What to See in Berlin in 2 Days: the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie and the TV Tower

On Good Friday 2018 the sun was out in Berlin, and shortly after half past one I was standing at the Brandenburg Gate. Going by my photos, the route ran from the gate past the Reichstag and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe to Berlin Cathedral and then up the TV Tower, and I walked the whole thing. Around four I was up at the top – the view was amazing and there weren’t many people.

On Saturday it rained, and around eleven I was standing at Checkpoint Charlie, which made an impression on me. That visit was in 2018, so everything practical – tickets, parking and the low-emission zone – is up to date as of 2026.

I drove to Berlin, so besides a 2-day route this article also covers hotels with parking and what you need to know about the low-emission zone. Without a green sticker you can’t drive or park inside the S-Bahn ring (Ringbahn), and the fine is €100.

Quick summary: Berlin in 2 days

I put together the two-day route below from the timestamps on my Berlin photos and added today’s prices and opening hours.

• Day 1 – historic centre: Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag from outside, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Unter den Linden, Museum Island with Berlin Cathedral and finally the TV Tower. The whole route can be walked.
• Day 2 – traces of the Wall: Checkpoint Charlie, two segments of the Berlin Wall a short way from it, and the Topography of Terror with its outdoor exhibition and the exhibition inside.
• Free: the Reichstag dome, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the Topography of Terror. The memorial is open around the clock, the Topography of Terror 10:00–20:00.
• Reichstag dome by registration only: entry is free, but you have to register online in advance. The dome is closed 19–30 October 2026.
• TV Tower: the official ticket costs from €20. With it you skip the queue at the ticket desk, but not the queue to get in.
• Public transport: a 24-hour ticket for zones AB costs €11.20 (2026 prices), and zones AB cover the whole city.
• Bikes everywhere: I was struck by how many bikes there are all over Berlin.
• Accommodation with parking: parking at the hotel comes to €7.30–€30 a day. Cheapest at ibis budget Berlin Alexanderplatz (€7.30), and 400 m from Checkpoint Charlie is Mercure Hotel & Residenz Berlin Checkpoint Charlie (€30). You’ll find all four tips in the accommodation section.
• Green sticker: without it you may not enter the low-emission zone inside the S-Bahn ring (Ringbahn). The fine is €100, even for a car that is just parked there. Order the sticker at least 3 weeks in advance.
• Cheapest garage in the centre: Contipark at Potsdamer Platz for €10 per 24 hours. On a street in the centre, the same amount buys you only 2.5 hours of parking.
• Parking at the hotel: €7.30–€30 a day, depending on the hotel.

Where to stay in Berlin (with parking)

I came to Berlin by car in 2018 and parked at the hotel. I don’t remember which hotel it was, though, so the tips below are picked for drivers, not places I’ve tried myself.

Each of the four hotels has parking right in the building or next door, and the parking prices are from their websites as of 1 October 2026. All of them lie inside the S-Bahn ring (Ringbahn), which means inside the low-emission zone, and in Berlin only the green sticker is valid there. I explain how to get one below, in the low-emission zone section.

Parking right at the hotel saves you hunting for a garage and watching the meter on the street. If none of the hotels suits you, you’ll find alternatives below in the parking section.

Day 1: Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

The first day’s route starts at the Brandenburg Gate and continues to the Reichstag and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. All three places are close together, so you can walk it.

Brandenburg Gate and Pariser Platz

I was at the Brandenburg Gate on Good Friday 2018 at around half past one in the afternoon. It was a public holiday, the sun was out, the sky was completely blue, and Pariser Platz in front of the gate was full of people.

The gate is the best-known symbol of Berlin. While the city was divided it stood in the border zone by the Berlin Wall and people couldn’t get to it. Today you can walk through it freely, day or night, and you pay nothing.

Reichstag: dome free, but with registration

From the gate it’s just a few minutes on foot to the Reichstag, the seat of the German parliament. I stood in front of it a little after half past one, but I didn’t go inside or up to the dome, so I only know the Reichstag from outside.

