Berlin Hop-On Hop-Off Bus & Spree Boat Tour Combo Ticket

Kurfürstendamm, the Memorial Church and the Zoo

The route begins in the west of Berlin on Kurfürstendamm, the three-and-a-half-kilometre boulevard of shops, cafés and grand apartment houses that was the showcase of West Berlin. The first stop is at the corner of Kurfürstendamm 216, where you exchange your voucher for the bus ticket, and the loop also stops at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, the bombed tower of 1895 kept as a ruin beside the blue-glass church of 1961, and at the Elephant Gate of the Berlin Zoo, one of the oldest zoos in Germany, opened in 1844.

From here the bus crosses the Tiergarten past Lützowplatz to the Kulturforum, the cluster of concert hall, painting gallery and modern art museum built on the western edge of the park. A Berlin hop-on hop-off bus tour from Kurfürstendamm is the natural start for anyone staying in Charlottenburg or around Zoo station, and the whole loop takes around two hours if you stay on board.

Potsdamer Platz, Checkpoint Charlie and Gendarmenmarkt

Potsdamer Platz was once the busiest square in Europe, then a wasteland between the two lines of the Berlin Wall, and since the 1990s a quarter of glass towers, cinemas and a surviving pair of Wall segments on the pavement. The next stop is Checkpoint Charlie, the best-known crossing between East and West Berlin, where a replica guardhouse and the sign warning that you are leaving the American sector stand in the middle of Friedrichstraße; a short walk away on Niederkirchnerstraße a long stretch of the original Wall survives beside the Topography of Terror exhibition.

The bus then reaches Gendarmenmarkt, the most elegant square in the city, framed by the Concert House and the twin domes of the French and German cathedrals. Hop off here for 45 minutes if you want the square on foot, then catch the next bus 15 to 20 minutes later.

Alexanderplatz, the Red City Hall, the TV Tower and Berlin Cathedral

In the historic centre the bus stops at the Neptune Fountain, the bronze fountain of 1891 in front of the Red City Hall, the seat of Berlin's mayor, with the TV Tower rising 368 metres above Alexanderplatz beside it; this is the second place where you can exchange your voucher for a ticket. A few minutes on, the DomAquarée and Berlin Cathedral stop sits beside the river with the cathedral's 98-metre dome, the Humboldt Forum and Museum Island, the UNESCO ensemble of five museums, all within a short walk.

The DomAquarée stop is also where you change for the boat: the Nikolaiviertel pier is just below it on the Spree. Many travellers do a Museum Island hop-on hop-off stop in the morning and take the boat from here in the afternoon, which keeps the day in one compact part of the city.

The East Side Gallery and East Station

East of Alexanderplatz the bus runs out along the monumental boulevard of the 1950s to the East Side Gallery, the longest surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall, 1.3 kilometres along the Spree painted in 1990 by artists from around the world after the border opened. The murals, the river behind them and the red-brick Oberbaum Bridge at the far end make this the most photographed stop outside the centre, and the bus stops at both ends, by East Station and by the gallery itself.

Allow about 40 minutes to walk the length of the Wall and return to the stop; the next bus comes every 15 to 20 minutes. Visiting the East Side Gallery by hop-on hop-off bus saves the S-Bahn change that most independent visitors have to make and drops you directly at the murals.

Unter den Linden, the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag and Bellevue Palace

Back in the centre the bus follows Unter den Linden, the boulevard of lime trees laid out as the ceremonial avenue of Prussian Berlin, past Bebelplatz, the State Opera and Humboldt University; the Unter den Linden stop is the second boat interchange, for the Friedrichstraße pier. The route then reaches the Brandenburg Gate, completed in 1791 and crowned by the Quadriga, and the Reichstag with its glass dome, before crossing to Berlin Central Station, the glass rail hub of 2006, and following the Spree to the Victory Column and Bellevue Palace, the Federal President's residence since 1994.

From Bellevue the bus returns through the Tiergarten to the Zoo and Kurfürstendamm, completing the loop. The Brandenburg Gate stop is the one most visitors use for the classic photograph; early morning and late afternoon give the best light on the sandstone.

The 1-hour Spree boat tour

The second half of the combo is a 1-hour boat tour on the Spree through the city centre, boarding at the Nikolaiviertel pier below the DomAquarée stop or at the Friedrichstraße pier, at the times shown on your ticket. From the water you pass Museum Island, Berlin Cathedral, the Humboldt Forum, the Nikolaiviertel, the Palace of Tears at Friedrichstraße, the Reichstag, the parliament buildings, the Chancellery and Berlin Central Station, the same sights you saw from the bus but from the angle most of them were designed to be admired from.

Boats run through the day in the main season and at irregular intervals in November and December, so check the departure times when you exchange your voucher and plan the boat around them. The best combination is the bus loop in the morning and the boat in the early afternoon, when the light sits on the cathedral and the Reichstag dome.