Berlin with kids

Going to Berlin with the kids and trying to put together a few thoughts. Anyone any suggestions? Thus far:

• DDR Museum
• Jewish Museum
• Wall remnant on Bernauer Straße
• Reichstag

Anyone got any other must sees? Thanks! Pergamon Museum apparently shut for renovation which is sad as I had a crippling hangover when we went in 2007 and didn’t get the best of it.

Spy museum

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I would say

German Museum of Technology- a big old place of trains buses cars and other tech.

Neues Museum I much preferred this to pergammon. Lots of Egyptian stuff but also lots of interesting Germanic tribes.

Stasi Museum…a walk through of the 1970 and 1980s personally liked it more than ddr museum mainly as it smelt of 1970s. Ddr more interactive

Berlin zoo …never been.

Check point charlie…. tourist trap but you get the idea nearby is the topography of terror museum on the rise of Nazis …. excellent museum but maybe not for the very young.

Boxhagener Platz….we stayed nearby a couple of times and is interesting and safe especially if they have the food market on.

Great wandering city and walk were you can so you can see Brandenburg gate and walk round to reichstag.

Parents keep recommending the Zoo but TBH we live near enough Chester and it has unwelcome associations with Bonio.

Computer game museum. Loads of old games to play
It can get busy and quite hot

Berlin zoo, templehofer airfield

Depends on the age of the kids, really.

13 & 11, which I probably should’ve put in the original post.

Another vote for the Technology Museum.

Have a good cafe to go to after visiting SS HQ and Topography of Terror, they will need a lift and they’re old enough to learn about the worst the human species can do.

13 & 11, which I probably should’ve put in the original post.

We did one of the “free” walking tours that started from Brandenburg gate, which was brilliant. Very much guide dependant, but ours really made it an interesting trip.

Holocaust memorial was a standout in that tour.

We also went to the palace at Charlottenberg on another trip which was great too.

Fat tire bike tours gives a good overview of the city. Good to get your bearings with and see what you want to go back to and spend time at.

with much younger kids the highlights were laberynth kindermuseum (I think your 2 may be too old) and Spandau Citadel

you can do a driving tour of the city in a trabant I think?

Tranenpalast is worth a look, only small but gives an idea of what life was like during cold war Berlin. Its built in a former checkpoint building near Friedrichstrasse Station and not far from the Reichstag. Its a free museum.

I also enjoyed the Berlin Story Bunker too, gives a lot of information about the rise of Hitler as a politician. Has audio tours available, can’t remember how much it costs though.

Some outdoorsy stuff if it’s clement:

There is a high-ropes course that’s well worth a go at the Jungfernheide Public Park

High Ropes

Then more high ropes, but in an urban setting – driving the Bobby car a highlight:

High Ropes Mitte

If y0u’re there in summer, head to one of the lakes and go swimming – the best ones have a lido and beach chairs and you can make a day of it – just watch for nudist areas…

One of the lakes

Finally, left field one… But if the kids have never been to a German swimming pool, it can be quite diverting. Spotlessly clean and the option to eat chips and mayo poolside. There are some good pools in Berlin, although not amazing like Center Parcs they are decent. But beware most close in the summer as they’re all at the lakes instead. Europa Park is a concrete communist throwback but really interesting place.

Berlin Pools

I’d recommend a tour of the Olympiastadion (check when the tours in English are), and also the spy museum, if only for the laser maze at the end! If the weather is clear, a trip to the top of the TV tower (Ferhsehturm) at Alexanderplatz is worth the (pricey) entry fee.

Berliner Unterwelten is my number 1 recommendation for Berlin. Not sure if your children will be old enough (in actual age or maturity etc.) but its worth checking out the website – https://www.berliner-unterwelten.de/en/index.html

Its nice to go down to the Wansee and go on a boat trip (easy to get to on the S-Bahn), and Potsdam just beyond is a nice town but not so much for children there.

The former Templehof airport is good and a bit of a more open area for a run about. We’ve hired scooters in  he past and whizzed about there.

Going to the Teufelsberg could also be good with children – lots to see there.

Also ‘Gardens of the World’ and the cable car at Kienberg.

If you wanted a trip further out of the city, Tropical Islands is an indoor water park in a former airship hangar which I believe is the largest free standing hall in the world

Another vote for lakes. I watched Hertha Berlin at the olympic stadium which was amazing.