Hey there.
Due to changes in plans for the Nordic cruise my wife and I are taking next month, we have suddenly found ourselves with 36 hours in Berlin - checking in on the evening of September 29th, spending an entire day there, and checking out on the morning of October 1st.
So, Berliners (the people, not the donuts) and Berlin aficionados: a full day in a city we’ve never been to before. Given that we only have those 24 hours, what do we absolutely HAVE to do?
What is your idea of a good day? Museums? Food? Shopping? Music?
Berlin is enormous: Where in Berlin are you staying?
Take a hop-on hop-off bus tour.
I’d recommend the Museum Island, most especially the Pergamon Museum.
I have not been to Berlin but my brother has and he said he really enjoyed a day-trip to Potsdam (which is close to Berlin…a drive but close…an hour drive or so).
Of course, Berlin has loads of museums and art galleries if you like that.
We’re staying at the Mercure Hotel at Checkpoint Charlie. I’m not exactly sure where that puts us vis-à-vis various landmarks, but I’m cool with public transportation, subways especially.
As for what we prefer: Museums - yes, I love museums. Food - definitely, the more authentically local the better. Shopping - sure. Music - if there’s something particularly interesting.
If I may shamelessly plug my own employer, and assuming you’d be up for it on the night you arrive, I’ll give you this:
A staged performance of Handel‘s Messiah with a 500-piece choir in Hangar 4 of former airport Tempelhof, right in the middle of the city (about 4 subway stops from your hotel). I’ll probably be doing sound for that show. Before and after you can check out the whole runway and rest of the airport, which has been converted into a park. That’s most definitely authentically Berlin.
That sounds fascinating!
I see they’re not performing on the 30th, though, so I’ll have to check to see whether we’ll be getting into the city on time on the 29th.
It’s super convenient! Walkable to the Brandenburg Gate (and to the old Berlin Wall checkpoint), and just past that, Friedrichstraße, which is an east-west connection on the S-Bahn. Alternatively both Checkpoint Charlie and Friedrichstrasse are on the U-6 line. The same transit ticket is good for everything.
If you’ve never been to Berlin before and want to tick the Berlin Wall boxes, there’s the checkpoint for your “You are leaving the American Sector” photos and also the East Side Gallery, painted over remnants of the wall along the river, accessible from Friedrichstraße on the S-Bahn. If you were coming in a day earlier, Berlin is very into its Sunday flea markets, but those will almost certainly be closed by that point.
Museum Island is definitely a good recommendation—both the Pergamon and the Egyptian museum. The natural history museum is also on the U-6 line, just a couple stops up. As a working institute it has one of the largest collections in the world; the museum itself is also pretty good, definitely worth an hour or two.
Not to speak negatively of my city, but nobody visits Berlin for the food except maybe pigeons. Berlin’s culinary claim to fame is being self-declared home of the döner kebab, so on the one hand our “spit meat in bread” game is okay, but on the other hand I feel like you probably have plenty of shawarma options.
I would recommend the Tacheles, but at this point I don’t know if there is much art left to see.
Beware of the photo hustlers dressed in Soviet guard uniforms etc who will let you pose with them near the checkpoint or other key locations and then demand a fee. These guys were everywhere last time I was in Berlin.
As others have said, the city is huge. It’s pretty easy to get around but allow lots of time. My recommendation would be to ensure whatever you’re choosing to do, pick activities in close proximity to one another.
Oh, and my favorite quirky museum in Berlin is this one.
If you have an interest in video games, it’s a must. If not, then not so much.
The Pergamon is closed for the next couple of years for renovations. Pick the Alte and Neues museum instead (the Neues has the famous mask of Nefertite), and take a walk around Unter den Linden to the Brandenburger Tor. That may well fill a morning or afternoon.
You can see some other stuff around such a program: walk in the park (Tiergarten), visit the Holocaust monument (and the accompanying visitor centre), visit the DDR museum, Checkpoint Charlie.
From Checkpoint Charlie in the Kochstr. you can also take the bus 29 to the Neue Nationalgalerie (there are so many museums in Berlin it can get confusing: this is a different nationalgalerie than the one in the Museumsinsel: it is the new one by the Philarmonie). It is close to the Tiergarten park, the Brandenburg Gate is just behind the Holocaust Memorial close by. Then you can stroll Unter den Linden to Alexanderplatz: that is as old Berlin as it gets.
Pitchmeister’s idea with the former Airport Tempelhof is brilliant: If you can make it, that will be über-berlinisch.
Alex_Osaki was a bit too harsh to Berlin’s food: we not only have the kebab, we also have the currywurst. And if you want to eat a bit better, we have plenty of acceptable Italian, Greek, Chinese, and Japanese restaurants. Just avoid anything that says “Deutsche Küche”.
Ah, so it’s like Amsterdam or Vienna: charming, beautiful cities where other than a few specific street foods, the local cuisine is best ignored.
Don’t get me wrong: Berlin is great and I love living here. But charming and beautiful are not the right words to describe it. You’ll see.
I would call it “funky,” in all the good senses of the word (except the specific genre of music).
Let’s say that Berliners (and the city) have a rough charm you have to learn to accept. I have always liked visiting and the people.
Got it in one.
I had some really lovely food in Berlin, but I’m not sure “we have currywurst” is much of a brag. 
If you’re after food I’d say check out the Turkish Market in Kreutzberg if you’re there on the right day, and/or Markthalle Neun, nearby. Great street and artisan food of all kinds.
I second a visit to the Computerspielemuseum, if you’re into computer games. There’s a beer garden just down the street with with good food and was very lively the evening we were there last summer.
One place I’d avoid is the Cold War Museum. Sounds really cool when you read about it, but under delivers big time.
Not quite:
In October 2023, the museum was completely closed for visitors, and is expected to remain mostly closed for 14 to 20 years – until 2037 to 2043 – for the execution of comprehensive renovation works. Its North Wing is expected to reopen in 2027.
From Wikipedia. The rest of the Museumsinsel is still open though and worth a visit.
That was the point I was trying to make. I once worked for Ferrán Adriá who held a talk in Berlin an was pressed by the public to say something nice about Berlin’s cuisine. He very politely claimed to like currywürste, but you could tell he was not convinced. He ate one after the show though, I saw him. Don’t think he ever had a second serving, but the public was happy that he said he liked it. Sometimes Berliners are easy to please.
You know that the Berlin origin story of the Currywurst is contested by the Ruhrpott (Ruhr region)? 