A Local's Guide to the Best Free Things to Do in Berlin

Last updated: May 13, 2022

Berlin is an overall welcoming city to tourists (as long as you don’t walk on bike lanes) and locals (as long as you find Anmeldung). It’s also an overall accessible and affordable city to visit, with plenty of free and budget-friendly activities. With that in mind, here are ten of my favorite ways to enjoy Berlin on a budget.

Admire Berlin’s Street Art

Berlin is a haven to anyone who appreciates street art. Start with the East Side Gallery to see the longest standing strip of the fallen Berlin Wall. Shortly after the wall fell in 1989, 118 artists from 21 different countries began to paint the wall. Since then some of the murals have been replaced with new art, but many of the iconic murals are still present.

Berlin’s street art is not just limited to the East Side Gallery, you can find it anywhere in Berlin. There’s Dead Chicken Alley (no chickens were harmed in the making of this alley) where you’ll get a piece of alternative Berlin in posh Mitte. In Friedrichshain there’s RAW-Gelände where you’ll find an open alley of painted buildings.

You can also head over to Kreuzberg where you’ll find well-known pieces like Astronaut Cosmonaut (one of my personal favorites) and the Pink Man. Plus the food in Kreuzberg is amazing!

I really recommend Alternative Berlin for a pay-what-you-wish walking tour. They dive into Berlin’s club culture, street art culture, and all things alternative Berlin. I joined them for a tour a few years ago and learned a ton!

Get a panoramic view of the city

The Reichstag will give you a partial view of Mitte, but you can get the best view at the Humboldt Forum. Entry is free, but you do need to book tickets, which you can typically do the same day, but it’s best to book a few days in advance if timeslots seem to be filling up quicker. The Forum offers panoramic views of Mitte, and is one of my favorite rooftop spots in the city.

Drachenberg offers stunning views of Grunewald and Berlin’s west. There’s a short uphill walk to get up, and man people come here to fly kites, have a picnic, chill, or end their day after hiking in Grunewald.

The parking garage in the Neukölln Arcaden also gives stunning views of Berlin’s buildings. In the warmer months you can pop into Klunkerkranich to enjoy a rooftop beer garden and restaurant, but they often have a long queue, especially around sunset.

Visit Tempelhof

The city’s former airport has transformed into a huge outdoor oasis and park. Ever wanted to run/skate/cycle/walk on an airport runway? It’s quite the experience, and definitely worth the visit. Plus it’s nestled between some of the city’s coolest neighborhoods including Neukölln, Kreuzberg, and Schöneberg, so you have plenty to explore afterwards.

Explore Berlin’s Parks

No trip to Berlin is complete without a visit to one (or a few!) of Berlin’s parks, especially in the warmer months. There are over 2,500 public parks in Berlin so it’s really difficult to narrow down my favorites, but here are a few I can wholeheartedly recommend:

Treptower: Enjoy a budget friendly day on a weekday walking through the culture house, along the Spree, and along the various paths through the woods. You can also check out the observatory, rent kayaks, or visit on the weekend where an assortment of food vendors set up shop.
Charlottenburg: This park is home to the lovely Schloss Charlottenburg, a beautiful baroque palace built at the end of the 17th century. There is a fee to enter the palace, but the surrounding garden is free and features statues, a royal garden, and a small forest to explore.
Tiergarten: Located in central Berlin, this popular park offers a lot of ways to pass the time from walking around, chilling by the river, visiting the various monuments located within, drinking at the summer beer garden, and renting paddle boats.
Volkspark: This is the oldest park in Berlin, and one of the best places in the city to relax in the sun. You can walk up the center hill for a tree-filled view of Berlin. In the summer it’s also home to one of the loveliest open air cinemas in the city.
Mauer: On Sundays, rain or shine, vendors set up shot at this lively flea market and sell food and trinkets. Also on Sundays you can snag a spot at the free outdoor amphitheater and watch live local musicians, and karaoke fans take the stage. You’re welcome to also volunteer to sing a song yourself.