Visiting the glass dome is, in fact, free. But you can’t just walk in off the street – you have to register in advance (source: bundestag.de).

• Admission: free, but only with advance registration.
• Online registration: via the official Bundestag website, ideally as soon as you know the date of your trip. For each person you enter a first name, surname and date of birth, and registering by phone isn’t possible.
• Registration on the spot: at the service centre on Platz der Republik, at least 2 hours before your visit and only if there are still free places. Then you come back at your time slot.
• Last entry: 21:45.
• Closed: the dome will be closed for maintenance 19–30 October 2026. The roof terrace stays accessible during that time.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

From here it’s another short walk, just south of the gate. I was at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe at around two in the afternoon.

The memorial is a field of concrete stelae of varying heights, with narrow paths running between them over undulating ground. Under the field of stelae there is an underground information centre.

It is a place of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust, so be quiet and respectful here. Don’t climb on the stelae, don’t sit on them and don’t jump between them.

• Admission: free, both the field of stelae and the information centre (source: stiftung-denkmal.de).
• Field of stelae: open 24 hours.
• Information centre: Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00, last entry 45 minutes before closing. Closed on Mondays.

The next stop on the route is Berlin Cathedral, which I write about in the next section.

Museum Island and Berlin Cathedral

Around half past two in the afternoon I was standing in Lustgarten park in front of Berlin Cathedral. The sun was still shining, and behind the cathedral’s dome rose the TV Tower, where I was heading later that day.

Museum Island is the northern part of an island in the Spree, at the end of the boulevard Unter den Linden. One straight street leads to it from the Brandenburg Gate, so it’s a natural continuation of the first day’s route.

I didn’t go inside, not into the cathedral and not into any of the museums. So I won’t describe the interiors or the collections to you, because I haven’t seen them.

A Spree cruise

From the embankment I took a photo of the Spree with the cathedral and the tour boats, but I didn’t take a boat back then. If you want to see Museum Island from the water as well, there is a Spree cruise, which departs right opposite Berlin Cathedral and lasts 1 hour.

The boat leaves from a landing stage right next to the DDR Museum. It has a panoramic roof that opens in nice weather, and it runs in the rain too.

TV Tower: a view that’s worth it

The TV Tower (Fernsehturm) stands on Alexanderplatz, and you can see it from almost everywhere in the centre. The viewing platform is at a height of 203 m and you look out through glass.

I was up there on Good Friday 2018 at around four in the afternoon. The view was amazing and there weren’t many people up there. At the bar I then had an Aperol for about €8, but that’s a 2018 price and I don’t have a verified current one.

It was also just one visit, over a public holiday, so don’t take the lack of crowds up there as the norm.

• Viewing platform open: 9:00–23:00
• Sphere bar: 11:00–23:00, access to it is included in the regular ticket (subject to capacity)
• Closed: 23 November 2026 (source: tv-turm.de)

Tickets and queues

The tower’s operator sells tickets on its website. A standard ticket costs from €20, and with one drink at the bar from €31. The final price depends on the date and the option.

You can buy the same official ticket through GetYourGuide too, where the provider is the tower’s operator itself, TV-Turm Alexanderplatz Gastronomiegesellschaft mbH.

A ticket bought online saves you the queue at the ticket desk, but not the queue at the entrance. Everyone queues there, even with a ticket on their phone, and the operator says so itself on its website.

Official ticket for the TV Tower – ticket via GetYourGuide – no queue at the ticket desk, but at the entrance you wait like everyone else.

Tickets from the tower’s website can’t be cancelled. You can rebook them online up to 10 minutes before your entry time.

Day 2: Checkpoint Charlie

On Saturday 31 March 2018 at around eleven in the morning it was raining, but there were still crowds of people with umbrellas on Friedrichstraße. Checkpoint Charlie made an impression on me.

In the days of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie was a border crossing between the American sector of West Berlin and East Berlin, and it mainly served Allied soldiers, diplomats and foreigners. The origin of the name is simple – Charlie is the letter C in the phonetic alphabet, following checkpoints Alpha and Bravo.

