The origins of the city go back to the thirteenth century, but it was in the twentieth century that Berlin became a key centre of international historical interest. It became the capital of Bismarck’s United Germany in 1871 and retained that status until the onset of the Cold War, after 1945. 

It was, of course, also the capital of Hitler’s short lived Third Reich. It paid heavily for this during WWII with 52,000 Berlin citizens killed by Allied bombing, and another 100,000 perished during the Soviet assault on the city. The city became the key focus of Cold War tension as the Soviet Union occupied the east of the city with the British, Americans and French in occupation of the west; a microcosm of a similarly divided Germany. A war between the forces of Soviet Communism and western democracy almost erupted during the Berlin Airlift of 1948.

Its unwanted status as the crisis capital of the Cold War flared again in 1961 with the construction of the Berlin Wall, which sealed off the western half of the city. Before the Wall was torn down in 1989, more than 200 East Berlin citizens had been killed trying to cross it for freedom in the west.

Our best value sample itinerary from £445

4 Days to Berlin by Air

Day 1:
Travel to Berlin by air, meet your transfer to take you to your accommodation.  Explore Berlin by foot or using the excellent public transport system.

Day 2:
Visit the Brandenburg Gate, then take a two hour guided walking tour of Berlin. Visit the Jewish Museum, Check Point Charlie and the Topography of Terror. Spend the evening at a Bowling alley.

Day 3:
Visit Wannsee Conference Centre for a guided tour in the morning, in the afternoon take a guided tour of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. Return to your accommodation for the evening.

Day 4:
Morning at leisure. Meet your transfer to take you to the airport for your return flight.