Berlin with hard to please teenagers!

[ikeepforgetting]

Hoping to go for around 3 nights over the Easter holidays. Youngest (DD14) is doing GCSE history so there will be a bit of that, but otherwise wandering and exploring with her and DS17. First holiday post-divorce so I want to make it laid back and fun if I can.

Any tips? Particularly accommodation that won't break the bank since will likely need two rooms. They are the usual phone-addicted, jaded types so I need as much to shock and awe them as possible!

Tell them from me:

• they’re getting a free trip abroad so shut up whingeing
• you’ve got divorced, you deserve a nice holiday so shut up whingeing
• you’re their mother, they should think about your feelings rather than their own so shut up whingeing

Etc, etc

Good luck

Our teenagers LOVED Berlin. We did:

*city guided bike ride (3hrs) probably their highlight
*river trip (1hr)
*2 of the museums on museum island plus Pergamon Museum - The Panorama (half a day) they LOVED the panorama. I bet we were in it 45 minutes
*self guided art tour in one of the cool studenty areas including getting a picture at “the kiss”
*wandering Nikolaiviertel - instagramable super cute middle aged/cobbled area
*the TV tower (1.5hrs, even tho the tickets are 45 minutes!) my favourite
*riding the U Bahn and S bahn for the fun of it.

we didn’t manage it, but hunting down Berlin’s best kebab was also on the list 😅

I would 100% recommend our hotel. I’ll just go dig it out.

Oh, we also let them loose in some of the shopping centres! It’s so safe. We just sat with a coffee and let them go spend their holiday money.

DDR museum is fab. It includes a whole flat, a Trabant and lots about how children and young people lived under communism. tickets.ddr-museum.de/#/tickets?lang=de

Eurostars Berlin. It was walking distance to museum island, train station right next door, area felt really safe.

My final tip is to do the bike ride the day you arrive. It’ll wake you up if you’re tired from travelling, and you’ll get the lay of the land a bit. You can also spot anything that you’d like to revisit.

Oh and Checkpoint Charlie!

Flipping heck, I can’t believe how much we did - we were only there two nights.

Public transport is easy. Get a group ticket.
The Stasi museum.
TV tower (with revolving restaurant, if you feel like it. We enjoyed it!) Fabulous 360 view.
Berlin Cathedral (Dom). Go up the tower. More great views.
Reichstag (book ahead online, you can’t just turn up) The lecture in English is interesting and only 45 mins. You can then explore the terrace and dome.
East Side Gallery - longest preserved section of the Berlin Wall runs along the River Spree.

Went last year and loved it!

If they need shock and awe I wouldn't bother!

As well as the Stasi museum there's an old prison where the tours are very impactful. They particularly appreciate being able to tell young people about the regime. Tours are often led by someone who was in prison there.

The film museum is great.

Long-time Berliner here, have brought up a few teenagers here too.
Kernow has some very good ideas, but I would add:
A bike tour through Mitte, are you insane? It has to be incredibly dangerous, especially on your first day. We often see those tours and wonder what their accident rate is like. I suppose seeing a Berlin A and E would be an experience. Biking round trendy suburbs like Prenzlauer Berg would be fine as long as you keep away from the trams. Mitte, a big no.
Book to go up the Reichstag dome, it’s free but you have to book way in advance and bring your passport. You can’t see a thing if it rains!
The TV Tower restaurant is closed for renovation and reopening Easter weekend, so it will be packed to bursting.
Museum Island will also be full to bursting that weekend. We‘ve found the Egyptian collection in the Neues Museum went down well with teens.
The Nikolai quarter is a big con - it got blown to bits in the war and what you see now is a bad East German rebuild.
Teens will really like MountMitte, it‘s a high ropes / parkour course right in the centre. Cool part of town.
Avoid Museum at Checkpoint Charlie, it‘s American propaganda that assumes everyone was desperate to flee the east - the truth is far more nuanced. The Berlin Wall museum is way better.
Oranienburger Strasse is a cool place to hang out, lots of bars and restaurants, the C/O photo museum in the in Tacheles centre. Close to the Tränenpalast, where Western visitors to the East used to be processed at Friedrichstrasse.
Finally, and most important, please don‘t use an AirBnB. It‘s probably illegal, and my adult kids can‘t find a legal place to rent in the centre because of illegal rentals to tourists. There’s a huge housing crisis, and frankly we don‘t need tourism THAT much (although you’re very welcome if you stay in a hotel). Have fun!

