Arrivals
A Berlin layover is worth leaving the airport for from about 5.5 hours, and the airport express has you in the city centre in under 25 minutes.
Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) is south-east of the city, and its railway station is directly under Terminal 1, so you go from the arrivals hall to the platform without stepping outside.
- Your terminal. Land at Terminal 1 and the station is a few escalators down. Land at Terminal 2 and you walk a few minutes along the arrivals level (E0) into Terminal 1 first, so allow about 10 minutes more each way.
- Bags. Booked on one ticket, your suitcase is usually tagged through to the final destination and you go into town with hand luggage alone. Booked separately, you pick it up past passport control. Left luggage on the station level of Terminal 1 takes them from 8am to 6pm: €10.50 a bag for up to 4 hours, €18.50 for up to a day. It closes at 6pm, so if you’ll be back later, use the lockers at Hauptbahnhof instead.
- Tickets. The airport is in fare zone C, outside the city’s inner zones, so the ticket you need is a Berlin ABC single, €5.00 each way. Buy it before you board, at the machines in the terminal or station or in the BVG app, and stamp a paper ticket in the small validator on the platform. Riding in town too? A 24-hour ABC ticket, €12.90, covers everything.
- Phone. The airport’s Wi-Fi is free, day and night. For maps and train times once you’re on the FEX, load a Germany eSIM before the trip.
Left luggage, lounges and rooms: at the airport.
eSIM
Data before you land
Set up a Germany eSIM before you fly, so maps and the BVG ticket app work from the platform under Terminal 1. The airport's own Wi-Fi is free.
Get an eSIM from Airalo (opens in a new tab)Get a Saily eSIM (opens in a new tab)
Border
Your passport decides whether you can go into town, and where you flew in from decides whether you queue at passport control first.
Not needed when you stay at the airport.
- Where you’ve flown from. Germany is one of the Schengen countries, which don’t check passports at their shared borders. Arriving from Doha, Dubai, London or New York, you queue for passport control at BER. Arriving from Paris, Vienna or Madrid, you walk out as if from a domestic flight; the passport check comes later, on the way to a flight leaving Schengen.
- Visa-free passports. Holders of US, UK, Canadian and Australian passports can visit for a short stay without a visa, and EU citizens need only a passport or ID card. Your passport must stay valid for 3 months after you leave the Schengen area and have been issued in the last 10 years.
- India and other visa passports. Going into town takes a Schengen short-stay visa, which has to be arranged before the trip.
- Only connecting? Expect passport control at BER all the same. The airport sends passengers flying in from or out to a country outside Schengen through it, so if your passport needs a visa for Germany, ask your airline before you travel whether your connection needs one. Nationals of 20 countries, including Pakistan and Nigeria, need an airport transit visa even to change planes.
- Time. Allow about an hour from landing to sitting on the train. Visitors from outside the EU now give fingerprints and a photo at the desk under the EU’s Entry/Exit System, which can slow the queue. If it does, you lose sightseeing time, not your flight: the time you must leave town doesn’t move.
Who needs which visa: visa and transit rules.
Into Berlin
The FEX airport express is the way in: a train about every 15 minutes from under Terminal 1, 19 minutes to Potsdamer Platz and 23 to Hauptbahnhof.
Not needed when you stay at the airport.
| Ride | Into town | Fare |
|---|---|---|
| FEX to Potsdamer Platz or Hauptbahnhof, the best for most | 19 or 23 minutes | €5.00 ABC single |
| S-Bahn S9 to Alexanderplatz | 43 minutes | €5.00, the same ticket |
| Taxi | About 40 to 50 minutes | About €60 on the meter |
Follow the signs for the trains down to the station under Terminal 1 and take a train towards Berlin Hauptbahnhof. In the daytime the FEX runs three times an hour, and the hourly RE20 regional train fills the fourth slot on the same line to Hauptbahnhof, with the same ticket. The first FEX leaves the airport at 4:01am, before any flight lands, and the last regular train back leaves Hauptbahnhof at 11:52pm, every day of the week.
Tickets, the S9, the night trains and taxis: getting into the city.
What to do
Start at Potsdamer Platz: the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag are all within a 20-minute walk, free and outdoors.
Not needed when you stay at the airport.
The fastest plan for a short layover
- Take the FEX to Potsdamer Platz, 19 minutes from the airport.
- Walk about 10 minutes to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a field of grey concrete slabs you can walk into, and give it half an hour.
- Walk 5 minutes to the Brandenburg Gate, then about 8 minutes on to the Reichstag, the parliament building, and see it from outside.