Today a replica of the guard booth with sandbags stands here, and a large portrait of a soldier hangs over the street – American on one side, Soviet on the other. I also photographed a sign reading YOU ARE ENTERING THE AMERICAN SECTOR in English, Russian, French and German. It’s the side facing the former Soviet sector, so the sign is for those who came from the east.

Expect it to be one of the most touristy spots in the city. The place itself is an ordinary street, so you pay nothing.

Right next to it is Mauermuseum – Haus am Checkpoint Charlie. I stood in front of it but didn’t go inside, so I can’t tell you whether the €18.50 admission is worth it.

• Where: Friedrichstraße at the junction with Zimmerstraße. The nearest metro station is Kochstraße (line U6).
• Entry: free – the booth and the sign stand on a public street.
• Mauermuseum: admission €18.50, open daily 10:00–20:00.
• By car: the street here is in parking zone 2. You’ll find prices and garages below in the parking section.
• Where to sleep nearby: Mercure Hotel & Residenz Berlin Checkpoint Charlie is a 400 m walk from the crossing.

Tip: combine Checkpoint Charlie with the remains of the Wall and the Topography of Terror. Going by the timestamps on my photos, it took roughly a quarter of an hour from the booth to the Topography’s outdoor exhibition, photo stops included.

The Berlin Wall and the Topography of Terror

Where can you see the Berlin Wall in Berlin? Mainly in three places: at the Topography of Terror, at the East Side Gallery and on Bernauer Straße. My photos only show the first one; you’ll find the other two further down.

A few steps from Checkpoint Charlie, still in the rain, stood two original segments of the Wall, and behind them panels of an outdoor exhibition about the Cold War.

A bit further on, at the Topography of Terror, there is a longer surviving stretch of the Wall, with an outdoor exhibition of historical photographs running along beneath it. In my photos from 2018 the concrete was crumbling off it and reinforcing bars were sticking out.

The Topography of Terror stands on the site where the Gestapo and SS leadership was based under the Nazis, and today there is a documentation centre here. I walked through the outdoor part by the Wall and also went inside the documentation centre.

• Admission: free.
• Opening hours: daily 10:00–20:00, the outdoor part only until dusk.
• Website: topographie.de – current exhibitions and opening times.
• Combined with Checkpoint Charlie: both places fit into one morning.

Where you can still see the Wall

I’m listing these places because this is where people most often go to see the Wall. I haven’t been to the East Side Gallery.

• East Side Gallery: the longest surviving stretch of the Wall, along the Spree in Friedrichshain, painted by artists from all over the world.
• Berlin Wall Memorial (Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer): the main memorial site on Bernauer Straße, where a piece of the border strip has been preserved, including a reconstructed watchtower.
• The line in the paving: in many places in the centre, a double row of cobblestones follows the former route of the Wall.

Getting around Berlin: public transport and bikes

You don’t need a car in the centre. The first-day route from this article can be walked in full – from the Brandenburg Gate past the Reichstag and the memorial, all the way to Berlin Cathedral and the TV Tower.

For longer hops, public transport comes in handy, especially if you’re staying further from the centre or it rains. And then there are the bikes – Berlin really has a lot of them.

Tickets and the WelcomeCard

The metro (U-Bahn), the city railway (S-Bahn), trams and buses all run on a single ticket. The city is divided into fare zones A, B and C. Zones AB cover all of Berlin, and zone C is the area around the city, including Potsdam and BER airport.

So for the sights in the centre, an AB ticket is all you need. Here are the prices for 2026:

Ticket	Zones	Price
Single ticket (valid for 2 hours)	AB	€4
24-hour ticket	AB	€11.20
24-hour ticket	ABC	€12.90
Group 24-hour ticket (up to 5 people)	AB	€35.30
WelcomeCard 48 hours	AB	€28.50
WelcomeCard 72 hours	AB	€39.50

Which ticket to buy depends on how many times a day you’ll ride:

• One or two rides: a single ticket for €4. It’s valid for 2 hours for one journey, and you can change lines.
• Three or more rides: a 24-hour AB ticket for €11.20. Even with three rides, it works out cheaper than three single tickets.
• In a group: the AB group 24-hour ticket for €35.30 is valid for up to 5 people. Compared with individual 24-hour tickets, it works out cheaper from four people.
• A trip to Potsdam: there you need zones ABC, and a 24-hour ticket costs €12.90.

