Recommendations for Five Day Trip to Berlin

Definitely the Reichstag dome. Just an FYI - the tour another poster mentioned is for the building but anyone can go up in the dome. Of the museums on the island, I'd pick the Pergamon Museum first. You get to see reconstructions of temples and the gates of Babylon, one of the coolest museums I've ever seen. The Neues Museum just opened and is supposed to be very cool too. The other ideas are all good ones too.

Five days is a good amount of time for Berlin - there is so much to do! You can probably get a copy of Rick's Steves' Germany book from the library. He has a great suggestions for things to do and see in Berlin. If you like museums, there are many excellent ones!

One of my favourite things to do is a visit to the Reichstag. It's a building with some amazing history and great views from top of the glass dome. DO register for one of their FREE guided tours NOW!!! They are excellent, there's no line-up for them but you do need to register with your name and birth date well in advance of your trip. There are English language tours as well: http://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/visits/besgrupp/fuehr.html

Most of the walking tour and bike tour companies in Berlin offer a student discount, so to see which ones will be the most interesting to go on (with 10-15 euro being the average) I recommend checking Trip Advisor for the most comprehensive list. Especially do a general overview tour your first day, to get oriented to the city and to ask all your questions from the tour guide. There are also Cold War tours, 3rd Reich tours, Berlin Underground tours, etc. Lots of museums, so you might have to pick and choose which ones you will go to. I really enjoyed the Deutsche Museum, the Topography of Terror, and the Jewish Museum. Still have to go back to visit the ones on Museum Island. The Sony Center is pretty cool, though I wish I had seen it at night. You might even think about a cruise down the Spree river. A trip to Potsdam would be good, as would a trip to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. Have been to Berlin 3 times now and still need to go back for more museums and I also want to go see the Spree Wald and go up in the Reichstag. (it was closed when I was there in Nov.)

Douglas is right on about the Pergamon Museum and Reichstag. There are several museums on Museumsinsel (Museum Island) and if you only have time for/are interested in going to one, pick the Pergamon. It's a museum of ancient art (Babylonian, Assyrian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman) and Islamic art, and it has some absolutely spectacular ancient architecture that you can walk through, like the Pergamon Altar (after which the museum is named, I think), the Ishtar Gate (one of the gates of Babylon), and the facade of a building from ancient Jordan. Other recommendations: the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedaechtniskirche, bombed in WWII and left as a memorial Alexanderplatz and the World Clock The former Tempelhof Airport, a vast field now used for recreation (its vast building is still there too) Checkpoint Charlie - I think the checkpoint itself is a replica of the original building - and the remains of the Berlin Wall If you like classical music, on Sunday evenings there's a free classical music concert outside of the Bode Museum on Museumsinsel (check to see if this is still going on - it was when I was there in July).

Definitely recommend a walking tour. We did a 4 hour tour. It was very worthwhile. Can't remember the name of the company. Check out Trip Advisor. Loved Berlin. One of the highlights of our whole trip to Germany and Fance.

Douglas, free access to the Reichstag glass dome used to be available in the past, often with looooong line-ups (2 hours or so). However, since last Fall this has changed. From the official website: "Until further notice, the dome and roof terrace of the Reichstag Building are closed to visitors who have not booked in advance. " The other alternative to get in without a guided tour is through a reservation at the rooftop restaurant. However, their menu doesn't really work for a college student's budget :-(

Kaiser-Wilhelm church both the bombed out one and the newly built one. Also on the north east side of Berlin is the last remaining part of the wall and a really cool museum across the street; it has multi levels until the very top where you can look out over the wall and see the cemetery. Small but worth the donation. This was in 2004. Get a map of the bann train system; very easy to get around.

Lot of good suggestions but I would suggest doing an underworld tour! We did the Flak Tower one and my husband loved it one of his favorite things we did on our entire trip. They also have a bunker tour as well, they offer both these tours in english. berliner-unterwelten.de/guided-tours.3.1.html I would also recommend visiting Museum Island the Bode was one of my favorites. You could easily spend the whole day there. Have fun and enjoy! One of our favorite cities!