Best lakes in Berlin: 12 on a €4 ticket, 5 free
Twelve Berlin lakes on one €4 AB ticket, five of them free to swim. Entry prices, lines, fare zones and 2026 closing dates, all checked 9 September 2026.
The best lakes in Berlin sit in fare zones A and B, so one €4 AB ticket reaches all twelve. Five are free to swim. Paid lidos run €5 to €10, and three of them close 13 to 15 September.
The short version
- You never need a zone C ticket. Every lake below is inside the city boundary, where zone B ends. An AB single is €4.00 in 2026.
- Five of the twelve cost nothing — Schlachtensee, Krumme Lanke, Flughafensee, Groß Glienicker See and the free lido at Rahnsdorf.
- The paid lidos are not priced alike. Wannsee is €6.50, Plötzensee €10.00. Same city, same water, different leaseholder.
- The official bathing season ends 15 September, and water-quality testing stops with it.
- Four monitored spots advise against swimming because of blue-green algae, including Strandbad Tegeler See.
How we checked
Entry prices come from each lido’s own website rather than Berliner Bäder-Betriebe’s summaries, which disagree with the operator on price at Halensee and on the season at Orankesee. Fares are BVG’s 2026 pages, water quality the LAGeSo dataset read on 9 September 2026, lines and stops BVG’s live departure data.
We have not printed walking times from station to shore. The only one with an official figure is Tegeler See, at fifteen minutes. The others we found all trace back to blogs, so we left them out.
Contents
- All 12: line, zone and entry price
- What getting there costs in 2026
- The five you can swim at for nothing
- Wannsee and Müggelsee
- The tram lakes, and the one inside the Ring
- Open latest, and free after six
- What has already shut
- Is the water clean?
- Where you may not swim
- Frequently asked questions
The best lakes in Berlin: line, zone and entry price
Prices are the 2026 adult rate. Status is as published on 9 September 2026.
| Lake | Get off at | Line | Zone | Adult entry | Status, 9 Sep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schlachtensee | S Schlachtensee | S1 | B | Free | Open shore |
| Krumme Lanke | U Krumme Lanke | U3 | B | Free | Open shore |
| Flughafensee | U Otisstraße | U6 | B | Free | Open, unsupervised |
| Müggelsee (Rahnsdorf) | Strandbad Müggelsee | S3 then tram 61 | B | Free | Open |
| Groß Glienicker See | Kurpromenade or Waldallee | Bus 135 | B | Free | Open shore |
| Seebad Friedrichshagen | Josef-Nawrocki-Str. | S3 then tram 60 | B | €5.00 late-season | Swimming to 13 Sep |
| Strandbad Halensee | S Halensee | S41, S42, S46 | A | €6.00 | To 15 Sep |
| Strandbad Wannsee | S Nikolassee | S1, S7 | B | €6.50 | Swimming to 13 Sep |
| Strandbad Wendenschloss | Wendenschloß | S46 then tram 68 | B | €7.00, free after 18:00 | Runs latest |
| Strandbad Orankesee | Orankestrand | Tram 27 | B | €8.00 | Saturdays only |
| Strandbad Weissensee | Weißer See | Tram M4, M13, 12 | B | €9.50 | Good weather only |
| Strandbad Plötzensee | Seestr./Beusselstr. | Bus 106 or 123 | B | €10.00 | Closed, weather |
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What getting there costs in 2026
BVG raised fares on 1 January 2026. An adult AB single is now €4.00 and ABC €5.00, and you will not need ABC here — zone B runs to the city boundary and every lake above is inside it. Nikolassee, Friedrichshagen and Grünau all sound suburban enough to be zone C. None is.
Two 2026 changes matter: Preisstufe BC no longer exists for Berlin, and the seven-day and annual tickets are discontinued. What survives is the four-trip AB ticket at €12.40 — €3.10 a journey, so a return to Schlachtensee is €6.20 rather than €8.00. The 24-hour AB ticket is €11.20. A Deutschlandticket at €63 a month covers every lake here, and the trains to the S-Bahn hikes near Berlin too.
