Berlin: Museum Island Tour – Bode, Pergamon & Neues Museum

Discover Berlin’s Museum Island – a UNESCO World Heritage site – with a knowledgeable local guide, combining an engaging stroll across the sites of the island with short guided introductory visits inside three of the most important museums.

The three guided museum visits focus on selected highlights and serve as introduction to the respective museum and its collection, providing rich context and orientation.

Indoor visit 1: Your tour begins with a visit to the Bode Museum, an architectural jewel at the northern tip of the island. Here, you will learn about the museum’s imperial origins, entering through its impressive entrance hall, and explore selected highlights of both the collection and the building itself, including the significance of the historic James Simon Cabinet.

From there, you will walk across Museum Island and discover how this extraordinary ensemble developed into one of the world’s leading cultural landmarks. Along the way, your guide introduces the ideas and ambitions behind Berlin’s vision of a museum quarter—from its 19th-century beginnings and gradual expansion to wartime destruction and postwar reconstruction.

Indoor visit 2: Passing the Pergamon Museum, you will receive an introduction and visit to the spectacular Pergamon Panorama, offering insight into the ancient Greek origins of the famous Pergamon Altar, while the main Pergamon Museum remains closed for renovation.

Next, you will be introduced to the Altes Museum, where you will also walk through the monumental rotunda, a space inspired by classical antiquity and central to the original concept of Museum Island.

Passing by the Alte Nationalgalerie, a temple-like building housing 19th-century German and European art, you will learn how art, nationhood, and identity were closely intertwined.

Indoor visit 3: The tour continues with a guided introduction to the Neues Museum. Reopened in 2009 after a masterful restoration by David Chipperfield, the building itself is an architectural statement where old and new coexist. Inside, you will encounter world-famous treasures such as the Bust of Nefertiti, alongside key works from ancient Egyptian and prehistoric collections.

These brief museum visits help you understand the collections, architecture, and historical significance of each space while offering a strong foundation for further exploration.

The tour concludes at the James Simon Gallery, where you can enjoy a coffee or lunch break. From here, it is up to you to continue exploring any of the museums you visited, or any others on Museum Island. Your ticket remains valid for all museums on the island for the whole day.

This private tour can be adapted to your wishes upfront, as well as spontaneously on the day, including the number and choice of visited museums.

An expert Spanish guide is available on request.

The tour cannot happen on Mondays and is subject to the closures of some bank holidays.