Some days the kids need space more than a program. These parks are big enough to fill a day: old airport runways, a former royal hunting ground, hills built from wartime rubble and garden-show grounds, each with playgrounds, water and room to run. Pack a picnic and the bikes. Here's what we checked, from the runways of Tempelhofer Feld to the hedge maze at Gärten der Welt.
Tempelhofer Feld is the former Tempelhof airport, opened as a park in 2010. Over 300 hectares of meadow surround the old runways, where kids bike, skate and fly kites on wide, flat asphalt with no cars.
By the southeast entrance, the Tempelschlucht nature play area has a water pump feeding a little stream, sand and clay for mud play, and big boulders to climb.
The Tiergarten is a 210-hectare former royal hunting ground turned landscaped park, with woodland paths, meadows, ponds and the Victory Column at its center. A large playground sits in the southeastern corner near Potsdamer Platz.
Kids can cycle the long avenues or kick a ball on the lawns. Café am Neuen See runs a lakeside beer garden in summer, and in some winters the small lakes freeze hard enough to skate.
Britzer Garten is a landscaped park built around a lake, with rolling lawns, themed gardens and big seasonal flower shows of tulips and dahlias.
The adventure playground at the Tauernallee entrance has a 10-meter slide tower, a climbing net and ground-level trampolines, and both main playgrounds have a water play area. Sheep and goats graze in pastures around the park, and the Britzer Mühle windmill stands on the grounds.
A large park of themed gardens from around the world: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Balinese, Oriental, Italian Renaissance, English and Jewish gardens, plus a hedge maze and a labyrinth to run through.
A cable car glides up to 35 meters above the Wuhletal valley to the Kienberg hill. The playgrounds follow Erich Kästner's book "The 35th of May", with a climbing whale, a water forest and giant wooden ants.
Park am Gleisdreieck opened in 2013 on former railway land, and U-Bahn trains still cross it on raised viaducts. Its 30 hectares hold several playgrounds, including a water playground with climbing frames and a 5,000 m² nature play area with a clay landscape and water pump. Older kids head for the 1,300 m² skate park, table tennis and beach volleyball courts.
Treptower Park runs 88 hectares along the Spree, with wide lawns for ball games and picnics and a riverside promenade where tour boats leave from the pier. An arched bridge crosses to Insel der Jugend, a small island with boat hire.
It also holds the Soviet War Memorial, a solemn war grave with a 30-meter soldier statue, and the Archenhold Observatory, home to a 21-meter telescope and a small planetarium.
Berlin's oldest public park was laid out in the 1840s on the edge of Friedrichshain and Prenzlauer Berg. At the west entrance, the 1913 Märchenbrunnen fountain has over 100 stone figures from German fairy tales. Two hills built from wartime bunkers and rubble, Mont Klamott and Kleiner Bunkerberg, look out over the city center. There are playgrounds, sports grounds, a swan pond with a beer garden, and a barbecue area.
Botanic Garden Berlin covers 43 hectares in Dahlem and grows around 20,000 plant species. The Great Tropical Greenhouse, an Art Nouveau glasshouse, stays warm all year and holds giant bamboo, and the cactus house has columns taller than an adult. Outside, long paths loop past ponds, an arboretum and beds that group plants by where in the world they grow.
Mauerpark sits on the former Berlin Wall death strip, and 300 meters of the Wall still stand along its east side, covered in street art. An amphitheater set into the slope hosts open-air karaoke on summer Sundays.
Up north are the Moritzhof children's farm and a 15-meter climbing wall, and kids have several playgrounds to choose from, the biggest built in 2020.
Volkspark Rehberge, in Wedding, covers 115 hectares of meadows and woodland, laid out as a landscape park in the 1920s. There are several playgrounds, a wild boar enclosure on the western side, a chain of three small ponds (no swimming), big sports grounds and kilometers of paths where kids learn to ride a bike. In winter, the long sledding hill draws families from the surrounding neighborhoods.
