Berlin is one of Germany's 16 federal states and, at the same time, the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, as the Berlin Senate Chancellery puts it; its Governing Mayor heads the government of both the federal state and the city.
Country
Germany
Type
City
Understand the place
Not only where to go, but what to eat, what things cost, what visitors get wrong, how accessible Berlin is, which scams to recognize and what is genuinely worth your time.
The complete guide
Start with the parts of Berlin that matter most to your trip, then move into the practical details.
Experiences & attractions
Attractions, experiences and places actually worth your time.
Eat like you understand the place
Signature dishes, local drinks, markets and eating well.
Where to stay & explore
Where to stay, wander and choose the right area for your trip.
Beyond the destination
Nearby places worth a day out from here.
Bring home the right things
What is genuinely worth buying and where to look.
After dark
What the evenings are like, and where to spend them.
Family travel
Family logistics, strollers, transport and practical planning.
When to go
When to visit and what the seasons really feel like.
Know before it happens
Common tourist traps and how to avoid them.
Money & budgeting
Budgets, payments and everyday prices.
Transport
Public transport, taxis, walking and common pitfalls.
Travel for more people
Mobility, transport and sensory accessibility.
Understand before you arrive
Local expectations, religion and visitor etiquette.
The details that matter
Connectivity, health, photography and useful local details.
Find your fit
Solo, women alone, older visitors, LGBTQ+, pets, remote work, budget and luxury.
Travel that holds up
Tourism pressure, supporting local people and animal welfare.
Traveler experiences
Traveler reviews will appear here after moderation.
Worth the drive
Distances are straight-line, not driving time — mountain roads in this region are often twice as long as the map suggests.
Museum · Mitte, Berlin
The Altes Museum is Karl Friedrich Schinkel's Neoclassical museum building by the Lustgarten on Museum Island in Berlin's Mitte district, completed in 1830, where the Antikensammlung shows Greek, Etruscan and Roman art.
Museum · Mitte, Berlin
The Neues Museum is a museum of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin on Museum Island in Berlin's Mitte district, showing Egyptian art, prehistoric and early historic finds and classical antiquities in a restored 19th-century building.
Museum · Mitte, Berlin
The Pergamonmuseum is a museum of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin on Museum Island in Berlin's Mitte district, built as a three-wing complex that houses the architectural ensembles of the Antikensammlung, the Vorderasiatisches Museum and the Museum für Islamische Kunst.
Church · Mitte, Berlin
Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom) is an Evangelical (Protestant) church beside the Lustgarten in Berlin's Mitte district, inaugurated in 1905, which holds the Hohenzollern family crypt.
Viewpoint · Mitte, Berlin
The Berlin TV Tower (Berliner Fernsehturm) is the television tower by Alexanderplatz in Berlin's Mitte district, with an observation deck 203 metres above the city.
Historic site · Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Berlin
Checkpoint Charlie is the site of the former Allied border crossing between East and West Berlin on Friedrichstraße at Zimmerstraße, in Berlin's Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district, where a replica of the checkpoint booth now stands.
Explore deeper
10 guides
Museum Island is five historic buildings of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin plus a visitor centre, and according to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin one of the five, the Pergamonmuseum, was closed for renovation on 9 October 2026. This guide sets out what each building holds, what the state museums' own pages say about the Pergamon reopening (they give two dates) and how the day tickets and the Museumsinsel-Ticket work.
The Berlin Wall Foundation runs five historical sites on the Wall and the division of Germany and is developing a sixth at Checkpoint Charlie. This guide sets out what is at each one in the foundation's own words, what its pages say about visiting, and what XTOUR does not know.
Berlin's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe has two parts: the open Field of Stelae designed by Peter Eisenman and the underground Information Centre beneath it. This article explains what each part is and how they relate, in the words of the federal foundation that runs the memorial, with its own visitor rules.
A Dom is not always a cathedral, a Münster sometimes is, and the same German building can be filed as both a Schloss and a Burg by the body that runs it. This explainer defines each word through the pages of the buildings that carry it, from Freiburg Minster and Cologne Cathedral to Heidelberg Castle and the Munich Residenz.
UNESCO's intangible heritage site lists ten entries for Germany, from organ craftsmanship and cooperatives to timber rafting and midwifery, and seven of them are shared with other countries. This explainer gives each entry in UNESCO's words, sets it beside Germany's own national inventory (168 entries in 2025, 173 by March 2026), and says where the two official accounts differ.
XTOUR's Germany coverage is built around twelve cities and towns, from Berlin and Potsdam to Munich, Füssen, Dresden, Cologne, Nuremberg, Heidelberg and the Hanseatic north. This guide sets out what each base is for on XTOUR, which sights reached from a base are not in it, and which country-wide guides apply wherever you stay.
The German Commission for UNESCO counts 55 World Heritage sites in Germany, from Aachen Cathedral in 1978 to King Ludwig II's palaces in 2025. This article lists all 55 as the Commission records them, says what the inscribed area actually covers at the sites XTOUR has guides for, and notes where the Commission's own pages, the city of Dresden and UNESCO's own Dresden decision give different years.
Germany's memorial sites publish their own visitor rules, and they are not identical: age guidance, photography, eating, symbols and guiding differ from site to site and sometimes between two pages of the same site. This article sets out, site by site, what the Buchenwald, Dachau and Bergen-Belsen memorials, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the Berlin Wall Memorial say.
Sanssouci Palace and the other palaces in Sanssouci Park in Potsdam are run by the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation (SPSG), which sells timed palace tickets and the one-day sanssouci+ ticket. This guide sets out what each palace is, which ones open only in season, what the tickets cover according to SPSG's own pages, and where those pages differ.
None of the palace operators XTOUR read runs sites across Germany: each works within one or two states, and some well-known castles belong to a separate public-law foundation or a private association. This article sets out who runs what, according to the operators' own pages, and why a pass or a children's rule from one operator says nothing about another's sites.
Continue exploring