best arrival airport for Berlin from JFK

There is only bus connections at Tegel to nearby U-bahn and S-bahn stations, but that shouldn't stop you if it is a good price.

I'm not clear from your question if you're looking to fly to Berlin itself and want to know which of its airports is "best," or looking for a nonstop flight from JFK and then want to take a train to Berlin, in which case you're looking for the "best" airport for this purpose.

If you want to fly to Berlin itself, either Schönefeld or Tegel works fine. Schönefeld is a bit farther from the center, but has a train connection. Tegel has bus connections to both eastern and western Berlin, and a taxi is not expensive (about €25).

If you want a nonstop flight from JFK on Lufthansa, Frankfurt to Berlin by train is closer and faster than Munich to Berlin. However, even from Frankfurt it's about 4 hours to Berlin, so I'd definitely fly there with a plane change. Note that if you're not wedded to Lufthansa, Air Berlin has nonstop flights from JFK to Tegel.

Hi,

If you arrive at Berlin Tegel and want to go to Berlin Hauptbahnhof (central station), you take TXL bus. If you want to go from Tegel to Bahnhof Zoo (in the west), you take Bus X9.

If you're going east from Tegel to Berlin Ostbahnhof, take the TXL bus to Hauptbahnhof, then take the S-3 (Direction Eckner) to Ostbahnhof. Of course, you can instead take a bus, #142 from Hbf to Ostbahnhof. The bus depot in on Invalidenstraße, look for the Invalidenstraße exit from the Hbf.