Is there a rule which preposition to use for a place?

Question

Is there a rule for choosing between the prepositions zu, in, bei, nach, an for a special place or does one have to memorize all of them?

For example:

Beim Arzt
An den See
Nach Berlin
Zur Bäckerei
Ins Büro

Answer 1

First, one should note that bei is in general not used with verb such like gehen, kommen, or other word which would express an idea of movement. One say:

Ich bin beim Arzt.

but:

Ich gehe zum Arzt.

Now for a few guideline about the other preposition:

Nach is used when you go to a city, a country, or any other named inhabited settlement of region.

Wir haben uns entschieden, nach Frankreich zu fahren.

Zu is when your goal is a building.

Ich muss für dich zum Rathaus gehen, damit du dein Zertifikat endlich hast.

In is used when the idea to be in the place is important. A few example, from the top of my head: "ins Meer", because you will swim in it, "ins Kino" while you want to watch a film in it, "ins Büro/ins Geschäft" while you go there to work. Note that the use of in and zu are very similar, and you nearly have to memorize which preposition to use in each case.

The use of an is quite difficult to define. I would say a first use is when you want to go to some kind of border. 'See' and 'Küste' is assimilated in this case to a border between land and water. This can be use naturally in the case you go there, but also when you are there.

An der Nordseeküste, am plattdeutschen Strand, ...

The other case I found, is a figurative one:

An die Arbeit gehen : to get to work, to go down to business

To sum it up, those are guidelines, and unfortunately, in most of the case, knowing which preposition to use gets only easier with how familiar you are with the language.

Answer 2

rough short rule...

location can be entered/has an entrance, masc. and fem. countries:

wohin - in + acc , wo - in + dat. , woher - aus

location cannot be entered, usually persons ALSO brand names like MC Donalds:

wohin - zu , wo - bei , woher - von

countries (neuter) , cities etc:

wohin - nach, wo - in, woher - aus

There are many examples that don't fit here like Markt (auf, zu) or Meer (an, zu). But chosing by the above stated rules your outcome will be at least second best.

Big exception:

nach Hause, zu Hause, von Zuhause