Train or fly Warsaw to Berlin/ boutique hotel?

I really don't know how anyone else would define "main sites" in Berlin. It's a very personal thing.

Definitions aside, there are some very good museums that also happen to be very large. Would you go to those? Would you want to spend practically a full day in each (few people would)? Then 5 nights is not long enough if you're going to spend a day in Potsdam.

There are lots of Cold War sites--rather museum-like in that they have a lot of explanatory material one might want to read. How many of those places might you want to go, and how much time would you spend in each?

Berlin is a spread-out city, so you'll lose some time just moving from place to place. The U-Bahn, S-Bahn and trams will help, but it can take time to get to the stations/stops.

Hi,

For Berlin 5 nights is a good start plus a day devoted to seeing Potsdam. I took the train to Warsaw from Berlin, the day train back then. Forget flying unless you care not to see the country side.

Main sites in Berlin (mostly) are east of the Brandenburg Gate, which is historic Berlin. Of course, there are also such sites in Spandau, Charlottenburg, Köpenick, Karlshorst, etc.

Hi,

To be specific Berlin does have so called main sites...the Brandenburg Gate , as I pointed out above, Neue Wache, Unter den
Linden, Alexanderplatz, Siegessäule (Victory Column), Grosser Stern, Berliner Dom, Potsdamer Platz, Museum Island,

Reiterdenkmal (that of Frederick the Great) on Unter den Linden, Schloss Charlottenburg, Bellevue, the Kaiser Wilhelm

Gedächtniskirche (Memorial Church), Holocaust Memorial, Pariser Platz,

If you want to go further east, there is the Berliner Rathaus, Nikolaiviertel, Schloss Köpenick, Köpenicker Rathaus.

No, I have never used any of the tours, I track down the sights myself taking public transport and walking.

If you want to see historical related sites, be they connected to WW2 or WW1, Prussian history, Berlin in the inter-war years, etc, etc, they are there...just depending on your time and level of interest.

And regarding the Warsaw - Berlin train: I had it once in the opposite direction. Maybe not the latest in train design, but totally acceptable. Takes one or two hours more than flying, but so much more comfortable and without all that terrible hassle of getting to and from airports, check-in queues, body checks and whatever they have to make passenger life as disagreeable as possible.
More information from the European railway expert Man in Seat 61.