Outstanding tour taking you to places you would never find yourself. Loads of street art, scorching graffiti. Abandoned places, funky shops, markets. Hidden neighborhoods and cultural icons. These are the places locals go to. You'll hardly see a tourist all day. They offer a brilliant night tours as well: bars/clubs/secret spots. These guys know their stuff.

Begins at Alexanderplatz TV tower
www.alternativeberlin.com

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Totally vegan, totally organic, totally smoke-free, totally free WiFi, cafe.

Great atmosphere, cheap to moderate food, and music is excellent. No wurst on the premises, because wurst is the worst.

2a DunkerStrasse - Prenzlauer Berg
Near DanzigerStr
030/41717822
www.myspace.com/hanswurstvegancafe

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This is a student estate exchange where you can find rooms and roommates also for a short amount of time.

It is totally free and you don't need to register.

Especially in Berlin there are plenty of free rooms to rent out short-term. This is just the place when you are looking for an alternative to staying at a youth hostel. This is where you can check out what the real Berlin lifestyle is all about!

I went to Berlin last summer and stayed at an ample apartment shared by three people. I was only there for three weeks but I got to meet local characters and had the chance to hang out at insiders only locations.

I can recommend this experience to anyone who detests feeling like a tourist and who wants to breathe the same air as the locals in Berlin do!

This student estate exchange is to be found online. At www.WG-Gesucht.de you can find your new home in Berlin (shortstay or long term- either way).
I translated the apartment search for you guys:
Go to:

www.wg-gesucht.de/wohnraumangebote.html

In the left field at the top choose:
Either:
"WG-Zimmer - flatshare"
or:
"1-Zimmer-Wohnung - one-room-flat"
or:
"Mehrzimmerwohnung - flat with 2 ore more rooms"

In the right field choose the city (Stadt), where you would like to live:

-> Now you see an overview of our flats available in this city:

The columns of the list are:
Eintrag vom - date of entry
Miete - rent
Grösse - size
Stadtteil - town area
frei ab - available from
frei bis - available till

You can sort the offers by clicking one of the columns at the top of the list, for example sort by "rent" by clicking "Miete"

When you click on the adverts you can see a detailed view of the offer.

The most important information given in the detailed view:

Miete - rent
Nebenk. - additional cost (water, heating etc.)
sont. Kosten - other costs (electricity...)
Grösse - size
Kaution - deposit

For all other information delivered use dict.leo.org to translate if necessary.

At the end of the advert you will find the contact information such as email-address or phone number.
If no contact info is delivered use the button "Nachricht senden" to get in touch with the offerer via email.

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Wannsee is a lake very close to Berlin and you can go by train (not really expensive). It's a lovely place where you can have a bath, walk, or take a ship which is going to take you around Postdam, the Devil Mountain or the world war two spy bridge.

Just have a look at a train map.

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Head to this sprawling flea market between Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg and Wedding for a colourful mix of buyers and sellers, buskers, beer and bratwursts. The perfect chilled out Sunday if you've got an eye for a bargain, an impulse to haggle or just want to nurse a Weissbier while the Berliners sell off retro furniture, oversized sunglasses and classic LPs around you. All in the middle of a leafy park - and there's even a place to leave the dog.

Bernauer Straße 63–64
13355 Berlin (Mitte)

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See the "last built European Boulevard" by taking a walk eastwards from the astonishing Alexanderplatz. Take a look at the Cinema International with its fabulous lobby. By passing the Strausberger Platz you will enter Karl-Marx-Allee with its splendid and opulent façades (built in the early 1950s by socialist workers using war ruins). It was east Berlin's pride and aorta and, now again, there are nice cafes, art galleries and the street's sheer monumentality will take your breath.

Karl-Marx-Allee; nearest U-Bahn: Alexanderplatz or Strausberger Platz (U5)

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Berlin's central boulevard, famous for its lime trees (Linden). Start at the Brandenburg Gate, and then keep going to Museumsinsel. After that go to charming Gendarmenmarkt, just to the south. Christmas markets and Glüwein stalls around new year make it rewarding in winter too.

Nearest S-Bahn: Unter den Linden

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Most lakes in Berlin are clean enough to swim in. If you don’t have your kit with you just strip off and swim around naked: it’s what the locals do, after all. A nice lake to swim in is Schlachtensee. It has a good cafe at the north end, and a beer garden. Or, in winter, skate on them – when it’s cold enough the lakes become a Breughelesque scene full of sledgers, families and dogs. Classic Berlin.

Nearest S-Bahn: Schlachtensee

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Germany’s parliament building, topped by Sir Norman Foster’s fabulous glass dome, offers a panoramic view across the whole of Berlin for free. My kids love running up and down it. If you go with young children, you can jump the one-hour queues and use the disabled entrance.

Platz der Republik 1; nearest S-Bahn: Unter den Linden; www.reichstag.de

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Park. Sprawling green space - very kid friendly. Several play areas, one that defies belief (in the centre) based on '101 Arabian Nights'. Open-air cinema, jogging paradise, enclosed 'dogs-only' field, petting zoo, mini golf...it goes on and on. Even the drug dealers are polite. Easily combined with your visit to the Vatican's embassy at Sudstern.

South/Central berlin in Kreuzberg. U-Bahn: Sudstern or Hermann Platz

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Funky out-sized statues of founding fathers of Communism, looking very much like you favourite uncles when you've done something of which they're very proud, but they don't want all the praise going to your head. I defy you to see them and not want to stroke them. Surrounded by brushed metal pillars with black-and-white photos of suitably rallying Communist incidents. Gorgeous in the winter when there's snow on the ground.

Between Alexanderplatz and the Palast der Republik

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Gi-normous, fenced in park with plenty of room to roam, masses of stuff for kids and adults to do (wee train trips, water areas, lakes, all sorts of animals (free on the range), open air music and theatre) and masses of space to do nothing in, if that's what takes your fancy. Beautifully maintained and not at all corporate feeling. Couple of euros to get in. Bargain.

Neukoln, in the south east of the city. It's big, so no 'one' place to get in. Get a map!

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A contemporary art gallery in Kreuzberg, showing interesting innovative work by up and coming artists. Free.

Oranienstr, Kottbusser Tor U-bahn

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Great free museum. Located in central Mitte but for some reason not well known. A permanent exhibition of Stasi (DDR secret service) survelliance devices and information about daily life in the DDR.

The government runs it which is why it is free. There are sometimes old East Germans there filling in government forms to access their old Stasi files. Very interesting museum and the people are very friendly. The museum book costs only 2.50 Euro in English also.

Right below Pariserplatz. I think off Wilhelmstrasse Strasse in Mitte. U6 Stadtmitte

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My favourite Berlin beach, Havelchaussee is a small strip of sand overlooking the River Havel, in the heart of the Grunewald. There’s no car park, so you have to get there by 218 bus or bike. My kids like making dens in the willow trees. Most people keep their clothes on here, but don’t be surprised if some people take all of theirs off: that’s normal in Berlin.

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havelchaussee;
www.suedwestweb-berlin.de/struktur/v0158/s0158.html

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Newly opened in May 2005, the Holocaust Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe occupies a vast site immediately south of the Brandenburg Gate. It's made up of more than 2,700 giant concrete slabs. Don't hop on them: it annoys the guards. The underground information centre is very good and well worth the queue.

Stresemannstraße 90; nearest S-Bahn: Unter den Linden; www.holocaustmahnmal.de

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