Berlin Free Audio Guide and Walking Tour in 10 Stops
Berlin is a long day out from Prague — about four hours each way — but one well-planned walk through its centre shows you the city’s whole 20th century in a single afternoon. This page is a free audio guide to that walk in English, written out and read aloud: ten stops from the Reichstag to Alexanderplatz, about 6 km and four to five hours with short visits. Keep the page open on your phone and play or read each stop as you reach it. The walk costs nothing; you pay only for the museums and towers you go into.
Listen to the audio guide — each stop below has its own track, about a minute long. Start with the introduction:
Or download the whole tour as one MP3 (8 minutes, 4 MB) and listen to it in the car on the way, or offline in Berlin.
Fixed price car, up to 4 · minivan, up to 8 · confirmed in writing
Private day trip from your Prague hotel to Berlin and back
- An early pick-up at your hotel or apartment in Prague, at the time you choose
- About four hours to Berlin via Dresden; the driver drops you at the Reichstag, the start of this walk
- Five to six hours in the city while the driver waits
- The driver collects you at Alexanderplatz, the end of the walk, and takes you back to your hotel in Prague the same night
- Price for the whole car and the whole day, not per person: fuel, tolls, parking, waiting and child seats included
Tell us the date, your hotel in Prague, when you would like to leave and how many of you there are — we confirm the car and the price in writing. +420 773 477 799 (WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram) · cz@cztransfer.com · one way to Berlin
Order
How you can pay
- Cash to the driver — euros, Czech crowns, US dollars or pounds sterling
- Card to the driver, contactless — Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, American Express, or pay by phone
- Card or PayPal online, before the trip — Visa, Mastercard, American Express; the payment processor adds a 6% fee
- Crypto, before the trip — USDT (TRC-20) or Bitcoin
Payment details · no deposit, pay at the end of the trip if you like
Before you set off
- The day: about fourteen hours door to door. Leave Prague around seven, be in Berlin before eleven, start back at about five and be at your hotel by nine
- Distance: about 6 km, flat. If your legs give out, the U5 underground line runs under Unter den Linden from the Brandenburg Gate to Alexanderplatz
- Passports: Berlin is in Germany. Both countries are in Schengen, but Germany runs checks at its land borders, so every passenger needs a passport or national ID card
- Book ahead: the Reichstag dome is free, but only with an online booking made in advance, and you need your passport at the entrance
- Free: the Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust Memorial, the Wall at the Topography of Terror and its exhibition, Checkpoint Charlie, Gendarmenmarkt, Bebelplatz and the Lustgarten
- Paid: the museums on Museum Island, Berlin Cathedral and its dome, and the TV Tower
- In Advent: a tall Christmas tree stands by the Brandenburg Gate, and the route passes Christmas markets at Potsdamer Platz, Gendarmenmarkt and Alexanderplatz, from the end of November until Christmas
- Map: open the route in Google Maps
The walk follows the line where Berlin was cut in two. From the Reichstag to Checkpoint Charlie you walk along the old path of the Wall; then you turn into what was East Berlin and finish under its TV Tower.
Route map
1 the Reichstag · 2 the Brandenburg Gate · 3 the Holocaust Memorial · 4 Potsdamer Platz · 5 the Topography of Terror and the Wall · 6 Checkpoint Charlie · 7 Gendarmenmarkt · 8 Bebelplatz and Unter den Linden · 9 Museum Island and Berlin Cathedral · 10 Alexanderplatz and the TV Tower. Tap the map to open it full size. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
1. The Reichstag
The Reichstag, with the glass dome you can visit on top. Photo: Arild Vågen / CC BY-SA 3.0
Welcome to Berlin. The building in front of you, with the words «Dem Deutschen Volke», To the German People, over its columns, is the Reichstag, the seat of the German parliament.
It was finished in 1894. In 1933, a month after Hitler came to power, it was set on fire, and the Nazis used the fire as an excuse to take away basic rights. In 1945 Soviet soldiers raised their flag on its roof, in one of the most famous photographs of the war. After the fall of the Wall, the British architect Norman Foster rebuilt it and crowned it with a glass dome, so that the people could literally stand above their politicians.