Take a Day Trip to Potsdam

Potsdam is a great day trip from Berlin. Plenty of the city’s most beautiful attractions are free to the public including Sanssouci Palace and gardens (often considered a German rival to Versaille), Babelsberg Palace and Park, the Tiefer River, and the Dutch Quarter.

You can also rent a bike to see the city as efficiently as possible, we rented with Next Bike, who always have loads of bikes parked and available by the main S-Bahn station. Potsdam is especially great if you want to see tons of palaces since it’s five times smaller than Berlin, and is home to 17 original palaces, plus a handful of newer ones! Nearly all of these palaces have gardens and spaces that are free, beautiful, and open to the public.

Explore the monuments of Berlin’s central district Mitte

Many of Berlin’s most well known moments are located in Mitte. Go on a self-guided walking tour by simply adding them to a walking route on Google Maps (or whatever your mapping choice is), and start your self-guided tour. Highlights include the Berlin Cathedral, the Brandenburg Gate, the TV Tower, the Reichstag, the Jewish Memorial, Museum Island, Hackescher Markt, Gendarmenmarkt, and more.

A few of these monuments are free to enter including Gendarmenmarkt, and the Reichstag. You need a reservation and your passport to enter the Reichstag, and during peak season it’s best to make a reservation at least a few weeks in advance.

Go to Free Events

There’s seemingly always something going on in Berlin, and plenty of these events don’t cost anything!

Every Wednesday at 1PM between September and June, the Berlin Philharmonic gives a free forty-five minute concerts to locals and visitors. Sometimes surprise guests like the German Symphony Orchestra play a few songs too.

Another great event is Berlin’s Festival of Lights, which happens every September for a week, and over eighty of the city’s buildings and monuments are lit up with colors and art projections.

Festival of Lights at Humboldt University, Berlin

Visit Berlin’s Museums

Berlin has a great deal of museums that are completely free or free on certain days.

On the first Sunday of every month many of Berlin’s best museums are free! For more popular museums, like the Bode Museum, you’ll want to book about two weeks in advance when tickets drop. However, there are always at least a handful of museums with available spots left or that allow or even encourage walk-ins.

Free Museums include:

König Galerie: Their exhibitions are small, but it’s fun to pop in if you’re in the neighborhood. They utilize their small space well and do a great job at showcasing 2-3 local and international artists. Keep up with their schedule because they typically switch up their display every month or two.
Topography of Terror: With more than a million visits each year, this museum documents Nazi atrocities, and illustrates history from right before the Nazis took power until the end of the War.
Museum Neukölln: Learn about Neukölln’s multicultural history, and the many generations with diverse backgrounds that shaped this neighborhood.
Museum of Silence: This museum is inspired by the famous Mark Rothko Chapel in Houston and features a space of silence, Nikolai Makarov's paintings in Grisaille technique, and soothing light.

Read about my favorite free museums in Berlin here.

Explore Berlin’s Lakes

The Berlin-Brandenburg region is sometimes referred to as “the land of 3,000 lakes.” Each lake has something different to offer whether it’s more amenities, woodlands, a boardwalk, sandy beaches, kayaking, fishing, nude-friendly, or ample space. Just about all the lakes allow swimming too! Some have hiking trails and are great to visit year round. I personally like Schlachtensee in West Berlin, and Straussee which is east of Berlin.

Learn About the Jewish History in Germany

Any first time trip to Berlin should involve learning more about the city’s history, especially the Jewish History in Berlin and Germany. The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is open to the public; you can walk through the unique memorial to pay your respects.

Although located north of Berlin in Oranienburg, you can also get to Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum very easily with Berlin’s public transit. Sachsenhausen was a concentration camp with a very heavy history. The grounds and museums are free to enter, just plan accordingly if you’re interested in the museums since they are each only open a few hours a week. The grounds are open daily from 8:30AM to 6PM.

Inside the city, there is the Berlin Jewish Museum, which is also free to visit, and truly one of the most special museums in Berlin.

10 Free Things To Do in Berlin