Berlin

[Wheelskeepturning]

Really excited, just booked 3 night trip to Berlin in April.

Any must do's please? Hotel recommendations, nice places to eat, actually any tips at all please?

The TV tower for great views. The flea market at Mauerpark on Sunday (if you're there at the weekend). The Berlin Wall memorial and walk starting from Nordbahnhof S Bahn station that goes along Bernauer Strasse. Tiergarten if it's a nice day.

Oh, don't bother with the Checkpoint Charlie museum - it's overpriced tourist crap. The DDR museum behind the cathedral is much better.

Book the 90 minute reichstag tour as soon as you can (now!) It's free and excellent. Do not forget your passport or ID to get in.

East side gallery worth seeing.

Free concert at Berlin Philharmonie concert hall in the foyer on Wednesday lunchtime. Or if you can book to see the Berliner philharmoniker symphony orchestra even better but book in advance as it will sell out.

Or book the opera.

Book the DDR museum in advance.

I enjoyed seeing checkpoint Charlie even if it's fake and a tourist thing. Its free, you can swing by to get a photo on the walk into the monument to the murdered Jews of Europe (Must see by the Brandenburg gate) or the topography of terror. It brings home what was going on.

We enjoyed the zoo. Shopping by the zoo is mind boggling. So many big shops.

Wish I'd gone to the trabbie (trabant) museum but I am a U2 fan. Was sad that I didn't have time to do the U2 themed tour of Berlin. I will go to Hamsa studios next time. I want to go to the victory monument next time too.

We love the Rausch chocolate shop in Mitte. We ate at the deli.

We enjoyed a trip to potsdam.

Do a walking tour (we used Sandeman’s). Are you being children? As pp said, DDR museum is a good one.

You can go to the dome above the Reichstag for free but you need to book a time slot in advance and take ID with you.

We went a bit further out and did the Stasi museum. It was fascinating. We also did a really cool light and sound exhibition called Dark Matter that I really enjoyed. The Jewish Museum was great too.

Thank you all, this is great information. Keep it coming please.

Holocaust memorial is a greatmisrum, under the powerful steles, you can tour the wwii/Cold War air raid shelter, I wouldn’t recommend the restaurant at the top of the tv tower (but the view is fab!!) if you want more history - topography of terror and Jewish museum both are great, sachsenhausen concentration camp is reachable by train, 1936 Olympic stadium is really interesting, the villa at Wannsee is also interesting…to balance that there are great beer gardens and Indian restaurants…

Let us know if you are taking children. If so, the spy museum is fun. If not, or if they are older, do an underground tour. We’ve done a WW2 bunker one and an ‘under the wall’ one. Both great.

Don’t do the hop on hop off bus.Due to German labour laws they stop at every third stop for 20 minutes so it’s an absolute con. We ended taking ubers everywhere as very cheap.

A day travel card is about 10 euros, and you can still get paper ones from machines, and- best of all- if you have under 14s they can travel with you on it for free! I love the S Bahn trains- they're elevated in the centre so you get great views.

Seconding the underground tours- it's a non profit organisation called Berliner Unterwelten. We went to visit an original Cold War escape tunnel under the course of the Wall.

We also loved the Teufelsberg- this is an artificial mountain in the Grunewald, built from the rubble of WW2 Berlin cleared by women, with an old American satellite listening station on top. It's now been completely covered in amazing street art. It's quite an adventure through the forest even to get there- you might see wild boar!

I also recommend the Tranenpalast, at Friedrichstrasse Station- this was the old rail crossing point between East and West, and is now a good free museum (good free museums absolutely abound in Berlin).

We stayed in Kreuzberg- I absolutely love it, but then again I'm an old raver so I love the grunginess. Incredibly good, cheap Turkish food in those parts- a lot of places only take cash.

East Side Gallery has the largest section of the wall still standing with some very good information.

Holocaust memorial

Reichstag - you can just book the dome, you don't have to do a tour if you don't want to. Book only via the official Bundestag website and bring your passport and don't bring anything you don't take on a plane, you go through proper security checks.

The DDR museum is good but can get crowded.

If you want any of the large museums, some are still closed so check the websites.

We enjoyed walking around the Nikolaiviertel. It's part of East Berlin and was totally rebuild/restored in 1987 to look pretty for the 750th anniversary of Berlin. A lot is not authentic but it's a nice area to imagine how it looked before it was bombed to pieces.

Be prepared that nearly all shops will be closed on Sunday. Museums are open but some close on Monday, better check opening times.

Depends on who’s travelling and what you’re into. Definitely book the Reichstag in advance. Berlin is a huge place and just getting to the main sights will take a while (Brandenburg Gate/Potsdamer Platz/Checkpoint Charlie, Kurfurstendam/Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, Alexanderplatz, Museum Island). It’s a great place to walk around and there’s history everywhere. We enjoyed the DDR museum when we had kids with us; the more traditional museums are supposed to be great but are less our thing. The kids also enjoyed the zoo. You probably won’t have time to do Potsdam. I really like walking the wall route and the memorial and other information along the route near Bernauer Strasse is fascinating and moving. Not stayed centrally for a long time so no recommendations for food or lodging.

We took the train to Potsdam. Really interesting and train was only 15 or 20 mins from berlin. V different vibe than berlin.

We went to church service on the Sunday to berlin cathedral. Amazing structure.

Philharmonic orchestra was great also

My DH family are Berliners. We have been a lot and were actually there last weekend for an 80 th birthday party. There is a lot of river in Berlin and plenty of boat trips to chose from. They will usually have an educational element. We went on one last Sunday and it was 26 degrees with a lovely breeze and was a great way to see some of the lovely architecture. We also go to the Zoo most visits. Were there last year with no kids in tow and saw bits of the zoo we had never previously been aware of. Ka de We department store is worth a visit just for drink and cake. Gets a mention in a Bowie song!! 3 days is not long but getting out of town to Wansee and doing a boat trip also lovely( I like to be on a boat🙂🙂)
There is an amazing place called Humboldt Forum which was a palace that was destroyed and they spent years replacing some of the original features from photos, so replicating all the old carvings etc but the other half is quite contemporary so I intruding mix. Enjoy