The top 6 weekend city trips from Berlin

If you’re looking to whisk yourself away on holiday but find it hard to fit anything into a busy schedule, there are a number of incredible city trips from Berlin that can easily fit into a weekend.

Ranging from one-hour train journeys to four-hour road trips, the following destinations were the most popular from Berlin, according to global travellers.*

1-2 hour

Known as the birthplace of poet and writer, Theodor Fontane, Neuruppin is a lovely little town with Prussian roots found about 60km northwest of Berlin. It sits on the shores of Ruppiner See, a lake backed a natural reserve of rolling, forest-covered hills known as the Ruppiner Schweiz. There’s swimming, sailing and canoeing available on the water, or hiking and cycling in surrounding forest and canyons if you prefer adventures on dry land; follow the 14km-long promenade around the swan-dotted lake and keep your eyes peeled for a wellness resort on its shores called Mark Brandenburg & Fontane Therme – spend the night here to make the most of the resort's mineral-rich waters, saunas and steam rooms galore. And before you leave Neuruppin, check out the old East German Trabi standing on an old metal mast in the middle of a field just outside of town – intended as a place for local storks to lay their eggs, it's become an eccentric but somewhat charming attraction.

The town of Lübbenau is famous for its pickles, exporting thousands of this briny Brandenburg treat each year. But it’s also a gateway to the Spreewald Biosphere Resever, making it a popular day trip destination from Berlin. It’s fairly touristy but well-worth the hour-and-a-half drive from the capital, thanks to dense surrounding birch and pine woodland, a network of canals for punting and the potential for peaceful bike rides through the trees. You can hop on a punt tour ranging from two to nine hours, or hire your own bicycle, kayak or canoe to explore the landscape of meadows and meandering waterways yourself. Check into Hotel Ebusch, the highest-rated accommodation in Lübbenau.

2-3 hours

Despite being utterly devastated during Allied bomb raids in 1945, Dresden is still one of Germany’s most culturally and architecturally exciting cities. Many of its baroque palaces, churches and magnificent monuments like the Semperoper (opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden) have been rebuilt. While in the Neustadt (which – confusingly – is older than the Altstadt because the bombings honed in on the city centre), you’ll discover an alternative scene of craft beer, cafés with industrial, poured concrete floors, graffiti murals adorning the buildings around Alaunstrasse and hybrid venues like Katy’s Garage, where you can grab a drink, a meal, catch a film or a gig and more. Book a night or two at Strohhutmanufaktur, where apartments feature exposed brick walls and carved wood and velvet sofas.

Standing on the coast facing the Baltic Sea, the 800-year-old Hanseatic City of Rostock makes for a refreshing break from Berlin. Especially when combined with a stroll into the neighbouring fishing village of Warnemünde, where the River Warnow meets the sparkling sea and the skyline is defined by a lighthouse, a solitary Gothic church steeple and a collection of fishermen’s cottages. After a walk along the village’s pale sandy beach and past boats bobbing quayside in the harbour (Alter Strom), head back to the beautiful main square, Neuer Markt, in Rostock itself. Grab a beer and a pretzel from a cafe and relax while admiring the gabled, Renaissance-era merchants’ houses and monuments like the red brick, Gothic church of Marienkirche. Stay at Stadtperle Rostock, an art nouveau-style villa hotel in the centre of the city.

3-4 hours

If you fancy more of an adventure, just hop on the train or in the car and a few hours later, you’ll find yourself in Prague. The Czech capital is something of a pilgrimage for beer-lovers, with breweries, beer halls and beer gardens like the gorgeous Biergarten Letna-Schlösschen. Perched atop a hill above the Old Town and the Vltava River – with its grand, medieval stone bridges – this beloved watering hole is great for fueling up with snacks of klobása (a type of sausage) washed down with Czech beer. But Prague is much more than delicious beer. It has hilltop fortresses, hidden gardens and fine food featuring spicy sausages, hearty soups and a lot of sauerkraut, as well as historic cafés with vaulted ceilings that have been frequented by famous figures like Franz Kafka. Check into Hotel Clement, just across the Vltava River from Biergarten Letna-Schlösschen.

The magic of Poznań is that it possesses all the beauty and history of Krakow but without nearly as many tourists. First things first, head to the cobbled main square. Like the rest of the Old Town, it’s marked by incredibly photogenic architecture; note the narrow gabled houses with a colonnade containing shops and cafés beneath. And the 16th-century town hall, a fantastical Renaissance creation known for its clock display of mechanical goats, who appear through a pair of small doors to butt horns every day at noon. For added culture, Poznań’s Cathedral Island (Ostrów Tumski) is just a half-hour walk from the Old Town and is home to a number of museums and churches. And along the waterfront of the city’s Warta River, you'll find pop-ups like urban beaches and bars during the warmer months. Stay in a stylish, spacious and central Poznań apartment at Projekt Piekary.

**The analysts at Booking.com used internal data to find the most-booked destinations within a certain radius of Berlin. This was done three times for three distance options, with the radii determined by average transportation times.