The five you can swim at for nothing
Schlachtensee is the one to send a visitor to: the S1 stops at a station named after it, a path runs the whole way round, and there is no gate and no closing time. Krumme Lanke is ten minutes’ walk south, on the U3, which terminates at a station of the same name. Both were sampled on 26 August 2026 and came back green.
Flughafensee, behind the old Tegel airport on the U6, is the least busy of the three free forest lakes, the other two being Schlachtensee and Krumme Lanke. It is monitored but unstaffed: no water-rescue post, only rescue rings at the bathing spots, and parts of the bank are closed off and signposted because the slopes are not stable enough to stand on. Swim from the marked beach.
For Groß Glienicker See, take the 135 bus from Rathaus Spandau to Kladow, where two official bathing spots sit on the Berlin shore — Pferdekoppel, a sandy beach, and Moorloch, with a lawn and lifeguard cover. Neither is ticketed. The far shore is Potsdam, and zone C.
The fifth is the odd one out. Strandbad Müggelsee at Rahnsdorf is a proper lido — changing rooms, lawn, marked swimming area — that charges nothing. It is run for the Treptow-Köpenick district office, which says free entry is the point: it keeps the bath open to everyone. S3 to Friedrichshagen, then tram 61.
Wannsee and Müggelsee
Strandbad Wannsee is the one everybody means, and at €6.50 among the cheapest paid lidos here — because it is the only Strandbad Berliner Bäder-Betriebe still runs itself. The rest are leaseholders setting their own prices.
Two things worth correcting. The station is Nikolassee, not Wannsee — the bath’s own directions never mention S Wannsee. And the 312 shuttle down to the beach runs in the school summer holidays only; those ended on 22 August 2026, and today’s board at S Nikolassee shows no 312, with the 112 the only daytime bus. You are walking.
Swimming stops on 13 September. From 14 September to 4 October the bath stays open without a swimming operation — sunbathing at €3.80 including a Strandkorb, sauna at €11.50, which puts it briefly among the best saunas in Berlin. Everyone aged 14 and over needs an original photo ID, not a picture of one.
On the Müggelsee the paid option is Seebad Friedrichshagen, and September is the month for it: the late-season rate from 31 August to 13 September is €5.00 flat, full price and reduced alike, against €6.00 on weekdays and €8.00 at weekends in high summer. Get off at Josef-Nawrocki-Str. — same S3, but tram 60 rather than 61, because the two serve different baths on the same lake and one of them is free.
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The tram lakes, and the one inside the Ring
Two lidos in the north-east have no S-Bahn or U-Bahn at all, which is why they stay quiet in August.
Strandbad Weissensee is reached by tram M4, M13 or 12 — BVG lists tram and bus at that stop and no rail. Entry is €9.50, confirmed on both the operator’s site and Berliner Bäder-Betriebe. In September it opens in good weather only, 11:00 to 19:00.
Strandbad Orankesee is €8.00, cash only, dropping to €5.00 after 16:30. Get off at Orankestrand on tram 27 — Bäder-Betriebe still lists the M4, M5 and 27, and only the 27 calls there. Its own site gives the season as 1 May to 31 August and now lists Saturdays only, 13:00 to 22:00, while Bäder-Betriebe says mid-September.
Strandbad Plötzensee in Wedding is the most expensive of the twelve at €10.00. Get off at Seestr./Beusselstr. on bus 106 or 123; Sylter Str. looks closer but the 106 only calls there northbound, so it is the stop for the way home. Trams M13 and 50 terminate at Virchow-Klinikum, further round the lake. Today the bath is shut for weather, and since 1 September it has opened in good weather only. It is cashless.
Strandbad Halensee breaks the geography: it is the only one of the twelve inside the S-Bahn ring, which puts it in zone A, on the S41, S42 or S46. The operator sells a beach ticket at €6.00 while Bäder-Betriebe says €10.00; expect either. The season runs to 15 September.
Open latest, and free after six
Strandbad Wendenschloss, on the Langer See in Köpenick, is worth knowing in late September: it is scheduled to run to 30 September, a fortnight longer than any other bath with a published end date. Adult entry is €7.00, and from 18:00 it is free — which buys the last two hours, since swimming ends at 20:00 and last admission is 19:30.
