Berlin has long been one of the top travel destinations in Europe and as Berlin celebrates 25 years since the fall of the wall that once split it and the entire of Germany, there are more people than ever traveling to enjoy this unique city full of both history past and present.
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As one of Europe’s central hubs for international traffic, Berlin is incredible easy to get into with more short and long-haul carriers offering competitively priced flights to Berlin Tegel Airport, new bus routes opening up and being extended by national carries like Meinfernbus, and trains along the Deutsche Bahn that are highly reliable with typical German precision for time keeping.
Of course, getting from the airport to the city centre is also very easy thanks to many Berlin airport transfers available.
Cheap transport options into Berlin vary depending on the departing location, but there are regular sales and cheap flights to be found with companies like Jet Radar.
Accommodation
Cheap options are available for every budget and group size. Whether you’re traveling alone, in a pair, or as a family; there is a broad selection of cheap hostels, hotels and apartments to choose from. As part of the regular Eurail and backpacking route for younger travelers, there are of course several hostel options that will keep you below your $25 a day budget, with comfortable dorm rooms available at cornerstones hostels like Generator and Pfefferbett Hostel for around $15. For larger groups or for those who like a little more privacy, Berlin is home to one of the biggest selections of rentable apartments through sharing-economy sites like VRBO. If planned far enough ahead of time and with enough people, there’s no reason you won’t find somewhere all to yourself for the same price you might pay to share in a dorm room with complete strangers.
With Berlin being a major city, the prices of accommodation do come at a higher premium than they might do in other cities like Leipzig or Hamburg, so if you’re really keen to get the most out of your $25 a day budget, perhaps you might consider ‘living with a local’ experiences like BeWelcome or Couchsurfing.
Transport
The transport network in Berlin is one of the best in Europe. Across a metro, train, tram and bus network that runs throughout the day and into the early hours; there always seems to be an option to get you from point A to point B, regardless of how early in the morning you want to start your sightseeing, or how late at night you fall out of one of Berlin’s most notable clubs.
Tickets purchased for any of the above should be usable across the network, with day tickets starting around €7 / $8.50. If you really want to save some money, however, you could use the regularly used tip of purchasing a ‘Vier Fahrten Karte’ or ‘Four Single Use Tickets’ for €8.80 / $11 and split these with a friend. As Berlin is quite small, transport isn’t really required until right at the end of the day and you can’t take another step, then you jump on the U-Bahn (underground metro) to take you back to your hostel or hotel.
For people who feel much more natural upon a bicycle rather than their feet then there are two great options in the city that will for for your $25 a day budget for Berlin. Firstly, the Deustch Bahn operates a Call A Bike rental service which can be rented by the minute using your mobile phone, but this is much easier to set up and run for those with a German SIM in their phone, so out best recommendation (and more interesting for us) is a new website called Bikesurf.org which enables people to rent a bike during their stay from locals, sometimes for free, but mostly for a small donation. It’s a great way of putting money into the pockets of other people who might be saving for travels of their own.
Sightseeing
The vast majority of Berlin’s more notable postcard picture attractions are easily walkable and can be seen in a few hours. In less than an hour you can walk a path past Potsdamer Platz, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the Brandenburg Gate, on towards Museum Island – and finally – Alexanderplatz and the TV Tower.
Most of the better attractions and museums do come with a entry fee so if you’re planning on seeing some of the better collections at museums on Museum Island you may have to extend your $25 a day budget a little bigger, but if you’ve not the funds to do so, most of the attractions above are free to walk around and photograph.
One of my own personal favorites is Tiergarten park which is so easy to get lost in with your camera at hand for the perfect Instagram picture, to feel at peace in whilst you read a book, or to pay your respects at the Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism.
There are also free walking tours for those who like to have a guide at hand to explain the history of the city as you walk around Berlin, the most notable and one we’d recommend would be the Sandeman New Berlin Walking Tour which is free to join, but welcomes donations for their guides. Typically the guides work really hard to entertain you so anything you can donate from the smallest note to the biggest sum is greatly appreciated.
There are also several paid walking tours if you’re looking for something more premium/professional.
Another great free activity that both my traveling partner Franca and I love to do is go street art hunting, of which their is an abundance of across the city.
