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Itinerary

Germany is the country that keeps rewriting itself, and nowhere shows it like its east. We will start in Berlin, where a walk along Bernauer Strasse and the East Side Gallery tells the story of a city split in two and stitched back together, and where the evenings belong to Kreuzberg and its street food. We will take the S-Bahn out to Potsdam for a morning among the terraced vineyards of Sanssouci and the rooms of Cecilienhof, where the map of post-war Europe was drawn. Then we will head south, gliding through the canals of the Spreewald on a punt boat, the way people here still move between villages.

Saxony will close the trip. Dresden will show us what rebuilding really means, from the Frauenkirche to the treasure rooms of the Green Vault, and on our last full day we will climb to the Bastei, the sandstone bridge above the Elbe that taught German painters how to look at a landscape. Six nights, two bases, no coach and no early-morning transfers, and a group of no more than fifteen. Will you come with us?

A map showing a trip itinerary within Germany, with the start and end point in Berlin.
The Brandenburg Gate at golden hour, Berlin
The glass dome of the Reichstag at dusk, Berlin

Berlin: the adventure starts here

We will meet at our hotel in the late afternoon, then walk out together as the light goes: the Brandenburg Gate, the glass dome of the Reichstag, the long empty field of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Dinner will be in Kreuzberg, at a table where the city’s cooking is Turkish as much as German.

Sanssouci, the Dutch Quarter and Cecilienhof

Forty minutes on the S-Bahn and we will be in Potsdam. We will spend the morning at Sanssouci, the summer palace Frederick the Great built on six terraces of vines, then walk the red-brick Dutch Quarter and finish at Cecilienhof, the country house where Truman, Stalin and Attlee divided post-war Europe around a round table that is still there.

The Trabant mural breaking through the Berlin Wall, East Side Gallery
The Fraternal Kiss mural on the East Side Gallery, Berlin

A private morning with a local historian

Our morning will belong to a local historian, who will take us privately along Bernauer Strasse, where the Wall ran straight through a residential street, and then into the Stasi Headquarters in Lichtenberg, left exactly as it was in 1989. In the afternoon we will walk the East Side Gallery and cross into Friedrichshain. The evening will be free, because this is Berlin and you will want it that way.

Dresden and the Elbe at dusk

A punt boat through a UNESCO biosphere reserve

We will take the regional train to Luebbenau and step onto a Kahn, the flat-bottomed punt that is still how people here reach the next village across a thousand kilometres of canals. Lunch will be Sorbian, which means cucumbers in ways you have not met before. In the afternoon we will carry on to Dresden and spend our first evening in the Neustadt.

Dresden and the Elbe seen from the river bank
The Dresden Altstadt lit up at night

The Frauenkirche and the Green Vault

We will walk the Altstadt in the morning: the Frauenkirche, rebuilt from a rubble field with every salvageable stone put back where it came from, the courtyards of the Zwinger, the Semperoper, and the 102-metre porcelain mural of the Fuerstenzug. Then the New Green Vault, where the electors of Saxony kept the objects they could not stop commissioning. The afternoon will be yours on the Bruehl terraces.

The sandstone towers of the Bastei above the Elbe

The sandstone bridge that shaped German Romantic painting

S-Bahn along the river, then the little Elbe ferry across to Rathen, and up through the pines to the Bastei: a stone bridge thrown between sandstone towers 190 metres above the water, the rock faces below it hollowed out by a medieval castle whose stairways are cut straight into the sandstone. This is the landscape Caspar David Friedrich painted, and from up there you can see why. In the late afternoon we will take the train back to Berlin.

Berlin Cathedral on Museum Island

A free morning, then the airport

The morning will be free. Museum Island if you want one more thing, the Mauerpark flea market if it is a Sunday, or simply a long breakfast.

What's included

What's not included

International flights to and from Berlin
  • Airport transfers
  • Meals not indicated in the itinerary
  • Everything that is not mentioned in what’s included

Optional activities

The amount to give your Coordinator will be around 210 US dollars. You will hand it over in euros, the currency used on the ground, and any part of it we do not use is always given back to you at the end of the trip. It covers the meals and the smaller entries that are not included.

  • Lunches and dinners not listed in the itinerary — around $20 to $30 each

  • Entry to Museum Island on your free morning in Berlin — around $28

  • Entry to the Albertinum or the Panometer on your free afternoon in Dresden — around $17 to $19

  • Drinks and coffee stops along the way — around $5 to $8 each

  • An optional boat trip on the Spree — around $27

Additional info

Learn more about accommodation, transport, and other useful travel information.
  • Accommodation

    4-star hotels, central locations, twin and double rooms only. Travelling solo you will share with someone of the same gender, or you can book a room to yourself.

  • Transport

    Regional and intercity trains, S-Bahn, trams and one river ferry. No coach, and no transfer day longer than two hours.

  • Documents

    US, UK, Canadian and Australian passport holders enter Germany visa-free for up to 90 days. ETIAS registration will be required once the system is live, so check before you book flights. No vaccinations required.

  • Physical effort

    Dynamic. Long walking days in Berlin and Dresden, and on day 6 a 5 km hike with about 200 metres of ascent on stone steps.

  • Meeting and goodbyes

    We meet at the Berlin hotel on day 1 in the late afternoon, and part there on the morning of day 7.

  • Local holidays

    On 3 October, Christmas and Easter Monday most museums close. Departures around those dates swap Sanssouci and the Green Vault for outdoor alternatives.

  • Info on private roomsShow all details

Why WeRoad

  • Small groups, on average 11 people

  • Move or change your trip for free up to 31 days before departure

  • Book with $ 0. Pay the $ 100 deposit only once the trip is confirmed

The Group Leaders

Our Group Leaders are chosen because they’re people just like you: passionate travelers who share the experience authentically, while having the skills to take care of the organisation, and help you get the most out of every moment of the trip.

Find your flight

For this trip, we recommend arriving and departing from these airports.

ArrivalBerlin (BER)
ReturnBerlin (BER)
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FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions

About this trip

About WeRoad

About Germany