Berlin walking tours compared: tip-based walks, city walks from €15, Third Reich and Cold War tours, bike tours and hop-on hop-off buses

💡 The Short Version: For a first orientation, the SANDEMANs free tour takes about 2 hours from the Brandenburg Gate to Checkpoint Charlie, and Original Berlin Tours’ free tour 3.5 hours from Alexanderplatz; both run on tips. A paid city walk is from €15 on Original Berlin Walks’ own site, and Explore Berlinad is from €16.25 for 3 hours. For history, the Third Reich and Cold War walkad is from €16.73 for 2 hours and the Third Reich, Hitler and WWII walkad from €19.36 for 3. Guided bike tours start at €24 and hop-on hop-off buses at €21. The walks are outdoors: none includes entry to a museum or the Reichstag dome. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices for one adult and move with the date (GetYourGuide).

The tours, compared

Tip-based walks

SANDEMANs free tour

Tips · about 2 hours · Brandenburg Gate to Checkpoint Charlie

The Berlin free tour starts in front of the Starbucks at the Brandenburg Gate (S/U Brandenburger Tor) and ends at Checkpoint Charlie. There is no fixed price: you pay the guide at the end. You can book a place online or turn up at the start point.

Original Berlin Tours free tour

Tips · 3.5 hours · Alexanderplatz

Original Berlin Tours meets in front of Generator Berlin Alexanderplatz, Otto-Braun-Straße 65, for a 3.5-hour tip-based tour, with free cancellation up to 24 hours before.

GuruWalk

Tips · independent guides · times by date

GuruWalk lists tip-based walks by independent guides. Each listing shows its language, meeting point and the times for each date.

City walks

Discover Berlin

From €15 on the operator’s site, €18 on GetYourGuide · 3.5 to 4 hours · about 5 km

Original Berlin Walks’ Discover Berlin Tour is a half-day introduction to the landmarks and the stories that connect Prussia, Nazism, the Cold War and reunification. It covers Museum Island, Unter den Linden, the Berlin Cathedral and Checkpoint Charlie, and passes the Reichstag, the Book Burning Memorial and the TV Tower. It meets outside the Starbucks at Hackescher Markt, Neue Promenade 3, near the S-Bahn station, 10 minutes before departure. It runs in all weathers with no minimum group size, includes a coffee and bathroom break, and uses a step-free route. Free cancellation is up to 24 hours before. GetYourGuide sells the same tour as Berlin: Discover Berlin Walking Tourad, listed at 2 to 4 hours (6,703 reviews). The Berlin WelcomeCard all inclusive covers an Original Berlin Walks tour: see the WelcomeCard against the Museum Pass.

Explore Berlin

From €16.25 · 2,674 reviews · 3 hours

Explore Berlin: See All The Iconic Sights & Some Hidden Gemsad takes in the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag and passes Checkpoint Charlie and a piece of the Wall. The sights themselves are in what to book before you go to Berlin.

History walks

The Nazi-era and Cold War walks are outdoor walks with a guide. They do not include entry to museums or memorial exhibitions.

Third Reich and Cold War

From €16.73 · 9,926 reviews · 2 hours · English

Berlin: Third Reich & Cold War 2 Hour Guided Walking Tourad is Insider Tour Berlin’s history walk, covering Berlin under the Third Reich and the division of the city in the years after. Its 3-hour sibling, Berlin: Third Reich, Hitler, and WWII Walking Tourad, is from €19.36 (2,819 reviews), and follows the rise and fall of Nazi Germany.

Original Berlin Walks: WWII and the Third Reich

From €15 · 4 hours · an AB ticket is needed

The 4-hour WWII and Third Reich tour goes by the Reichstag, the former Nazi ministries, the Topography of Terror, the site of Hitler’s bunker, the Holocaust Memorial, the Jewish district, the New Synagogue and Otto Weidt’s workshop. It is outdoors, and the visit to buildings, museums and memorial exhibitions is not included. It needs a Berlin AB public-transport ticket, which is €4.00 for a single or €11.20 for 24 hours: see Berlin public transport. It meets at the same Starbucks at Hackescher Markt. The same operator runs a 2-hour East Berlin tour on the Wall, the Stasi and everyday life in the GDR, and a 6-hour tour to the Sachsenhausen Memorial.

Along the Wall

€25 · 796 reviews · 2 hours

Berlin: Wall Tour, Fates, Love Stories and Heroesad follows the original route of the Berlin Wall. The memorial on Bernauer Straße and the East Side Gallery are free to visit on your own: see the Berlin Wall Memorial and the East Side Gallery. Under the street at Bernauer Straße, the Berliner Unterwelten’s tour on the escape tunnels is covered in Berlin underground tours.

Themed walks

Backyards and street art

Hidden Backyards €20 · 6,413 reviews · 2 hours · Street Art €20 · 1,174 reviews · 3 hours

Berlin: Hidden Backyards Guided Walking Tourad visits courtyards, alleys and lesser-known creative spaces. Berlin: City Street Art Guided Walking Tourad covers murals and graffiti across the east and the west. Original Berlin Walks adds a 3-hour street art tour in Kreuzberg, a 3-hour queer Berlin tour centred on Schöneberg and a 3-hour tour of the women who shaped the city.

The tiled facades of the first courtyard of the Hackesche Höfe. Photo: HerrAdams, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Bike tours

From €24 · 2 to 5.5 hours · the Wall route

Guided bike tours are listed on GetYourGuide at the prices below, which are the lowest “from” prices for one adult.

To ride on your own, GetYourGuide lists bike hire: Berlin Bike Rentalsad from €5 for 2 to 8 hours, and Berlin: 48-Hour or 72-Hour Bike Rentalad at €30. A bicycle on public transport needs its own ticket: see Berlin public transport.

Rental bicycles at a rack in Kreuzberg. Photo: JoachimKohler-HB, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Hop-on hop-off buses

From €21

A hop-on hop-off bus is for the long distances between sights, such as the west of the city; the central sights are within walking or S-Bahn distance of each other. City Sightseeing sells 24-hour and 48-hour tickets on its own site, and the Berlin WelcomeCard all inclusive includes a day on the City Circle sightseeing bus.

Which tour

• Free: the SANDEMANs tour from the Brandenburg Gate, or Original Berlin Tours from Alexanderplatz; both on tips.
• One walk for the central sights: Discover Berlin, from €15, or Explore Berlin, from €16.25.
• History, in 2 hours: the Third Reich and Cold War walk, from €16.73.
• The Wall: the 2-hour Wall tour at €25, or a guided bike tour along its route.
• Courtyards and murals: Hidden Backyards or the street art tour, €20 each.
• A guide on two wheels: from €24.
• For the long distances: a hop-on hop-off bus, from €21.

For a walk with food, see the Berlin food tours. For the water, see the Spree river cruises, and for the bunkers, the Berlin underground tours. What to book before you go to Berlin lists the sights that need tickets and the days they are closed, 3 days in Berlin fits a tour into the days around them, and Berlin public transport covers the way to the meeting points. Where to stay in Berlin compares the areas. The sights a walk passes have their own pages: the Reichstag dome, the Holocaust Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, the DDR Museum, Stasi Museum or Hohenschönhausen and Museum Island. Free things to do in Berlin lists what costs nothing.