Hire a bus for a sightseeing tour of Berlin
We do not sell individual tickets and we do not run a fixed sightseeing line. With us you hire the whole bus and its driver — your route, your stops, your timetable. From about ten people that is the difference between “we sat in a bus” and “we had a bus”.
No hop-on hop-off — the bus is yours for the duration
The well-known sightseeing tours sell you a seat on a fixed line. For two people that is cheap, and it has a price: you follow somebody else’s route, you stop where everybody else stops, and after each break the group has to gather again in the next bus.
We do it the other way round. You hire the vehicle and its driver for a set period. The coats stay on the seat, the seat stays yours, and nobody gets lost on the way. Because the price attaches to the bus and not to the heads inside it, the arithmetic turns in your favour at around ten people — and the larger the group, the clearer that becomes.
What it does not include is the commentary. We provide the bus and the driver, not the story that goes with it. If you want a guide, bring your own — tell us when you enquire and the public address system will be ready and checked. Or get in touch and we will put you on to the Berlin guides we work with regularly.
The route we drive most often
About two hours of driving time without stops. All of it can be changed — it is a suggestion, not a line.
- 01
Kurfürstendamm and the Memorial Church
A good starting point: many hotels are here and a coach can stop properly. From there along Tauentzienstraße, past KaDeWe.
- 02
Victory Column and Straße des 17. Juni
The most impressive straight line in the city — and from the upper deck of a double-decker you look out over the Tiergarten instead of into it.
- 03
Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, Memorial
The stop almost everybody wants. There are designated coach bays on Ebertstraße; from there all three are a few minutes on foot.
- 04
Unter den Linden to Museum Island
Humboldt University, the State Opera, Berlin Cathedral. Stopping at the Lustgarten works when there is no event on.
- 05
Alexanderplatz and Karl-Marx-Allee
TV tower, Red Town Hall, and then the broad wedding-cake avenue heading east — the stretch where you can see that Berlin used to be two cities.
- 06
East Side Gallery, Checkpoint Charlie, Potsdamer Platz
Stopping works on Mühlenstraße, but not on Friedrichstraße. For Checkpoint Charlie you get out nearby and walk the last few metres.
Where a thirteen-metre coach is allowed to stop
A sightseeing tour is not planned around sights, it is planned around places to stop. Berlin has designated stopping and parking bays for coaches, and they are not always where you would like to get out. Plan without that knowledge and you spend the day double-parked, arguing.
Our drivers know the city and know where a bus may stop. Send us the stops you want and we check them in advance — and tell you honestly which of them only works as a drive-past and where the nearest bay is. Usually it is five minutes on foot, and those five minutes are the difference between a planned tour and an improvised one.
One point about size: the double-decker is a good four metres tall. In the city centre that is never a problem. As soon as a route leads out of town, under old avenues of trees or through village high streets, we look at it beforehand — and sometimes the single-deck coach is the better choice, even though the view from upstairs is nicer.
You see more from up there
The upper deck has a full panoramic windscreen at the front — the best view of the city a bus can offer.
How long a tour really takes
The full circuit without stopping is about two hours. Every photo stop costs twenty to thirty minutes — getting out, walking over, taking pictures, coming back, counting heads. With three stops you end up at three and a half hours, not two and a half. That is the sum most plans get wrong.
Then there is the traffic, and in Berlin that is not a detail: the same circuit takes two and a half hours on a Sunday morning and four on a Friday afternoon. If you have a free choice, go early. If you do not, we order the route so that the city-centre sections avoid the peak.
Our advice after many of these tours: four stops done properly beats eight seen through the window. A group that has got out three times and had a coffee once remembers more than one that saw everything from its seat.
Who books a tour of their own
- Agencies and tour operatorsIncoming groups with their own guide. We drive, you do the talking. Billed by invoice, including several dates across a season.
- Companies and conferencesThe programme between the meeting and dinner. A popular version drops everyone at the restaurant instead of driving back to the hotel.
- Clubs and anniversariesGroups travelling in from elsewhere in Germany who add a day in Berlin. Often with a hotel stop and a second run in the evening.
- School and study tripsThe tour on arrival day, so the class gets its bearings before splitting into small groups.
- Family celebrations and weddingsGuests who have travelled in see the city before the party. Afterwards the bus takes everyone to the venue together.
- Day visitors from WarnemündeCruise groups coming to Berlin for the day. That is a long leg and has to be worked out together with the driving-hours rules.
The bus for the circuit
Eight to ninety seats. Which one fits depends on the group — and on whether you want to look out from the upper deck.
A price in one minute
Enter the route, pick a bus, get a quote. Usually straight away.
Common questions
Do you sell hop-on hop-off tickets?
No. We hire out the complete bus with its driver to one group. We have no individual tickets and no fixed sightseeing line.
Is a guide included?
Not as standard. We provide the bus and the driver. If you want a commentary we are happy to put you in touch with a guide — or bring your own and use the public address system on board.
Can we set the route ourselves?
Yes. Send us the stops and we check whether they fit the driving-hours rules and whether the bus is allowed to stop there. Where it is not, we suggest the nearest bay.
From how many people is this worth it compared with tickets?
From roughly ten. Below that the line operators’ tickets are usually cheaper. Above it you pay once for the bus instead of ten times for a seat — and you get the route and the timetable with it.
Is there a microphone on board?
In coaches and double-deckers, yes. Say when you enquire that you need it — we check it before the trip and the driver shows your guide how to switch it on.
Can we combine the tour with an excursion?
Yes, and that is the more common case. Berlin in the morning, Potsdam with Sanssouci Palace in the afternoon — or the Sachsenhausen memorial. Both fit into one day if you plan them together.
Do you drive in the evening as well?
Yes. The illuminated circuit late in the evening is a tour in its own right, and in the darker half of the year it is more popular than the daytime one.