Outside of Mitte – this central sightseeing part of Berlin – are a number of districts which are more like small towns, where Berliners spend their entire week between work, incredible bars, and all types of international restaurants. Less than ten minutes away from the must-see attraction of the East Side Gallery is Kreuzberg, the hip-and-happening hotspot for hipsters in the city, where most of the best vintage and design shops can be found in between cafes that sprawl across the pavement with bearded hipster men and incredibly fashionable women seated and enjoying a beer and a kebab no matter what the weather.
Food
Kebab in Berlin is a big thing, no matter if you’re standing in a long line at Mustafas Gemuese Kebab for their notoriously famous “best kebab in Berlin” or buying one last thing at night from the men inside of the U-Bahn stations. Currywurst is of course a cheap and cheerful option for people on the go, but you can find some pretty cheap food in areas like Neukölln where there’s an abundance of great Eastern European and Asian restaurants to choose from, starting at around $5 a dish.
Kebab in Berlin is a big thing, no matter if you’re standing in a long line at Mustafas Gemuese Kebab for their notoriously famous “best kebab in Berlin” or buying one last thing at night from the men inside of the U-Bahn stations. Currywurst is of course a cheap and cheerful option for people on the go, but you can find some pretty cheap food in areas like Neukölln where there’s an abundance of great Eastern European and Asian restaurants to choose from, starting at around $5 a dish.
BONUS: Vegan In Berlin
Being a vegan traveller myself, I was over the moon to find that the options for vegans in Berlin is one of the widest I’ve come across in mainland Europe. Almost every restaurant in the city has at the very least a vegetarian option that can typically be veganised on request.
Berlin now boasts the most amount of purely vegan restaurants in Europe and was recently voted ‘Best City in the World for Vegans’ in a poll by HappyCow; and vegan outlets and supermarkets starting to open up in the city too, they seem to be keen to remain the best.
Personal favourites are the vegan doner kebab at Voner which is incredibly filling and priced at around $5, but if you’re Couchsurfing at have a slightly bigger budget to spend or are happy to split the cost, the vegan pizzas at Sfizy Veg are to die for.
Dale is a second half of Angloitalian Follow Us team – the British-Italian couple of Dale Davies & Franca Calabretta. A full time traveling pair of vegetarians who’ve been searching around the world for interesting architecture, amazing art, memorable design and local music since the summer of 2012.
55 thoughts on “Berlin For Less Than $25 A Day”
I hope to visit Berlin in 2015 and these suggestions will certainly help keep my expenses low. Thank you.
For sure! Fingers crossed!
Really hope they come in useful for you :)
Great post! Berlin is such an amazing city and so, so cheap. I found the summer really cheap because there are so many parks, which are clearly free. Like Tempelhofer, the old airport and airfield. Beer is also 1-2 Euros and in the summer, you can take it to one of the bridges or just walk around which friendly, which is much less expensive than going to a bar. I also loved the rooftop at the Neukolln Arcade, which is free before 4 p.m., and it may still be possible to visit Spreepark, the abandoned amusement park.
I’ve been to Berlin so many times and I absolutely loved there!!
Great guest post, Dale, and thank you for sharing him with us, Agness. Germany is my #1 bucket list and I’ve been told that both Berlin and Munich would be good “home bases” for me to tour the country from. I would absolutely want to see the Brandenburg Gate, the Memorial, the TV Tower and WWII related spots. Absolutely I’m all in for both the kebab and some vegetarian pizza! Yummy :)
I agree, Mike :).
Really glad to share what I can with you :)
Berlin is so incredibly well connected with both train and flight options that there’s absolutely nowhere out of reach. Just a few train changes can have you in Berlin in the morning, to the Balkans in the evening.
Berlin has heaps more free and affordable attractions compared to the North and Western parts of the country. The Gendarmenmarkt area is also really nice too especially when there’s a market going on.
I’ll try Bikesurfing next time, so thanks for that tip, Dale!
Yep! Definitely.
My pleasure! And you’re right, Berlin alone has so much free stuff to do that other cities can (at times) feel quite quiet in comparison.
Woohoo! Berlin on the cheap! Great info here, will have to save this page for next year! Definitely hoping to get there in 2015 :)
Yes, definitely!
