Berlin – Do's and Don'ts

Seeing as most of you seem to be well travelled / cultured folks, I thought it would be worthwhile asking here first…

Booking a last minute solo trip for three nights to Berlin for the first time. Any recommendations, must see & do’s etc?

The itinerary is pretty much blank at the moment, but – Budget will be reasonably tight, and one night will definitely be spent clubbing.

Any hints and tips welcome. Thanks in advance!

The Zoo is pretty good and the kebabs are bloody lovely (particularly after a night clubbing I’d guess). We also enjoyed the walking tour – good way to get a sense of the city – but you’d cover more ground on a bike tour. Checkpoint Charlie and East Side Gallery not worth it IMO. Enjoy, we loved Berlin!

Trabant tour 🙂

Dont’s?

Well I suppose someone has to post this

Great city, one of my, and many of my colleagues, favourites.

Whatching with interest, I’m going the w/e of 11-14 November and it’s just clubbing on the menu. Going with a Berliner though who is working at my local pub,which is nice !

sachsenhausen is not too far out of Berlin, worth a visit. A really powerful place to visit, you will need a good few hours though.

Don’t take pictures in Berghain

Bike tour?

Do take the Metro.

It takes your breath away.

I was there 2 weeks ago for the marathon – injured so didn’t run it. Trains/tubes are cheap and all day travelcard type ticket is about €7. Tickets have to be punched/validated by a machine on the platform entrance prior to travel. Saying that if you fly into Schönefeld and get a train from there the queues for the train tickets in the station are a nightmare, only about 6 ticket machines. If your lucky some kind sole going into the airport might give you their train ticket

Cycle lanes on pavements – seem to be everywhere, keep your wits about you

Food and drink prices are reasonable even round the main tourist traps

I’ve been before but did the usual Checkpoint Charlie/Brandenburg Gate, Victory column, the Topography of terror – about 5 mins from Checkpoint Charlie is interesting a lot to take in. My mate wanted to visit the Bauhaus Archive which we did but that wasn’t much interest to me

Do make use of the train surface which is really good and you can cover a lot of ground easily
The one that most people do is the Brandenburg gate-touristy but very impressive, extensive park and zoos nearby
I thought the jewish monument was very meh, a big disappointment.

Don’t go to checkpoint Charlie -cheesy shite .

The wall is quite harrowing , I hadn’t known that there were two walls- if you got over the first they could shoot trying to get over the 2nd !!!!

I did the fat bike tour where you just pay what you think its worth. Was pretty good.

Kitkat club for after the clubbing

+1 vote for fat tyre bike tour

Go and watch a Hertha Berlin game at Olympiastadion, not the best for watching football but it’s an absolutely stunning ground.

Hitler had it built for the 1936 Olympics.

Great thread, we’re going November 12th-15th for our yearly city break. See if the cycle lanes can compete with Hamburg and Copenhagen. We’re hiring bikes for the whole time as our way of getting round once past the airport. We’ll visit Hard Rock Cafe but only because it’s our tradition. Otherwise we have Brandonburg gate, Berlin Wall, tiergarten and the huge lego giraffe on our list. Some good suggestions for other places though.

Komische Opera?

https://english.komische-oper-berlin.de/%5B/url%5D

Do: bus tour to get your bearings
Tv tower
Holocaust memorial
KDW
Sony centre

Don’t: Checkpoint Charlie
THe rest of Ku’damm
Currywurst

I hired a bike for a couple of hours which was a good way to see the centre. I particularly liked riding around the old airport at Tempelhofer Felt.

Sans Souci is pretty good if you like parks (I do!), and the Reichstag dome is worth an hour or two. You need to register in advance but you can do it online.

If you go up the TV tower, go on a Tuesday afternoon or something, don’t go at the weekend or it’ll be heaving. If you fancy a view, the other main one is the panoramapunkt which is just across from the Sony centre.
In some of the busier tourist spots, you might get some beggar types come up with a clipboard survey. Just ignore them or tell them to do one, assuming the idea is to get your hands occupied so someone else can try for your pockets?
It’s weird seeing the WW2 bullet holes around the walls and buildings in the museum island area.
Shiso burger on Auguststraße is really good for burgers, and the Barn down the street does very good coffee (but there’s ace food everywhere which is all priced nicely).

