I’m slowly starting to wind down some of my posts about Berlin, but today I’d like to focus on the massive tourist attraction that is TV Tower. Every city has one, London has the Eye, Paris has its tower too. And sometimes they are worth the money (and wait) and sometimes they aren’t. Personally, I do recommend going up the Eiffel Tower at least once in your lifetime. The London Eye, I think you can honestly give a “miss” to.
So what about Berlin’s TV Tower?
TV Tower as it’s known to us English speakers (or the Fernsehturm to everyone else) was built in the 1960s as a symbol of the communist power in East Berlin. But functionally, it was a television broadcasting tower. The tower is 368 metres tall and is the second tallest structure in the European Union. It’s easily visible through most of central Berlin today.
There’s both a visitor platform and bar, and a rotating restaurant inside the tower today. The visitors platform is called the “observation deck” and from it you can see a visibility range of 26 miles on a clear day. The restaurant is on the floor above and rotates once every 30 minutes.
The views were absolutely gorgeous. It felt like such a privilege to get to see so much of Berlin. The only problem would be that if the weather was a bit rough on the day of your pre-booked visit, you must not be able to see anything due to the cloud line. So it’s definitely a risk!
Tickets start at €14 (for adults) for the observation deck; however, you can get discounted tickets in the evening. To eat at the restaurant, you must book a Sphere restaurant ticket guaranteeing your table and time into the Tower, and then pay for food on top of the ticket price.
Personally, I’d probably recommend skipping the Sphere restaurant. In full disclosure, I didn’t eat there and whilst the food looked delicious it was also expensive. And then you have to add on the fact that you still pay for a ticket to the tower. However, if it’s a truly special occasion, you have a bit of cash to spare and you really want to indulge in the novelty of a rotating restaurant, then by all means, go for it!
What I’d recommend instead would be to book yourself in to any one of Berlin’s numerous exquisite restaurants, book a normal observation deck ticket, have a drink at the bar and enjoy the sights before exiting the tower and carrying on to whatever restaurant you have lined up.
Have you been up TV Tower?
If you enjoyed this post, you might like my others on Berlin:
24 Hours in Berlin
A Vegan Guide to Berlin
10 Things to Do in Berlin
Dinner at Kafer in the Reichstag
Scandic Hotel Berlin
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