Brandenburg wraps around Berlin, which makes it the city's backyard for lakes, forests, waterways and Prussian palaces. In Potsdam, Sanssouci Palace and the New Palace are part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site; in the Spreewald, wooden punts glide through more than 970 kilometers (600 miles) of channels; and in the Barnim region, two giant boat lifts raise ships 36 meters (118 feet). Farther north are the ruined abbey of Chorin and Rheinsberg Palace on its lake, while to the south Tropical Islands fills a former airship hangar.
Below you'll find our top day trips across the state, a one-day Potsdam plan, a weekend from the Spreewald to the Barnim, tips for regional trains and the Deutschland-Ticket, and every sight in Brandenburg from the tripto.de catalog. Hours and prices are listed on each place's page, so check with the operator before you go. Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam is closed inside for restoration, though the surrounding New Garden stays open.
Our picks for a first visit — each with a short reason why.
Palaces
Potsdam
Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam was the private summer retreat of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, and it is one of the most rewarding day trips from Berlin. The single-story rococo palace sits on top of six terraced vineyards inside Sans…
1. Frederick the Great's summer palace above six vineyard terraces, with just twelve rooms. Entry is by timed slot, so book online; the roughly 740-acre park is free.
Palaces
Potsdam
The New Palace (Neues Palais) in Potsdam is the largest palace in Sanssouci Park and one of the last great Baroque palaces built in Prussia. Frederick the Great commissioned it right after the Seven Years' War to prove his kingdom was anyt…
2. The largest palace in Sanssouci Park, with a shell-encrusted grotto hall and a rococo theater. Note: closed Tuesdays, and the king's apartment is shut for construction.
Old towns & squares
Potsdam
The Dutch Quarter (Holländisches Viertel) in Potsdam is a compact neighborhood of 134 red-brick gabled houses that looks as if it had been lifted straight out of Amsterdam. Built in the 18th century to lure Dutch craftsmen to Prussia, it i…
3. 134 red-brick gabled houses built 1733–1742 for Dutch craftsmen. Free to wander; the 2026 Sinterklaas market is on December 12 and 13.
Nature parks
Lübbenau/Spreewald
The Spreewald (Spree Forest) in Brandenburg is a magical wetland where the Spree River splits into more than 970 km (600 miles) of narrow channels winding through alder forests and meadows. A UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1991, it is famo…
4. From the main harbor in Lübbenau, boatmen pole flat wooden punts without a motor to the village of Lehde: two hours for €17. Rides also run in the winter months.
Theme parks
Krausnick-Groß Wasserburg
Tropical Islands near Krausnick, south of Berlin, is Europe's largest tropical resort: a gigantic dome housing a sandy beach, a warm lagoon, a rainforest and water slides, all kept at summer temperatures year-round. The resort fills a form…
5. A South Seas beach, lagoon and rainforest inside a 107-meter-tall former airship hangar, kept at about 26°C (79°F). Online tickets are almost always cheaper than at the door.
Churches & monasteries
Chorin
Chorin Abbey, about an hour northeast of Berlin, is one of the finest examples of North German brick Gothic architecture. The roofless red-brick ruins of this former Cistercian monastery rise beside a quiet lake in the Schorfheide-Chorin B…
6. A Cistercian abbey ruin with a famous west facade and a model for Brick Gothic across Brandenburg. Summer concerts fill the roofless church; regular admission is €7.
Industrial heritage
Niederfinow
The Niederfinow Boat Lifts, about 60 km northeast of Berlin, are one of the most impressive things to see for anyone fascinated by engineering. Two giant elevators raise and lower entire ships, together with the water they float in, by 36…
7. Two boat lifts side by side: the 1934 steel structure and its 2022 concrete successor. Until early November, boats cruise through both three times a day.
