Palace Charlottenburg: A 5-Step Visit Guide

Charlottenburg lies west of the central sights such as the Brandenburg Gate, so the palace works best as its own half-day.

Step 1: Decide if Palace Charlottenburg is worth your time

Palace Charlottenburg is worth a visit if royal interiors and gardens appeal to you, and it is the only large Berlin palace you can reach on a normal city ticket. Queen Sophie Charlotte and her husband Frederick I had the Old Palace built, and the official site says it was a favourite retreat of seven generations of Hohenzollern rulers.

The City of Berlin says the building began as a small pleasure palace for Sophie Charlotte, built between 1695 and 1699. When she died in 1705, the palace and the nearby village were named after her, as the City of Berlin explains. Frederick the Great carried on the work from 1740 and added the New Wing. World War II damaged the palace badly, and the rebuilding took more than twenty years.

Key Takeaway The Old Palace and the New Wing each cost €12, the combined charlottenburg+ ticket costs €19, and the garden is free.

Step 2: Pick the right ticket for the Old Palace and the New Wing

The charlottenburg+ ticket is the best value if you want both buildings. As of 28 October 2026, the official prices are €12 for the Old Palace, €12 for the New Wing and €19 for charlottenburg+, with reduced rates of €8, €8 and €14. The charlottenburg+ ticket is valid for a single visit to all the foundation's museums in the palace gardens, according to the Old Palace page.

When you buy a ticket, the site books a fixed admission time to the Old Palace. Large bags cannot be left at the entrance, but a free cloakroom takes small items and jackets.

The Old Palace is the baroque part, and its highlights are the Porcelain Cabinet, the Palace Chapel and the bedchamber of Frederick I. The New Wing is the part Frederick the Great had built, and the foundation names the White Hall and the Golden Gallery among the most beautiful rococo rooms in Europe. It also shows one of the largest collections of 18th-century French painting outside France.

Is a guide needed? No. The foundation's free Sanssouci app has tours of the Old Palace in several languages, including English. You need your own headphones, because none are lent out.

Pro Tip Two single tickets cost €24, so charlottenburg+ at €19 saves you €5 if you enter both the Old Palace and the New Wing.

The Best Travel Destinations' count of GetYourGuide listings for Berlin on 27 October 2026 found 3 palace entry tickets among 352 experiences, from €10 to €22, and none with free cancellation.

Step 3: Plan the opening hours and the way there

The palace is open Tuesday to Sunday and closed on Mondays. From April to October it opens from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and in November and December it closes at 4:30 p.m. Last admission is 30 minutes before closing. The same pages list Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as closed, and 31 December as 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The foundation's English page does not give January to March hours, so check the City of Berlin page, which lists the winter hours as 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. from November to March.

The address is Spandauer Damm 10-22, 14059 Berlin. The official pages name bus stops and no metro stations. The City of Berlin lists the stops Schloss Charlottenburg, Klausenerplatz, Luisenplatz/Schloss Charlottenburg, Schlossbrücke and Seelingstr., served by lines 109, M45 and 309. For tickets and fare zones, read getting around Berlin before you go.

Plan about two hours if you see both buildings, and buy your ticket on the official site or at the palace.

Step 4: Add the free garden to your visit

The palace garden is free and open daily from 8 a.m. until dark. Work on the garden began in 1695 under Sophie Charlotte in the French baroque style, and later rulers added an English-style landscape garden that has largely survived, as the official garden page says.

Besides the lawns and paths, the garden holds the Mausoleum, where Queen Luise rests, and the New Pavilion built by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The Belvedere, a small garden palace near the Spree, is shown as closed on the official page. The same page warns that branches may fall in dry weather, so stay on the visitor paths and avoid resting under old trees.

A good palace day leaves time for the garden, because the grounds are what the rooms were built to look onto.

If rain or closing time catches you, the garden is the part you can still enjoy for free. It is also the one part you can visit on a Monday, because the garden is open every day.

Step 5: Compare Charlottenburg with Sanssouci for a palace day

Charlottenburg is the easier palace and Sanssouci is the bigger day out. Sanssouci Palace costs €14 for a single ticket and €22 for the sanssouci+ ticket, and its visits are tied to fixed admission times, according to the Sanssouci page. Park Sanssouci is free and open daily from 8 a.m. until dark.

Charlottenburg needs no train out of the city and suits a short stay. Sanssouci needs a trip to Potsdam, so give it a morning of its own. The Potsdam day trip guide shows how to plan it.

If you want a guided way, a Potsdam and Sanssouci tour with entry is from €64 per person as of 28 October 2026. It takes about four hours, includes skip-the-line entry to Sanssouci and a live guide in English and German, and has free cancellation. According to the page, the bus leaves from Kurfürstendamm 216, and you cannot board in Potsdam. It is run by DB Regio Bus Ost GmbH, for groups of up to 35 people, and it has a 4.7 rating from 1,363 reviews.

For the park and the setting, a half-day Potsdam walking tour is from €49 per person, runs about six hours in English and has free cancellation. Per the page, no palaces are entered, only parks and exteriors, and that it is not suited to people with limited mobility or wheelchair users. The operator is Virtual Travel and the meeting point is Otto-Braun-Straße 65.

Is a tour worth it? For Charlottenburg, no, because you can buy the official ticket and go on your own. For Sanssouci, a tour saves you the planning, and you can also go by train.

One honest limit: Charlottenburg is a poor pick if you have only one hour or a Monday free. Only the garden is open then.