Sites in Berlin

Take a HoHo and visit these top 10 places.

Brandenburg Gate, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Reichstag, Topography of Terror. Don’t waste your time visiting Checkpoint Charlie.

Ok, Thanks!

Good list from Suki if WWII and Cold War history are your main interest there. Berlin also has some world-class museums. with ancient art and architecture from the MIddle East and elsewhere. Here are our host's suggestions ("At a Glance"). Look them over, decide what matters most to you, locate those places on a map, compare it with the HOHO bus route, then decide whether to use the HOHO or local transit to get where you're going. A lot of the main sights are within a mile or so of each other so you can do much by foot. Come back for more.

Better 2 miles.

I enjoyed the HO HO bus tour. I agree about skipping Checkpoint Charlie.

IF you really want a piece of Berlin Cold War history, then this should be your destination

"The Bornholmer Straße border crossing played the historic role of being the first border crossing to be opened during the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989."

.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

The Memorial is essentially a piece of abstract art, which has always been confusing to me in the message it is trying to convey.

Just passing on my thoughts, NOT looking for any forum poster interpretations.

Do a good walking tour instead of the ho-ho bus. You just spent a lot of money to get here, and a good tour will make it worth while. If you aren't sure, read the reviews for the ho-ho buses on Trip Advisor and then read reviews for the most popular walking tours. See what the difference is.
Personal favorite is Insider Tours, but there are others that are good too. Most cost around 20€.

Guests of walking tours in Berlin will typically miss from above listed top 10 sights

• #1 (even in close walking distance to #2 where most walking tours end),
• #3 (only view from far away),
• #6,
• #7,
• #9
• and #10.

Heads up: #5 is a huge construction area until eoy 2024.

Price difference is 12.10 EUR per person if you compare the Insider Explore walking tour (which shows you just a very few top sights) with the classic HoHo plus Mauer-Kiez tour showing 9 of top 10 (not #7) plus much more sights, or only 2.20 EUR difference if you use it also to save a day ticket of public transport.

I've always wondered if walking tours included the car parking lot where Hitler's Bunker was located ?

.

I hope that one of the walking tours will include the magnificent Max Lingner, ‘Building of the Republic’ mural "assembled" using the famous Meissen Tiles.

Insider Walking Tours stop at car parking lot but there is nothing to see.

And yes to your hope - but honestly he had not much influence on the ideation part of motiff.

Well, Lingner was commissioned to do the piece and was given the general concept, provided several iterations to Grotewohl who then picked them apart ad nauseam, but the final portrayal is strong.

Recommendations are always better if we know your interests. I'm guessing Berlin is not a place in which you are super interested if you are just spending a day there. Count me among those that think a walking tour would be a good use of your time. If you have specific interests, let us know and we might be able to help more. For example, if you are really interested in the Berlin Wall -- go to the Berlin Wall Memorial (Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer ). Are you really interested in old East Germany life? Go to the DDR Museum near Museum Island.

Hopefully this is one full day ,say at least 12 hours in the summer.

if your main interest is history, I suggest that you focus on only exploring east of the Brandenburg Gate and the eastern districts, even though there are sites related to Prussian history in western Berlin as well, as are WW2 sites.

Reichstag tour is superb.

Reichstag tour is a good idea, too. i would suggest doing something that lets you see Berlin from above in the evening. Think about the Reichstag tour OR dinner in the TV tower restaurant (pay extra for a window seat) right before sunset. Hang around long enough to see Berlin from above during daylight, during twilight, and after dark.

maddyaduke, have you visited anywhere else in just one day? What did you do?

Berlin has a very diverse variety of what to see: pre-WWI, during WWII & Holocost, afteward with East-West, then Reunification and the modern, vibrant city Berlin has become. Variety is also true for museums and the genres of their respective collections. Ditto for music, food, etc.

For me, my one day planning always begins with impressionist art (i.e. Barbarini Musuem in Potsdam) and anything that I consider to be truly unique to that city. For example, Berlin had the wall and that is exclusive to Berlin. What is special to you?

Do you need to pay an admission/ticket to walk through ZooGarten? I am planning on walking from Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächniskirche to Siegessäule "Victory Column".

I don't think you can actually walk through ZooGarten ie. enter at the front and exit out the back

If you look at a Berlin Map there is a walk around on the east side of the Zoo that takes you back west to a bridge that crosses the river. Crossing the bridge, the park path takes you straight north through Tiergarten to the Victory Column.

Take note of the Rosa Luxemburg Memorial before crossing over the bridge as well as the 4 entrance ways to go under the street to the Column - those are the only remnants of Albert Speers architectural endeavours in Berlin.

A nice break can be had at the Café am Neuen See as you're walking to the Column.

If your interested in a pretty good read pick up a copy of

The Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape - Brian Ladd

.

Enjoy your stay in Berlin !

Do you need to pay an admission/ticket to walk through ZooGarten? I am planning on walking from Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächniskirche to Siegessäule "Victory Column".

You do not walk though the Zoo (not possible), just along. Follow the parkway from Hardenbergplatz between Zoo and S-Bahn track until S-Bahn station Tiergarten. From there walk Bremer Weg which is a walkway in the green park parallel to Straße des 17. Juni.