Things to do for adults

Discover some of the key landmarks of Berlin on a sightseeing boat tour. Enjoy a relaxing river cruise on the Spree to take in the sights at the heart of this bustling city.   Depart from Friedrichstraße or Nikolaiviertel. Your 1-hour sightseeing tour will take you past the Reichstag (German Parliament Building), through the new Regierungsviertel (Government Quarter), all the way to the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures). After turning at the Lutherbrücke (Luther Bridge), keep a look out for Schloss Bellevue (Bellevue Palace), the "Beamtenschlange" (civil servant housing), and the Siegessäule (Victory Column). Marvel at Hauptbahnhof (Central Station), Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral), Museumsinsel (Museum Island), and the Nikolaiviertal, the oldest residential area in Berlin. Arrive back either Friedrichstraße or Nikolaiviertel to finish the tour.

Discover the center of Berlin via its major waterway, the River Spree, on a 2.5-hour boat cruise. See the main sights of the city from the water and feel the heartbeat of the bustling city. Start your roundtrip sightseeing tour on Friedrichstrasse and pass by the Federal Chancellery to reach Bellevue Palace, overlooking the Beamtenschlange (civil servant accommodation) and the Victory Column. Enjoy informative audio commentary as you see Berlin Central Station and the Interior Ministry before continuing on to Charlottenburg Palace. From there you will cruise past the Westhafen Canal, the Berlin-Spandau Ship Canal, the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Hamburger Bahnhof. You will then cruise back to Friedrichstrasse.

Experience Berlin from a new perspective on a sightseeing cruise along the Landwehr Canal and River Spree. See more than 40 bridges and learn about their history, from modern structures to ancient bridges. Climb aboard the boat at Friedrichstrasse and let the fascinating blend of modernity and tradition inspire you on this relaxing and informational cruise through the German capital. With your audio guide (if option booked), learn the history behind each bridge as you sail. See Berlin from the water as you cruise past the German Museum of Technology, the famous Potsdamer Platz, and the interior ministry. Enjoy the unique view from aboard the boat.

Join a 1-hour round-trip boat tour that starts close to Hackescher Markt. Sit back and relax as you learn about the captivating history of Berlin from the onboard audio guide commentary. First, cruise along the River Spree to the Eastern part of the city, where you will see the Berlin Cathedral, the newly inaugurated Humboldt Forum, and the Marstall concert hall. Turning in front of the Mühlendammschleuse head back westwards past the oldest part of Berlin, the Nikolaiviertel. A little bit further down the river, learn more about Museum Island before cruising past Friedrichstraße before entering the Parliament district. See the Reichstag building, the Berlin Central Station, as well as the Federal Chancellery. At the House of World Cultures, the boat will turn around again and bring you back to the pier.

Discover Potsdam from the water and admire the wonderful parks and palaces of the Hohenzollern Dynasty. See the most beautiful sights from the water in just 90 minutes. Cruise by Babelsberg Park with its imposing palace, see the Flatow Tower and the Hofdamenhaus, then pass under the historically-significant Glienicke Bridge to Jungfernsee. Ride along the former border between east and west and get a glimpse of the impressive palaces and gardens. See the Church of the Redeemer, Sacrow and discover the fairytale castle on Pfaueninsel. Further high points of the tour include the New Garden with its marble palace and the Cecilienhof Palace, where history was made in 1945 with the signing of the Potsdam Agreement.              

Discover the city at your own pace with the Berlin Hop On - Hop Off bus. Freely wander the city on well-equipped sightseeing buses. Explore Museum Island, amble down the Ku'Damm, the famed shopping street, and catch a glimpse of divided Berlin at Check Point Charlie. Visit the Brandenburg gate or the Reichstag with its marvelous glass dome. There are a wide variety of options, with buses traveling the entirety of the city. To get even more out of your trip to Berlin, combine your bus pass with a spree to your experience. You can redeem your boat ticket at any time and add a relaxing 1-hour river cruise on the Spree to your experience. During the summer, there is also a guided walking tour available, so you can learn even more in-depth, insider knowledge about the sights and landmarks. The stops for the bus tours are: Line 1 (Bus) • Alexanderplatz • Rotes Rathaus • Museum Island • Friedrichstrasse • Brandenburger Tor • Reichstag • Hauptbahnhof • Haus der Kulturen der Welt • Bellevue Palace • Siegessäule (Victory Column) • Kurfürstendamm • KaDeWe • Lützowplatz • Kulturforum • Potsdamer Platz • Mauerreste • Check Point Charlie • Gendarmenmarkt Line 2 (Bus) • Alexanderplatz • Frankfurter Allee • East Side Gallery • Ostbahnhof • Alexa • Rotes Rathaus

