Germany Itinerary: 6 Days in Berlin, Munich
Six days pairs Germany’s two poles — Berlin’s raw, history-scarred creativity and Munich’s polished Bavarian good living — connected by a train that does it in under four hours.
Germany ranked #8 worldwide with 37.5 million international arrivals (2024, UN Tourism / German National Tourist Board). Last reviewed 2026-07-29.
Germany · 6 days Berlin → Munich
Best time: May to September for beer gardens and long light; late September for Oktoberfest (book Munich months ahead); December for Christmas markets.
Berlin: Brandenburg GateDay 1
🏛️9:00 AMBrandenburg Gate
The 1791 gate stood inside the Wall’s death strip for 28 years; walk through it at dusk when the tour groups thin and the columns glow.
🚶 ~24 min · 🚗 ~3 min · 0.9 mi
🖼️1:30 PMNeues Museum
Home of the 3,300-year-old bust of Nefertiti on Museum Island. Note the neighboring Pergamonmuseum stays closed for renovation until June 2027.
🚶 ~8 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.3 mi
🌆6:00 PMMitte
The historic core: Museum Island, Unter den Linden, and the Hackescher Markt courtyards, with the TV Tower as your compass needle.
Berlin: Reichstag domeDay 2
🏛️9:00 AMReichstag dome
Norman Foster’s glass spiral rises above the parliament chamber it watches over — a literal statement about transparency. Free, but register online in advance.
🚶 ~31 min · 🚗 ~4 min · 1.1 mi
🥾1:30 PMTiergarten
Over 500 acres of paths and lakes in the middle of the city; climb the Victory Column’s 285 steps for the view down the Straße des 17. Juni.
🚶 ~48 min · 🚗 ~6 min · 1.8 mi
🎟️6:00 PMThird Reich and Cold War walking tour
A few hours with a historian past the Führerbunker site, Checkpoint Charlie, and the Wall’s scar line through the city — Berlin’s layers need a narrator at least once.
Berlin: East Side GalleryDay 3
🏛️9:00 AMEast Side Gallery
1.3 kilometers of the actual Berlin Wall painted by 118 artists in 1990 — the world’s longest open-air gallery, running along the Spree.
🚗 ~8 min · 2.4 mi
🖼️1:30 PMTopography of Terror
A free documentation center on the exact site of the Gestapo and SS headquarters — the clearest single account of how the Third Reich actually worked.
🚶 ~41 min · 🚗 ~5 min · 1.5 mi
🌆6:00 PMKreuzberg
Turkish markets along the Landwehr Canal, street art on every gable, and the city’s best casual eating — Berlin at its loudest and most alive.
Arrive in MunichDay 4
🚄8:30 AMICE train to Munich
Berlin Hbf to München Hbf in just under 4 hours on ICE Sprinter services (about 4h30 on the regular ICE); trains leave roughly hourly and saver fares reward early booking.
🚄 ~4h · 313 mi
🚇 U-Bahn hop
🏛️2:00 PMMarienplatz and the Neues Rathaus
The Gothic-revival city hall’s glockenspiel performs at 11 AM and noon (plus 5 PM March through October); the tower lift gives the best Altstadt-and-Alps view in town.
🚶 ~4 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.2 mi
🌆6:00 PMAltstadt and Viktualienmarkt
The pedestrian old town funnels into Viktualienmarkt, a food market trading since 1807 — closed Sundays, like most Munich shops — with a chestnut-shaded beer garden at its center.
Munich: Munich ResidenzDay 5
🏛️9:00 AMMunich Residenz
Germany’s largest city palace — 500 years of Wittelsbach rulers, the gilded Antiquarium banquet hall, and a treasury stacked with crowns.
🚶 ~17 min · 🚗 ~2 min · 0.6 mi
🖼️1:30 PMAlte Pinakothek
One of the world’s oldest public galleries — Dürer’s self-portrait, Rubens by the roomful — anchoring the Kunstareal museum quarter.
🚶 ~23 min · 🚗 ~3 min · 0.9 mi
🎟️6:00 PMBeer hall and brewery heritage tour
An evening guided crawl through the city’s historic beer halls and cellars — how the 1516 purity law, the Maß, and beer-garden etiquette actually work. You will never mis-order again.
Munich: Nymphenburg PalaceDay 6
🏛️9:00 AMNymphenburg Palace
The Wittelsbachs’ baroque summer palace, its garden front wider than Versailles’, with swans on the central canal and pavilions hidden in the park.
🚗 ~14 min · 4.1 mi
🥾1:30 PMEnglischer Garten
Bigger than Central Park. River surfers have ridden the Eisbach standing wave near its southern tip since the 1970s, and the Chinese Tower beer garden seats 7,000.
🚶 ~50 min · 🚗 ~7 min · 1.9 mi
🌆6:00 PMGlockenbachviertel
Munich’s most easygoing evening quarter — canal-fed streets, indie shops, and bars that skip the oompah entirely.
