Berlin Welcome Card

I used the Welcome Card with the Museumsinseln add-on back in 2015. It didn't work well for me. I have no idea whether significant changes have been made since then. These are the issues I had:

• The card did not confer skip-the-line privileges on Museumsinseln, and those lines ran an hour long, if not more, during my visit. You can buy tickets online and skip the lines, I believe.

• One of the Museumsinseln museums had a major special exhibition for which there was an extra charge. That is standard procedure. What is not standard is that, despite having the Welcome Card with add-on, I had to pay the full entry fee (base + special exhibition), so the card did me no good whatsoever at that museum. That was very annoying, because I had made a special effort to visit that museum during the validity period of the card.

As is the case with any card, time spent waiting in line is time when you're getting no use out of the card.

Berlin is a very large city; you will probably spend considerable time on the U-Bahn and S-Bahn moving from sight to sight. That is time you will not be spending inside attractions, so you may find you don't get to as many places as you expect. If some of the places you want to go are not covered by the card or are free, how are you going to strategize your sightseeing? Do you want to maximize usage of the card (perhaps saving a bit of money or coming closer to breaking even), or do you want to maximize geographical efficiency (perhaps accomplishing more of your target list)?

There's also the fact that some of the museums are huge (you could easily spend a full day in them). Again, this may mean you cover fewer sights than you initially plan. I tend to either skip a museum entirely or to go all-in, wanting to see everything. Therefore, I am not a good predictor of whether others will benefit from a particular sightseeing card.

It is easy to buy day-passes for the local public transportation right out of vending machines, so don't give excessive weight to whatever transportation benefits the card currently offers.

From a financial standpoint, I suspect that for most tourists the card would be fairly close to a wash: They won't save very much money, and they won't waste very much money. Aside from the two Museuminseln issues I mentioned above, my major problem was self-created--an inefficient sightseeing plan resulting from an effort to cram the covered sights into the days of card validity.

I bought and used the card in 2016. I got the 6 day pass plus the museum island card. I penciled out the things I planned to do and costs then compared to the discounts offered by the card. It ended up being essentially a wash compared to paying for each thing individually (as some things are not covered by the card). I thought the convenience of buying online and using the voucher to pick up at the airport was probably the bigger value. As the prior poster mentioned you don't get to skip the lines, so plan to go early (or very late) to the popular sites.

The Welcome Card is generally not good value for money. One which usually is good value is the three-day Berlin Museum Pass, which does not include public transportation.

Some other tourist tickets for Berlin including public transport available.

Jerry:
I agree with prior poster. I view the Berlin Welcome Card as a wash.
I am operating from memory, but I seem to recall that I bought two cards; one that covered my first week in Berlin, and then another card that I believe covered me when I returned to Berlin a few days later.

I did not get the Museum Island add-on, as I did not want to be locked in to going to Museum Island two days in a row.

Yes, you do save a few dollars here and there at the sites, palaces, museums, etc. And, it is really nice to be able to get on any transportation, if your feet start to give out. You don't have to worry about having change, finding machines, figuring out how to operate the machines. I think all I had to do was to validate the pass each time I got on a bus.

One other nice feature about the BWC (or any passes in any European city) is that you do not have to dig for your wallet. Each time you pull out your wallet, a pickpocket has the opportunity to see where you stash your cash.

I had a wonderful visit to Berlin, Dresden, and Potsdam. Look up my 6-part trip report that I posted on RS's Trip Reports section.

Hey. Thanks for all the advice. I appreciate your input. I was thinking the same thing, that the Welcome Card may not be worth buying but you have helped me make that decision. This will be our 3rd visit to Berlin and the longest one (our son and daughter in law live there) so we have seen some things but would enjoy seeing others that I have been ferreting out using RS guidebook to Berlin that I recently bought. Many thanks.

There are other ways to find new things in Berlin, e.g. ask a Berliner ;-)

Great idea, Mark. So, as a Berliner, what would you recommend that we see that maybe we could not learn about seeing from RS guidebooks? I would appreciate your advice.

I can try if you would share your interests.

One highlight during your stay is Berlin Gallery Weekend. Currently we see a very manifold and interesting art scene in the city.

Another highlight is Europe's largest student film festival Sehsüchte in Potsdam which is one of Europe's hotspots for studying film creation.

A foodie must-have is fresh white asparagus - cooked and served either in a restaurant or even where the best one is produced: Beelitz close to Potsdam. Hope the season will begin to happen when you are here. I like to enjoy it in fesh green Tiergarten, in restaurant Teehaus im Englischen Garten (map) - more or less around the corner of Bellevue Palace, our Federal President's residence.

Also close to Potsdam you will find Werder which celebrates at that time a traditional countryside spring festival (Baumblüten-Festival).

For sure a very good starting point for own research is Berlin's Tourist website. The most beloved attraction for locals currently is our little polar bear lady (video).

Mark, thanks for those tips about things to see around Berlin. I know we would enjoy tasting the white asparagus and finding that restaurant near the Tiergarten. I also know we would enjoy visiting that spring festival at Werder, which is near Potsdam, I think you said. Actually, we are planning a day to visit Potsdam already so we may need to plan several days to go out there in the vicinity. I saw a write up about a place called Peacock Island which seems to be near the Wansee which we visited last time we were in Berlin. I think we would like to visit there.

My wife and I am in our mid-60s but still very physically active. We use the U-Bahn and S-Bahn trains while in Berlin and will be visiting our son and daughter in law while in Berlin who live there. We love nature and the simple things and really do not try to work out something to see every day and love walking on the streets and having coffee and cake and just letting the city speak to us. I do have a list of things to see while in town but we will not stress over them (I have already made my reservation to visit the Reichstag though).

Thanks for your help.

Hi,

If you're deep into history, I can suggest and recommend numerous places not mentioned in general guide books, especially the RS one on Berlin and the greater Berlin area...all depends on your depth of interest and desire to track these esoteric sites pertaining to WW1 and WW2. Likewise on Prussian-German history prior the these events.

I never used the Welcome Card.