Any advice for Berlin, please!

[mustytrusty]

I am hoping to have a few days in Berlin - probably in September. Would appreciate any advice on the best areas to stay, and any advice on the best transport from airport to city centre.

Is Berlin walkable? Or will we need to use bus / train etc?

Is there any 'must-sees' or, equally, 'don't bother withs'

DS is coeliac and I'm not sure how easy that will be to navigate.

Any advice on Berlin from people who know the city would be really welcome!

Book online to go up the Reichstag, it was our favourite thing. I can't remember if we used the U-bahn but I think we mostly walked. Just stay as centrally as possible if you want to walk everywhere. You can get a train from the airport to the centre.

Fat Ture bicycle tours! Brilliant exploration of the city and explanation of the Communist era. I also loved the DDR museum.

We used the u-bahn quite a bit on our trip and we’re usually good walkers! The city is massive and the things we wanted to see weren’t located near each other at the right time (we went in the covid aftermath and had to book timings for most things). Our highlights were going up the Reichstag building (at sunset!), Topography of Terror and the whole family enjoyed the German spy museum. I found the DDR museum fascinating and spent hours there. Ditto for the small Anne Frank Centre.

If you want to go up the Reichstag, you HAVE to pre-book.

Agree with the Spy Museum, there's a bit where you have to try to steal a diamond by crawling under and over laser beams which is really fun.

The Brandenburg Gate is a must-see.

There's a train to and from the airport, but it's really easy to get an uber.

Not been to Berlin, but hoping to go and have done much research (too much) - the biggest takeaway I have is that is that the public transport seems to be very good, so much so that many Berliners don't bother owning cars!

It’s not really walkable but the public transport is good. Definitely worth catching a bus to the Eastside Gallery to see the remains of the wall which have been transformed into an outdoor art gallery.
You can also visit Checkpoint Charlie, the TV Tower, the Topography of Terror museum and the Tiergarten (a kind of Central Park type city park which is lovely on a sunny day, particularly nice after all the emotions of the historical sites.)
The West is more upmarket with lots of designer shops and the KaDeWe department store but I really like the vibe of East Berlin -the Alexanderplatz area for shopping and Prenzlauerberg for nice coffee shops (gluten free is not at all a problem.)
Enjoy!

Bus and trams get everywhere you need to go. Alexanderplatz is a bit of a building site at the moment, solid avoid that. Anywhere around hackeshermarkt, museum island, checkpoint Charlie, potsdamer plate will be pretty good for getting to most tourist spots. There is a gaming museum which my son loved, spy museum as per PP was really good. Boat trip on the spree and a wander around the nikolai quarter also worth doing.

These are great suggestions. We are going to Berlin later this summer and would like to visit the Wannsee House museum. Has anyone done this and how easy was it to get there?

Ooh thanks so much for all the info. It sounds like there's plenty to do.

Any recommendations for areas or places to stay at all?

I am excited now!

I would suggest a walking tour to put the 20th Century history into context. I have twice done the Third Reich and Cold War walking tour (the ones who carry pink umbrellas, booked via booking.com) Both guides were fabulous, and it gave us a really good overview of the history, including things such as the Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust memorial and the Wall. Do it early on in your stay as it may infor tour decisions about what else to do whilst you are in Berlin. Have fun!

It’s easy enough to get to. A train to Wansee station and then iirc a bus from just outside the station. It’s well worth a visit, but very unnerving how such unforgivable atrocities were birthed in such a beautiful setting.

Definitely do the Reichstag - you used to have to take passports for ID so do check if that’s still the case.

The museum under the Holocaust memorial is harrowing but excellent.

The wall memorial and museum on Bernauer Strasse is a must imo, as is Topography of Terror.

The Jewish museum is good and architecturally stunning.

The zoo is very good too, but probably not for a first visit if you’ve only got a couple of days.

Im gluten free and found Berlin (as most of Europe is) to be pretty good with their allergen labels on menus. Each allergy has a number and is written after each dish if present so I found it fairly easy to avoid it xx
Hope you have a great time, I loved Berlin!

Which airport of the 3 is best?

Hire a bike, Berlin is flat and safe to cycle.

Stasimuseum is fascinating and kind of beautiful. The Stasi were bastards but can’t fault their interior designers.

We were there last week. We walked everywhere! On the few times we did use an u bahn it was so easy and cheap.
we ate well away from the centre and had two lovely meals. Happy hour was good for drinks and I enjoyed a naughty burger in Burgermeister

Went with my Mum last year, we had an awesome time. Very walkable but the U-Bahn is super easy.
I would also recommend a Third Reich waking tour, really interesting to understand the history - the Battle of Berlin was seriously glossed over in British history lessons. Also DM was born during this period so found it fascinating to learn what happened during the first few days of her birth! Booked mine through Viatours. Also found the whole East/West Germany thing so interesting.
You can also get the train to Potsdam which is more historic and full of palaces (and very nice parks).
German food, much like UK and Italian food, is wheat heavy, but it's a modern city and most people will happily cater for your needs. We came across a couple of supermarkets, but nothing that extensive, so perhaps pack some gluten free snacks in case you can't locate one.

I think it's very walkable. We stayed in Mitte both times we went.

Like others we did the Stasi Museum, the DDR museum and a walking tour; from WWI to the fall of the wall. We booked a 2 hour tour using an app called Viator. You can also go on hop on hop off buses, boats, bikes, self guided Trabi tour and a World War I vintage chauffeur driven car! So all types and all prices.

