Potsdam in 2 days, on foot

This 2-day self-guided walking plan for Potsdam covers 13 narrated sights in an easy day-by-day order. Each day is split into a morning and an afternoon loop, and every stop has a two to three minute audio story in the Gingerguide app.

You set the pace: this is a suggested order, not a schedule. Walk it in 2 days, or stretch it out. Reorder freely; Potsdam rewards a detour.

The Potsdam route at a glance

Day 1

Day 1 covers 7 stops over about 6.9 km as the crow flies, from Brandenburg Gate, Potsdam (Brandenburger Tor) to Einstein Tower (Einsteinturm). ≈ 6.9 km between stops, straight line

Morning

1. Brandenburg Gate, Potsdam (Brandenburger Tor): Potsdam's own Brandenburg Gate on Luisenplatz, built 1770 to 1771 for Frederick the Great to mark his Seven Years' War victories, and older than Berlin's more famous gate. 0.8 km to the next stop
2. Sanssouci Palace: Frederick the Great's single-storey rococo summer palace, built 1745 to 1747 above terraced vineyard slopes in Potsdam, and part of the UNESCO Palaces and Parks World Heritage Site. 0.4 km to the next stop
3. Sanssouci Park: The large royal landscape park linking Sanssouci's palaces, threaded by a 2.5-kilometre avenue with the Great Fountain and obelisk, and part of the UNESCO Palaces and Parks World Heritage Site. 0.4 km to the next stop
4. Orangery Palace (Orangerieschloss): A 19th-century Italian-Renaissance-style palace on the Klausberg, built 1851 to 1864 for Frederick William IV, with a roughly 300-metre front and halls that still overwinter potted plants each winter. 1 km to the next stop

Afternoon

1. New Palace (Neues Palais): The huge baroque Neues Palais at the park's western end, built 1763 to 1769 for Frederick the Great with over 200 rooms and more than 400 sandstone figures. 1.1 km to the next stop
2. Chinese House (Chinesisches Haus): A 1750s rococo chinoiserie pavilion in Sanssouci Park, gilded and clover-leaf shaped: a European fantasy of China rather than authentic Chinese architecture, built for Frederick the Great. 3.2 km to the next stop
3. Einstein Tower (Einsteinturm): Erich Mendelsohn's Expressionist solar observatory on the Telegrafenberg, built around 1919-1924 to test Einstein's relativity. Still a working observatory; the interior is generally open only on special tours.

Day 2

Day 2 covers 6 stops over about 4.5 km as the crow flies, from St. Nicholas Church (Nikolaikirche) to Glienicke Bridge (Glienicker Brücke). ≈ 4.5 km between stops, straight line

Morning

1. St. Nicholas Church (Nikolaikirche): The neoclassical domed Nikolaikirche on Potsdam's Alter Markt, from Schinkel's plans with a later dome by Persius and Stüler, reaching about 77 metres and rebuilt after wartime damage. 0.7 km to the next stop
2. Dutch Quarter (Holländisches Viertel): A district of 134 red-brick gabled houses built in the Dutch style from the 1730s. The recruitment of Dutch craftsmen had little success, and few actually settled. 0.9 km to the next stop
3. Alexandrowka (Russian Colony): A colony of Russian-style wooden houses in northern Potsdam, built in 1826-1827 for twelve Russian singers and named after Tsar Alexander I. Part of the UNESCO listing. 1 km to the next stop

Afternoon

1. New Garden (Neuer Garten): A landscape park along the Heiliger See in northern Potsdam, laid out from 1787. It holds the Marble Palace and Cecilienhof, and forms part of the UNESCO listing. 0.4 km to the next stop
2. Cecilienhof Palace: An English Tudor-style palace in the New Garden, and the venue of the 1945 Potsdam Conference. It has been closed for renovation since November 2024; the surrounding park stays open. 1.5 km to the next stop
3. Glienicke Bridge (Glienicker Brücke): A steel Havel bridge linking Potsdam with Berlin's Wannsee district. On the Cold War border, it hosted the spy exchanges that earned it the name Bridge of Spies.

Distances are straight-line between stops; streets add a little.

Updated: September 28, 2026

Full Potsdam guide and all stops →