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Best time to goMay to September for beer gardens and long light; late September for Oktoberfest (book Munich months ahead); December for Christmas markets. November through February is dark and grey.
Recommended splitBerlin 3d · Munich 3d
Local tip: Nearly all shops close on Sundays — stock up Saturday or lean on bakeries and station supermarkets. Carry some cash: plenty of Berlin bars and Munich beer gardens still refuse cards. The Reichstag dome is free but requires online registration days ahead.
Berlin — 3 days
No city wears the 20th century like Berlin — empire, war, division, and reunification are all legible in a single walk. What grew back in the gaps is Europe’s capital of subculture: creative, unpolished, and unfinished on purpose.
Neighborhoods to base yourself inMitte. The historic core: Museum Island, Unter den Linden, and the Hackescher Markt courtyards, with the TV Tower as your compass needle.Kreuzberg. Turkish markets along the Landwehr Canal, street art on every gable, and the city’s best casual eating — Berlin at its loudest and most alive.Prenzlauer Berg. Cobbled streets and Gründerzeit facades that survived the war; on Sundays the Mauerpark flea market and its open-air karaoke take over.
LandmarksBrandenburg Gate. The 1791 gate stood inside the Wall’s death strip for 28 years; walk through it at dusk when the tour groups thin and the columns glow.Reichstag dome. Norman Foster’s glass spiral rises above the parliament chamber it watches over — a literal statement about transparency. Free, but register online in advance.East Side Gallery. 1.3 kilometers of the actual Berlin Wall painted by 118 artists in 1990 — the world’s longest open-air gallery, running along the Spree.Berlin Wall Memorial (Bernauer Straße). The only stretch preserved with its full death strip — watchtower, inner wall, and all. The free open-air exhibition is the city’s most sobering hour.
Nature and outdoorsTiergarten. Over 500 acres of paths and lakes in the middle of the city; climb the Victory Column’s 285 steps for the view down the Straße des 17. Juni.Tempelhofer Feld. A decommissioned airport turned park — Berliners cycle, skate, and grill on the runways where the 1948 Airlift landed.
MuseumsNeues Museum. Home of the 3,300-year-old bust of Nefertiti on Museum Island. Note the neighboring Pergamonmuseum stays closed for renovation until June 2027.Topography of Terror. A free documentation center on the exact site of the Gestapo and SS headquarters — the clearest single account of how the Third Reich actually worked.
Worth a guided tourThird Reich and Cold War walking tour. A few hours with a historian past the Führerbunker site, Checkpoint Charlie, and the Wall’s scar line through the city — Berlin’s layers need a narrator at least once.
Getting around BerlinU-Bahn, S-Bahn, and trams run on one honor-system ticket — validate it, inspectors are real. Trains run all night on weekends, and you will rarely wait more than five minutes.
Munich — 3 days
Getting here: ICE train — Berlin Hbf to München Hbf in just under 4 hours on ICE Sprinter services (about 4h30 on the regular ICE); trains leave roughly hourly and saver fares reward early booking.
Munich is Germany’s good-living counterweight: a wealthy, walkable royal capital where beer gardens are public living rooms and the Alps hover at the end of the street. It is also the gateway to Ludwig II’s fairy-tale castles.
Neighborhoods to base yourself inAltstadt and Viktualienmarkt. The pedestrian old town funnels into Viktualienmarkt, a food market trading since 1807 — closed Sundays, like most Munich shops — with a chestnut-shaded beer garden at its center.Glockenbachviertel. Munich’s most easygoing evening quarter — canal-fed streets, indie shops, and bars that skip the oompah entirely.Schwabing. The old bohemian quarter of Kandinsky and Thomas Mann on the Englischer Garten’s edge — Leopoldstraße cafés built for people-watching.
LandmarksMarienplatz and the Neues Rathaus. The Gothic-revival city hall’s glockenspiel performs at 11 AM and noon (plus 5 PM March through October); the tower lift gives the best Altstadt-and-Alps view in town.Munich Residenz. Germany’s largest city palace — 500 years of Wittelsbach rulers, the gilded Antiquarium banquet hall, and a treasury stacked with crowns.Nymphenburg Palace. The Wittelsbachs’ baroque summer palace, its garden front wider than Versailles’, with swans on the central canal and pavilions hidden in the park.Frauenkirche. The twin onion domes are the city’s silhouette and its unofficial height limit; climb the south tower for proof.
Nature and outdoorsEnglischer Garten. Bigger than Central Park. River surfers have ridden the Eisbach standing wave near its southern tip since the 1970s, and the Chinese Tower beer garden seats 7,000.Isar riverbanks. Locals swim and grill on the renaturalized gravel banks south of the center — pick up a bottle from a kiosk and join in.