Validate a paper ticket in the stamping machine on the platform or on board before you travel, because an unstamped ticket isn’t valid.

The WelcomeCard is a public transport ticket that also gets you discounts on museums, tours and attractions. For 48 hours in zones AB it costs €28.50, whereas two 24-hour AB tickets come to €22.40.

So the card costs you €6.10 more than the transport alone. It’s only worth it if you actually use the discounts. If you mainly want to walk around outdoor sights such as the Berlin Wall or Checkpoint Charlie, you don’t need the card.

The 25% discount on the TV Tower is available only at the ticket desk in the tower itself and doesn’t apply to tickets bought online. If you buy your tower ticket in advance, the WelcomeCard won’t save you anything on it.

Berlin by bike

One more thing caught my eye in Berlin in 2018. Bikes. They were everywhere.

They show up again and again in my photos from that Friday: bikes parked along a shopping street, bikes in a cycle lane, cyclists in front of the Reichstag. Berlin is flat and cycle lanes run right through the centre, so a bike makes sense here even for a few days.

You can rent a bike on your own – at a rental shop or through a bike-sharing app. But if you want some commentary along with the ride, a guided tour is the way to go.

For a city full of bikes, the best choice is a bike tour following the traces of the Cold War and the Berlin Wall. It lasts 3.5 hours and takes you to places where the city was divided, including the Brandenburg Gate. The English-language version also stops at Checkpoint Charlie, but it shows the Wall mainly on Bernauer Straße.

The tour starts at the Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg, not in the historic centre. For small children, the operator has child seats and trailers.

Driving to Berlin: the low-emission zone and the green sticker

If you’re driving to Berlin, as I did, sort out the low-emission zone first. In 2018, I had the green sticker on my car. The rules below were checked as of 1 October 2026.

Berlin’s low-emission zone (Umweltzone) lies inside the S-Bahn ring (Ringbahn). It covers the entire centre – the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the TV Tower and Checkpoint Charlie. The zone has existed since 2008, and the green sticker has been mandatory since 2010, permanently and with no time restriction.

• Which sticker: it has to be green. The colour your car gets depends on the Euro emission standard in its vehicle registration document.
• It applies to your car too: foreign-registered cars need a sticker just like German ones.
• Fine: €100. You get it for driving without a sticker, but also for a car that’s simply parked in the zone.
• Validity: one sticker is valid in all low-emission zones in Germany, and it has no expiry date.

Tip: If you drive from Prague like me and stop in Dresden on the way, you don’t need a sticker there, because Dresden has no low-emission zone. More in the Dresden guide.

You pay nothing for German motorways in a passenger car – the charge is €0, and there’s no motorway vignette in Germany. Tolls are collected only on a few individual stretches and tunnels.

Where to buy the sticker, and why not at the last minute

Order the sticker several weeks before your trip. Berlin’s own authority advises visitors from abroad to apply about 3 weeks in advance, and it gives the average processing time as 3–4 weeks.

• Berlin registration office: €5 in person, online about €6 including postage. You apply through the official website service.berlin.de, where you upload a scan or a photo of your registration document. You pay by card or through PayPal.
• ADAC, TÜV, DEKRA and others: stickers are also issued by the German motoring club ADAC and by the vehicle inspection organisations TÜV, DEKRA, GTÜ and KÜS. TÜV and DEKRA offer online ordering for foreign cars too. Private sellers set their own price, usually €5–20.

Watch out for the Berlin web shop. As of 1 October 2026, it carries a notice saying that the office does accept applications but isn’t processing them for now because of a switch to a new system, and there’s no date for when that will start. If the office doesn’t get back to you in time and your trip is getting close, don’t wait: order the sticker from TÜV or DEKRA, because the ADAC web shop states delivery only within Germany. Even a pricier sticker from a private seller (€5–20) works out cheaper than a €100 fine.