The dome is free, with a spiral ramp and a view over the city, but you must book online in advance.
2. The Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate from Pariser Platz. Photo: Berthold Werner / CC BY-SA 3.0
Walk south along Ebertstraße. A line of cobblestones in the road marks where the Berlin Wall ran. Then turn left to the Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of Berlin.
It was built from 1788 to 1791 by Carl Gotthard Langhans, as a gate of peace, and crowned by the Quadriga, a goddess of victory driving four horses. Napoleon took the Quadriga to Paris in 1806; the Prussians brought it back eight years later.
From 1961 the gate stood in the no-man’s-land of the Wall, and nobody could walk through it. In 1987 President Reagan stood on the western side and said, «Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!» Two years later, crowds danced on the Wall right here. Walk through the gate to Pariser Platz, which was in the East, and then come back.
3. The Holocaust Memorial
The 2,711 concrete stelae of the Holocaust Memorial. Photo: Dietmar Rabich / CC BY-SA 4.0
Just south of the gate is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, opened in 2005 and designed by the American architect Peter Eisenman. It is a field of 2,711 grey concrete blocks of different heights on sloping ground.
There is no single way to read it. From the edge it looks like a gentle grey wave; walk into it, and the blocks rise above you, the ground drops, the noise of the city fades, and you lose sight of the people you came with. Under the field, an information centre tells the stories of individual victims and families.
Please remember that it is a memorial: no climbing on the blocks, and no jumping between them.
4. Potsdamer Platz
Potsdamer Platz, rebuilt on what was the death strip. Photo: Ansgar Koreng / CC BY-SA 3.0 de
Continue down Ebertstraße to Potsdamer Platz. In the 1920s this was one of the busiest squares in Europe, full of trams, cars and cafés, and it had one of the first traffic lights in Germany; a copy of the old traffic-light tower stands here today.
The war destroyed it, and then the Wall ran straight across it, so for almost thirty years it was an empty wasteland. After 1990 it was rebuilt from nothing as a new business district of glass towers. Look for the sections of the Berlin Wall set up by the station entrances, and for the double row of cobblestones that marks where the Wall stood.
5. The Topography of Terror and the Wall
The longest surviving stretch of the Wall in the centre, at the Topography of Terror. Photo: N-Lange.de / CC BY-SA 3.0
Walk along Stresemannstraße and turn left into Niederkirchnerstraße. On your right runs one of the longest stretches of the Berlin Wall left in the city centre, about two hundred metres of grey, chipped concrete.
Behind it, the ground was the most feared address in Nazi Germany: the headquarters of the Gestapo, the SS and the security service stood here. Today, on the bare site, the Topography of Terror documentation centre tells how that terror was organised. Entry is free, and even a short visit is worth it.
6. Checkpoint Charlie
The copy of the Checkpoint Charlie guard hut on Friedrichstraße. Photo: Maksym Kozlenko / CC BY-SA 4.0
Keep walking east: Niederkirchnerstraße becomes Zimmerstraße and brings you out on Friedrichstraße at Checkpoint Charlie, the most famous crossing point between East and West Berlin. It was used by foreigners, diplomats and Allied soldiers. In October 1961, American and Soviet tanks stood facing each other here for sixteen hours, one of the most dangerous moments of the Cold War.
The guard hut and the sandbags in the middle of the road are a copy, and the place is crowded and full of souvenir stalls. Look instead for the large photographs of a Soviet and an American soldier, and for the sign «You are leaving the American sector». Several small museums nearby tell the stories of people who escaped across the Wall.
7. Gendarmenmarkt
Gendarmenmarkt: the Konzerthaus between the two cathedrals. Photo: Jorge Lascar / CC BY-SA 3.0
Walk north up Friedrichstraße into the old East, and turn right to Gendarmenmarkt, often called the most beautiful square in Berlin. Two almost identical domed churches face each other across it: the French Cathedral, built for the Huguenots, French Protestants who fled to Berlin in the 17th century, and the German Cathedral. Between them stands the Konzerthaus, the concert hall designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the great architect of Prussian Berlin.
