Hotels near The Tiergarten

The Tiergarten covers 210 hectares in the middle of Berlin, which makes it larger than Hyde Park, and it began as a royal hunting ground before Frederick the Great turned it into a public park in the 1740s. It was cut down almost entirely for firewood in the winters after 1945 and replanted from the 1950s, so the mature trees you walk under are mostly younger than they look. The Victory Column stands at the centre on the Grosser Stern roundabout.

October turns the whole thing copper and gold, and because the park is laid out as woodland with winding paths rather than formal avenues, you lose the city inside it within a few minutes. The climb up the Victory Column is 285 steps to a viewing platform looking straight down Strasse des 17. Juni to the Brandenburg Gate. The park is free; the column charges a small fee.

Pro Tip: Walk the park from the Brandenburg Gate west to the Victory Column, then carry on to Schleusenkrug beer garden by the lock at the far end. It is the one beer garden in central Berlin you reach through woodland rather than off a main road.