Berlin, Prague, Vienna - family-friendly places to stay & things to do?

[exexpat]

I'm going to be travelling round Europe by train with my two DCs (13 & 9) this summer, including a couple of nights each in Berlin, Prague & Vienna. I've never been to Berlin or Prague, and haven't been to Vienna for about 25 years, so I expect a lot has changed.

Has anyone been recently and can recommend places to stay and things to do with children? Not too bothered about type of hotel, though not really looking at 4/5 star - more important is convenient location. DS is interested in history & politics, DD more into art and animals.

Berlin Zoo is meant to be amazing, although we didn't go when there - is consistently rated amongst the best in the world from what I've read. The DDR museum is fantastic and very interactive (although East German DP was constantly grumbling about West Germans writing 'wrong' historical info about 'Oesties' (sp?)).

I wouldn't recommend the Sea Life Centre purely because of the queue (and we were there in torrential rain, with people queuing outside), however that is indicative of how good it is meant to be inside... depends if you want to spend your time queuing (it was very near the DDR museum IIRC so you could check out the queue without wasting a trip). Checkpoint Charlie is accessible (free!) and has some very good displays by the side of the road that you can just wander around and read.

We stayed in Hotel Berlin, via a deal on Hotels.com. It was nice, full of tourists and they had excellent customer service in lots of languages.

The Fernsehnturm is great - even though we went up it in the rain (sensing a theme? ) it has a great atmosphere. The best bit is the revolving restaurant but you can only get in if you buy food and it was pricey. Our answer was to buy dessert and coffee and we were only two - large families were being turned away.

Also there was a great Bavarian Pub in Potsdammer Platz, which was very vibrant. The food was (surprisingly) ace and reasonably authentic... even DP approved. It was one of the better places we ate. However the rest of Potsdammer Platz was a bit more teenager/young adult/drinking and cinema so not great after the early evening.

I suggest the restaurant because of Panorama Punkt, the very cheap and equally as good version of the Fernsehnturm. You walk around the platform outside and each part has panoramic pictures from various points in Potsdammer Platz's history. It's amazing to walk through time and see how it changes, whilst admiring the current view.

CharminglyOdd - Thanks for all that, there are some good suggestions. I think DS might like the DDR museum, and DD the zoo, so those will go on the list, and the Panorama Punkt. I think I might read a few cold-war-era spy novels before we go, to get myself in the mood for Checkpoint Charlie etc.

Anyone else got any ideas for Prague?

In Prague:

TV tower

Other suggestions

National Technical Museum is entertaining.

The castle.

The sliver mines at Kutna Hora are fun - if you are not claustrophobic!

Prague -

Petrin Hill observation tower - amazing views and it has a lovely coffee shop with gorgeous honey cake too. You can take a little funicular railway to get up/down (we walked up and trained down, which may have been the wrong way to do it - it was a steep climb in the snow!).

We loved The Infant Of Prague so much that we went back twice!

The castle - we didn't do any of the paid for stuff but there's plenty to see without paying, including the changing of the guard here.

We found this place good for cheap lunches and yummy cakes - try the apple pie!