Berlin in the Spring / Other nearby places to visit

One follow up question too playing around on the search engines, it looks like there IS a direct flight between LAX/Berlin on Air Berlin; all others require layovers. I've heard fairly positive reviews of Air Berlin on the site. Anyone flown this particular leg?

Hi, I could recommend you a couple of places very doable from Berlin that fits the "least touristy the better" mold. You might be the only tourists there, defintely Americans don't go there. Meißen is one place, next to Dresden, take the S-Bahn from Dresden Hbf. The town came through the war undamaged, was not bombed out by the area bombing. The charm factor is part of Meißen along with the historical and culture sights. Halle an der Saale is another place southwest of Berlin that escaped war damage. About half an hour from Berlin is the Oder. Frankfurt an der Oder is interesting, historical, unique, pretty much shot up in 1945, no tourists go there, not even Germans. I found it intiguing, interesting, an afternoon wasn't enough time. Don't forget Potsdam in your plans.

If you're interested in history it would be worth visiting the Maerkisches Museum (city history) which is a bit rambling and confusing in layout but has some very interesting displays (top level labelling in English). Potsdam is definitely worthwhile but will take the whole day. You could even spend more time there if you want to tick off every single palace. Don't bother with any tourist pass that combines transport and attractions - they aren't good value for money. However, there is an extremely good value three-day museum pass for nineteen euros, which allows free access to all the city and national museums and even some private ones over three calendar days.

Berlin lies in the middle of nowhere, which means you often have to travel for some hours for "old-world charm". There is Potsdam of course, which offers more than just Sanssouci. There are at least 4 other parks, like the New Garden with Cecilienhof (the last palace built by the Prussian kings), Babelsberg, Glienicke with a nice Neoclassical palace by Schinkel, the Pfaueninsel (island with artificial ruins) or the Pfingstberg. And parts of the Altstadt are preserved (with the Russian and Dutch quarter). If you want to see it all you need 3 days. Medieval towns close to Berlin are Brandenburg an der Havel and Wittenberg. Brandenburg feels very East German and offers a mostly preserved old town and a very nice cathedral. The town is one of the oldest in this part of Germany and provided the name for the region. Wittenberg is a small, preserved town with many Renaissance buildings and the houses of Luther, Melanchthon, the Cranachs etc.. Close to Wittenberg is the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm, the first English park on the continent and like Wittenberg a World Heritage Site. Very nice on a sunny spring day. Close to the Garden Realm is Dessau. Also a WHS because of the Bauhaus building, but the old town was completely destroyed. Relatively close to Berlin and equally nice on a sunny day is the Spreewald, where you can rent a canoe and enjoy nature. A bit farther away is Schwerin, with a perfectly preserved old town surrounded by seven lakes, a huge cathedral and the Neuschwanstein of the north.
All the other medieval gems, along the Baltic coast, in the Harz mountains or in Saxony or Thuringia, are at least 2:30h away. If you decide that you want to travel so for long I highly recommend Görlitz, which is a perfectly preserved town with 4.000 listed buildings and thankfully not discovered by mass tourism yet (although Rick Steves knows it now).