Berlin is where you land. Germany starts on the next train.
Whether the Reichstag dome is worth the paperwork. What a harbour cruise in Hamburg really costs. Which Neuschwanstein day trip leaves Munich early enough to beat the coaches. Reviews of the tours you can actually book, priced and timed.
In the picture, and in the reviewsFrom Munich: Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Full-Day Trip
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5
Four bookings that carry a first week in Germany.
The capital, a harbour, a castle and the city that rebuilt itself. What each one costs, and what the people who took it said.
01The Berlin morningReichstag, Dome and Government District Guided TourInside the Reichstag, then the government quarter along the Spree bend. Entry is registered in advance, so this is the one to lock first.
02Hamburg after six90-Minute Evening Lights Harbor CruiseThe container cranes and the Elbphilharmonie from the water, at the hour the port lights come on. Ninety minutes, and the cheapest good evening in the city.- 03The Bavarian dayFrom Munich: Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Full-Day TripNeuschwanstein and Linderhof in one run out of Munich. Long day, early start, and the only way to see both without a car.
04Dresden in an hourSemperoper Tickets and Guided TourThe Semperoper from the inside: the auditorium, the painted ceiling and the rebuild story. Slots move with the rehearsal schedule.
Six German cities, and the day out each one is for.
A capital that wears its history in the pavement, a working port, a beer city under the Alps, a cathedral on the Rhine, a baroque rebuild on the Elbe and a castle ruin over a student town. Pick the one your flight lands at.
Berlin: book the Reichstag first, walk the rest.
All the Berlin reviews →
The city is flat, enormous and mostly free to look at, so the money goes on the places you cannot simply walk into and the people who can explain what stood here before. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the capital.
The half-day that joins it up
Brandenburg Gate, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the car park over the bunker, Checkpoint Charlie. Flat walking, and the only way the distances between them start to mean anything.
An hour on the Spree
Museum Island from the waterline, then the government quarter and the Landwehrkanal through Kreuzberg. The long version gets past the centre and into the boatyards.
Museum Island, and the ones off it
Five collections on one island, plus the Jewish Museum and the Berlin Story bunker further south. Tickets are timed, and the Pergamon is part-closed for its rebuild.
The mad king built three. Germany has hundreds.
Neuschwanstein is the poster, and it is genuinely worth the queue, but Ludwig also left Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee, the Prussians left Potsdam, and half the Rhine is a ridgeline of the things. Most run on timed tickets and most are an hour or more out of the nearest city.
German old towns are small, and nearly all of this is walkable.
The centres were rebuilt tight, the trams do the rest, and a guide is usually the difference between a pretty square and a story. Four kinds of walk, what it costs to join each, and who each one suits.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · Discover Berlin Walking Tour
Old-town walksThe square, the church, the rebuild, in two hours.
Lantern tours after darkA costumed watchman and the streets once he has them.
Self-guided routesAn audio track and a map, started whenever you like.
Puzzle trailsA city walk with something to solve, good with teenagers.
All 352 walking tours in Germany →
The German days out that fill their seats first.
The full German index →Booked more often than anything else on the site, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Reichstag, Dome and Government District Guided Tour
Meet near the Bundestag U5 station for a 2 to 2.5-hour English or German tour of Berlin’s government district and Reichstag. Guides such as Stefan, Andy, and Eva explain the building’s past, German politics, Lord Foster’s design, and the dome’s clever environmental features. The dome visit is free, but registration is handled for you.
From · $18
Read our review →
2
From Munich: Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Full-Day Trip
3
Semperoper Tickets and Guided Tour
from $18
4
Discover Berlin Half-Day Walking Tour
from $24
5
Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour with Live Commentary
from $22
6
90-Minute Evening Lights Harbor Cruise
from $27
7
The Original Night Watchman Tour in Lantern Light
from $17
8
City History Canal Sightseeing Tour on a Motorboat
from $18
Every German city worth a weekend sits on water.
The Spree through Berlin, the Elbe under Dresden, the Alster and the container port at Hamburg, the Rhine past the castle ridge. An hour on deck costs less than a museum ticket and shows you the layout no walking tour can.
