Home
Berlin
Almost free

Not free, but almost: Berlin

Official sources checked Oct 5, 2026

Everything else on this site costs nothing. These cost a little, and we list them because what you get is far bigger than the price.

€4.50

Victory Column viewing platform

Tiergarten, Großer Stern

The Siegessäule in the middle of the Tiergarten has a platform right under the gilded figure, 285 steps up a spiral stair. It is open from 9:30 to 19:00 in summer and 9:30 to 17:30 in winter.

The cheapest paid view in Berlin, straight down the avenue to the Brandenburg Gate. Bring coins or notes, it is cash only, and use the pedestrian tunnels to reach the column because you cannot cross the roundabout.

Source: Berlin.de (official city portal)

€3

Humboldt Forum roof terrace

Mitte, Museum Island

The roof of the rebuilt palace is open Wednesday to Monday from 10:30 to 18:30. You look across at the cathedral dome and down Unter den Linden, with the TV Tower behind you.

Worth it. For €3 you stand at dome height opposite the Berliner Dom, which itself charges far more to climb. Go in the last hour, when the low sun hits the cathedral.

Source: Humboldt Forum

€4.00

Bus 100, upper deck

Zoo to Alexanderplatz

An ordinary double-decker city bus that happens to pass the Memorial Church, the Victory Column, Bellevue Palace, the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, Unter den Linden and Museum Island. A single AB ticket costs €4.00 and is valid for two hours in one direction.

The sightseeing bus for the price of a ticket. Board at Zoologischer Garten, where it starts, to get the front seats upstairs. You may get off and on again within the two hours as long as you keep going the same way.

Source: BVG

€5

Public tour at the Berlin Wall Memorial

Mitte, Bernauer Straße

The Berlin Wall Foundation runs its own public tours of the Bernauer Straße site for €5, reduced €3. Guides walk you along the border strip and explain what each layer was for.

The memorial is free on your own, but the strip is hard to read without help and this is the cheapest good guide in the city. Check the programme on the foundation's site for English dates before you go.

Source: Berlin Wall Foundation

PAID · ONE PER CITY

If you spend on one thing in Berlin, make it this.

Neues Museum on Museum Island

No free museum in Berlin has anything like the bust of Nefertiti, alone in her own domed room, or David Chipperfield's rebuilding of a bombed shell with the scars left visible. With the Pergamon Museum largely closed for years, this is the Museum Island ticket to buy. Go on a weekday at opening and walk straight to the north dome room.

Everything above is free. This is the only paid pick on the page, chosen because no free option replaces it.

See tickets and prices