Berlin’s open invitation: Germany’s “cool capital” reaches out with Air Transat

Come one, come all. Just come as you are.

visitBerlin, the tourism board for Germany’s capital, made a strategic stop in Toronto on Thursday (May 29) to connect with media and highlight Berlin’s ongoing transformation into a dynamic destination.

The luncheon, held at Sassafraz restaurant in Toronto’s Yorkville neighbourhood, and organized by VoX International, featured a candid presentation by visitBerlin’s CEO Burkhard Kieker, who wasted no time alluding to the unstable U.S. geopolitical landscape.

“We come [to Canada] frequently,” Kieker said, explaining the reason for the visit, “but when we read all the news about what’s happening south of the border, we thought we should go see our friends in Canada and say, ‘Our hearts and gates are open for you.’”

(This is the tag line of visitBerlin’s 2025 campaign for Canada).

“By the way,” he added, with a touch of humour, “Germans don’t want to go to the U.S. either.”

Cool capital, complex soul

Berlin has long occupied a unique space in the European tourism landscape. Its brand? “The cool capital of Europe,” Kieker said, “and a focal point of 20th-century history.”

From its imperial palaces and castles to the scars left by the World Wars and the Cold War, Berlin is literally a living classroom of modern history.

But beyond its museums and memorials, Kieker said the city is defined by its spirit of freedom — forged in the revolution that brought down the Berlin Wall in 1989.

“We are a city that brought down a dictatorship without a single shot fired. That’s a very important message,” he said.

That freedom, he said, has evolved into a way of life. “You can test your own lifestyle here. If you want to dress like a zebra and ride the subway, nobody will take notice,” he said. “It’s a very tolerant city.”

A start-up hub with design credentials

Beyond history and lifestyle, Berlin is a magnet for global talent, Kieker said.

“Together with London, we are the start-up capital of Europe,” he said. The city’s booming tech and design scenes attract creatives and entrepreneurs alike — a fact reflected in its UNESCO City of Design status and cultural attractions like the Bauhaus Archive.

Canadians are coming 

The bonds between Berlin and Canada are strengthening. In 2024, Berlin welcomed about 51,000 Canadian visitors, staying an average of three nights. That momentum has carried into 2025, with a 6.2 per cent increase in overnight stays by Canadians in the first quarter alone. “There’s a lot of opportunity here,” Kieker told journalists.

The heart of Europe – and history

Geographically, Berlin has returned to its historic role as the heart of Middle Europe — a concept obscured for decades by the Cold War. “Berlin is back in the centre. We are the turntable between East and West,” Kieker said.

Structurally, Berlin is a city of contrasts. It’s made up of 12 boroughs, each with the population of a mid-sized city. The broader city has taken on major challenges, notably welcoming over 350,000 Ukrainian refugees at the start of the Ukraine-Russia war. Many refugees were housed by local families, including Kieker’s own.

Facing the past 

How does Berlin deals with its dark past — particularly its Nazi history? Kieker was forthright: “Berlin is living history,” he said. 

Rather than sanitizing painful chapters, Berlin exposes them. You can still see bullet holes on the Brandenburg Gate, for example. “Berlin has to show its wounds,” he said.

From underground bunker tours to the Topography of Terror museum, Berlin’s openness to its history is part of its draw for international visitors, especially from North America.

Food & travel tips

Berlin’s culinary scene is as eclectic as its people, boasting 2,500 restaurants — including the highest number of Michelin-starred establishments in Germany. “It could take years to try them all,” Kieker said.

For Canadians planning a visit, his top travel tip is the city’s All-Inclusive Card, which offers unlimited public transport and entry to top attractions and museums. “It starts at $150 Canadian and gives you about $700 worth of value.”

Get there with Air Transat

Air Transat co-hosted Thursday’s gathering as the airline gears up to launch non-stop flights between Toronto and Berlin this summer.

Starting June 19, the carrier will operate night flights, aboard the Airbus A321LR, that arrive in the morning, under the following schedule:

• Toronto-Berlin (two flights per week, Sunday and Thursday. Departure at 21:05, arriving at 10:55.
• Berlin-Toronto (two flights per week, Monday and Friday. Departure at 12:25, arriving at 15:15

Air Transat is the only Canadian airline that offers non-stop direct service from Toronto to Berlin, Jhadyd Gonzales, the airline’s national sales manager, pointed out.  

“The flights will take place on Sundays and Thursdays, so if you want to do a long weekend, it’s possible,” he said.

The route, currently, is a seasonal service and “reservations are going very, very well,” Gonzales said.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to extend the service to the whole year – as we are doing with other European cities,” Gonzales said.

He went on to say that Berlin remains one of “Europe’s most visited cities.”

“It was clearly an underserved market from Canada,” he said. “This route will meet the growing demand to visit Central Europe, especially Berlin. It’s designed for vacationers, but also for people visiting friends and family.”

There’s also a lot of business between Germany and Canada, Gonzales said.

“This route will serve as a bridge for corporations that want to go directly from Toronto to this beautiful capital,” he said.

Air Transat’s connectivity across Canada (and the U.S.) is enhanced thanks to a joint-venture with Porter Airlines, which opens the Berlin route to more markets.

What’s new in Berlin?

This June, Berlin will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's "Wrapped Reichstag" project. To commemorate the event, a light projection will be displayed on the West facade of the building, re-imagining the original artwork.

The Berlin Freedom Walk on Nov. 8 is part of the first-ever "Berlin Freedom Week,” taking place from November 8-15, 2025. The event is a city-wide festival dedicated to freedom, democracy, and human rights. It marks the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

200 years of Museum Island Berlin. Museum Island celebrates its 200th anniversary in 2025 with a multi-year program. It begins with an open-air festival around UNESCO World Heritage Day on June 1. In summer, the Kolonnadenhof will be transformed into the Kolonnaden Bar with cultural programming. From July, the Collection of Classical Antiquities presents the exhibition "Foundation Stone Antiquity. Berlin's first museum,” followed in November by the show "Myths in stone. Göbeklitepe and the world of the last hunters.”

The anniversary series will run for five years and focus on a different aspect of the five museums each year: in 2026, the Alte Nationalgalerie will take centre stage. One highlight will be the partial reopening of the Pergamon Museum in spring 2027, when the northern wing will be accessible again. The Neues Museum will follow in 2028, the Bode Museum in 2029 and the entire island will celebrate its grand finale in 2030.

Pergamon Altar hall, along with other parts of the Pergamonmuseum's North Wing, is set to reopen in 2027. This includes the Hall of Hellenistic Architecture and the new permanent exhibition of the Museum für Islamic Kunst. The entire complex, including the South Wing and a new fourth wing, is planned for reopening in 2037.

From November 2025, Cirque du Soleil will perform its first permanent show in Europe at the theatre on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, with the premiere of “Alizé.”

Berlin's former City Palace, demolished in 1950, was rebuilt starting in 2013 and completed in 2020. The rebuilt palace, now known as the Humboldt Forum, is a modern museum complex featuring historical and modern architectural styles.

On Nov. 9, an NFL football game will take place in Berlin's Olympic Stadium for the first time.

visitBerlin has compiled a list of events happening 2025 here. You can also click here to see all of Berlin's latest openings.

Don't miss a single travel story: subscribe to PAX today!  Click here to follow PAX on Facebook.