Explore Berlin
Quick Overview
Description
Time
Choose your start time.
Duration
2, 3, 4, 6 or 8 hours
Meeting Point
The lobby of your hotel
Prices
2 hours
€249
3 hours
€299
4 hours
€389
6 hours
€559
8 hours
€699
Highlights
- Your personal guide for the day will meet you at your hotel and whisk you off on your whirlwind walking tour of Berlin.
- Gain a solid understanding of the city’s evolution, from the era of Prussian splendour to the destruction wrought by the Third Reich, from the division of the Cold War years to the reunified Germany of today.
- See the major sights, including Checkpoint Charlie, the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Wall.
- Go to the square where, in 1933, Nazi supporters burned books, and contemplate its poignant Empty Library memorial.
- Visit Museum Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to five world-class museums.
- Admire Gendarmenmarkt, a beautiful square flanked by a Lutheran church, a Calvinist church and the majestic Konzerthaus.
- At former Allied Checkpoint Charlie, hear about the 1961 tank standoff that took the world to the brink of war.
- Take in the old Jewish quarter and get an overview of the 700 years of Jewish history in Berlin.
- Go to Humboldt Forum, the newly constructed city palace, and enjoy the grand view from the rooftop terrace.
Experience Berlin on our award-winning tour with someone who has a genuine passion for the city and its history. Whether you have opted for a tour format of two, three, four, six or eight hours, your expert guide will meet you at your hotel. Your unique private walking tour through the streets of Berlin will then begin!
As your specialist guide leads you along the historic Unter den Linden, they will chart the city’s growth in influence and stature over the centuries. After the time of the Teutonic Knights, when the neighbouring towns of Cölln and Berlin were founded on opposite sides of the River Spree, Berlin became the world-class capital city of the Kingdom of Prussia; it was a centre of the Enlightenment during the reign of Frederick the Great, before being occupied by Napoleon. Later, under the rule of Otto von Bismarck, it was the capital of the German Empire.
To give you a succinct yet comprehensive overview of the city’s history, this highly rated tour will take in all the main sites, from the Berlin Wall to the Brandenburg Gate, from the site of Hitler’s bunker to the Reichstag parliament building and much, much more.
You will discover the poignant memorial on Bebelplatz that serves as a reminder that in 1933, on this very spot, Nazi supporters burned more than 20,000 books that had been blacklisted for being “un-German”. As you walk across the final battlefield of WWII, your guide will explore with you how the peculiar events surrounding the Reichstag fire facilitated the Nazis’ rise to power.
At the site of Hitler’s bunker, you will hear an in-depth account of the claustrophobic last days spent inside this underground shelter before Hitler’s suicide, and learn about the fate of his remains and what became of the bunker itself.
Not only does this tour give you the chance to explore the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, you will also get the inside story behind the great controversy surrounding it.
Your guide will take you to see one of the longest remaining stretches of the Berlin Wall and share with you the intriguing history behind its construction and how it went up overnight, as well as tragic stories of the impact on Berliners, who woke up the next morning to a divided city.
You will visit the fabled locations where President Ronald Reagan spoke the famous words “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” and where President John F. Kennedy came up against the reality of the Iron Curtain before delivering his ground-breaking speech. Pass through Checkpoint Charlie, a Cold War crossing point where the East German secret police and the CIA spied on each other and where heroic and tragic escape attempts were made.
Visit Berlin’s spectacular new government quarter and get a feel for the contemporary face of the city, its development since the fall of the Wall, and its future direction.
At the conclusion of your tour, your Insider guide will happily point you in the direction of your next destination or advise you on how to make the most of your time in Berlin.
Example Itinerary
The following list of sites is intended to give you an idea of what you can expect to see on this tour. Please note that our exact route may vary on the day, depending on circumstances and your hotel pick-up point.
- Museum Island – a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to five world-class museums
- Humboldt Forum – the new, completely rebuilt city palace, which opened in 2021
- Unter den Linden – a royal boulevard lined with palaces, churches and the grand Berlin State Opera
- Checkpoint Charlie – the most famous Cold War checkpoint and site of the 1961 tank standoff between the USSR and USA
- The Berlin Wall, complete with border defences
- Gendarmenmarkt – a beautiful square flanked by a Lutheran church, a Calvinist church and the majestic Konzerthaus
- The Brandenburg Gate – modelled on the gate to the ancient Acropolis in Athens
- The site of Hitler’s and Goebbels’s bunkers, where they committed suicide in 1945
- The former Nazi Air Force Ministry building – once presided over by Hermann Goering
- Neue Wache, the Memorial to the Victims of War and Tyranny
- The Empty Library on Bebelplatz, commemorating the 1933 burning of books by Nazi supporters
- The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
- The Berliner Dom – the city’s largest church, with a striking façade and a monumental dome
- The Topography of Terror exhibition on the site of the former HQs of the Gestapo and SS
- Potsdamer Platz – a modern redevelopment on a square that was once divided by the Berlin Wall
- Hackescher Markt and the old Jewish quarter – historical, bustling streets and courtyards
Insider Reviews
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