Palaces
Rheinsberg
Rheinsberg Palace, on the shore of Lake Grienerick about 100 km northwest of Berlin, is one of the most charming palaces in Brandenburg. Here the young Crown Prince Frederick, later Frederick the Great of Prussia, spent what he called the…
8. Where the young Crown Prince Frederick spent his happiest years: a hall of mirrors, rococo rooms and the Kurt Tucholsky literature museum, right on Lake Grienerick.
Theme parks
Potsdam
Filmpark Babelsberg in Potsdam is a movie-themed amusement park next to Studio Babelsberg, where films have been made since 1912. Instead of roller coasters, it offers live stunt shows with fire and explosions, original film sets, fairy-ta…
9. A volcano stunt show, fairy-tale film sets and a Jim Button adventure playground next to Studio Babelsberg. The season usually runs April to early November; open days vary.
Take bus 695 from Potsdam's main station to the palace. Book your time slot online; the rooms take about an hour, then walk down the terraces to the Great Fountain. The palace is closed Mondays.
Places: Sanssouci Palace
A good 2 kilometers (1.3 miles) across the park to its western end. The Grand Tour takes about 90 minutes. The New Palace is closed Tuesdays, so Wednesday through Sunday you can fit both palaces into one day.
Places: New Palace
Take the bus and tram into town for coffee on Mittelstraße and a look inside the Jan Bouman House museum.
Places: Dutch Quarter
Swap the New Palace for the stunt show; the big shows usually start at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Check the online calendar, since open days vary.
Places: Filmpark Babelsberg
The RE2 or RE7 gets you from Berlin to Lübbenau in about an hour, then it's a 10-minute walk to the harbor. The three-hour round trip with a stop in Lehde is ideal for first-timers.
Places: Spree Forest (Spreewald)
Visit the open-air museum in Lehde, walk back to Lübbenau on the flat trail and sample pickles at the roadside stands.
Places: Spree Forest (Spreewald)
For water lovers: both places lie south of Berlin along the A13. Day tickets are valid until 11:30 p.m., and a free shuttle runs from Brand Tropical Islands station.
Places: Tropical Islands Resort
Ride the RE3 from Berlin to Chorin, then walk about 25 minutes. The west facade, the church ruin, the cloister and an exhibit on architect Schinkel take about two hours.
Places: Chorin Abbey
Just a few kilometers southeast: walkways on the old lift and a guided tour of the new one. The combo ticket is €12, and until early November you can also ride a boat through the lifts.
Places: Niederfinow Boat Lift
If you'd rather have a palace and a lake, head about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest to Rheinsberg. From November through March, the palace can only be seen on a guided tour.
Places: Rheinsberg Palace
By air: Berlin's BER airport is actually in Brandenburg. The FEX airport express runs up to four times an hour and reaches Berlin Hauptbahnhof in 23 minutes. Handy for the Spreewald: the hourly RE20 goes from BER to Lübbenau in 50 minutes.
By train: Potsdam is on the S-Bahn and regional express lines from Berlin, and the RE1 also stops at Park Sanssouci station. The RE2 and RE7 reach Lübbenau in about an hour, and the RE3 serves Chorin. Niederfinow and Rheinsberg also have regional service, and Tropical Islands has its own station, Brand Tropical Islands, with a shuttle bus. The Deutschland-Ticket (€63 a month) covers all regional trains, S-Bahn and buses, but not ICE or IC trains.
By car: Take the A13 toward Dresden for the Spreewald and Tropical Islands, the A11 for Chorin and Niederfinow, and the A24 for Rheinsberg. In Sanssouci Park, there's paid parking at the Historic Mill and at the New Palace.
April through October is high season: Potsdam's palaces keep longer hours, Prince Henry's summer apartment in Rheinsberg is open, and every Spreewald punt route runs, with summer-night rides from mid-May to mid-September. The Chorin Music Summer plays on weekends from June through August. In spring, Potsdam's Dutch Quarter holds its tulip festival.
