Gardens of the World Berlin: When the Trip to Marzahn Pays Off
Most visitors never leave the ring of the S-Bahn, and the Gardens of the World are one of the reasons I think they should, once. Take the U5 from Alexanderplatz towards Hönow, sit for 26 minutes past the slab blocks of Marzahn, and at Kienberg you step into a cable car that floats you over a hill to a Chinese lake, a Japanese gravel garden and a Balinese temple under glass.
The catch is the calendar. The gardens are open every day of the year, but the gate, the cable car and half the ticket prices change with the season, and the next change is close: the cable car stops on 2 November for its annual overhaul, and from then on the ticket desks shut at 16:00. So the real question about the Gardens of the World Berlin is not whether they are nice. It is whether your day and your arrival time leave enough of them to be worth the trip.
The pagoda island in the Chinese Garden, the oldest and largest of the themed gardens.
What the Gardens of the World actually are
The Gärten der Welt sit in Marzahn, on the eastern edge of the city, inside Berlin's AB fare zone. They started as a GDR recreation park and grew into a collection of themed gardens, each one built with a partner city or country. The Chinese Garden came first: 18 shipping containers of stone, timber and figures arrived from Beijing in 1997, and its name, the Garden of the Reclaimed Moon, refers to the reunited city. The International Garden Exhibition of 2017 added the cable car, the tropical hall and more gardens.
Today there are 13 places on the map that I would count as gardens in their own right:
The Asian gardens: Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Balinese. These are the reason most people come.
The walled gardens: the Oriental garden, the Italian Renaissance garden, the Christian garden and the Jewish garden.
The rest: the English cottage garden, the Karl Foerster perennial garden, the maze and labyrinth, the water gardens, and a row of small international garden cabinets by the main gate.
It is a garden park, not a museum. You walk, you sit by the water, you look. On a good day that takes three to four hours.
Getting there: the U5, then the cable car
From Alexanderplatz the U5 runs every 10 minutes and takes 26 minutes to Kienberg (Gärten der Welt), according to the VBB timetable I checked for a weekday morning. A normal Berlin AB ticket covers it, so there is nothing extra to buy for the ride out.
At Kienberg the Grün Berlin cable car starts right next to the station. It runs 1.5 kilometres over the Kienberg, up to 35 metres above the ground, with a middle stop at the Wolkenhain viewing platform, and lands you at the main entrance on Blumberger Damm. On a clear day you can see the TV Tower from the gondola.
The cable car over the Kienbergpark. It is the best way in, when it runs.
When the cable car is not running, you have two plain options:
Walk from U Kienberg: about 15 minutes through the Kienbergpark, according to the park's own directions.
Take the X69 bus: from S Mehrower Allee (S7) or U Elsterwerdaer Platz (U5) to the stop Blumberger Damm/Gärten der Welt, right at the main gate.
The calendar that decides your visit
This is the part I would read twice before you go. These are the current rules from the Gärten der Welt opening hours, the entrance fees page and the cable car timetable, checked on 5 October 2026:
The park opens at 09:00 every day, the Japanese Garden at 10:00.
Ticket desks and gates close at 18:00 in October and March, at 16:00 from November to February, and at 20:00 from April to September. The themed gardens stay open until the desks close, and the park itself shuts at dusk.
The cable car runs daily from 10:00 to 17:00 until 1 November. From 2 November there is no service. From 5 December it runs on Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 to 16:30, daily over the Christmas holidays (23 December to 3 January, but not on 24 and 31 December) and daily again in the winter school holidays from 30 January to 7 February.
The winter price starts on 1 November: EUR 4 instead of EUR 9 for an adult day ticket.
Some themed gardens close for the winter. In past winters the Japanese and Korean gardens and the Lebanon garden cabinet shut from early November until the end of March.
One more date that catches people out: the clocks go back on 25 October. After that, the desks still say 18:00 for the last week of October, but the sun sets just before 17:00 and the paths get dark soon after.
Plan your visit on the map
Pick your dates and the time you will reach the gate. The map below numbers the gardens you can fit in, in walking order from the main entrance, hatches the ones that have been closed in that season, and shows on the timeline how close you get to closing time. Tap any garden to see what is in it.