- 190-Minute Evening Lights Harbor Cruisefrom $27
- 2River Sightseeing Boat Cruisefrom $31
- 3Elbe River Cruise to Pillnitz Castlefrom $37
German days out, sorted by what they cost.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A good number of the best German days come in under the cost of lunch.
Old-town walks, tip-based city tours, church and museum entry, an hour on the river.
Full days out of the cities: the castle run from Munich, the Rhine, the Black Forest, brewery evenings.
Private guides, chartered boats and the driver who makes a two-castle day possible.
Three things Germany does that nowhere else bothers with.
Christmas markets, a night watchman on a working rota, and a national park made of sandstone towers an hour from an opera house.
The Christmas markets
From the end of November the old squares fill with wooden huts, and the whole country reorganises itself around mulled wine in a deposit mug. Nuremberg and Dresden run the oldest of them, Cologne strings four or five around the cathedral, and almost all of them close in the days before Christmas rather than after it.
- 1Original Munich Christmas Market Tour with Festive Wine and Food★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 85 reviews
- 2Private Christmas Tour in Münster including Glühwein★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 54 reviews
- 3Christmas Tour with Drag Queen Betty BBQ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 46 reviews
The night watchman
Until the nineteenth century a watchman really did walk German towns with a lantern and a halberd, calling the hours and checking for fire. The tours keep the costume and the route, and they work because a rebuilt old town at ten at night is a different place from the same square at noon.
- 1The Original Night Watchman Tour in Lantern Light★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 6,653 reviews
- 2The Night Watchman Old Town Walking Tour in German★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,395 reviews
- 3Night Watchman Torch Tour in German★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,280 reviews
The sandstone towers
The Elbe cut a gorge through soft sandstone east of Dresden and left a forest of free-standing pillars behind. The iron Bastei bridge has spanned them since 1851, the Romantics painted here, and the trailheads are close enough to the city that this is a half-day rather than an expedition.
- 1From Prague: Bohemian and Saxon Switzerland Full-Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,033 reviews
- 2From Dresden: Saxon Switzerland National Park Full-Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 648 reviews
- 3Königstein Fortress Paddle Steamer Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 591 reviews
Four German bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be sorted out over breakfast on the day. These four run on registration lists, timed slots and calendars that take no interest in when your train gets in.
- 01Reichstag, Dome and Government District Guided TourEntry to the Reichstag is registered in advance by name, and the free dome slots go before the paid tours do.
- 02From Munich: Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Full-Day TripThe castle is only seen on a timed guided slot with a fixed number of places, and summer days sell out well before the coaches arrive.
- 03Semperoper Tickets and Guided TourTours fit around rehearsals and performances, so the available times change from one day to the next.
- 04Original Munich Christmas Market Tour with Festive Wine and FoodThe markets run from late November to the days before Christmas, and nothing on this list exists in January.
Germany does not tidy away its twentieth century.
The Wall is marked in a double line of cobbles across Berlin, the camps at Dachau and Sachsenhausen are memorial sites open to visitors, and Nuremberg keeps the courtroom and the rally grounds. These are guided visits rather than days out. Most take a full morning, and the memorial sites ask that groups stay together.
- 1Third Reich and Cold War 2 Hour Walking Tourfrom $23
- 2Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Tour in Englishfrom $36
- 3Third Reich Berlin: Hitler and WWII Walking Tourfrom $24
It rains here from October to April. Plan for it.
German weather is the one thing on a trip nobody can book around. The answer is the same in every city: the collections, the ticketed attractions, a brewery cellar and a long table. All of them are indoors, and all of them are better in bad weather than in good.
By place — cities, rivers and the south
By kind of day — walk, deck, castle or cellar
Berlin, Dresden, Munich, the Rhine: the fortnight most people do first.
Potsdam
NeuschwansteinThe German reviews written most recently.
Further back in the list →
Private Analogue Photography Experience in Berlin
Read our review →
Guided Bike tour of the Berlin Wall and Third Reich
Read our review →
Berlin Third Reich & Cold War Walking Tour With A Guide
Read our review →
Beyond Currywurst: Berlin’s Hidden Street Food & Culture Tour
Read our review →
Berlin Beers & Battlefields Tour: War History and German Beer
Read our review →
Berlin Scavenger Hunt and Highlights Self-Guided Tour
Read our review →