Getting there is the part both the bath’s site and Berliner Bäder-Betriebe currently have wrong. Both say tram 62 from S Köpenick. The 62 does not reach Wendenschloß at the moment: BVG has closed the track between S Köpenick and Schloßplatz Köpenick, so every departure from the Wendenschloß terminus today is a 68. Take the S46 or S8 to Grünau and the 68 from there, or the F12 ferry from Wassersportallee. BVG’s notice runs to 30 September, so the 62 may be back in October.
What has already shut, and what closes this week
There is no common closing date for Berlin’s lake lidos, and this is the part most round-ups skip. Of the twelve baths listed below, four have a firm published 2026 end date and five publish none at all. Two have already finished for the season, five are still on full hours, and five are down to weekends, single days or good weather.
| Lido | 2026 season ends | Firm date? |
|---|---|---|
| Strandbad Lübars (Ziegeleisee) | 31 August — closed | Yes, operator |
| Strandbad Jungfernheide | 6 September per Bäder-Betriebe; leaseholder still opening fine Sundays | No |
| Strandbad Tegeler See | Ended early, no date given | No |
| Strandbad Wannsee | 13 September (swimming) | Yes |
| Seebad Friedrichshagen | 13 September | Yes |
| Strandbad Halensee | 15 September | Yes, Bäder-Betriebe |
| Strandbad Orankesee | 31 August per operator, Saturdays since; Bäder-Betriebe says mid-September | No — still opening Saturdays |
| Strandbad Wendenschloss | 30 September per Bäder-Betriebe | Leaseholder publishes none |
| Strandbad Weissensee | Good weather only, no end date | No |
| Strandbad Plötzensee | 31 August per Bäder-Betriebe; weather days since | No — leaseholder publishes none |
| Strandbad Grünau | Sources contradict each other | No |
| Strandbad Müggelsee (Rahnsdorf) | No end date published | No |
Strandbad Tegeler See is worth explaining. It was scheduled to 15 September, but the leaseholder ended the swimming season early, saying the forecast no longer promises warm bathing weather, while reserving the right to reopen on a hot day. Bäder-Betriebe still advertises 15 September. The free shore is unaffected — but read the water-quality section first.
Strandbad Grünau is genuinely unresolved. Bäder-Betriebe says the bath is closed and the season finished. The leaseholder simultaneously publishes September hours of Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00, and a €5.50 September price, while announcing building work from 1 September. Phone before you travel.
When the last of these shuts, the city’s indoor swimming pools take over, and October has its own calendar in our guide to Berlin in October.
Swimming ends on 13 September at Wannsee and Friedrichshagen. That is the kind of deadline that turns “we should go sometime” into a date, or into nothing at all. Post it on MITRA and let someone else say yes. Get MITRA on Google Play · Download on the App Store
Is the water clean? Two ratings that disagree
Berlin monitors 39 official bathing sites, and every one holds the top EU classification, “excellent”, in the most recent assessment, covering 2021 to 2024. That sounds settled and is not: the rating is a four-year retrospective on E. coli and enterococci, and it excludes blue-green algae.
The rating that matters on the day is a separate traffic light, updated through the season. Green means suitable for bathing, yellow means bathing is not advised, red is a ban. There has been no red anywhere in Berlin at any point in the 2026 season.
There is yellow. Four spots currently advise against swimming, all for blue-green algae: Strandbad Tegeler See and the stretch opposite Scharfenberg, both flagged on 7 September on a visual assessment rather than a lab sample — those entries carry no measured values — and Lieper Bucht and Radfahrerwiese on the Unterhavel, from samples taken on 3 September. The advice at Tegel is to avoid visible surface blooms and keep small children away from algae in the shallows.
Check before you leave: the map at berlin.de/lageso colours every site, and the same office runs a bathing-water line on (030) 90229-5555. There is no official app to check instead.
One date for the calendar: 15 September, when the season ends and fortnightly testing stops. The lakes do not turn dangerous that day, but from 16 September nobody publishes a fresh reading, and the answer to “is it clean this week” becomes “nobody has checked”.
Where you may not swim
Berlin’s bathing-water regulation is simple and little known: swimming is permitted at the listed official sites and not elsewhere. That one rule covers a lot of inviting water.