Which gardens to see first when time is short
If you only have two hours, do not try to see all 13. I would go in this order of importance:
Chinese Garden, about 40 minutes. The biggest and the best: a 4,500 square metre lake with bridges, pavilions and a tea house that serves more than 30 green teas.
Japanese Garden, about 25 minutes. Raked gravel, a dry waterfall, and a small gate you have to bow your head to get through. Opens at 10:00 and has closed in winter.
Balinese Garden, about 20 minutes. The only garden fully indoors, in a tropical hall with a Balinese house and temple. It is warm on any day, which makes it the best part of a winter visit.
Oriental Garden, about 15 minutes. Behind a four-metre wall: Moroccan zillij tiles, a fourfold courtyard and a long water channel.
Korean Garden, about 15 minutes. Wooden guardian figures, walled courtyards and a pavilion built over the water.
The Japanese Garden, the Garden of Confluent Water. It opens an hour after the rest of the park.
The minutes are my own pace, sitting down a little in each one. The maze takes longer than people expect: 1,225 yew trees, hedges about two metres high, and a tower in the middle so you can at least see how lost you are.
The Oriental Garden. The wall around it is part of the idea: the old Persian word for paradise meant an enclosed space.
Tickets: which one to buy
For one visit, the choice is simple:
Day ticket: EUR 9 for adults until 31 October, EUR 4 from 1 November. Children up to 5 go free, children from 6 and reduced tickets cost EUR 4 (EUR 2 in winter).
Combination ticket with the cable car (return): EUR 12.90 in summer, EUR 6.90 in winter. A return cable car ride alone costs EUR 7.50, so if you ride it, the combination is the obvious buy.
Evening ticket: EUR 5.50 from Monday to Friday after 17:00, in the summer season only, not on public holidays.
Two rules worth knowing before you pay. With the plain day ticket there is no re-entry once you leave, while the combination ticket allows one. And the ticket machines at the gates take cards only, while some of the cafés inside do not, and there is no cash machine on site.
Dogs and bikes are not allowed in the gardens. Free lockers about the size of hand luggage sit in the visitor centre at the main gate, which helps if you come out on your way to the airport.
The Balinese Garden lives in a tropical hall, so it is the one part of the park that does not care about the weather.
Gardens of the World Berlin on a short trip: is it worth it?
My honest answer: on a two-day first visit, probably not. Museum Island, the Wall and the old centre will fill those days, and the round trip plus a proper look costs you most of half a day.
From the third day on, it becomes one of the best half days I know in Berlin, especially if:
You like gardens or Asian architecture, because nowhere else in the city puts this much of it in one place.
You travel with children, for the cable car, the maze and the playgrounds.
You want a Berlin that looks nothing like the brochure. Riding the U5 out through Marzahn is part of the trip, not the boring bit before it.
On a rainy day it only half works. The Balinese hall and the tea house are dry, the rest is not.
A house in the Korean Garden, one of the gardens that has closed for the winter in past years.
My move
If you are in Berlin before 1 November, this is the window I would use: the gardens are complete, the trees are turning, and the cable car still runs. Take the U5 out in the late morning, ride the cable car with a stop at the Wolkenhain, and be at the main gate by 14:00. In the last week of October, after the clocks change, make that 13:00.
After 2 November I would still go, but differently: arrive by noon, start with the Chinese lake and the warm Balinese hall, and accept that you are seeing a smaller winter version for EUR 4. For the other dates and closures I watch around the city, my weekly newsletter is where I put them.
For more on the season, my Berlin in November guide covers the short days, what closes in Berlin in winter lists the other seasonal shutdowns, and the AB and ABC ticket guide explains why this trip needs nothing more than an AB ticket. If the weather turns, my Berlin in the rain plan has the indoor options.
Image credits
Source and licence details for the 6 photographs used in this article.
The pagoda island in the Chinese Garden: Englandfan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Cable car gondolas over the Kienbergpark: Kvikk, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Japanese Garden at the Gardens of the World: H. Zell, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Oriental Garden in Berlin-Marzahn: A.Savin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The gate of the Balinese Garden in the tropical hall: Anagoria, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A house in the Korean Garden: Michael aus Halle, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.