MuseumsAlte Pinakothek. One of the world’s oldest public galleries — Dürer’s self-portrait, Rubens by the roomful — anchoring the Kunstareal museum quarter.Deutsches Museum. One of the world’s largest science and technology museums. The modernized first half reopened in 2022; the rest stays under renovation until 2028, and what is open still fills a day.
Worth a guided tourBeer hall and brewery heritage tour. An evening guided crawl through the city’s historic beer halls and cellars — how the 1516 purity law, the Maß, and beer-garden etiquette actually work. You will never mis-order again.Neuschwanstein Castle day trip. Ludwig II’s fairy-tale castle in the Alpine foothills, a UNESCO World Heritage site since July 2025. Entry is by timed ticket that sells out weeks ahead in summer — a guided coach trip solves the logistics and usually bundles Hohenschwangau.
Getting around MunichU-Bahn, S-Bahn, and trams on one MVV ticket; the Altstadt is walkable end to end in 20 minutes. Rent a bike for the Englischer Garten and the Isar.
The full plan as text
The same day-by-day plan, expandable day by day. Times are starting points, not homework.
Day 1: Berlin: Brandenburg Gate
9:00 AMBrandenburg Gate
The 1791 gate stood inside the Wall’s death strip for 28 years; walk through it at dusk when the tour groups thin and the columns glow.
1:30 PMNeues Museum
Home of the 3,300-year-old bust of Nefertiti on Museum Island. Note the neighboring Pergamonmuseum stays closed for renovation until June 2027.
6:00 PMMitte
The historic core: Museum Island, Unter den Linden, and the Hackescher Markt courtyards, with the TV Tower as your compass needle.
Day 2: Berlin: Reichstag dome
9:00 AMReichstag dome
Norman Foster’s glass spiral rises above the parliament chamber it watches over — a literal statement about transparency. Free, but register online in advance.
1:30 PMTiergarten
Over 500 acres of paths and lakes in the middle of the city; climb the Victory Column’s 285 steps for the view down the Straße des 17. Juni.
6:00 PMThird Reich and Cold War walking tour
A few hours with a historian past the Führerbunker site, Checkpoint Charlie, and the Wall’s scar line through the city — Berlin’s layers need a narrator at least once.
Day 3: Berlin: East Side Gallery
9:00 AMEast Side Gallery
1.3 kilometers of the actual Berlin Wall painted by 118 artists in 1990 — the world’s longest open-air gallery, running along the Spree.
1:30 PMTopography of Terror
A free documentation center on the exact site of the Gestapo and SS headquarters — the clearest single account of how the Third Reich actually worked.
6:00 PMKreuzberg
Turkish markets along the Landwehr Canal, street art on every gable, and the city’s best casual eating — Berlin at its loudest and most alive.
Day 4: Arrive in Munich
8:30 AMICE train to Munich
Berlin Hbf to München Hbf in just under 4 hours on ICE Sprinter services (about 4h30 on the regular ICE); trains leave roughly hourly and saver fares reward early booking.
2:00 PMMarienplatz and the Neues Rathaus
The Gothic-revival city hall’s glockenspiel performs at 11 AM and noon (plus 5 PM March through October); the tower lift gives the best Altstadt-and-Alps view in town.
6:00 PMAltstadt and Viktualienmarkt
The pedestrian old town funnels into Viktualienmarkt, a food market trading since 1807 — closed Sundays, like most Munich shops — with a chestnut-shaded beer garden at its center.
Day 5: Munich: Munich Residenz
9:00 AMMunich Residenz
Germany’s largest city palace — 500 years of Wittelsbach rulers, the gilded Antiquarium banquet hall, and a treasury stacked with crowns.
1:30 PMAlte Pinakothek
One of the world’s oldest public galleries — Dürer’s self-portrait, Rubens by the roomful — anchoring the Kunstareal museum quarter.
6:00 PMBeer hall and brewery heritage tour
An evening guided crawl through the city’s historic beer halls and cellars — how the 1516 purity law, the Maß, and beer-garden etiquette actually work. You will never mis-order again.
Day 6: Munich: Nymphenburg Palace
9:00 AMNymphenburg Palace
The Wittelsbachs’ baroque summer palace, its garden front wider than Versailles’, with swans on the central canal and pavilions hidden in the park.
1:30 PMEnglischer Garten
Bigger than Central Park. River surfers have ridden the Eisbach standing wave near its southern tip since the 1970s, and the Chinese Tower beer garden seats 7,000.
6:00 PMGlockenbachviertel
Munich’s most easygoing evening quarter — canal-fed streets, indie shops, and bars that skip the oompah entirely.
Make this Germany trip yours
Forward your real booking confirmations to Petrel and it builds this exact day-by-day view for you: flights, hotels, reservations, live flight status, and the travel time between stops. Under a minute.
Start your free tripFirst trip free. No account, no credit card.