The one people get caught by is the Grunewaldsee — beautiful, central, easy to reach, and closed to swimmers. berlin.de says it is not suitable for bathers and that swimming there has been banned since 2004. It does have a dog bathing spot, which is the point of the lake now. The Stößensee and the Kleiner Wannsee are likewise not on the list.
If the water is off the table, the shore usually is not. Several of these lakes appear among the best picnic spots in Berlin, and Schlachtensee, Wannsee and the Müggelsee are starting points for kayak rentals that run past the swimming season.
What to take
Cash and a card: Strandbad Orankesee takes cash only, Strandbad Plötzensee cards only. Photo ID for Wannsee, where an original official document is required from age 14. And the water-quality map, because at Schlachtensee, Krumme Lanke and Flughafensee there is nobody on duty to tell you.
How we chose these
Every lake here is one of Berlin’s officially designated and monitored bathing waters, and every one is reachable on an AB ticket without a car. That second rule kept several nice lakes out of the list.
Where a leaseholder’s site and Berliner Bäder-Betriebe disagreed — at Halensee on price, at Tegel and Orankesee on the season — we used the leaseholder. Where a published tram line does not currently call at the stop, as at Orankesee and Wendenschloss, we used live BVG departures. Anything unconfirmed this week is not in the article.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a zone C ticket for any Berlin lake?
No. Every lake in this guide is inside Berlin’s city boundary, and zone B runs to that boundary, so a €4.00 AB single covers all of them. Nikolassee, Friedrichshagen and Grünau all sound like zone C and are not. You only need ABC if you cross into Potsdam.
Which Berlin lakes are free to swim in?
Five of the twelve here: Schlachtensee, Krumme Lanke, Flughafensee, the Berlin shore of the Groß Glienicker See, and the Strandbad Müggelsee at Rahnsdorf. The Rahnsdorf one is the surprise — a full lido with changing rooms and a marked swimming area where entry costs nothing.
How much does a Berlin Strandbad cost in 2026?
Between €5.00 and €10.00 for an adult, and the spread is down to who holds the lease. Strandbad Wannsee, the only one Berliner Bäder-Betriebe still operates directly, is €6.50. Seebad Friedrichshagen drops to €5.00 late season. Plötzensee is €10.00.
When do Berlin’s lakes close for the 2026 season?
There is no single date. Strandbad Lübars closed on 31 August and Strandbad Tegeler See ended early. Wannsee and Friedrichshagen stop swimming on 13 September, Halensee on 15 September, and Wendenschloss is scheduled to run to 30 September. Eight of the twelve baths in our closing-date table have no firm published end date, and five publish nothing at all.
Is it safe to swim with blue-green algae warnings?
A yellow rating means bathing is not advised at that specific spot, not that the whole lake is dangerous. Four sites currently carry one, including Strandbad Tegeler See. The advice is to avoid visible surface blooms and keep small children out of algae in the shallows. Red is an actual ban, and there has been none in Berlin this season.
Is there still a bus to Strandbad Wannsee?
Not at the moment. The 312 shuttle from S Nikolassee to the beach runs during the Berlin school summer holidays only, and those ended on 22 August 2026 — today’s departure board for S Nikolassee shows line 112 and no other daytime bus. Take the S1 or S7 and walk.
Several of these lakes sit on the end of a signed cycle route, and our guide to cycling in Berlin measures each one from the city’s own GPX files.
If you want the water without the walk, seven beach bars in Berlin are still open — though the only one you can actually swim at closes on 12 September 2026.
Want to keep reading?
- Indoor swimming pools in Berlin: your first swim, from €4
- Kayaking in Berlin: 9 rentals from €9 an hour
- Best picnic spots in Berlin: 14 parks and lakes, 7 with BBQ
- Hikes near Berlin: 9 S-Bahn routes from €4
- Berlin in October: 12 dates, and what closes
- Best saunas in Berlin: 10 spots, €15.30 to €51.50
The lake is the easy part: €4.00 to get there, and five of the twelve cost nothing. The hard part is that going alone is fine once and then quietly stops happening.
Pick a lake, pick a day, post it. MITRA is built for exactly this — one activity, one time, one other person who wants to go. Berlin first, more EU cities on the roadmap. Get MITRA on Google Play · Download on the App Store
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