Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
MUSEUM PASSES AND DISCOUNTS
While the Welcome Card (see below) and City Tour Card (see below), provide useful discounts
for museum visits on top of access to the public system, a couple of passes are even more
effective at cutting admission prices at museums, particularly if you're keen to visit several.
Best is the
Museum Pass Berlin
- a good-value €24 three-day ticket covering some fifty
Berlin museums, including all the state collection. It's sold at all participating museums, as
well as at the Visit Berlin information centres (see p.33).
Also worth bearing in mind is the
Bereichskarte
, a day-pass valid for all of Berlin's state
museums in one of the four zones they are divided into - Museum Island (see p.55), the
Kulturforum (see p.94), Charlottenburg (see p.155), and Dahlem (see p.160). These cost
€12-18, depending on the zone, and can be picked up at any of the museums within the
zone for which you wish to purchase a ticket.
people; it costs €16.20 for zones A and B and €16.70
for three zones.
Another ticket of relevance is the
Fahrrad
ticket,
which enables you to wheel a bike onto U- and
S-Bahn services. It costs €2.30 for a single journey in
zones A, B and C and €5.30 for a day pass - but note
that it only covers the bike and you'll need to buy
the appropriate pass for yourself, too.
Other possibilities are the
Welcome Card
and the
slightly cheaper
City Tour Card
(
W
citytourcard
.com). Both are available for 48 hours, 72 hours or
five days and range from €16.90 for 48 hours in
zones A and B to €36.50 for 5 days in zones A, B and
C. Both cards also give concessionary rates at a host
of attractions and discounts at participating tour
companies, restaurants and theatres; the main
difference between the two are their partners, so
check to see which are more appealing. A
Museum
Island
(
Museumsinsel
) version of the Welcome Card
also covers all the Museum Island museums (see
p.55): 72 hours in zones A and B for €34.
If you're in Berlin for longer than a couple of
weeks, consider buying a
monthly ticket
(
Monat-
skarte
); various types are available and explained in
full in English via the information buttons on
dispensing machines.
it's forbidden to overtake until the tram starts moving,
to allow passengers time to cross the road and board.
Thanks to widespread car ownership and extensive
road construction projects, Berlin suffers
tra
c
snarl-ups
that can compete with the worst any
European city has to offer. Rush-hour jams start at
around 5pm and are particularly bad on Friday after-
noons when you shouldn't be surprised if a journey
takes three or four times as long as you expect.
Finding
parking spaces
in central Berlin can be
tricky and you'll almost certainly have to pay. Meters,
identifiable by their tall grey rectangular solar-power
umbrellas, generally charge €1-3/30min. You're
supposed to move after an hour, and stiff fines are
handed out to cars parked for longer than that or
without tickets - even cars with foreign plates.
Parking garages generally charge around €2/hr and
allow you to stay for several hours.
Central Berlin has been designated an
Umwelt-
zone
- a green zone, announced by a sign with the
word printed on it - in which all cars must display an
emission badge (
Umwelt Plakette
;
W
umwelt-plakette
.de). These can be purchased online in advance (€30)
or bought for around €15 from any of the many
garages in Germany that offer TÜV auto-testing (the
German equivalent of an MOT ) - look for the TÜV
logo. The badges work by using a tra
c-light system
- currently all vehicles with amber and red badges
are banned in central Berlin. In practice this means if
you are driving a pre-'93 petrol car, a pre-'97 diesel
vehicle or a diesel van, you will probably have to have
an expensive catalytic converter fitted or leave your
vehicle on the fringes of the central city. Fines for
having the wrong badge or none at all are currently
€50. All rental cars will have badges fitted.
By car
Though there's practically no need for a
car
within
the city, you might want one to tour outside Berlin.
The most important
rules
to bear in mind when
driving are simple: drive on the right; main roads have
a yellow diamond indicating priority; and unless
otherwise indicated, tra
c coming from the right
normally has right of way. Trams also always have the
right of way, which frequently catches out unwary
visiting drivers who are prone to cutting in front of
trams at junctions - a frightening and potentially
lethal error. Also, when trams halt at designated stops,
Car, scooter and go-kart rental
All the major
car rental
agencies are represented in
Berlin. Some have booths at the airports and most
have pick-up points in the centre, too. You should be
