The RE1 regional express from Berlin Hauptbahnhof to Potsdam takes 20 minutes; the S-Bahn S7 takes 25 minutes via Wannsee. Both run frequently. The combined fare within the Berlin ABC zone is approximately €4 with a Berlin day ticket. Potsdam Hauptbahnhof is a short tram or bus ride from the Sanssouci Park entrance, or a 25-minute flat walk through the city centre.
The Berlin Marathon finishes through the Brandenburg Gate on the last Sunday of September. September is the specific month to be in Sanssouci Park: the summer crowds have thinned, the palace interiors are still fully open, and the late September light on the pale sandstone and copper roofs is the light that Frederick the Great's architects were working with. The vineyards on the terraced south face of the Sanssouci hill are heavy with grapes in late September.
Sanssouci Park
Sanssouci Park is 290 hectares of landscape gardens containing eight palaces, multiple smaller architectural follies, fountains, and a mill. The paths between them are flat throughout. The only gradient in the entire park is the terraced vineyard hill below the main palace, which you look at rather than climb.
The most direct route from the Potsdam Brandenburger Tor runs east-west along the park's central axis: from the Neues Palais at the western end to the Schloss Sanssouci at the eastern end, passing the Chinesisches Haus (a gilded Chinese teahouse from 1754, one of the more genuinely eccentric pieces of 18th-century Chinoiserie in northern Europe), the Orangerie Palace, and the Historische Muhle (a working windmill, currently operational as a museum). The full walk along the central axis is 2.4 kilometres each way.
Palace entry: A combined ticket for all Sanssouci palaces costs around €25. Individual palaces are €8 to 14 each. Schloss Sanssouci is the centrepiece and involves queuing in high season; in late September, tickets timed in advance from spsg.de are advisable. The Neues Palais at the western end is the larger, more formal palace with the better interiors and typically less queued. The Orangerie Palace in the centre has a roof terrace with views across the park.
The Dutch Quarter
The Hollandisches Viertel is 134 red-brick gabled houses built between 1733 and 1742 by Jan Bouman for the Dutch craftsmen invited by Frederick William I to settle in Potsdam. The streets are flat, the buildings are the most convincing piece of transplanted Dutch urbanism in Germany, and the cafes and restaurants that now occupy the ground floors operate at a pace appropriate to a Monday afternoon. The quarter is a ten-minute walk from the Sanssouci eastern entrance.
Where to Eat
Restaurant Juliette on Jagerstrasse in the Dutch Quarter is the established benchmark for serious Potsdam dining: French-influenced cooking using Brandenburg produce, with a wine list that takes the local wines seriously.
Potsdamer Havel river trout (Forellenfilet mit Mandelbutter - trout fillet with almond butter) appears on menus throughout the city and is the regional fish dish specific to the lakes and rivers of the Brandenburg landscape.
Getting Back
RE1 and S-Bahn S7 services from Potsdam Hauptbahnhof to Berlin run throughout the afternoon and evening. The journey is 20 to 25 minutes; the last services are late enough to allow a full day without time pressure.