Weekend City Breaks we will pick you up after breakfast at your hotel and take you out on the day’s tour. Each route has been carefully planned around a theme and you will receive in-depth knowledge of points of interest on the route. The tours start at around 9.30am and finish at approximately 4.00pm. We will stop for lunch at a local café or restaurant, avoiding the tourist traps. At the end of each tour we will take you back to your hotel where you will have time to wind down and relax. If required your guides will then pick you up with your group at your hotel to take you to one of our specially selected local restaurants. We´ll be there to take you back to your hotel after your meal.

On a Berlin Exploring Art Week your time will be spent between painting in the studio, sketching on trips, and visiting museums and galleries. Your day will generally start at 9.30am and finish at around 4.00pm. Lunch will either be taken in the studio or, on our trips out, at a local café or restaurant. At the end of each day we will take you back to your hotel.

On a Berlin Exploring Book Club Week your day will generally be split with mornings being spent touring the sights and places relevant to the books on the reading list. Afternoons will be spent in discussion of the books led by your Week leader, CJ Niemitz. Your day will generally start at 9.30am and finish at around 4.00pm. Lunch will either be taken during our walk or back in the hotel. At the end of each day there will be adequate time for you to explore the city on your own, or simply relax before dinner.

Our specialist holidays are not just for readers and artists, we also cater for the non-participating partner. Those not taking part will have as full an itinerary as they wish with the opportunity to go on the specialist walks or to explore the city with one of our guides, regardless of the size of the group.

4 Day Exploring Weekend Break

Friday. Your weekend break starts when we collect you from either Schönefeld (Berlin-Brandenburg International) Airport in the east of the city, or Tegel Airport in the west. After taking you to your hotel you will have time to settle in, relax and chat to your guide about your holiday. In the evening we will have an informal reception with drinks where you will receive the Berlin Exploring Welcome Pack with full details of your holiday in Berlin. After that, you will have dinner with your group and your guide at one of Berlin Exploring´s specially selected restaurants.

Saturday. Wall day. We start at Bornholm Bridge and from here we follow the route of the Mauerweg (Wall path) towards the centre of the city. We walk down Bernauer Strasse, visiting the Wall Documentation Centre and looking down on a fully-preserved section of the Wall. From here we walk into the centre reaching the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate. Back at another section of the wall at Potsdamer Platz we turn down Friedrich Strasse and finish at one of the most evocative names in the Wall's history, Checkpoint Charlie. Time permitting we will visit the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, a museum with exhibits annotated in the languages of the four post-war sectors: Russian, French and English. It´s a place to lose yourself in the pictures and stories of what it meant to live in a divided city.

Sunday. Today we offer an optional trip out to some of the extensive forest and waterside scenery that surrounds Berlin. We take a walk from our portfolio in either Wannsee, Grunewald or Spandau forests. The walk will of course reflect the time of year and interests of your group.

Monday. Today we travel south-west out of Berlin to Potsdam where we will look at the palace, galleries, pavillions, orangeries and deer park of Sanssouci. It is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site. Highlights include the splendid Raffael Hall in the middle section of the Orangery, the Rococo Chinese House designed by J.G Brüning, or the Jasper Hall with its walls decorated with red jasper and grey Silesian marble.

Tuesday. With your weekend break over, we depart for the airport, either Tegel Airport or Schönefeld (Berlin Brandenburg International) Airport.