Come and join a journey of discovery that begins by following the footsteps of Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin and takes you all the way to the modern-day explorers of life on earth. Every day, the approximately 200 scientists working at the Museum für Naturkunde look for answers to the great problems and challenges the future holds, relying on their scientific collections, comprising over 30 million items. Their insights shape the various permanent and special exhibitions and many special events. Some of the best-known exhibits are to be found in the Dinosaur Hall, which shows life as it might have been in the Upper Jurassic period, 150 million years ago. Giraffatitan brancai, the tallest mounted dinosaur skeleton in the world, impressively welcomes all visitors in the center of the exhibition hall. The precious Archaeopteryx lithographica, the Mona Lisa of natural history, is elegantly displayed in a safety showcase at the back of the hall. All of the fossil objects – and the dinosaurs in particular – still yield new secrets to scientists and researchers from all over the world. The museum offers much more than extinct fossils - the East Wing allows visitors to see a genuine scientific research collection that has received many accolades. This collection is home to about a million animals stored in 80 tonnes of alcohol. The Biodiversity Wall fascinates visitors, displaying 3,000 species in one glance. This thought-provoking installation opens up a discussion on biodiversity and its loss – a theme that remains at the heart of the museum’s research efforts. With changing temporary exhibitions and a diversified education program including guided tours, lectures, and workshops, the Museum für Naturkunde is always worth a visit.

Explore Berlin's top sights on a convenient hop-on hop-off bus ticket. Listen to facinating stories about the city with the onboard commentary. Have the freedom to jump on or off throughout the validity of your ticket. Visit top areas like Tiergarten, Gendarmenmarkt, and Potsdamer. If, for example, you start your tour at Kurfürstendamm, you will pass the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and reach KaDeWe, one of Europe’s largest shopping centers, through Tauentzienstraße. Next you continue on to Lützowplatz and the embassy district at the Tiergarten and over to the Philarmonic and the West Berlin Kulturforum. The next stop is the historically significant Potsdamer Platz. In the 1930s, it was one of the most public squares in Berlin. After the Second World War, this was no man’s land, where the Berlin Wall divided the city. Today, seeing the vibrant life and the newly erected towers reminiscent of New York’s urban canyons, you will hardly believe that for years there was nothing here other than the Berlin Wall, spring-guns and GDR soldiers. Also, the Legoland Discovery Center is on Potsdamer Platz. From there, continue to Berlin’s other important historical sites. In the Niederkirchner Straße you can find the city parliament, the Martin-Gropius-Bau, a museum with changing exhibitions, the Topography of Terror, which exhibits the history of the Nazis and of the Jews’ suffering under the Nazis, as well as the Ministry of Finance, which was once the Nazi Ministry of Aviation. From there you drive on to Checkpoint Charlie, one of the former border crossings between East and West Berlin. A permanent exhibition looks back at the Cold War period. On Friedrichstraße you come across one of the nicest spots in Berlin, the Gendarmenmarkt, with two similar buildings, the German and French Cathedrals. The Konzerthaus Berlin is in the middle of the square. After the Gendarmenmarkt it’s on to Alexanderplatz and the TV Tower. The stop for these sights is the Neptune Fountain. This used to be the Berlin City Palace. Here you will also have the opportunity to go shopping. The next stop is Karl-Liebknecht-Straße, in front of the Radisson Hotel. From here you can transfer on to a boat if you wish to experience Berlin by boat as well as bus. Also, the Aquadom, Sealife Berlin and the Berlin Dungeon are located at this stop, as well as the Berlin Cathedral, which holds the sarcophagi of the Hohenzollern family. From here you can also admire the golden dome of the New Synagogue on Oranienburger Straße. The “Hackeschen Höfe” are only a few minutes away. Next you'll go over the glamorous street Unter den Linden to the Museum Island, Bebelplatz, Humboldt University and to the stops Unter den Linden 36 (Friedrichstrasse) at ZDF Capital City Studios and Unter den Linden 74, where one of Berlin’s most important attractions is located: Madame Tussauds Berlin. From here the ride continues to the Brandenburg Gate. On the way you will see the UK, Russia, France and US embassies, followed by the Holocaust Memorial. The stop there is at Platz des 18. März. The road leads on past the Reichstag and the government district. You will soon reach the new Hauptbahnhof. From here you have the world-famous view of the German Chancellery, the Reichstag and – as a special surprise – Berlin’s “Fujiyama”. Finally you will cross Berlin’s ‘green lung’, the Tiergarten. This park is bigger than New York’s Central Park. The tour then brings you past the Congress Hall to the stop at Bellevue Palace, the official residence of the President of Germany. From here you can also see the Siegessäule with the golden Victoria statue at the top. On the way back to Kurfürstendamm you will see, for example, the old Hauptbahnhof of former West Berlin, the Technical University and much more. The stops: 01 - Kurfürstendamm 231 (in front of Karstadt) 02 - KaDeWe (main entrance) 03 - Lützowplatz (opposite Hotel Berlin) 04 - Philharmonic / Kulturforum 05 - Potsdamer Platz (at Kolhoff-Tower) 06 - Potsdamer Platz / Linkstraße 07 - Topography of Terror 08 - Checkpoint Charlie (at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum) 09 - Gendarmenmarkt, Markgrafen- / Taubenstraße 10 - Alexanderplatz, Red City Hall, Neptunbrunnen (not in service during the Christmas market in December) 11 - Karl-Liebknecht Str. 5, (to the boat) 12 - Museumsinsel 13 - Humboldt University 14 - Unter den Linden 36 / Friedrichstraße 15 - Unter den Linden 74, Madame Tussauds Berlin (out of order) 16 - Brandenburg Gate, Ebertstraße 17 - Reichstag, Scheidemannstr. 18 - Hauptbahnhof, exit Rahel-Hirsch-Straße 19 - Haus der Kulturen der Welt 20 - Bellevue Palace 21 - Bikini Haus, Budapester Straße 22 - U-/S-Bahn station Zoologischer Garten

