A hostel bed, a day ticket, and the best of the city for the price of a sandwich.
Berlin is the rare capital where being broke is not a handicap. It is the local style.
The maths
Sixty euros a day, everything in: a bed in an eight-person dorm in Friedrichshain (22 euros), a public transport day ticket for the AB zones (about 10), and the rest for food and the odd museum. We flew in on a Thursday and out on the Monday, four nights, and came home with change. The trick is that the things Berlin does best cost nothing.
Day one · the wall, for free
The East Side Gallery is 1.3 km of the actual Wall, painted, on the river, free, five minutes from the hostel. From there we walked to the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse, also free, which is the part that hits: the death strip laid out as it was, the watchtower, the names. Lunch was a döner from Mustafa’s for 5 euros after a twenty-minute queue that was, honestly, part of the day. Evening: a beer from a Späti for 1.50 and the sunset from the Oberbaum Bridge with everyone else.
Day two · museums the cheap way
Museum Island is not cheap, so we chose: the Pergamon’s big pieces are elsewhere for years, so we paid for the Neues Museum and Nefertiti (14 euros, worth it) and skipped the rest. The Topography of Terror is free and heavy, and the Reichstag dome is free with an online booking made two weeks before. Dinner was currywurst at Curry 36, then a 3-euro tram ride that was really a tour.
Days three and four · parks and the market
Sunday is Mauerpark: the flea market, the karaoke in the amphitheatre, a thousand people cheering a stranger singing Whitney Houston. We spent 8 euros on a second-hand jacket and a beer. Tempelhof, the old airport, is now a park where you cycle down a runway; bikes from a hostel rental were 10 for the day. Monday morning we walked the Landwehr Canal to the Turkish market on Maybachufer for gözleme and a bag of olives, ate on the bank, and took the S-Bahn to the airport on the same day ticket. Four days, 238 euros, and the feeling of having seen the real city rather than the one in the brochure.
- Budget
- Backpacker
- Walking
- History
- Germany
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Written by the traveller with Travlyo's help. The Berlin guide ·