info: Pergamon Museum and Deutsches Historisches Museum are closed currently.

When I was in Berlin, 5-6 weeks ago, I enjoyed the Altes Museum and the Bode. The Altes has an excellent art collection. The summer exhibition at the Altes was focused on Hoetger and Claudel, two students of Rodin. It was very good. The Bodes is known for it's sculptures, but what I really liked was the permanent display on counterfeiting coins going back to Roman times. Another highlight for me was the underground tour of the remaining flak tower from WWII.

Look at the posters in the train stations. They will let you know what's going on with concerts and plays, and other stuff too. If you want to see the inside of the Reichtag you must get tickets ASAP. They sell out.

If you're into old westerns visit Spencer Hill World.

Your visit is very short for such a culturally dense place. Have you looked up the "scenic" but regular public bus routes?

Berlin may still have three opera companies, all very active. I would expect performances of opera and orchestra (and ballet) to sell out in advance. I could not find this year's Open House day, but I did see this backstage tour listing:

https://deutscheoperberlin.de/en_EN/calendar/familienfuehrung.17896196

As of 23:00 EDT on 9/30, there are 74 tickets left to the Berlin Philharmonic performance on the 11th. I would endorse Cat VH's recommendation to catch a performance if you can.

I followed Mark's advice on catching the Festival of Lights somewhere around 2018 or 2019. It was certainly worthwhile.

Volkspark Friedrichshain is a great place to walk and to see Berliners at play. The fairy tale fountain (Märchenbrunnen) alone is worth seeing. There are two hills in the park that were created from post-war building debris. There also is a memorial to Polish soldiers and German anti-fascists.

Dussmann das KulturKaufhaus is an enormous bookshop to browse on Friedrichstrasse. Saint George's English Bookstore is a nice small English bookshop to explore in Prenzlauer Burg.

The Soviet Memorial in Treptower Park is very impressive.