Discover central Berlin by twilight on a boat cruise along its major waterway, the River Spree. Hop aboard, sit back, relax, and see the main sights of the city from the calm waters in the evening light, feeling the pulse of the bustling city. Start your cruise by Friedrichstraße and pass the Federal Chancellery with its floor-to-ceiling glass walls and modern architecture. Make your way to the pristine white building and manicured garden of Bellevue Palace, overlooking the Victory Column and surrounded by the leafy Tiergarten park. See the Berlin Central Station with its green glass structure and the Interior Ministry in Moabit before continuing to the iconic and rococo Charlottenburg Palace. Once a royal summer residence, the palace today is Berlin's largest and most magnificent one. Then, cruise past Westhafen Canal, the Berlin-Spandau Ship Canal, the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Hamburger Bahnhof. Finally, head back to Friedrichstraße, where your tour ends.

Visit the Pergamon Museum, whose redevelopment will transform it into a worldwide attraction among the Berlin museums. The redevelopment is still ongoing, however, you will be able to enjoy most of the museum. The Antiquity Collection The Pergamon antique collection is one of the world's most significant collections of Greek and Roman art. See the architectural installations from Ancient Greece and Rome, including the gem of Roman architecture: the Market Gate of Miletus from circa 100 AD. As part of the renovation, the hall with the Pergamon Altar will remain closed until at least 2024. The Middle East Museum The Middle East Museum collects artifacts of the 6,000-year cultural history of civilizations such as Mesopotamia, Assyria, and Anatolia. Among the 270,000 objects, the main attractions are the reconstruction of the gloriously colorful Ishtar Gate and the Procession Way of Babylon from the time of Nebuchadnezzar II. Gaze in wonder at the earliest examples of writing in Cuneiform script on clay tablets from Uruk. Islamic Art Museum The Museum for Islamic Art displays both masterpieces of applied art and archaeological artifacts from Muslim as well as Christian and Jewish groups from the 8th to 19th century. Let yourself be amazed by architectural works that you will not find in any other museum. See the richly decorated stone facade of the Mshatta palace and the famous Aleppo Room with its colorfully painted wall paneling.