Handpicked experience · Berlin
Berlin, Germany
A city nine times the size of Paris because it was assembled from sixty-seven towns and villages, a column moved a kilometre, and a spire kept broken on purpose.
Take a free one hour walking tour through the government district included in you bus ticket
See Berlin's breath-taking landmarks along Berlin's main river in a way that suits you best
Take a break enjoy a one-hour boat tour in the main river or Berlin
Relax and enjoy the breeze as you take the one-hour river cruise along the Spree river
Experience the city and its multifaceted architecture from a different angle with you friends and family
Eighteen stops threading the districts of a very large city together
Departures every ten to fifteen minutes, so waits stay short
Twenty languages of commentary, plus a channel written for children
Convertible double-deckers with covered seating below
A hop-on hop-off ticket for Berlin valid twenty-four or forty-eight hours from first use, running eighteen stops across the centre, with a sightseeing boat included on some ticket options. Commentary comes in twenty languages, and there is a separate children's channel.
Buses come round every ten to fifteen minutes, so the ticket works less like a tour and more like a private transport network that happens to explain itself. Ride the whole circuit for orientation — about two hours without stopping — or use it to jump between districts that are further apart than they look on a map.
Berlin is enormous. In 1920 the state absorbed eight surrounding towns, fifty-nine villages and twenty-seven estates into a single administrative city, and overnight it became one of the largest urban areas in the world. It still covers roughly nine times the ground Paris does, and about a third of that is water and green space. The distances on this route are a direct consequence: the sights are not clustered because the city was never one city.
The gilded figure on the roundabout used to stand somewhere else. In 1938 it was dismantled and shifted more than a kilometre from its original position in front of the parliament, as part of a plan to rebuild the capital on a monumental axis. While it was down, an extra drum was inserted to make it taller. The plan was abandoned; the column stayed where it had been put.
At the western end of the route stands a bomb-damaged spire with its top torn off, left exactly as the raids of 1943 finished it. Berliners voted to keep the ruin rather than clear it, and a new octagonal church was built alongside, walled in blue glass made in Chartres. The nickname for the pair translates roughly as the hollow tooth and the lipstick and powder compact.
Charlottenburg was a separate town, and the palace at its heart was a summer house built in 1699 for Sophie Charlotte, a queen who filled it with philosophers and argued with Leibniz for entertainment. She died at thirty-six. The town took her name, then grew rich enough to become the wealthiest municipality in Prussia before Berlin swallowed it.
The clock starts when the ticket is first used, not when it is bought. Buses run less often in winter, and the open upper deck depends on the weather. Where a boat is included, it runs on the central stretch of river through the government quarter. Cancellation is free up to a day ahead.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
At first use rather than at purchase, and it then runs for twenty-four or forty-eight hours without interruption depending on the ticket.
About two hours if you never get off, across eighteen stops, with buses arriving every ten to fifteen minutes.
Because the modern city was assembled in 1920 from eight towns, fifty-nine villages and twenty-seven estates. It covers roughly nine times the area of Paris, and never had a single historic centre.
A 1938 plan to rebuild the capital along a monumental axis required the space in front of parliament. The column was taken down, shifted more than a kilometre, and given an extra drum to make it taller.
Berliners voted to keep the damaged spire as the 1943 raids left it rather than clear the site. A new octagonal church went up beside it, walled in blue glass made in Chartres.
It comes with some ticket options rather than all of them. Where included, it covers the central river stretch past the government quarter.
Yes — a separate channel in German and English, alongside the twenty adult language tracks.