- Berlin
- /
- tour
- (17)
-
Germany
Fat Tyre Bike Tours is bike hire with a difference. With tours available regularly, Fat Tyre offer an informative and relaxing tour around Berlin. With an expert guide to explain the history and uniqueness of Berlin, the bike tour takes in all the major sites including the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. It also takes you to other lesser known spots off the beaten track such as the Hotel Aldon, the setting for Michael Jackson's very particular brand of parenting!!!
Heidi's tour was absolutely brilliant! There were nine of us, all friends, on her tour, which was perfectly paced and pitched - a welcome beer stop on the way round (it was a scorching day!) and fascinating stories told with a real enthusiasm and dramatic emphasis which brought the history of the places we visited alive for us. I would instantly recommend her tours to anyone with an interest in this fascinating city.
Don't want to be the only adult among the teenagers in the graffiti tours? This is a more adult-oriented, art-focused tour of Berlin's most famous street art.
Info and booking at streetcooltour@yahoo.com or check facebook.com/bdberlim (link)
Great guides that offer a different perspective of Berlin. Take a guided tour of underground bunkers where civilians and military sheltered during WWII. Fantastic atmosphere, enthusiastic and knowledgeable multilingual tour guides. The tours are run by The Berlin Undergrounds Association who are a group of enthusiastic volunteers.
Also perfect activity for wet days, snowy weather and when it is bitingly cold outside. Pre-booking is recommended and there is a great website with lots of extra information. It is not really a suitable trip for little children and people with special accessibility requirements might want to check in advance if the tour is suitable.
Tours cost around 10Euros and last a couple of hours.
berliner-unterwelten.de/guided-tours.3.1.html
+49 (30) 499 105-17
A former remand prison dedicated to showing the brutality and secrecy of the DDR. The deprivation and inhumane conditions echo those shown in the film "The Lives of Others". However, the testimonies of former inmates make this living history. We loved the fact that the tour was lead by a guide (we went on Wednesday afternoon when the tour was in English) and not a sterile audio handset tour. The site is terrifying and I was glad of the direction of the guide who was also able to go off script.
A highly recommended visit - very unusual and scary!
en.stiftung-hsh.de/index.php
Genslerstraße 66, D-13055 Berlin
+49 (0)30 98 60 82 30
Google map: bit.ly/nZVY3C
Germany’s capital Berlin is, for me, one of the best cities on the continent. Berlin is exciting and packed full of history; the best way that I’ve found of getting the most of it is the walking tour and pub crawl run by the New Berlin Guide. The tour starts mid morning and lasts for four hours, it covers a comprehensive range of Berlin's history not just the recent world wars - although this naturally dose get a big share of the time. The tour is done almost chronologically and starts by discussing the Prussian empire and the founding of Germany, after passing through the Brandenburg gate it discusses the beginnings of the European unrest that led to World War Two at the base of the Reichstag, it moves through several key sites and finishes on museum island to discuss the falling of the wall and the origin of the term “Big Lebowski”. At the end of the tour the friendly and knowledgeable guide will inform you of the pub crawl taking place that evening and, should you want to indulge in the debauchery, they will give you a stamp which will entitle you to a reduction (the walking tour is free but the pub crawl does charge a nominal fee). The pub crawl manages to avoid a lot of the shortcomings I’ve found on other such ventures: you aren’t herded around, the organisers don’t feel it necessary to shout every instruction and you don’t have to wear a “look I’m a tourist” T-shirt (although the fact that you are a tourist is not, I shouldn’t imagine, difficult to notice). The “crawl” itself goes to very peculiar bars and doesn’t stick to the generic pubs and clubs that you’d expect. A highlight is the Beach bar – a load of shacks selling beer behind a squat house come art studio. At another bar we were told to show our stamps because they were Serbians on the door and “they don’t take any shit.” After this we jumped on a tram and headed out to a club where the night was finished and we were left to our own devices. Not for kids and not for grownups Berlin, and the New Berlin experience, is for inquisitive young people looking for a good time – I liked it so much I went back two years after my first visit to do it all again!
If you visit Berlin or Munich don’t miss the free walking tours by Sandemans New Europe. The guides are amazing, friendly and knowledgeable and they take you on a very interesting tour of the city. They cover the city’s history, sightseeing sites, anecdotes and funny stories all for a tip at the end of the tour. They also like giving you useful tips of stuff to see, what to eat and where, pubs and bars to go to and any other information you may need for your stay. Their “non-free” tours are also well worth it. Highly recommended.
www.neweuropetours.eu
In Berlin:
West Berlin Pick-Up Point 10:30 AM & 12:30 PM- Zoologischer Garten, in front of Dunkn’ Donuts. (S/U-Bahn Zoologischer Garten)
East Berlin Start Point 11:00 AM & 1:00 PM- Brandenburg Gate, in front of Starbucks. (S/U-Bahn Brandenburger Tor)
In Munich:
Hauptbahnhof Pick-Up Point 10:00 AM & 12:30 PM- Meet at the Starbucks inside Hauptbahnhof beside Platform 11
Marienplatz Start Point 10:45 AM & 1:00 PM- Meet in front of the column on Marienplatz
However long or short your visit to Berlin, you must go on at least one of Brewers daily walking tours.
