I will be in Berlin for 7 days staying with a family friend. Is there enough to do in Berlin for 7 days? Are there any day trips or other places in Germany that I can visit that are not too far away from Berlin? I love exploring and seeing new places.

If you get tired of Berlin after 4 days, consider spending two nights in Dresden to visit that city. But with all its museums and Potsdam on the outskirts, I think that there is plenty to do in Berlin. I happen to like the book BerlinWalks by Fritsche (sp?) and Hewitt as a guide for walking around Berlin, even though it is now more than 10 years old. It is also good on its history.

I could spend the whole week just at the Museum Island.

Buy Frodor's "Berlin's 25 Best" guidebook for more detailed suggestions. It's very good.

I doubt that you will get easily bored during 7 days in Berlin/ Potsdam.
But if you want a break from the city, there are many options for day trips, e.g. go punting in the Spreewald, visit cities like Dresden or Stralsund, Neuzelle monastary, or across the border to Szczecin/Poland.
All of that can be easily done by train, and you need around 1 1/2 - 2 hrs to get there, respectively.

I was there for 8 days last winter (my second trip) and never got bored. We never even made it to Potsdam.

It's an amazing city, packed with something for everyone.

Also spend a day on doing a walking tour. I did mine with Breweers: www.brewersberlintours.com. 9 hours long, absolutely fascinating, and only 12E.

For another interesting day trip, take the train to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.

You will love it. Gute Reise!

Berlin has enough to see and to do for 7 days, but in any case do the short S-Bahn trip to Potsdam (which is a suburb of Berlin). No need for further daytrips, but if you want some diversion, Schwerin and Hamburg are worthy destinations too (easily accessible by train). But I would stay in Berlin/Potsdam.

I've visited Berlin 4 times in the past 2 years; each trip gave me roughly a week in the city. I never have enough time to see or do everything of interest, and the city has something - or several somethings - to interest everyone. History, culture, architecture, shopping, food, etc. If you enjoy museums you'll be in heaven, but if not, you still won't be bored. Try to take in some of the markets.

One of the first things you'll notice is how spread out the city is, but luckily the transportation system is excellent. We used the S-bahn, U-bahn, trams and buses. Day trips I've taken have included: Potsdam (can use the Berlin transit card to get to Potsdam and get around in Potsdam if you buy ABC), Spandau (actually a part of Berlin), Leipzig, and Quedlinburg (wonderful city filled with half-timbered houses). We've also done Dresden as a 2-3 day trip from Berlin.

Apologies to OP for hijacking, but Hi noe847! Haven't seen you around for a while so I'm hoping all is well with you.

I was thinking the other day about visiting Berlin this summer, but then I saw a NYTimes article about the Neues Museum won't reopen until mid-October, so I guess we'll wait a little longer.

Also apologizing to the OP - Hi yk! I have not been on the forums very often in the past 6 or 9 months, but hope to be back a bit more regularly. I did travel to Berlin (and Cologne, Dusseldorf, Aachen, and Leipzig) in December. I saw very few museums, but several Christmas markets, and absolutely loved the cathedral at Aachen. So now I'm way behind on posting German trip reports...

noe847- I don't know how I missed your reply until just now! I DO HOPE you can visit the forum more frequently. And of course I love reading all your trip reports, even if they're abbreviated.

Hi JM,
Berlin is a large cosmopolitan that has undergone tremendous progress and changes in the last couple decades. What's really unique is how each city-district is so different from another in character & flavor. I'll be making my 12th visit to Berlin this coming May. There are tons of things to enjoy/do and it is also relatively inexpensive compared to other European capitals.

Berlin would be a lot of fun for a young person that I assume you are from your other posts. While most of the tourist monuments are in the Mitte Tiergarten district, the trendy young area is in the artsy Prenzlauerberg. Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain area are also popular with the young/student crowd.

I'll be visiting Berlin for the first time in July ( 5 full days), looking forward to it !
I speak several languages, but not a word of German.

It sounds like a silly question, but is English spoken widely in Berlin ( like Amsterdam, Stockholm, Copenhagen...etc)?

ttt

I think so especially in the central tourist areas. You shouldn't have any problem finding people who can speak English to help you.

thanks DAX.