Sanssouci Park stretches for nearly three kilometres from east to west, containing seven palaces and more than thirty smaller buildings connected by paths through woodland, meadow, and formal garden. It is one of the great landscape parks of Europe — not the manicured perfection of Versailles, but a more varied, exploratory place where a Rococo palace can suddenly give way to a Chinese tea pavilion, a Roman bath, or a fake ruined temple.
The main axis runs dead straight from the Obelisk Portal in the east to the Neues Palais in the west, passing through the Great Fountain and the Sanssouci vineyards. But the best parts are off this axis: the Ruinenberg to the north, the Charlottenhof gardens to the south, the Belvedere on the hill. Allow at least three hours to walk the full park, more if you plan to enter the buildings. The park is free; the individual palaces charge admission and are often crowded in summer — timed tickets for Sanssouci itself can sell out days in advance.