Best Things to Do in Berlin in Summer

Sun is tickling my skin and I close my eyes to drink in her smell. An ant scuttles across my arm and waves are pounding on the lakeshore. Summer arrived in Berlin. Finally. The city is seething and groaning and is vibrating full of zest for life. And we’re driving. Out of the city into the countryside. To Königs-Wusterhausen. Just because we like the sound of it. And we want to spend the perfect summer day at a lake around Berlin. At any of these. Somehow we will find one. There are so many. Hundreds of lakes around Berlin. To the right? To the left? Oh: Nixenweg (mermaids alley). That’s where we want to go. And then we’re sitting there at the Krüpelsee, of which we’ve never heard before.

Thanks to Nina Hüpen-Bestendonk and Kathrine Opshaug-Bakke for this wonderful day! Krüpelsee is a genuinely lovely, low-key find, but it’s just one of hundreds of options — here’s a fuller picture of how to spend a summer in Berlin, Krüpelsee included.

More Lakes to Add to the List

Berlin genuinely has over a dozen swimmable lakes within easy reach, and locals treat “which lake today” as a real, ongoing debate. Beyond Krüpelsee:

Wannsee — the classic. Strandbad Wannsee is one of the largest inland lidos in Europe, with a long sandy beach. Busy, but for good reason. Also close to Peacock Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site worth the detour.
Schlachtensee & Krumme Lanke — clear water at the end of the U-Bahn line, ringed by forest. Quieter, more of a local scene than Wannsee.
Müggelsee — Berlin’s largest lake, out in the southeast, with a proper local beer-garden-by-the-water scene (Fisch-Borke has one of the best sunset views in the city).

If you’d rather see the water from a boat than swim in it, a Spree river cruise covers the government district, Museum Island, and Bellevue Palace from the water — a nice, low-effort way to spend a warm afternoon.

Beer Gardens

A Berlin summer runs on beer gardens as much as lakes. A few worth knowing:

Prater in Prenzlauer Berg — Berlin’s oldest beer garden, spacious, a genuine institution.
BRLO Brwhouse — a craft brewery built out of shipping containers, industrial-meets-cozy, with a solid food menu beyond the usual bratwurst.
Café am Neuen See — right in the middle of Tiergarten park, with rowboats you can rent on the adjacent lake.
Klunkerkranich — a rooftop beer garden in Neukölln with one of the better skyline views in the city.

Freiluftkino (Open-Air Cinema)

Berlin’s open-air cinemas run almost nightly through August in Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain, and Rehberge park. Bring a blanket, check the language/subtitle situation on each cinema’s site before you go, and pack mosquito repellent — it’s worth it for watching a film under the trees on a warm night.

Mauerpark on a Sunday

Sunday at Mauerpark is a genuine Berlin institution — a sprawling flea market, open-air karaoke in the old amphitheater (equal parts brilliant and terrible, depending who’s up), and street artists painting on the last remaining stretch of the legal wall nearby.

Summer Festivals Worth Timing Your Trip Around

Carnival of Cultures (late May) — a big, colorful street parade through Kreuzberg celebrating the city’s diversity.
Christopher Street Day / Pride (late June/July) — Berlin’s Pride parade, one of the largest in Europe.
Classic Open Air (July) — outdoor opera and classical concerts on Gendarmenmarkt.
Berlin Beer Festival (August/September) — stretching over 2km along Karl-Marx-Allee, genuinely rivals Oktoberfest in scale.

Between the lakes, the beer gardens, and whatever festival happens to line up with your trip, a Berlin summer is honestly hard to get wrong — even a low-key afternoon at a lake nobody’s heard of, like ours at Krüpelsee, turns into one of the better days you’ll have in the city.