When I went a few weeks ago, Dh and I took the train out to the Olympic Stadium famous for the 1936 Jesse Owens games. Herta Berlin football team also play there. You can walk around the stadium and outside the grounds when there's no game on.

There's only the Brandenburg Airport now - also known as Willy Brandt

Agree with the walking tour as an ideal way to orientate yourself. We did the Sandeman’s free walking tour (pay what you want) one day and then did a second one about the Cold War and the wall. The guide took us on the tram to see different areas.

The Olympic stadium is very impressive.

Metro system really easy to use.

It’s a great city.

Berlin is awesome, so much to see and do. Mostly historically things here, but there are plenty of light entertainment / art galleries etc that we ran out of time to explore!

We stayed most recently at the Berlin Marriott Hotel, just a short walk from the Brandenburg Gate, and minutes from Potsdamer Platz, which connects you very well on the U-Bahn and S-Bahn. Lovely stay there.

Rausch Schokoladenhaus
This is a must visit! Lovely chocolate, a great cafe, and amazing chocolate sculptures!
https://rausch.de/en/pages/schokoladenhaus-berlin

Visit the Bundestag
Interesting tour and you can see for miles from the top of the glass dome.
https://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/visits

Bradenburg Gate
A hub for people gathering - have a look at night as it is all lit up and looks very pretty.

Treptower Park
A bit further out if you fancy a trip. Biggest Soviet war memorial - quite awesome in the 'awe' sense of the word. It is intimidating huge!
http://www.visitberlin.de/en/spot/soviet-memorial-treptow

Tiergarten
Main park, near Brandenburg Gate - lovely walks.

Holocaust Memorial
Hard to miss this as it's quite large and in the centre, worth a look, poignant memorial you can walk around/ through/ get lost in.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g187323-d617423-Reviews-The_Holocaust_Memorial_Memorial_to_the_Murdered_Jews_of_Europe-Berlin.html

Willy Brandt Museum
Good (free) museum about an interesting chap: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Brandt
http://www.willy-brandt.de/en/forum-berlin.html

Stasi Museum
This place is very good, well worth a visit if the topic interests you. Looks like an ordinary office block, but it's full of atmosphere, it's like stepping back in time to some tinker tailor soldier spy moment!
http://www.stasimuseum.de/en/enindex.htm

Checkpoint Charlie Museum
A bit more touristy than the other museums but we found it was a good overview of the history of the city.
http://www.mauermuseum.de/

Berlin Wall
Has (obviously) been knocked down but there are still pieces up to show the scale of it, and gold markings on the road to show where it ran.

East of the city
Head over there for different architecture, a more Soviet vibe and other delights. For example, they still have the old style traffic lights where the 'man' wears a hat.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampelm%C3%A4nnchen

Unter den Linden
A nice pretty tree-lined road, which the Brandenurg Gate is at the end of. Bit like The Mall in London. Some nice restaurants along here

Food
In general is easy to come by and delicious - everywhere we ate was nice, and the food was good quality. Waiting staff were very friendly to our 4 year old. Be prepared for lots of sausage, potatoes fried with bacon and sauerkraut, but there are other cuisines catered for too, and probably some healthy options if you look hard enough!

Getting around
Although the metro is cheap and quick, I would say save that for longer trips and walk as much as you can, as the history really is everywhere for you to see!

Airports
We flew into the Berlin Brandenburg airport on our most recent visit. It was very easy to get to the centre from there on public transport.

Enjoy it, it's a fantastic city.

Cash is still king in Berlin, take plenty of cash.

It's walking friendly but it's big so you'll want to use public transport but as others have said, it's excellent and good value. The City mapper app is great. If you get a day (or 24 hour or 36 hour) travel card you can hop on and off any transport.

Stay anywhere in Mitte really. We've also stayed and enjoyed staying in more residential neighbourhoods pike Prenzlauerburg or near Boxhagenerplatz. Just be near a U or S bahn and you'll be fine. I love the Eastside personally.

If you like to swim, and the weather is still good, I recommend a morning or afternoon at Schlactensee, you can get the train there, it's beautiful. You can also swim at Wansee but the water is less fresh and I found the vibes a bit off, it's weird to enjoy a day at the beach looking over the water to the house and knowing what happened there.

Berlin is fabulous, enjoy!

Get the transport app. Sorry, I forget what it's called, but it's excellent. You can buy tickets on it, plan routes, replan routes... The public transport is so good that there are often several ways to get somewhere, with only minimal difference in time. So you might have bus + underground, or underground + underground, or bus + walk, etc, and you can pick and choose.

It did underestimate the walking time for me though, as it thought I was starting from a street corner rather than several floors up a complicated building. I also had trouble putting my payment card on it, but added paypal no bother.

Berlin is amazing, have been a couple of times last couple of years. Last time stayed in Mitte., previously stayed in Friedrichschain. Look up One Motels there are lots in different areas of the city. Berlin is huge but ubahn and s bahn are easy to use. Would highly recommend Berlin zoo, (by far the best zoo I have ever been to) , Berlin story bunker and Sachsenhausen (concentration camp) is a little further out but easy to get to. There is so much to do, Berlin is pretty spread out but never feels crowded.Already planning another visit!

🤯😱 I’m soooo out of date. I think of Berlin I think Tempelhof and Schoenefeld. Granted, I think I was last there about 17 or 18 years ago…