We’d love to meet up with you if we’re there when you are :)
Great post. Berlin seems like such a cool city. Any place that has great vegan food is worth visiting in my eyes!
Thanks Andrea, I agree!!
I’ve absolutely adored eating all of the vegan food here in Berlin :) You’ll love it!
Love this post, Dale! My friend (who’s a vegan) told me the other day that Berlin has several vegan supermarkets – I haven’t heard of other European cities with this option. Apparently, Berlin is excellent for vegans. No wonder you guys are staying put :)
I actually didn’t know that there were so many great vegan restaurants around Berlin!
Berlin has more health food and vegan-targeted supermarkets than I have the time or money to enjoy! There really are as many as your friend mentioned. It’s as close to a vegan paradise as you can find in Europe.
Great stuff, I want to go! I love cycling around cities and eating all the vegan food I can get my hands on!!
Omomomom! This vegan restaurant’s so awesome!
I challenge you to bike around the city with a vegan kebab in each hand!
Omg I miss Berlin. One of the best cities in the world with so much atmosphere, variety and creativity. As my hometown is two hours away from Berlin, I have been there quite often but you always find a new spot you hadn’t known before.
Totally agree!!
Over the past couple of years we’ve spent about 6 months in total in Berlin and feel that we’ve barely scratched the surface of things to see and do here. There’s just so much!
I want to go to Berlin so badly! It looks like such an amazing city to explore!
Add it to your bucket list today!
Do! It’s more amazing than I could have ever have explained here!
My grandpa was German and I’ve been to Germany a few times before, but sadly never to Berlin. Will have to, have to go next year.
Awesome!!
Would love to meet with you if we’re here at the same time :)
What a great and timely post! Thanks guys!! I’m hoping to get to Berlin soon (finances depending)!!
Same here… :-D
You won’t regret it!
Love Berlin especially the Mitte District such a cool and laid back city!
:-)!
The Mitte district is one I really need to explore more, though I’ve been there plenty of times. I always leave it thinking that I may have missed something!
Great post, amazed to know one can do Berlin in less than $25 a day! would love to try the vegan pizza :)
You really should stop by Sfizy, it’s delicious :D
Me too!
Awesome post and tips Dale. I have lived in Berlin and the area for almost 4 years and couldn’t do it better. I am glad to see my former workplace there. I would definitely recommend Pfefferbett hostel to anyone:)
I wouldn’t really name Berlin a small city, it stretches for kilometres, but it’s true that the tourists areas are easily walkable and can be done in few hours time.
You should really visit the Tempelhof and now in the Fall a trip to Liebnietzsee would be nice. Also do not miss out on Potsdam. I did my Erasmus there and it is one of the best places I have lived in and so close to Berlin!! ABC ticket and S7 will do to get you there! :)
Happy to recommend Pfefferbett!
We’ve only a day and a half left in the city now (as we’re heading to Italy for Christmas) so won’t have the chance to see Templehof before we go :(
I love Berlin, I think it’s edgy, cool and I can see myself living there and it’s really not that difficult to stay there for less than $25/day. And the kebabs are incredibly huge and so delicious! omnomnom
Both the meat-filled and vegan kebabs in Berlin are almost always enormous. On more than one occasion I’ve finished one and have been almost unable to move due to the colossal amount of food my body still needed to digest. Plus, they’re so cheap too.
I love Berlin! I was just there. I love that everything is so affordable there too…especially the food! :D
The food and the attitude of the city what make it so special for me.
Are you coming back again?
I know :)!!
Great tips, Dale (& Franca)! I want to go to Berlin for the vegan food alone, nevermind all of the other awesome things about the city! :)
Maybe it’s cliche to say, but Berlin is one of my favorite cities. It just has everything to offer: views, liveliness, food, good transport, and awesome people! I definitely recommend doing a free walking tour. The history of the city is incredible and there are really cool things you’ll miss out on if you just explore on your own.
I totally agree!! <3
Amazing post! I am missing Berlin so badly now… I used to live there when I was not a vegetarian and enjoyed the kebabs… I am a vegetarian now, so no more Mustafas… but would love to visit again and try these yummy pizzas :D