The Berlin Pass is a popular package for tourists. According to their website:
"includes everything you need for the perfect city adventure, from entry to top attractions and museums to a handy Travel card for the public transport system"They offer free entrance to popular places (more than 50) and they include a travel card which means you can go around Berlin without worrying about buying tickets each time.
The price for a 2 days package is at the moment of this writing 71€ which at first sight can be really cheap compared against the price of all the other activities. But is this really the case? Do you really save money? Is it worth it? Is there a way I can lose money by buying this ticket? Lets make a small analysis.
How much money are we paying with the Berlin Pass?
If you are paying 71€ for 2 days this means you are paying 35€ per day, a day usually has 24 hours but most of the attractions are open between 10:00 a.m. and 19:00. So actually you only use it around 8 hours per day or 16 hours in 2 days.
So, what is the price per hour that you are paying? 71€/16 hours = 4.4€/h
Keep it above 4.4€ per hour
This number is important, if your activities cost less that 4.4€ per hour then you are wasting your money.
For example lets say you go to a museum that costs 12€. If you are planning to spend 6 hours there then you are paying 12€/6 = 2€ per hour!. You are losing money.
The trick to be sure that you are really making the most of it is to find the price of the attraction and divide it against the time you want to be there. If it is less that 4.4€ then forget about it!
To make it easier for you I created a table that can be useful. I assumed that you spend at most 2 hours in a museum. Please modify it if this is not the case.
| Place | Price | Time in hours for visiting | Price / Time |
| Fat Tire Bike Tours | 24 | 4.5 | 5.4 |
| Berlin Bus Tour | 17 | 2 | 8.5 |
| Insider Walking Tours | 15 | 4 | 3.75 |
| Hamburger Bahnhof | 14 | 2 | 7 |
| Checkpoint Charlie Museum | 12.5 | 2 | 6.25 |
| Pergamon Museum | 12 | 2 | 6 |
| Egyptian Museum Berlin | 12 | 2 | 6 |
| Neues Museum | 12 | 2 | 6 |
| Middle Eastern Museum | 12 | 2 | 6 |
| Museum of Pre-History and Early History | 12 | 2 | 6 |
| Museum of Islamic Art | 12 | 2 | 6 |
| Berlin River Cruise | 11.5 | 2 | 5.75 |
| Bode Museum | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Altes Museum | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Neue National Gallery | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Gemalde Gallery | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Alte National Gallery | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Berlinische Gallery | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Berggruen Museum | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Photography Museum | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Dahlem Museum | 8 | 2 | 4 |
| Ethnological Museum | 8 | 2 | 4 |
| Museum of Asian Art | 8 | 2 | 4 |
| Kunstbibliothek | 8 | 2 | 4 |
| Jewish Museum Berlin | 7 | 2 | 3.5 |
| Berlin Film Museum | 7 | 2 | 3.5 |
| Bauhaus Archive | 7 | 2 | 3.5 |
| Berliner Dom | 7 | 2 | 3.5 |
| Deutscher Dom | 7 | 2 | 3.5 |
| Ephraim Palais Berlin | 7 | 2 | 3.5 |
| Olympiastadion Berlin | 7 | 2 | 3.5 |
| Natural History Museum | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Medical History Museum | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Museum of Decorative Arts | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Schwules Museum | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Musical Instrument Museum | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Berlin Botanical Museum | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Georg Kolbe Museum | 5 | 2 | 2.5 |
| Brücke Museum | 5 | 2 | 2.5 |
| Stasi Museum | 5 | 2 | 2.5 |
| Anne Frank Centre | 5 | 2 | 2.5 |
| Berlin History Museum | 5 | 2 | 2.5 |
| Märkisches Museum | 5 | 2 | 2.5 |
| Church of St. Nicholas | 5 | 2 | 2.5 |
| German Technology Museum | 4.5 | 2 | 2.25 |
| Labyrinth Children’s Museum | 4.5 | 2 | 2.25 |
| MACHmit! Museum | 4.5 | 2 | 2.25 |
| Communication Museum | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| German Guggenheim | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Art Forum at Berliner Volksbank | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Humboldt Box | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Childhood and Youth Collection | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Düppel Museum Village | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Anti Kriegs Museum | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Alliierten Museum | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Following this table and unless you have a good reason you don't want to go to Anti Kriegs Museum because it is free but you should go to the Berlin Bus Tour, the price/time relation is the biggest one... almost twice than 4.4€!
There are more factors that could be taken into consideration for example the distance between one place and the other but since you have a traveling card for free then you are really not wasting money only time.Which could be also maximized but this could be the topic for another post. Also I didn't considered the topics, the lunch breaks and most important your style.
To summarize you could use this method if you have really problems to decide where to go. A factor to make a decision sometimes is making the most of your money. I'm sure there are more and better methods to do it but this one was the one I found interesting. At the end the most important thing is that you enjoy your visit in Berlin.
Have fun!