Where to park in Berlin

Most drivers assume that street parking is the cheapest option, but in central Berlin it’s the other way round. Street parking is expensive and you pay until late in the evening, so a garage often works out cheaper. Even the Berlin Senate says so.

Street parking

The centre is divided into parking zones, and you’ll find the zone number and the hours when payment applies on the sign. In the most expensive zones in the centre, parking costs €4 an hour, charged at €1 per quarter of an hour.

You pay Mon–Sat 9:00–22:00, so the idea that parking is free in the evening doesn’t hold here.

• Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag: zone 34, €3 an hour, also Mon–Sat 9:00–22:00.
• Alexanderplatz and the TV Tower: zone 3, €4 an hour, Mon–Sat 9:00–22:00.
• Checkpoint Charlie: zone 2, €4 an hour, Mon–Sat 9:00–22:00.
• Karl-Liebknecht-Straße: here you pay Mon–Sun 9:00–24:00, so on Sundays too, and right up to midnight. An hour costs €4.
• Sundays and public holidays: in the other central zones you don’t pay on Sundays. A public holiday on a weekday, such as Good Friday, counts as a Sunday.
• Paying: the machines take cards and cash. You can also pay through an app, such as EasyPark or PayByPhone. Put the paper ticket where it’s clearly visible behind the windscreen.
• Fine: without a ticket, or with an expired one, you’ll pay €20–40, depending on how long the car was parked.
• Towing: if your car is at a bus or tram stop, on a cycle path or in front of a driveway, the police will move it elsewhere. That can cost up to €271. You can find out where your car ended up from the police on +49 30 4664 709800.

Garages near the main sights

The Center am Potsdamer Platz garage costs €10 for 24 hours. On the street in the centre, you’d spend the same amount in 2.5 hours. It isn’t an online special offer, it’s the standard price when you drive in.

The closer to the Brandenburg Gate, the more it costs. The Adlon garage is 117 m from the gate and a day there costs €66. The prices below come from the operators’ websites as of 1 October 2026.

Garage	Where	Price	Notes
Center am Potsdamer Platz (Contipark)	Bellevuestraße, Potsdamer Platz	€10 per 24 h	€3 per hour, 24/7, height limit 2 m
Friedrichstadt-Passagen (Contipark)	Taubenstraße, north of Checkpoint Charlie	€32 per 24 h	€4 per hour, 24/7, height limit 2 m
Adlon (APCOA)	Unter den Linden, 117 m from the Brandenburg Gate	€66 per day	€3 per half hour, 24/7, height limit only 1.80 m
Cora Berliner Straße (APCOA)	by the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, 218 m from the gate	€50 per day	€2.50 per half hour, 24/7, height limit 2 m
Alexa (APCOA)	Grunerstraße, 468 m from the TV Tower	€25 per day	entry and exit only 6:00–0:30, height limit 1.90 m

• Adlon and tall cars: entry is limited to 1.80 m, so an SUV with a roof box won’t fit. Measure your car’s height beforehand.
• Alexa isn’t for overnight stays: you can only drive in and out between 6:00 and 0:30. That’s fine for a day trip to the tower, but leave the car somewhere else overnight.

Park + Ride

Don’t want to take the car into the centre at all? Leave it on the edge of the city. The P+R car parks at S-Bahn and metro stations are mostly free.

The catch is that they fill up quickly on weekdays. In a 2023 survey by the VBB transport association, a number of them were running at 90–125% capacity on weekday mornings, for example S+U Tempelhof, U Rudow and U Alt-Mariendorf.

All the P+R car parks from this survey are still within Berlin, so an AB ticket is enough. A single ticket costs €4 and is valid for 2 hours. For a whole day in the city, there’s the 24-hour AB ticket for €11.20.

A P+R beyond the S-Bahn ring is also outside the low-emission zone, so your car never enters it and you take public transport into the centre.

The simplest option is to park right at your hotel. At the hotels I recommend in the accommodation section, a garage costs €7.30–30 a day.

Frequently asked questions