The dome is free, but you register. You cannot walk into the Reichstag dome. Register on the Bundestag’s visitor site, which takes requests for the current month and the next; summer slots go within days. Every visitor is listed by name and date of birth, and at the gate each shows the matching photo ID, children included. The dome is open 8 a.m. to midnight, last entry 9:45 p.m. If you missed it, the visitors’ service center on Scheidemannstraße hands out leftover slots for that day and the next two, at least two hours before entry, so be there when it opens.
Museum Island. One €24 day ticket covers every museum open on the island; a single museum is around €14, and under-18s enter free. The Pergamonmuseum has been shut since October 2023. Its north wing and central building, with the Pergamon Altar and the Islamic art, reopen on June 4, 2027; the south wing with the Ishtar Gate stays closed until about 2037. Until then do the Neues Museum first: Nefertiti has a room of her own where photographs are banned. Most state museums close Monday.
Free Sundays ended. Museumssonntag, the free first Sunday, ran for the last time on December 1, 2024 when the Senate cut the money. The Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Straße is free every day: the grounds 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., the documentation center and its tower Tuesday to Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
BVG tickets. The city is zones A and B; the airport is C, so buy ABC for the ride in. A one-way AB ticket is €4.00 since January 2026, valid two hours in one direction; a 24-hour AB ticket is €11.20. There are no gates. A paper ticket is worthless until you stamp it in the small box on the platform or in the bus, and plain-clothes inspectors fine €60. Staying a month or more? The Deutschlandticket is €63 a month, cancellable monthly, for every local train, tram and bus in Germany, though not the ICE.
Sunday and cash. Shops close on Sunday by law, except inside the big stations, bakeries in the morning, and the Späti, the corner shop that sells beer, milk and chips late into the night and, officially or not, all Sunday. Many bars, Imbiss stands and small restaurants still take cash only, or cards above €10; carry €50 in bills and coins.
On the day. Keep the Reichstag confirmation and the museum QR codes in Waystop’s Documents, where they open without signal. Finish at the Tempelhofer Feld, the old airport, free from sunrise to sunset, its runways still painted and full of bicycles and kites.