I took 3 of our teenagers last year and would also recommend doing the bike tour the first morning your are there. The guide then told the teens a great place that we should go to lunch so we did that. As PP said, it then gave us an idea of where we wanted to go back to.

We also did the Reichstag - though were too late to book in advance for an English tour, we went early one morning and got tickets for that day.

The TV Tower, Spy museum, DDR museum and again let them browse the shopping centre.

Only hiccup I had was on arriving in Berlin it was late and I had pre-written down how to get to our accomodation. Suggest using Google Maps as it will should be uptodate. The train stop I wanted to get off at was closed so that added an hour to us finding a way to get back to hotel. Should say we weren't told on the train and there were Germas also caught out - not just us.

P.S. The teens LOVED Budapest if you've not been as another adventure!

Im taking my niece and we're staying in the Premier Inn at Alexanderplatz. I've been to Berlin numerous times and while it's not the most exciting area, it's a good base for transport and children under 16 as are free which might help with the budget.
I agree with all the other suggestions already made here and are planning on a fair few of them for this trip. I'm also taking her to the Ice Bar and an illusion Museum just to break the days up a bit with something a little more light hearted!!

Oh, and if they‘re being absolute brats you can amuse them by calling them Gören (pron guhrrr-en, same vowel as in girl). It‘s Berliner slang for brats.

Go up the Reichstag at night, it was the coolest thing we did. Book tickets before you go.

LadyGrey is quite right that the bike tours do indeed present a mad hazard! Huge long lines of people who haven’t been on a bike in years. There must be plenty of accidents 😬

This is all brilliant thank you! They aren't all that bad, and have had a rough year too with their dad leaving, so I want them to lift their heads up and see a bit of the world. Starting with 3 days and building from there!

They are both into music so any tips on sights, areas, etc for that? I heard about a walking tour taking in cool stuff like where David Bowie lived etc. That would be excellent I think

Following as off to Berlin with 2 teens in October half term. Some great tips!

The absolute best thing is the swing at the top of the Park Inn hotel on Alexanderplatz. 120m up, directly opposite the TV tower. I loved it!! But maybe not if they're scared of heights.

We really liked the Jewish museum. We also did the prisoner of war camp. Went to the wintergarten and TIPI AM KANZLERAMT Theater for shows - worth a look to see what's on.

Re PP saying they took ages to find the hotel and a Station was closed: definitely download the BVG app. That’s our local transport network, and the app will give you instructions including walking time from a specific address, and also has bus delays and station closures built into the recommendations so it’s pretty reliable. I always use that with Google maps in tandem.

Re the big swing at Park Inn: it looks horrific and I would never do it cos I‘m a wuss, but it’s waaaay safer than a bike trip through the centre if you don’t know the city.

Mine enjoyed the computer museum, DDR and spy museums, East Side Gallery and the Reichstag dome (register in advance). Also walking and underground bunker tours.

My grumpy teenager's favourite part of our Berlin trip was the 2 hour sandemans free walking tour - the guide was brilliant (Juan) and we learnt so much.

It's free but you pay a 'tip' at the end. Well worth it.

Grumpy also liked the reichstag visit, walking along the wall by ostbahnhof and hanging out in friedrichshein which has a bit of a punky alternative East German vibe - cool restaurants and bars and at 16 he could buy a beer 😂

Last year we did the Rude Bastards tour with our teens:

https://www.cyhitours.com/rude-bastards-tour-of-berlin/

Similar to pp, it’s ‘free’ but you chuck in a tip at the end.

Also north of Berlin is Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. Of course not remotely jolly or fun but an absolute must visit in terms of history.

Ahh great tips thanks - I’m off for Feb half term with an 11 year old so this is great. I had looked at eating at the restaurant at the top of the tv tower but saw that it’s closed until Easter for refurbishment.
I’ve also taken inspiration from a previous thread on here about “what’s the best hotel you’ve ever stayed in” and we’re staying in one that was mentioned there 😂
I’m imagining it’s going to be very cold?

There is an episode of Richard Ayoades show travel man which featured a weekend to Berlin. Based on that we visited a vintage bowling alley beneath a pub / restaurant. Apparently there are a few of them dotted around.. it was small but fun after eating. We also did a private walking tour of street art that I booked through With Locals. If street art isn’t your thing they do tours on many other subjects. They have vintage photo booths dotted around which would be fun to look out for. Finally if they like second hand shopping / fashion / clothes there’s a huge branch of Human in an old department store.