Using an eSIM in Berlin

What Berlin is like on a phone

Distances in Berlin are longer than people expect before they arrive, so a trip here is spent hopping between the U-Bahn and the S-Bahn rather than walking continuously. The crowd is mixed: history-first visitors, people out for the night-time music, and workers who moved here to stay. Above ground the network feels evenly usable; below it there is still a difference between the shallow older lines and the ones bored deep under the centre.

When you land

Arrivals come through Berlin Brandenburg (BER), which has its railway station directly beneath the terminal, while trains from Prague, Warsaw or elsewhere in Germany arrive at the multi-level glass Hauptbahnhof. Switch the line on before you go down to the airport platforms, because you have to choose between the suburban service and a regional train that differ in price and speed. The ride in has good service nearly all the way since most of the route is above ground, then dips as the train dives into tunnel near the centre.

Where coverage changes

Wide streets and a lot of open ground mean there are almost no dead spots above surface — big parks, historic squares and outer residential blocks all included. Underground it depends on the line: some run shallow near the street and keep partial service, while the deep-bored ones stay quiet until the next station. In the older quarters, thick pre-war masonry means a flat facing the courtyard receives distinctly less than one on the street. Basement clubs and converted power stations used as venues have effectively nothing.

What a day here costs in data

A normal Berlin day runs about 900MB to 1.5GB, because the transit app is reopened all day and the distances mean you re-plan a route often. Buying a ticket in the app and showing it to an inspector are short transactions that happen repeatedly. Visitors who read exhibition texts from a museum's own site use a little more. A night out listening to music usually uses less, since many venues have no signal anyway and often ask you to put the phone away.

Districts travellers ask about

• Mitte — The centre, with its big squares and government buildings, is fine throughout — except the interchange passages several levels under the main stations.
• Kreuzberg and Neukölln — Restaurant and bar territory, packed in the evening: normal out on the street, but venues in a rear courtyard or a basement leave you on the house Wi-Fi.
• Charlottenburg — Broad avenues and orderly blocks give a connection steady enough to work on, and the palace gardens behind are open sky the whole way round.
• Friedrichshain — The riverside and the open-air wall galleries are fine; the old warehouses turned into venues usually have nothing in the inner rooms.

Day trips out of the city

• Potsdam — A short suburban train with service all the way, and the palace parks are wide open — though the walk between the buildings is longer than the map makes it feel.
• The lakes around Berlin — Most of the lakes sit in served areas, but the forest paths between them thin out in stretches — load the walking route before you leave the station.
• Dresden — The long-distance train south crosses countryside with near-continuous service; in the stone-built old centre it slows a little as you walk in among the buildings.