We had only seven days, and as it was the first time we had been, we wanted to see all the historically significant sites as well as the off-the-beaten-track places. We went on two tours because the first all-day Best of Berlin walking tour was so interesting we couldn't wait to go on another!
There is a choice of tours to all parts of Berlin to suit all interests. Both guides we had were so knowledgeable and amusing and had interesting stories about all the places which really opened your mind as well as your eyes to what makes Berlin such an amazing place.
There were frequent stops for photos and lunch both days was excellent;. The tours are incredible value for money and are not to be missed!
Details of Brewers Berlin Tours are:
www.brewersberlintours.com or email info@brewersberlintours.com
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
City bus tours can be expensive but routes 100 and 200 in Berlin are regular (double-decker) services which pass most of the main sights in the city centre. Buy a pack of tickets (which can also be used on the S-bahn and U-bahn) and get on and off where you want.
A day (or more) ticket (Tageskarte) is the most economical option and can be bought from most BVG ticket offices, such as the one at Zoologischer Garten (Zoo).
A true circular tour, only 100m duplicated, along the Spree and a canal. The tour continues through the very centre of Berlin, under bridges so low you have to duck on the top deck, up and down in locks,and and re-crossing the line of the Wall. Commentary is in German only, but you don't need it.
Starts from Schloss Charlottenberg. About 1/2m walk from Opera U-bahn station.
These people offer various walking and cycling tours around Berlin. The guides are all native English speakers and are extremely knowledgeable about all aspects of Berlin.
Trabi Safari is a 90-minute guided tour around Berlin in one of the iconic former DDR cars. The highlight of this tour is that you are the driver. A great and fun way for you and three friends to see the city and engage with a piece of Berlin history.
The Palast der Republik's ugly copper shell is a familiar site to anyone who has been to this part of Berlin. A former parliament building for the GDR, it was built by Erich Honicker to show off the wonders of socialism to international visitors. Since 1990 it's been closed because of problems caused by (British-supplied) asbestos. This has now been stripped out - along with much of the interior in preparation for redevelopment, and the building is now safe for visitors.
Tours are conducted, in German only. They run hourly on weekend afternoons during September and October, ahead of the building's demolition next year.
Tours advertised on the fence of the Palast on Unter den Linden. Nearest station Alexanderplatz.
A fascinating look into Berlin's tumultuous recent history and its glorious past. The tour takes in all the major landmarks, but what makes it extra special are the superb guides - they are knowledgeable, approachable, friendly and full of interesting anecdotes. They take you off the beaten track, revealing much of what made Berlin such a vast metropolis. You visit hitler's bunker, the largest remaining stretch of the Wall that still stands, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate and the dizzying TV tower. You will never learn so much in 5 hours as you will by taking one of these tours. They are good value, perfectly paced and laden with enough facts to make up for the times you fell asleep during history lessons at school.
Their leaflets are dotted around all Hotel & Hostel lobbies in the City Centre. Just turn up at the meeting point at the correct time, pay around 10 euros and off you go.
This trip can be done with a day ticket (tageskarte) or with a small group ticket (kleingruppekarte) for 3-5 people. Allow about 2 hours 30 minutes, but longer if you want to stop off. Take the U8 from Alexanderplatz to Boddinstrasse, then the 104 bus marked 'Neu Westend' from the stop outside Woolworths, but before you do look inside Woolworths (seriously) at the painted ceiling - it was once the Kindl beer hall and restaurant.
Try and sit upstairs left on the bus which goes past: the Turkish Mosque, the American airlift plane, Templehof airport (the longest building in Europe), the airlift memorial, Schoneburg Town hall (where JFK made his famous speech), Wilmersdorf, Halensee Lake, the former Avus race track and buildings, the Funkturm radio tower (you can climb it), exhibition centre and Neu Westend. From here you can take U2 back to Alexanderplatz.
Located on the eastern edge of the city, this is the old Stasi prison used to incarcerate political opponents of the regime. Guided tours of the complex by former inmates (in German only) reveal the GDR in all its chilling brutality and secrecy.
Is this your business?Search Been there
