Brandenburg, palaces, lakes and canals around Berlin.

Brandenburg is the federal state that surrounds Berlin on all sides: a flat territory of pine forests, lakes and slow rivers, with brick villages and few inhabitants. For a traveller flying into Berlin it is the capital's back garden, the place you head to by train for the day. Two trips sum it up: the palaces of the Prussian kings in Potsdam and the canals of the Spreewald. Berlin's own airport, the BER, is on Brandenburg soil, and direct trains run from it to both.

What to see in Brandenburg

Potsdam is the state capital and the city of palaces. Sanssouci, the summer palace of Frederick the Great, stands at the top of a set of vineyard terraces; the park continues for kilometres to the Neues Palais, and below is the red-brick Dutch Quarter. The Havel opens out here into lakes and a boat tours the palaces from the water. It is 25 minutes by train from Berlin Hauptbahnhof.

The Spreewald is a riverside forest crossed by hundreds of canals, to the south-east, an hour away by train. From Lübbenau, punt boats take you to Lehde, a village of wooden houses that could once only be reached by water, with an open-air museum of nineteenth-century farms. You can paddle a canoe on your own and sleep in a palace or at a campsite beside the water.

Sachsenhausen, in Oranienburg, to the north, is the concentration camp memorial on the outskirts of Berlin. We cover it under Berlin, because you get there on the city's S-Bahn and it takes half a day.

Brandenburg an der Havel, to the west, is the city that gave the state its name: a Romanesque brick cathedral on an island in the Havel, three medieval centres linked by bridges and boats on its lakes. It is on the same railway line as Potsdam, about 45 minutes from Berlin.

Chorin and Niederfinow, to the north-east, an hour along the A11, combine in one day Chorin's Cistercian brick monastery, beside a lake, and the two boat lifts at Niederfinow, which raise boats 36 metres; from spring to autumn you can pass through them by boat.

Werder (Havel), past Potsdam on the same RE1, has its old town on an island in the Havel: a Venetian gondola, thermal baths on the shore of the Zernsee, vineyards on the Wachtelberg and a Michelin-starred restaurant, half an hour from Berlin.

Lübben is the other gateway to the Spreewald, quieter than Lübbenau: punt boats through the town's locks, canoeing along the canals and a full-day boat to Lehde.

To the north, in the Ruppiner Land, Neuruppin is Fontane's home town, with a two-towered church on a long lake and boats on the Ruppiner See, and Rheinsberg, 25 km away, is the rococo palace where the young Frederick the Great spent his happiest years, beside Lake Grienericksee, with boats across five lakes.

How do you get there from Spain?

By air to Berlin: BER airport has direct flights from Madrid, Barcelona and other Spanish cities. From the airport, the RB22 regional train goes straight to Potsdam every hour, and there is a train to Lübbenau in about 50 minutes. From central Berlin, the RE1 reaches Potsdam in 25 minutes and the regional trains on the Cottbus line reach Lübbenau in about an hour. With an ABC ticket you reach Potsdam; for the Spreewald you need a Brandenburg regional ticket.

Car or train?

Train. Both trips are designed to be done without a car: in Potsdam everything is within walking distance or on the tram, and in the Spreewald the car stays parked while you travel by boat. A car makes sense if you want to string together several Spreewald villages or sleep outside the towns.

When to go

May to September is the best time: the Potsdam boats and the Spreewald punts run daily, the Lehde museum is open and the gardens are at their best. October is a good month, with autumn colours. In winter the palaces open on short hours and close on Mondays, the Lehde museum closes and winter punts with hot drinks run in the Spreewald; on Advent weekends there is a Christmas market in Lübbenau and Lehde.

What do you eat in Brandenburg?

Inland cooking, simple and from the river. In the Spreewald, freshwater fish, game, dishes with mustard and the Spreewald gherkin; in Lehde, gasthäuser such as Kaupen No. 6, an old farmhouse beside the water with its own mustard, or the Quappenschänke, where you eat inside boats. In Potsdam the cooking is that of Berlin: Bouletten, Eisbein with sauerkraut and beer, which the Meierei in the Neuer Garten brews beside the lake, with a revived Berliner Weisse. And for the afternoon, coffee and cake: the Café Heider, open since 1878, or the Drachenhaus, a pagoda inside Sanssouci park.

How to combine them

With Berlin as a base, do Potsdam one day and the Spreewald another: they do not combine well in a single day because they are on opposite sides of the city. If you prefer to sleep out, a night in Lübbenau gives you the canals empty at sunset, and one in Potsdam gives you Sanssouci park first thing.