Itinerary

Arrive in Berlin. You will be met at the airport and transferred to your hotel. Check in at the Rocco Forte Hotel de Rome.

Three overnights at the Hotel de Rome.

Today you will be picked up and taken on a private guided tour of the city. You’ll be crisscrossing between East and West Berlin – look for small cobblestone markers showing where the Berlin Wall once stood.

Sights you will visit on your tour might include:

• Brandenburg Gate
• Checkpoint Charlie (the only place where diplomats and international visitors were allowed to enter East Berlin)
• The Holocaust Memorial, built near the former site of Hilter’s bunker
• “Topography of Terrors,” the former HQ of the SS and Gestapo (now only rubble)
• Nikolaiviertel, the old German village, with charming, narrow medieval streets
• Hackesche Höfe, Berlin’s largest area of restored historic buildings
• Mitte, Berlin’s hippest district and a mecca for up-and-coming designers and decorators
• Potsdamer Platz, which was once a no man’s land, and is now a major residential, commercial and entertainment center
• Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche, called the “Broken Tooth” for its jagged, ruined bell tower, left standing as a memorial of WWII

Lunch at Borchardt

Afternoon at leisure for shopping. Good shopping areas include Hackesche Höfe, Neue Schoenhauser Strasse, and Mulackstrasse.

Dinner at Bandol Su Mer

Today you will be picked up and taken for a guided tour of Berlin’s famous Museum Island (Museumsinsel). With five world-class museums, this island was named a UNESCO World Heritage site both for the importance of the collections and for the buildings themselves – historic structures that have been renovated in innovative, sometimes controversial ways.

The full spectrum of museums and collections are too vast to be seen in one day, so choose a few that really interest you and pace yourself. The Neues Museum features Egyptian art, including the famous bust of Nefertiti. The Pergamonmuseum houses architectural masterpieces from classical antiquity. The Altes Museum specializes in Greek antiquities, the Alte Nationalgalerie exhibits 19th Century painting, and the Bode-Museum displays Byzantine art and the world’s largest sculpture collection.

Lunch at Dachgarten, the Reichstag’s rooftop restaurant.

Afternoon at leisure for shopping or exploring Berlin on your own.

Dinner at Alpenstueck.