Berlin’s Best Hikes

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Being in Germany’s capital does not mean you can’t get out into nature. Granted, there aren’t any mountains in Berlin nor in Brandenburg, but you can still have an enjoyable outing in the woods. There are tons of hiking trails around, which is why this post only contains Berlin’s best hikes. The landscapes around Berlin are varied and beautiful, especially the many lakes, rivers, and marshes. Every season has something different to offer. Spring time is beautiful when everything is blooming. Summer’s heat invites you to take a swim in the numerous lakes. The fall foliage is a colorful sunny yellow and the air is crisp and clean. Winter enables you to crunch through the snow under your boots, even when there isn’t any of the white stuff in Berlin. Having hiked over 1000 km through Berlin and Brandenburg, this post brings you recommendations from my favorite hikes so far.

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All of the following hikes can be reached via public transportation, even if some have more cumbersome connections. Most of the hikes have different start and end points which makes traveling by car inconvenient. Almost all of the hikes have been taken out of two books: 66 Seen Wanderung (66S) and Wanderungen durch Brandenburg (WDB). The 66 Lakes book has detailed enough maps that I found having an extra map was unnecessary. Any hikes from 66S are marked by a blue dot on a white field (some sections of the hike are better marked than others). The maps in WDB are not very detailed and the authors suggest obtaining an actual map for each hike, although I have managed thus far without one. The hikes on this list appear in order by distance.

Briesetal (tour 3 66S) 13.5 km

Briesetal, meaning “Briese Valley,” is where the Briese River flows through the Naturpark Barnim. Originally, the hike from the 66S book is listed as 25 km from Hennigsdorf to Wensickendorf. But as a tip, I would begin this hike in Birkenwerder instead, which cuts the length down to the prettier 13.5 km. Birkenwerder and Henningsdorf can be reached by Berlin S-Bahn and Wensickendorf by Regional Bahn. I have done the full 25 km in the fall and the 13.5 km stretch in the winter with snow and ice. Both times of year are equally wonderful as the Briese attracts all kinds of animals and birds and is very peaceful and beautiful. Since this route is part of the 66 Lakes Trail, it is marked throughout by a blue dot on a white rectangle.

Get maps and directions for this hike!

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Höhenhavelweg (tour 20 WDB) 15 km

“Above the Havel” is probably the easiest tour to get to on the list and makes for a great I-got-up-late-but-still-want-to-hike hike. Starting at S Nikolassee and ending at S Heerstrasse, the Höhenhavelweg goes by several highlights in the Grunewald, including the Grunewald Tower and Teufelsberg.

Get complete directions and maps for this hike!

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The start of the tour is well marked by 3 colorful triangles as you hike up to a ridge which follows the Havel north of Wannsee. From the Grunewald Tower, the trail is harder to follow because there are so many paths cutting through the park. I have done this hike a few times in different seasons and it’s always a pleasure. (Get directions and maps for this hike).

Ruppiner See (tour 9 WDB) 17 km?

This tour officially starts at Wustrau-Schule (bus stop) because WDB allows you to hike a continuous distance trail if you so desire. We started out instead at Wustrau-Radensleben because it’s easy to get there with the RE and cut off about 3 km of the original 20 km tour. From there, we wandered along the 13 km long Ruppiner See. Although it doesn’t sound so appealing, we had lovely damp, misty fall weather for this hike and it was great!

When we got to Neuruppin, we wandered around the cute old town, visited the Klosterkirche, and stopped in a café for something warm to drink before catching the train from Neuruppin West (you can also get the train from Neuruppin Rheinsberger Tor). This hike was easy and straightforward to follow, mostly using the blue-striped marker of the E10.

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8 Lakes in a Day (tour 5 66S) 17.6 km

To see so many lakes in one day, you have to do the full version of this long hike – 28 km from Wensickendorf to Melchow. Even though I did all 28 km alone in the rain I really loved it. So much so, that I went camping for the first time with C and did the 17.6 km from Wandlitzsee to Biesenthal. But that time was so disastrous I thought I would never see him again – the sun baked us out of the tent at 6am, we got eaten by mosquitos, the walk through Biesenthal to the train station isn’t the greatest, and we got stuck in a thunderstorm which left us soaked to the bone.

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But we had a lovely time swimming in Liepnitzsee and Obersee. You could even make it a day trip just to hang at the lake; the Liepnitzsee is one of the best lakes in the Berlin region. All in all, the weekend couldn’t have been so disastrous since we’ve had many camping trips since. All train stations are reachable via RE.

Burg Stargard along Tollensesee (DAV Berliner Bergsteiger) 19 km

This is the only hike on the list located way out in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, but the RE trains make it simple enough to get there and back (you can even use the Berlin-Brandenburg Ticket for the day). The hike starts in Neubrandenburg, which has many remains of its medieval days, and follows the shore of the Tollensesee for several kilometers. Nearly the whole hike is well marked with a green horizontal stripe and there are a few signs with maps along the way. The cherry on top of this beautiful hike is getting to Burg Stargard at the end. The town has a 13^th century castle complex with the same name. I enjoyed the hike so much that I immediately wrote this post about it.

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Erpetal (tour 23 WDB) 20 km

“Like out of a picture book” is the description WDB gives this hike, and I would have to agree. The great thing about this hike is that it has several points which are reachable by S-bahn, although the end of the hike is only reachable by bus in Altlandsberg. The hike starts from S Friedrichshagen and can be hiked 10 km to S Hoppegarten, 13 km to S Neuenhagen, or 20 km to Altlandsberg. I would really suggest making it to the very end! (Get maps and directions for this hike!)

