Berlin
Germany
History, nightlife, and space to breathe
Photo by Florian Wehde on Unsplash
Photos by Maheshkumar Painam, Stephan Widua, Florian Wehde and Ansgar Scheffold on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Germany
May to September
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 69mm in Jun
Where it is
52.52°N, 13.40°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Walk the East Side Gallery
- Book the free Reichstag dome visit
- Spend a day on Museum Island
- Visit the Topography of Terror
- Rent a bike through Tiergarten
- Experience Berlin’s club scene, if you can get in
Berlin travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Germany
Mid-rangeEuro. Berlin is surprisingly cash-dependent for a major capital — plenty of bars, Spätis and even restaurants refuse cards. Always carry €30-50.
ATMs & cards
Sparkasse, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank machines are safe. Avoid Euronet and the machines inside Spätis, which charge heavily. Decline conversion.
Avoid these
- Euronet
- ATMs inside Spätis and kiosks
- Travelex
Use these instead
- Sparkasse
- Deutsche Bank
- Commerzbank
- Volksbank
Kiosk machines charge €5-10. Berlin is cash-heavy, so plan a bank withdrawal rather than a convenience one.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Germany
Reasonably safeSafe by big-city standards. Kottbusser Tor and parts of Görlitzer Park have an open drug scene — unpleasant rather than dangerous. Book the Reichstag dome online well ahead.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (7 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- Görlitzer Park — and Kottbusser Tor, which have an open drug scene
- Warschauer Straße station — at four in the morning on a Sunday
- Alexanderplatz — late at night
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Germany visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Germany
Excellent and cheapRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
- Tick-borne encephalitis for the south (Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg) if walking in forests
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodBerlin’s real food identity is Turkish and Vietnamese, not German. Get a döner in Kreuzberg, pho in Prenzlauer Berg. Currywurst is a snack, not a meal.
Nightlife
The serious end of European clubbing. Nights start at two in the morning and the good ones do not end on Sunday.
- Kreuzberg — and Neukölln, for the bars
- Friedrichshain — the clubs, Berghain among them
- RAW-Gelände — a compound of venues, all night
- Prenzlauer Berg — an older, quieter crowd
Closing: There is no closing time. Clubs run through the weekend.
A beer in a bar: €4–5
Door policies are real and unexplained: go in a small group, speak quietly, dress down rather than up, and do not photograph anything.
Getting around
Easy and cheap- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- FREE NOWWorks here
Uber brokers licensed hire cars rather than its own drivers
- From the airport
- BER to Mitte €50–60 by taxi, €4.40 on the FEX or the S9
- Against a taxi
- Roughly level with the meter, and Germany is one of the few places where a taxi is sometimes cheaper.
The Rückkehrpflicht — hire cars must return to base between jobs — is why a car can be ten minutes away in a small city.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Berlin — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Germany
What these numbers mean
Home broadband — Good. Comfortable for two people working, streaming in the evening, large downloads. Broadband here runs at 79% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Good. Maps, calls and streaming, and enough to tether a laptop for an afternoon. Mobile runs at 1.3× the global median of 109 Mbps.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Germany, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
German
- HelloGuten TagGOO-ten tahk
- PleaseBitteBI-tuh
- Thank youDankeDAN-kuh
- Yes / NoJa / Neinya / nine
4 more phrases
- Excuse meEntschuldigungent-SHOOL-di-gung
- How much is it?Was kostet das?vas KOS-tet das
- The bill, pleaseDie Rechnung, bittedee REKH-nung
- Cheers!Prost!prohst
Religion
Split Catholic and Protestant, and largely secular
The south is Catholic, the north Protestant, and a growing share is neither. Church tax is a real thing residents pay.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Be punctual — arriving late without warning is genuinely rude
- Separate your rubbish; recycling rules are taken seriously
- Make eye contact when toasting, and say prost
- Carry cash; plenty of bars and restaurants still refuse cards
Don't
- Do not jaywalk, especially with children present — people will tell you off
- Do not make Nazi references or salutes, even as a joke; several are criminal offences
- Do not walk in the red-paved bike lanes
- Do not expect small talk from strangers; directness is not coldness
Where to stay in Berlin
No Holistay rentals in Berlin yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Berlin on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Brandenburg BER
37 minfrom the airport· 19 km as the crow flies
FEX or S9 to the centre, 30–45 min.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