Some days the kids need space more than a program. These parks are big enough to fill a day: old airport runways, a former royal hunting ground, hills built from wartime rubble and garden-show grounds, each with playgrounds, water and room to run. Pack a picnic and the bikes. Here's what we checked, from the runways of Tempelhofer Feld to the hedge maze at Gärten der Welt.
Tempelhofer Feld is the former Tempelhof airport, opened as a park in 2010. Over 300 hectares of meadow surround the old runways, where kids bike, skate and fly kites on wide, flat asphalt with no cars.
By the southeast entrance, the Tempelschlucht nature play area has a water pump feeding a little stream, sand and clay for mud play, and big boulders to climb.
The Tiergarten is a 210-hectare former royal hunting ground turned landscaped park, with woodland paths, meadows, ponds and the Victory Column at its center. A large playground sits in the southeastern corner near Potsdamer Platz.
Kids can cycle the long avenues or kick a ball on the lawns. Café am Neuen See runs a lakeside beer garden in summer, and in some winters the small lakes freeze hard enough to skate.
Britzer Garten is a landscaped park built around a lake, with rolling lawns, themed gardens and big seasonal flower shows of tulips and dahlias.
The adventure playground at the Tauernallee entrance has a 10-meter slide tower, a climbing net and ground-level trampolines, and both main playgrounds have a water play area. Sheep and goats graze in pastures around the park, and the Britzer Mühle windmill stands on the grounds.
A large park of themed gardens from around the world: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Balinese, Oriental, Italian Renaissance, English and Jewish gardens, plus a hedge maze and a labyrinth to run through.
A cable car glides up to 35 meters above the Wuhletal valley to the Kienberg hill. The playgrounds follow Erich Kästner's book "The 35th of May", with a climbing whale, a water forest and giant wooden ants.
Park am Gleisdreieck opened in 2013 on former railway land, and U-Bahn trains still cross it on raised viaducts. Its 30 hectares hold several playgrounds, including a water playground with climbing frames and a 5,000 m² nature play area with a clay landscape and water pump. Older kids head for the 1,300 m² skate park, table tennis and beach volleyball courts.
Treptower Park runs 88 hectares along the Spree, with wide lawns for ball games and picnics and a riverside promenade where tour boats leave from the pier. An arched bridge crosses to Insel der Jugend, a small island with boat hire.
It also holds the Soviet War Memorial, a solemn war grave with a 30-meter soldier statue, and the Archenhold Observatory, home to a 21-meter telescope and a small planetarium.
Berlin's oldest public park was laid out in the 1840s on the edge of Friedrichshain and Prenzlauer Berg. At the west entrance, the 1913 Märchenbrunnen fountain has over 100 stone figures from German fairy tales. Two hills built from wartime bunkers and rubble, Mont Klamott and Kleiner Bunkerberg, look out over the city center. There are playgrounds, sports grounds, a swan pond with a beer garden, and a barbecue area.
Botanic Garden Berlin covers 43 hectares in Dahlem and grows around 20,000 plant species. The Great Tropical Greenhouse, an Art Nouveau glasshouse, stays warm all year and holds giant bamboo, and the cactus house has columns taller than an adult. Outside, long paths loop past ponds, an arboretum and beds that group plants by where in the world they grow.
Mauerpark sits on the former Berlin Wall death strip, and 300 meters of the Wall still stand along its east side, covered in street art. An amphitheater set into the slope hosts open-air karaoke on summer Sundays.
Up north are the Moritzhof children's farm and a 15-meter climbing wall, and kids have several playgrounds to choose from, the biggest built in 2020.
Volkspark Rehberge, in Wedding, covers 115 hectares of meadows and woodland, laid out as a landscape park in the 1920s. There are several playgrounds, a wild boar enclosure on the western side, a chain of three small ponds (no swimming), big sports grounds and kilometers of paths where kids learn to ride a bike. In winter, the long sledding hill draws families from the surrounding neighborhoods.