Went 2 weeks ago. Stayed in the east at friesruchstein (or something like that). Very cool. Also enjoyed West Krustberg. As mentioned above the museums were good and best of them was Honhoushchesen (or something like that), the Stasi prison museum. A bit out of town (easy to get to by tram) but really interesting with the tour guide who had parents and grandparents that were jailed. Quite shocking actually.

Do…fat tyre bike tour!
Don’t… Forget to validate your travel ticket!

Do visit a burlesque theatre
Don’t touch the girls

Do visit the reception of the Radisson hotel, the fish tank is amazing!

Watergate and Ritter Butzke are great clubs

If you do a walking tour do one with these guys http://www.brewersberlintours.com the tour is fantastic.

Breakfast up the TV tower.
Tour of the Olympic Stadium (the audio tour is actually really good and doesn’t go on and on like some do).
Topography of terrors.

The Stasi museum in the old stasi HQ is a tram ride away is fascinating. Watch “the lives of others” before you go. Some fantastic clubs too. Berghain/panoramabar is almost impossible to get in though.

+1 for the fatbke tour

Also – if your brave – go on a hotrod tour. I have no idea how it is legal but its an absolute blast!!!! 🙂

http://www.hotrod-citytour-berlin.com/homeberlin/seite36/

The old east Berlin for cool bars, Tresor for a night of clubbing – you won’t of experienced a thing like the cellars in Tresor

A wander down Karl Marx Allee to the cinema is well worth it. I also enjoyed viewing the city from Teufelsberg, and wandering the huge open space that is Tempelhof.

don’t trust the guy you’ll meet outside your hotel, he’ll definitley not supply with with tip top quality narcotics of varying shapes and sizes! 😆

Weasel – Member
Tickets have to be punched/validated

I personally don’t believe this to be true, unless you feel like it! 😆

Which i did, quite often tbh, not every time though.

carbonfibreismadebyaliens – Member
Go and watch a Hertha Berlin game at Olympiastadion, not the best for watching football but it’s an absolutely stunning ground.

Hitler had it built for the 1936 Olympic

I did this too, was pretty good amongst other things! 🙂

don’t trust the guy you’ll meet outside your hotel, he’ll definitley not supply with with tip top quality narcotics of varying shapes and sizes!

ha ha – nearly chocked on my cornflakes 🙂

Big thanks to everyone, your suggestions were really useful.

I can echo much of what has already been said. The Topography of Terror is worth a stop, as is the Reichstag. If the weather wasn’t misty/drizzly then the TV tower would’ve been done too.

You can get a “Berlin WelcomeCard” in the airport (SXF) arrival hall which includes all public transport and entry discounts. Nearly 30Euro for the three days. Probably saved a few quid, but it also saved the hassle of buying multiple tickets, having to queue etc.

Berghain was bloody incredible – yes, yes I got in 8) – which I can’t even begin to describe! DVS1 played a storming set.
What happens in Berghain, stays in Berghain.. 😛

Next time will include the Stasi HQ, maybe a trip to Sachsenhausen, and the Trabi tour looked like good fun. Oh and Berghain again too!

Berlin really is a brilliant place – cheap flights/hotels, good food at good prices, easy transport. So much more still to see & do, will certainly be back!

Stasi Museum is very good.
Try Friedrichshain next time,too, for that edgy Berlin feel.
Canal boat tour is also a nice way to spend a few hours….

Yep alpin, the hotel was in Friedrichshain. Despite still being fairly central and well connected, it doesn’t feel touristy.

The last evening involved a trip down to Kreuzberg to stop off at Hardwax, then further down into Neukolln to meet up with new Berghain buddies for some beers. Plenty of wee bars and restaurants that are full of character, but very much no-frills. Deserves a big thumbs up.

not sure if you’ve visited yet but there is a human body exhibition on near alexanderplatz – under the big viewing tower thing. Its basically a load of humans stripped down and preserved to muscle and all sorts of craziness to show you more about the human body… very interesting for an hour and pretty full on! Recommended though.

Don’t use a grocers’ apostrophe

Well it is STW and nobody else has done it!

Life is too short to sweat that kinda stuff…

Off to Berlin in June 2017 to see System of a Down. Also been wanting to have a sightseeing trip too. Unable to get a tix for Rammstein’s gig.

New Camera is now on the card’s.

Thanks for all the comment’s