The Berlin Welcome Card is a travel card that will save you money in Berlin and Potsdam. The work scheme is extremely simple: when visiting a museum or restaurant, you must provide the employee with a Welcome Card, after which you will be offered a discount.
What is Velcom Card
Berlin Welcome card – a tourist map of the German capital, with which you can plunge into the life of Berlin and not overpay for entertainment. By purchasing Velcom Card, you can significantly save on trips to museums, theaters, cafes, restaurants, a number of shops and on excursions.
Similar tourist cards are available in almost all European countries, and more than a million people use them annually. They work as follows: before buying a ticket in a museum or paying a bill in a restaurant, you must give an employee of the Welcome Card institution. After that, they will give you a discount or (in the case of some museums) be allowed into the building without payment.
What’s included benefits
Berlin Card provides discounts on the following facilities:
- Museums Depending on the category and popularity of the attraction, the percentage of discount is calculated. Usually, if a tourist has a Berlin Card, the ticket price is reduced by 10-50%. There are also museums that are willing to accept Velcom Card owners without payment. However, note that sometimes management asks you in advance (1-2 days) to inform that you will come from Berlin Card.
- Sightseeing tours. The cost of excursions starts from 9 euros (inspection of the Berlin Wall and the Old Town) and ends with 41 euros (family tour of Berlin). Please note that Velcom card holders are free to visit the sightseeing tour of Berlin with the Hop-on hop-off bus tour. The main plus of such an excursion is that you can get off the bus at any moment and better see the place of interest. After that you can take the next Hop-on hop-off bus and continue the journey. Also pay attention to ferry excursions.
- Locks. You can visit the Charlottenburg Palace, the Sanssouci Palace and Park and Schönhausen Palace with significant discounts. All of them are located either in the city itself or in a suburb of Berlin.
- Theaters and concert halls. You can get a 5-15% discount on a ticket. Tourists are advised to have a look at the Berlin Opera, the BKA Theater, the Cabaret Theater, the German Theater in Berlin and the Berlin Concert House. Every evening, the best artists of the city perform here.
- Directions by public transport. Free use of public transport.
- Restaurants and cafes. Different establishments provide various benefits. Typically, for Berlin Card owners, the cost is reduced by 5-25%.
- The shops. A number of stores are ready to reduce prices by 5-20%. Basically, these are famous brands in Germany, which are located in the city center.
- Souvenir shops. Significant savings will not work here, but a little money can still be recaptured.
- Sports facilities and entertainment. For example, you can buy a ticket for a basketball game cheaper or take a helicopter to the sky above Berlin. Also, tourists will find the best spas in the city and hot air ballooning. The amount of benefits is from 5 to 25%.
Also, those facilities that are included in the Berlin welcome card should include small bars, entertainment rooms for children, children’s centers and interest clubs (for example, you can visit one of the painting workshops at a discount).
Advantages of the Berlin card:
- the opportunity to have a cheap meal in a cafe or restaurant;
- public transport included;
- inexpensive tickets to almost all museums;
- children can visit all attractions without extra charge if the adult has a Berlin Card;
- the opportunity to attend the same entertainment events at the same prices as city residents;
- free sightseeing tour of Berlin.
How it works?
To get a discount or go to the gallery without payment using Card is very simple. It is necessary to provide the employee of the institution with your tourist card for scanning. If the equipment can read the barcode and the operation is successful, you will be given a preferential entry ticket.
Remember that you can visit one object from the list (for example, the German Gallery) at a discount only once.
To find out which objects can be visited with a discounted ticket, visit the official Berlin Card website – www.berlin-welcomecard.de. Also, there are always signs on the front doors of the establishments that say which discount cards are accepted here.
Prices. Where and how to buy
Tourist Berlin WelcomeCard can be purchased almost anywhere in the city. It is sold in the subway, airports, train stations and most travel agencies (not far from the Berlin TV tower and near the Brandenburg Gate). There are points of sale in hotels and in bus machines. In addition, you can buy a Welcome Card on buses and trains from BVG and DB Regio.
However, the easiest and most convenient option is to buy Berlin Velcom Card online. You need to go to the official website and just select the required number of days and the activation date. After it, you can pick up at one of the travel agencies of the city. Thus, problems with purchasing a berlin card will not arise.
The Welcome Card is activated as follows. You must specify the time, date of purchase and activation date on the back of the Berlin Card. If you did everything correctly, the employee who issued it to you will be able to scan the barcode.
Please note that the Berlin Card is valid only from January 1 to December 31. For example, if you purchase it for a period of 5 days on December 30, then it will stop working on the 31st day of 00:00, but the money will not be returned to you!
Also remember that people over 6 years old need to buy a Velcom card. Children under this age can visit attractions with their parents without payment.
Buy a tourist Berlin Card for a different number of days and in different cities.
| Number of days | Berlin (Euro) | Berlin + Potsdam (Euro) |
|---|---|---|
| 2 days | twenty | 23 |
| 3 days | 29th | 32 |
| 3 days + Museum Island | 46 | 48 |
| 3 days + entrance to 30 objects without payment | – | 105 |
| 4 days | 34 | 37 |
| 5 days | 38 | 42 |
| 6 days | 43 | 47 |
In total, the Berlin Velcom Card discount list has more than 200 historical, cultural sites and cafes.
Is it profitable to buy
And now let’s calculate who and for how long it will be really beneficial to purchase the Berlin Card. Suppose we bought a tourist card for a period of 3 days + 30 free objects (all inclusive). Such a purchase will cost us 105 euros.
| Excursion or object | Price with Berlin Card (Euro) | Price without Velcom card (Euro) |
|---|---|---|
| Hop-on hop-off tour | is free | 22 |
| Bicycle tour of Berlin | nine | 25 |
| Berlin Zoo | eleven | fifteen |
| GDR Museum | Is free | nine |
| Berlin TV Tower | 12 | sixteen |
| Bode Museum | is free | 10 |
| German historical | is free | 8 |
| Madame Tussauds in Berlin | is free | 7 |
| Exhibition “Berlin Wall” | is free | 6 |
| Jewish Museum | is free | 8 |
| Pergamon | is free | 12 |
| TOTAL: | 32 | 138 |
Thus, even slowly walking around the city and visiting no more than 4 attractions per day, you can save a lot. If you increase the number of visited sites, then the benefit will be even greater.
An important plus of the Berlin Welkom Card is a wide selection of attractions and cafes. Each tourist will be able to find interesting places that he wants to visit in the huge list of free to visit attractions.
Also note that you can purchase not only the Welcome Card, which operates in Berlin, but also in Potsdam.
To summarize, I want to say that the Berlin Welcome Card is an excellent acquisition for active travelers who want to visit as many attractions as possible in the shortest possible time. If you don’t belong to them, it’s better not to buy a tourist map, but to go to museums calmly, choosing those that are really interesting.
Prices on the page are for July 2019.
Attractions on the Museum Island of Berlin.
