Where should I spend 3 nights before flying out of Berlin?

March 6, 2015 5:54 AM

I've got 2 nights in Berlin, then 2 nights in Hamburg, then 3 nights unbooked before I fly back out of Berlin - where should I spend them? This is around the start of May. I like cities, interesting places, staying in hostels, don't have a huge amount of money. (I've not been to Berlin before and it's possible the answer is "more Berlin").
posted by Kirn to Travel & Transportation around Germany (6 answers total)

Copenhagen is great, and you could get there fairly easily by train. If you decide to do that, make sure to take the train via Puttgarden/Roedby, which goes onto a ferry and alone is worth the trip. Both Copenhagen and the train won't be exactly cheap though. Berlin is, and you could easily spend three more nights there without getting bored.
posted by fmnr at 6:59 AM on March 6, 2015

I visited some friends in Berlin years ago and loved it, so my answer would definitely be "more Berlin." As my visit was so long ago (2000), I can't provide specifics on what to do, except that there are more than enough art museums (my area of interest) to keep you busy, if you're into that kind of thing. I'm sure that there are plenty of other types of museums and interesting cultural sites to visit and the U-bahn (I think that's the name of their subway system) and buses are very easy to use. To be honest, I had no special desire to visit Berlin; I ended up there due to the fact that three different friends were living there at the time, but I ended up loving it and would return in a heartbeat.

If you feel the need to go someplace else, if I remember correctly, Prague is a very easy (but not sure how expensive) train ride away. One of my friends took me on a 2 night/3 day side trip there during my stay in Berlin. The old city is lovely and fairly small, so you can see most of it in a day or two.
posted by kaybdc at 7:15 AM on March 6, 2015

I'd stay in Berlin at least one more night. If you stayed all 3, you could use one of the days and daytrip it to Dresden or Szczecin, Poland.
posted by soelo at 8:56 AM on March 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

More Berlin! There are so many things to see and do!
posted by bitter-girl.com at 5:54 PM on March 6, 2015

More Berlin! I've always wanted to go to Copenhagen (it's a 3-4 hour train ride from Hamburg, IIRC) but it's very expensive there.

From Berlin you can do day trips to Potsdam, Dresden, and Leipzig, but honestly there will be tons to explore just in Berlin -- especially since you'll have whetted your appetite and gotten a look around in the first few days before you go to Hamburg.

I couldn't tell from your post history if this is something you'd be particularly interested in, but Berlin Web Week is at the beginning of May and there are several web/tech-related conferences happening, including re:publica and UNIT festival (queer tech)
posted by polexa at 11:52 AM on March 7, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks everyone, pretty clear vote for "more Berlin" there! Appreciate all your responses.
posted by Kirn at 3:42 AM on March 9, 2015