Berlin recommendations

[LoisLane23]

Any good tips for accommodation in Berlin family of 4, two teen boys! And things to do! Thank you

Recommend the Spy Museum and a Trabant Safari. My teenagers thought they were highlights. Also the remaining part of the wall (open air museum). Recommemd watching the film Ballon, based on a true story of people escaping from East to West.

Our accommodation was a cheap hotel that was in a boring business district (DH chose) and I would have prioritised a better location

Well worth going up the Fernsehturm, great views. Highly recommend the Reichstag - you need to book and have your passports with you. German History Museum is good but not sure it is open. The Stasimuseum and Checkpoint Charlie.

We did an excellent two hour walking tour with the company Viator which started at the Brandenburg Gate and ended at the Memorial for the Murdered Jews.

The Stasi Museum was excellent.

People watching on Alexanderplatz which has the television tower as mentioned above, and a very cool clock.

The Adidas Originals store has a great selection if any of you like that brand.

I wouldn’t recommend our hotel. It wasn’t bad. Just ok. And there wasn’t much nearby, lots of banks and law firms.

WW2 isn’t really remembered there apart from the Jewish Memorial, there’s much more of a focus on the Cold War period.

We watched a lot of the videos on a YouTube channel called Experience Berlin Tours and picked which places we were interested in.

There’s an extensive under and overground network as well as buses and trams. As there was only two of us we chose to buy the Berlin Pass in the airport with the option to include the train between the airport and the central train station the HautBahnHof ( fantastic building by the way! ).

what time of year are you going?

Thanks so much these are great, all will go down well even the adidas shop!

My teen and his dad went a few years ago, he'll have been 16 I think. The disgusting food museum was apparently a talking point.

My teens loved:
Turkish food in Kreuzberg- food and drink in general in Berlin- cheap and very good.
Third Reich Walking Tour
Soviet war memorial in Treptower Park
Day trip to Sachenhausen.
This all sounds a bit dark but they also enjoyed the slide in the Berlin Mall shopping centre!

You must book the Reichstag in advance Snd you need your passport. Go for sunset.
agree Jewish museum. DDR. Stasi HQ and the prison just outside the city centre.

The Topography of Terror (free) exhibition details the timeline of the Third Reich and WW2 in Berlin. It is well worth spending a bit of time there.

We were there in the summer with teens (14, 17). We all really enjoyed the Reichstag walking tour and also a walking tour called “Iconic Sites and Hidden Gems”. There’s a food hall above Potsdamee Platz U-Bahn /S-Bahn station that we all got something different from, and was all very good. We also liked CurryWurst from Big Dog on the ground floor of the Marriott Hotel on EbertStrasse, 2 mins down from Potsdammer Platz station.

The DDR museum is excellent, really accessible and detailed about life in East Berlin before the wall came down.
Walk the length of the Berlin Wall covered in artwork and graffiti - the East Side Gallery I think it's called.
We went to the North of the city to do a self-led audio tour of an area split down the middle by the wall. There's one of the only (?) original watch towers still there, it's fascinating. Take your mobiles and ear buds to download the audio tours and take things at your own pace.
The Reichstag tour is excellent - free, but need to book in advance. We were taken round by a politics professor from one of the city's universities, he was incredible.
Walk up inside the monument that's the centre of the Pride celebrations - loads of spiral steps, terny tiny viewings platform at the top, the views are incredible!

I found the Eastside Gallery really underwhelming but I was at the Berlin wall before it fell so LOL

Following as my pre-teen wants to go around the holidays so we can also go to the Christmas markets. Would love some recommendations on where to stay as I’m a bit unsure there. But he’s really interested in WWII and Cold War history so it will be a matter of narrowing down what to do.