How long does it take to visit Sanssouci?

Why the answer has two sizes

Sanssouci is a small palace in an enormous park. The building is single-storey, ten rooms, walked in one direction; nobody spends two hours inside it. The park is about 290 hectares with a dozen ticketed buildings scattered across it, and the New Palace at the far end is a 30 to 35 minute walk from the palace door. So “how long” depends entirely on where you stop walking. Below are the three plans I actually give people.

Plan A: 1.5 hours, palace only

Arrive at the Historic Windmill 20 minutes before your slot for the lockers. Walk round to the Ehrenhof. Forty minutes through the ten rooms. Out, along the top terrace to the grave, then down the six vineyard terraces to the Great Fountain to look back up at the façade, which is the view you came for. This is the plan for a Berlin day with other things in it, and it fits the single palace ticket. The coach tour from Berlin runs almost exactly this: about 45 minutes in the palace and 20 minutes in the park.

Plan B: half a day, palace and neighbours

Plan A, then the Picture Gallery next door, the oldest purpose-built museum building in Germany, and a walk west along the main avenue to the Chinese House, the gilded pavilion in the trees south of the avenue. Back via the Historic Windmill for coffee. This needs the sanssouci+ day ticket in season, because the Picture Gallery and the Chinese House are separate buildings with their own entry, and it needs a day between spring and October, when they are open.

Plan C: a full day, the whole park

Take a regional train to Potsdam Park Sanssouci station and start at the New Palace end. New Palace interior with a second slot on the day ticket, then east along the main avenue past Charlottenhof and the Roman Baths, the Chinese House, the Orangery Palace on the ridge, and finish with the Sanssouci slot in the last hour when the terraces are quiet. Frank Olaf, who did the palace and the New Palace on a day ticket, wrote that one day is not enough to see everything, and he is right, so choose. The route is on the park page.

How long for Potsdam itself

One full day covers the highlights of the city: Sanssouci in the morning, the old town, the Dutch Quarter and the Brandenburg Gate on Luisenplatz after lunch, then Cecilienhof and the Glienicke Bridge if you keep moving. The 3-hour City and Castles bus tour from the Hauptbahnhof is the fast version of that list, without the palace interior. How to fit it all in is on the day-trip page.

What eats time that people forget

• The 132 steps from the fountain to the palace: 5 to 10 minutes up, more in August.
• Lockers at the Windmill: budget 15 minutes at peak times.
• Walking between buildings: the New Palace is 30 to 35 minutes from Sanssouci, and the Chinese House is not next door either.
• The train: about 40 minutes each way from Berlin on the S7, see how to get there.

One ticket, as many buildings as your legs allow

The sanssouci+ day ticket opens every SPSG palace in Potsdam that is open on the day, with a fixed Sanssouci slot. Check live slots below.

Frequently asked questions