In fall, the Spreewald punts are emptier and the forests turn color; Filmpark Babelsberg runs its Horror Nights from October 9 to November 7, 2026, and then closes for the season. Niederfinow is open daily 10 a.m.–4 p.m. from November 1, 2026, to January 3, 2027, then closes for January and February. During Advent, there's the Spreewald Christmas in Lübbenau and Lehde (November 28–29 and December 5–6, 2026) and the Sinterklaas market in Potsdam. In winter, Tropical Islands is the go-to escape.
The classics are Potsdam and Sanssouci, a Spreewald punt ride from Lübbenau, and the Barnim pairing of Chorin Abbey and the Niederfinow boat lifts. All three are reachable from Berlin by regional train, Lübbenau in about an hour.
No. The foundation closed Cecilienhof in November 2024 for restoration, and press reports say museum visits probably won't resume before fall 2027. The surrounding New Garden, home to the Marble Palace, stays open.
From the main harbor in Lübbenau year-round, with no fixed schedule: boats leave as soon as they're full. The short trip to Lehde runs April through October from 11 a.m., and there's a smaller program in the winter months.
Filmpark Babelsberg with its stunt show and adventure playground, a Spreewald punt ride, the giant boat troughs at Niederfinow and the shallow lagoon at Tropical Islands. Sanssouci Park has lots of room for kids to run around.
Tropical Islands is open 365 days a year at about 26°C (79°F). Potsdam's New Palace stays open in winter, and Chorin Abbey is open daily 10 a.m.–4 p.m. In Advent, the Spreewald Christmas and the Sinterklaas market draw crowds.
One full day is enough for Potsdam. A weekend adds the Spreewald and the Barnim with Chorin and Niederfinow. Rheinsberg and the surrounding lake district deserve a day of their own.
Palaces
Potsdam
Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam was the private summer retreat of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, and it is one of the most rewarding day trips from Berlin. The single-story rococo palace sits on top of six terraced vineyards inside Sans…
Theme parks
Krausnick-Groß Wasserburg
Tropical Islands near Krausnick, south of Berlin, is Europe's largest tropical resort: a gigantic dome housing a sandy beach, a warm lagoon, a rainforest and water slides, all kept at summer temperatures year-round. The resort fills a form…
Nature parks
Lübbenau/Spreewald
The Spreewald (Spree Forest) in Brandenburg is a magical wetland where the Spree River splits into more than 970 km (600 miles) of narrow channels winding through alder forests and meadows. A UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1991, it is famo…
Landmarks
Potsdam
A few minutes north of Potsdam's centre you suddenly come across dark timber houses with carved gables, balconies and gardens, as if a Russian village had been moved here. Alexandrowka is a Russian colony that King Frederick William III of…
Viewpoints
Beelitz
Beneath your feet is a roof with trees growing on it. The Beelitz-Heilstätten Treetop Walk runs 17 to 23 metres above the ground through the crowns of an old hospital park and straight over the ruin of the Alpenhaus, a ward block that burn…
Industrial heritage
Lichterfeld-Schacksdorf
It is longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall, and it was built for a life in the mine that lasted barely eighteen months. The F60 conveyor bridge near Lichterfeld in southern Brandenburg is 502 metres long, up to 80 metres high and 240 metre…
Churches & monasteries
Brandenburg an der Havel
Brandenburg Cathedral (Dom St. Peter und Paul) stands on its own island between the Havel River and Beetzsee lake in the city of Brandenburg an der Havel. It is one of the oldest brick cathedrals in northern Germany and the mother church o…
Historic sites & memorials
Zossen
In the pine forest south of Berlin lies one of the strangest places in Brandenburg. In Wünsdorf-Waldstadt near Zossen, the German Army High Command sat in camouflaged bunkers during the Second World War, followed until 1994 by the headquar…
Theme parks
Potsdam