- Walk about 15 minutes to Hauptbahnhof and leave 2 hours 20 minutes before your flight.
Would you rather have a guide? Tours of Berlin start in the city, not at the airport, so check where yours begins and add about 4 hours to its length for the border, the train both ways and your 90 minutes before the flight. GetYourGuide (opens in a new tab) and Viator (opens in a new tab) list tours of the city.
Watch the calendar
- Mondays. The Berlin Wall Memorial’s visitor and documentation centres, the Neues Museum on Museum Island and the Memorial’s underground Information Centre are closed. The Wall’s open-air exhibition, the Brandenburg Gate, the field of slabs, the Topography of Terror and the TV Tower are all open.
- Sundays. Berlin Cathedral opens at noon instead of 9am.
- Evenings. The museums close at 6pm, but the Topography of Terror stays open to 8pm, the DDR Museum to 9pm and the TV Tower to 11pm every day, and the Memorial’s field of slabs and the East Side Gallery never close.
- Christmas and New Year. The Reichstag dome is closed on 24 December and from 4pm on 31 December; the Wall Memorial’s centres on 24, 25 and 31 December; the Neues Museum on 24 and 31 December; and the TV Tower shuts at 4pm on 24 December. Trains may run to holiday timetables, so check your train back in the BVG app.
- November 2026. The S9 doesn’t run through to the city from 13 to 16 November or from 27 to 30 November 2026, because of engineering works: take the FEX. The TV Tower is closed on 23 November.
Timed plans from 5.5 to 24 hours, including the Reichstag dome, the Berlin Wall and a plan for night arrivals: itineraries.
Layover tour
Tours of Berlin
Walking and bike tours of the government quarter, the Wall and the old East. They start in the city, so add about 4 hours to a tour's length for the border, the train both ways and your 90 minutes at the airport.
See tours on GetYourGuide (opens in a new tab)See tours on Viator (opens in a new tab)
Head back
Be back at Berlin Brandenburg Airport 90 minutes before departure, with your onward boarding pass.
Not needed when you stay at the airport.
- Time. Leave Hauptbahnhof 2 hours 20 minutes before your flight, or Potsdamer Platz 2 hours 10 minutes before: that covers the walk down to the platform, the wait for a train, the ride and 90 minutes at the airport. On the slower S9 from Alexanderplatz, leave 2 hours 50 minutes before. So 5.5 hours is the shortest layover worth leaving for, with about 1.5 hours in town; 8 hours buys about 4.
- Why 90 minutes is enough. Holding your onward boarding pass, with nothing to check in, you only have security ahead of you, plus passport control if you’re flying out of Schengen. Flights to the US and Israel have a second security check at the gate, which opens 2 hours and closes 30 minutes before departure, so head to your gate once you’re through. If you still need to check in or drop a bag, allow longer.
- Late at night. No flights land or leave between midnight and 5am, so on a same-day return you’ll leave town by about 9:40pm at the latest. The last train matters only if you spend the evening in town and fly early the next morning: the last regular FEX leaves Hauptbahnhof at 11:52pm and reaches the airport at 12:14am, and night trains follow at 12:52am, 1:52am and 3:07am, then 3:37am and 3:52am. Security in Terminal 1 opens at 4am. Landing late, you can still take an FEX into town until 2:22am. A taxi takes about 40 to 50 minutes.
Time in town at each layover length: how much time you’ll have.
Departures
Best for your layoverStaying at the airport instead: there are no rooms past security, but sleeping cabins and two hotels are a short walk from Terminal 1.
All three are before passport control, so you need to be able to enter Germany to use them.
- napcabs. Four sleeping cabins on the station level of Terminal 1, open around the clock: €17 an hour from 6am to 10pm and €12 an hour overnight, with a minimum charge of €34, or €44 on Sundays and public holidays.
- Hotels. The Steigenberger Airport Hotel is 50 metres from Terminal 1, and the IntercityHotel Berlin Airport BER is on Willy-Brandt-Platz, within walking distance of both terminals. Neither publishes a daytime rate, so for a few hours’ rest ask the hotel, or book the night.
- Lounges. Past security in Terminal 1, the BER Lounge Tegel (€36) and the BER Lounge Tempelhof (€48) sell entry to anyone, for up to 3 hours, and both have showers. They close at 9pm and 9:30pm, so neither is a place to spend the night.
Rooms, lounges, showers and left luggage: at the airport.
Hotel
Hotels at the airport
The Steigenberger Airport Hotel and the IntercityHotel Berlin Airport BER are a short walk from Terminal 1, before passport control, so you need to be able to enter Germany. The easy choice if you land late and fly on in the morning.