I arrived in Berlin during Christmas market season with a friend and her baby, which meant I had a very important travel question to answer before we did anything else:
How do you get around a huge European city with a stroller, luggage a hungry baby, and zero interest in waiting in line at a new ticket machine every time you need a train?
My answer was waiting for me at the airport: the Berlin WelcomeCard.
I picked our cards up as soon as I landed at the Berlin Brandenburg Airport, and those tiny pieces of paper ended up being the secret to a manageable trip.
For visitors who have never been to Berlin, the public transportation system can feel confusing at first. There are U-Bahn trains (a subway), S-Bahn trains (above ground), buses, trams (they are so quiet!) and three different fare zones to understand before you buy a ticket.
Yet the Berlin WelcomeCard cuts through most of that confusion because it combines your public transportation ticket into one convenient pass. Instead of buying a new ticket every time you take a train or bus, you choose your fare zones and length of stay, validate it once and use it for the rest of your trip.
For our trip, we used the 72-hour Berlin WelcomeCard for the ABC zone, which costs €45.50 (about $52 depending on the exchange rate). That ticket covered the transportation we needed around Berlin, plus the trip out to Potsdam to visit Sanssouci Palace.
The Berlin WelcomeCard website lets travelers choose between AB and ABC fare zones. The ABC option covers Berlin, Potsdam and Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), which makes it a smart choice for visitors planning airport transfers or day trips outside the city. (Screenshot from Berlin WelcomeCard)
(Berlin WelcomeCard)
With a baby along for the ride, we knew it would be important to plan ahead and cover all our ground.
Understanding Berlin’s ABC zones
Before you buy your ticket, you need to know one thing: Berlin’s public transportation system is divided into three fare zones.
Zone A covers the city center, including many of Berlin’s biggest sights.
Zone B extends to the outer parts of Berlin, including areas farther from the center.
Zone C covers destinations outside Berlin, including Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) and Potsdam, where Sanssouci Palace is located.
Since we were flying into BER and wanted to visit Sanssouci Palace, the ABC ticket was the right choice. It covered our airport transfer, rides around Berlin, and the train trip to Potsdam without needing to buy separate tickets.
The stroller test (Berlin passed!)
The stroller test is one of the first things you notice when traveling with a baby.
A route that seems easy on Google Maps can become complicated quickly when you’re pushing a four-wheeled cart (and yes, responsible for the life inside). With every public transit stop, you wonder, aare there stairs? Is there an elevator? How far is the walk from the station? Can two mere humans manage the transfer while keeping the baby happy?
For my first trip traveling with a baby, I’d say Berlin made those calculations pretty simple. Station layouts were intuitive and predictable. Most stops had clean, working elevators, with one exception in Potsdam where the elevator smelled a little questionable. But that’s public transit; you take the good with the bad.
When elevators weren’t available, the escalators were manageable with two people. One person could handle the stroller while the other handled bags, baby gear or whatever else we had accumulated by that point in the day.
And most importantly, trains had bathrooms with changing tables. Both busses and trains had seating reserved for people with strollers and infants, and nearly everyone cleared the way for us to sit.
Berlin, Germany – February 24, 2026: Cropped view of a passenger using a BVG ticket machine while holding a smartphone inside Alexanderplatz station in Berlin.
(Alexander Shelegov via Getty Images)The card applies to all forms of transportation
Berlin’s public transportation system is extensive, and the Berlin WelcomeCard covers:
Before you start riding, you need to validate your ticket. That means you put it into one of the machines on the platform, which stamps it with the date and time. From there, the clock starts on your ticket’s validity period.
Once activated, you can use your Welcome Card across the city without stopping to buy a new ticket every time you hop on a train or tram. That flexibility came in handy when we decided to cross town for a Christmas market, grab coffee in another neighborhood or change plans halfway through the day.
Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, Germany, features prominently with its grand Baroque architecture. Visitors traverse a long staircase leading up through terraced gardens adorned with hedges and vines. The palace’s facade gleams with golden accents and large arched windows, topped by a distinctive turquoise dome. People of various ages, dressed in winter clothing, explore the site, contributing to the lively atmosphere. The clear blue sky enhances the vibrant colors of the scene.
(Julija Smirnova via Getty Images)A fun surprise: Potsdam was easy
One of the highlights of my Berlin trip was a visit to Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam.
Many first-time visitors assume a palace outside Berlin requires a complicated tour, rental car, or expensive excursion. But it doesn’t. Getting there was quite simple.
Potsdam is about 45 minutes from central Berlin by public transportation. It’s an easy day trip during a Berlin stay. If you like wandering smaller cities, it’s worth adding to your itinerary. The gardens are especially beautiful in spring and summer when everything is in bloom.
Sanssouci is a cherry of a palace—small, picturesque and full of charm. Built in the 18th century as the summer residence of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, the palace was designed as a personal retreat from court life. The name Sanssouci means “without worries.”
Frederick the Great was known to love cherries, which were considered a luxury fruit at the time. The palace and its gardens reflected a decadent sense of refinement, and even a little bit of perfectionism (Frederick had six different libraries across all of his properties—and they all were designed identically, down to every individual book!). Take the self-guided tour through the compact, circular interior, then enjoy meandering through the terraced vineyards and fountains below the yellow Rococo-style building.
During Christmas market season, Potsdam added a slower afternoon to our Berlin itinerary. We enjoyed the historic architecture, friendly food vendors and a change of scenery that required little effort to reach.
Yellow tram approaching station Warschauer Strasse in Berlin
(golero via Getty Images)Picking the Berlin WelcomeCard that fits your trip
The Berlin WelcomeCard comes in a few versions depending on what you want from it.
The standard card includes public transportation and discounts at more than 170 attractions, restaurants, and activities. The all-inclusive version costs more but includes free entry to more than 25 major attractions, plus a hop-on hop-off bus tour.
However, I must say that for our particular trip, having unlimited access to public transportation was the feature I appreciated most.
We didn’t have to think about the cost of every ride or debate whether a trip across town was worth it.
A missed nap? Take the train back. Need a quick outfit change? Pop back to the hotel. Take the wrong train by mistake? No stress; grab the next one. Decide to change plans because everyone is tired? Hop on the next tram. Feel a burst of energy and want to check out a neighboring Christmas market? Let’s go.
When you’re traveling with a baby, the removal of small decisions can make a big difference. Berlin’s public transportation system is already easy to use, but the WelcomeCard made it frictionless.
How this was made: AI assisted with structure, formatting, interview transcription and metadata. All reporting, product testing, research, interviews, fact-checking, writing and editing was done by Megan DeMatteo, an independent writer and editor who, like many solo creators, handles the full workload of a traditional newsroom team.