Filmpark Babelsberg in Potsdam is a movie-themed amusement park next to Studio Babelsberg, where films have been made since 1912. Instead of roller coasters, it offers live stunt shows with fire and explosions, original film sets, fairy-ta…
Historic sites & memorials
Oranienburg
The Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial in Oranienburg, about 35 km north of central Berlin, preserves the site of one of the major Nazi concentration camps and of the Soviet special camp that followed it. It is one of the most visit…
Old towns & squares
Potsdam
The Dutch Quarter (Holländisches Viertel) in Potsdam is a compact neighborhood of 134 red-brick gabled houses that looks as if it had been lifted straight out of Amsterdam. Built in the 18th century to lure Dutch craftsmen to Prussia, it i…
Churches & monasteries
Chorin
Chorin Abbey, about an hour northeast of Berlin, is one of the finest examples of North German brick Gothic architecture. The roofless red-brick ruins of this former Cistercian monastery rise beside a quiet lake in the Schorfheide-Chorin B…
Churches & monasteries
Kloster Lehnin
Lehnin Abbey (Kloster Lehnin) in Brandenburg is one of the most important brick monasteries in the Mark Brandenburg region, founded in 1180. The red brick church of St. Marien, the gate chapel and the old monastery buildings sit in a quiet…
Churches & monasteries
Neuzelle
Neuzelle Abbey in eastern Brandenburg is one of the few fully preserved monastery complexes in Europe, often called the "Baroque miracle on the Oder." Behind the bright yellow facade of the abbey church lies an exuberant interior of stucco…
Palaces
Potsdam
Red brick walls, bands of grey and white marble, a small round temple with a gilded fruit basket on the roof and the waters of the Heiliger See in front: the Marmorpalais in the New Garden may be Potsdam's most romantic palace. King Freder…
Museums
Potsdam
You don't have to go to Paris to see Monet: Museum Barberini on Potsdam's Alter Markt holds 38 paintings by Claude Monet, more than any other museum outside the French capital. Add Renoir, Caillebotte, Signac, Sisley, Morisot and Pissarro,…
Industrial heritage
Rüdersdorf bei Berlin
Museumspark Rüdersdorf is an open-air museum of industrial heritage just beyond Berlin's eastern city limits. Across 17 hectares, historic lime kilns, canals and a striking row of shaft kilns tell how limestone was quarried and burned here…
National parks
Schwedt/Oder
Lower Oder Valley National Park near Schwedt in Brandenburg, about 1.5 hours northeast of Berlin by public transportation, is Germany's only river floodplain national park. Every winter the Oder River is allowed to flood the valley, turnin…
Palaces
Potsdam
The New Palace (Neues Palais) in Potsdam is the largest palace in Sanssouci Park and one of the last great Baroque palaces built in Prussia. Frederick the Great commissioned it right after the Seven Years' War to prove his kingdom was anyt…
Industrial heritage
Niederfinow
The Niederfinow Boat Lifts, about 60 km northeast of Berlin, are one of the most impressive things to see for anyone fascinated by engineering. Two giant elevators raise and lower entire ships, together with the water they float in, by 36…
Palaces
Potsdam
Babelsberg Palace in Potsdam is the Gothic Revival summer home of Prince William of Prussia, later Emperor William I, and his wife Augusta. With turrets, battlements and bay windows inspired by English country houses, it rises above the Ha…
Palaces
Cottbus
Branitz Palace in Cottbus is the centerpiece of Branitz Park, the landscape garden that Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau created from 1845 and one of the finest in Germany. The palace has salons from around 1860, and the prince is buried…
Palaces
Potsdam
Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam is where the Allied leaders met in the summer of 1945 to decide the fate of postwar Germany. Built as the last palace of the Hohenzollern dynasty, it looks more like an English country manor than a royal resid…
Palaces
Potsdam
Charlottenhof Palace in Potsdam's Sanssouci Park is a small Neoclassical summer villa designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel for the Prussian crown prince. Away from the crowds at Sanssouci Palace itself, it offers a calm look at how 1820s Pr…