In Advent, this square usually holds one of the city’s most elegant Christmas markets, with craft stalls between the two cathedrals.
8. Bebelplatz and Unter den Linden
The empty library under the glass on Bebelplatz. Photo: Kemmi.1 (Stefan Kemmerling) / CC BY-SA 3.0
Walk north to Bebelplatz, a wide square on Unter den Linden, the old royal boulevard of Berlin. Around it stand the State Opera, the domed St Hedwig’s Cathedral and the old royal library, and across the boulevard is the Humboldt University, where Albert Einstein taught and Karl Marx studied.
On the night of 10 May 1933, Nazi students burned about twenty thousand books by Jewish, left-wing and other «un-German» authors on this square. In the middle of it, look down through a glass panel in the pavement: below is an empty white library, with shelves for twenty thousand books — the memorial to that night.
9. Museum Island and Berlin Cathedral
Berlin Cathedral, with the TV Tower behind. Photo: Berthold Werner / CC BY-SA 3.0
Follow Unter den Linden east across the river Spree to the Lustgarten, the green square in front of Berlin Cathedral, with its great green dome. The cathedral was finished in 1905 for the Prussian royal family, and the Hohenzollern kings and queens lie in its crypt. You can climb to the gallery around the dome.
Behind it lies Museum Island, five great museums on one island, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The most famous single treasure is the bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti in the Neues Museum. The Pergamon Museum is closed for a long renovation, so check before you plan a visit.
Opposite the cathedral stands the rebuilt Berlin Palace, now the Humboldt Forum museum. The palace was blown up by the East German government in 1950, and its Baroque fronts were rebuilt only recently.
10. Alexanderplatz and the TV Tower
The TV Tower, the tallest structure in Germany. Photo: Tobi85 / CC BY-SA 4.0
Continue along Karl-Liebknecht-Straße, past the little medieval St Mary’s Church, the Neptune Fountain and the red-brick Town Hall, to the TV Tower. It was built by East Germany in 1969 to show the West what socialism could do, and at 368 metres it is still the tallest structure in Germany. When the sun shines on its steel ball, a bright cross appears on it, which Berliners nicknamed the Pope’s revenge. A lift takes you up to the viewing platform and the revolving restaurant.
Just beyond is Alexanderplatz, the main square of East Berlin, with the World Clock that shows the time all around the globe. In Advent, the area between the Town Hall and Alexanderplatz fills with Christmas markets, an ice rink and a big wheel.
This is the end of the walk. If you came on the day trip, this is where your driver picks you up for the drive home.
Getting to Berlin from Prague
Berlin is about 350 km and four hours by car from Prague, through Dresden. A day trip is long, but with a driver you can sleep or listen to this guide on the way. If you would rather stay in Berlin, see our one-way taxi from Prague to Berlin. Trains and buses are compared on our how to get there page.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free audio guide to Berlin in English?
Yes — this page. Every stop has its own English audio track that plays in your phone’s browser, and the whole tour is also one MP3 you can download before you go. No app or account is needed.
Can you do Berlin as a day trip from Prague?
Yes, if you accept a long day. It is about four hours each way, so you have five to six hours in Berlin — enough for this walk with short visits, but not for the big museums. With a private driver you can rest on the way.
Do I need a passport to go from Prague to Berlin?
Yes, take a passport or national ID card. Both countries are in Schengen, but Germany runs checks at its land borders, including the Czech one.
How do I visit the Reichstag dome?
Book a free time slot online in advance, as early as you can, and bring your passport or ID: there is a security check at the entrance.
Where can I still see the Berlin Wall in the centre?
On this walk, at Potsdamer Platz and along Niederkirchnerstraße by the Topography of Terror, where about two hundred metres still stand. The longest surviving section, the East Side Gallery, is further east, by the river.
Where are the Christmas markets in central Berlin?
On this route, at Potsdamer Platz, Gendarmenmarkt and around Alexanderplatz and the Town Hall, with a Christmas tree by the Brandenburg Gate. They run from the end of November until Christmas.