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Even though this hike begins in Berlin proper, you would never know it! Within 200 m of the S Bahn station you find yourself along the Erpe stream and follow it nearly the entire Wanderung. The trail does pass through some calm residential sections, but quickly returns to this idyllic little river. Altlandsberg is a typical cute Brandenburg town with a cobbled Marktplatz and it has the added bonus of the original city wall and gate which date back to the 14^th century. I took my colleagues on this hike and it was a big hit! The trail is not marked reliably but is easy enough to follow the river with guidance from the text in the book. (Get maps and directions for this hike!)

Kunstwanderweg (tour 50 WDB) 21 km

I had never traveled this far southwest in Brandenburg before, but I will have to more often because these hikes in the Fläming region were fantastic. The Kunstwanderweg, German for “art hike,” is a giant loop which stretches from Wiesenburg to Bad Belzig containing over 20 sculptures by European artists. Both towns are easily reachable within an hour on an RE. WDB says that the north route of the trail is 17 km long, but a friend tracking us with Komoot said we had done 21 km by the end of the day.

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I enjoyed the trail much more on the north route, but some of my favorite artworks were located on the south route (which I did on a separate day). And there’s a double bonus on this hike – Wiesenburg AND Bad Belzig have castles! Safe to say that I am in love with this hike.

Romance on the Havel (tour 3 WDB) 24 km

Getting to Ketzin requires an hour long bus ride from Potsdam, but the effort is worth it! This trail is part of the E10 trail (which crosses Europe from Finland to France) and is marked with a blue stripe on a white field. But a trail marker here is barely necessary. All you have to do is walk on top of the dike until you reach Brandenburg (the city in the state with the same name). Because this hike is challenging to reach, you’ll have the whole thing to yourself to enjoy.

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I would not recommend doing this hike on a hot summer day because there is almost no tree cover along the way. What you do have the whole way are beautiful views of the Havel River and surrounding farmland. Once you arrive in Brandenburg, there is plenty to see in the medieval town. Getting back to Berlin is done easily enough by hopping on the hourly RE train.

Chain of Lakes (tour 7 66S) 25 km

Leuenberg can only be reached by bus and only has a connection every two hours on the weekends. If you put in the effort to get there, you will not be disappointed. I did this trail with two other hiking enthusiasts and we all agreed this was a great hike. This trail follows the gully formed by a glacier millennia ago. Nearly all of this hike is in preserved nature areas which are void of homes and towns. These areas include the Gamengrund, Forst Leuenberg, Blumenthaler Wald, Spitzheide, and Buchholzer Heide. The next time you see civilization is when you arrive in Strausberg (accessible by S Bahn), which is located on the large Straussee with its picturesque promenade. The prequel to this hike can be found in “Peace and Quiet” below.

Brandenburg’s Best Hike: Schlaubetal (tour 52 WDB) 25.4 km

Described as “the most beautiful in all the land,” I unfortunately have yet to try the Schlaubetal tour. It had to be included on the list because it has been recommended to me SO many times! It’s even an awarded Quality Hike. I need to get out there. The hike begins at the train station Müllrose and ends at the bus stop Schlaubenmühle. Closely following the Schlaube River, the trail passes by several lakes and which are located in the Unter Schlaubetal Reserve among other nature reserves. Since this hike is listed as one of Germany’s “Qualitätswanderungen” its beauty is no secret. For this reason, it is suggested to hike this route on weekdays. (I did make it back to the Schlaubetal!)

Peace and Quiet (tour 6 66S) 29 km

This hike is the prequel to “Chain of Lakes” above. Melchow is easy enough to reach by RE, but Leuenberg is a tricky bus connection on the weekends. That and the length of this hike means that you won’t really meet anyone along the way (although a nice elderly couple give me a ride when I got a little lost!). I was enchanted by this section of trail in the fall. The colors were beautiful and I was accompanied the whole way by various types of mushrooms.

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You could shorten this hike by taking the train back from Falkenberg/Mark (24 km) but then you’d miss out the string of long skinny glacier-made lakes in the Gamengrund. Alternatively, hiking from Falkenberg to Leuenberg is 17 km.

Fürstenberg Loop to the Border (tour 18 WDB) 20 km (+ return)

Perhaps this wasn’t a day hike, but it was so wonderful I had to include it. Maybe then I would also have to include this overnight hike too! The route starts and ends in Fürstenberg/Havel which is reachable by regional train. We started hiking south of the Röblinsee on the Berlin-Copenhagen bike trail, following the blue stripe of the E10 and blue dot of the Ruppiner-Land-Rundwanderweg. We passed along several more lakes including Peetschsee and the gorgeous Stechlinsee (which itself is worth a weekend-long visit!). It was roughly 20 km to our campsite on the Ellbogensee, which is technically on the Mecklenburg side of the border. The return trip is shorter and passes the Kleiner Glietzensee and the north side of the Röblinsee before returning to Fürstenberg.

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Do you know any more excellent hikes to do around Germany’s capital? Do you think these are Berlin’s best hikes? I would love to hear about others, as I also am always looking for new places to hike. Thus far, I have completed the 66-Lakes-Trail but not yet all of the hikes from Wanderungen durch Brandenburg, so perhaps there will be future additions to this list. If you’re looking for more day trips from Berlin, check out these posts.

I make absolutely no money from this blog. The book recommendations (and any others) you see here for Berlin’s best hikes are made of my own free will. I do not earn any money if you purchase anything. 🙂