The Volkspark Potsdam, on the hill southeast of the city centre, is the main public leisure park for Potsdam residents — the local alternative to the tourist-oriented Sanssouci. The park includes gardens, walking and cycling paths, a children's play area, a rose garden, and the Biosphäre tropical greenhouse. It was significantly developed for the 2001 Federal Garden Show (Bundesgartenschau), which added new landscaping, viewing points, and the treetop walk that offers elevated views across the Havel landscape.
The park is less polished than Sanssouci but more genuinely local: families, joggers, and cyclists using it the way a city park should be used. It is a good destination on a Sunday afternoon when the royal parks are at their most crowded, and the treetop walkway provides a perspective on the landscape that no amount of ground-level walking can match.