Berlin - Family things to do

Rescueme

Hi

We are heading to Berlin ( staying in Mitte) for a few days next week - family with 2 kids ( 15 and 12). Can anyone recommend fun things to do? Will be around Halloween so not sure if there is something specific to that? Any cycling options close to where we are that may be fun?

Thanks

The Nal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058318365/berlin-family-things-to-do

Would highly recommend a cycling tour yeah. Fat Bike tours in Alexanderplatz do really good tours.

https://www.fattiretours.com/berlin/?utm_source=GMBBerlin&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=GMBBerlin&utm_id=GMBBerlin

Theres also Tierpark and the zoo in Tiergarten.

Theres a computer games museum, a high tech "espionage" museum, natural history museum.

gameoverdude

The zoo is horrible. Really depressing. Tiergarten is good.

Jewish museum and memorial is fantastic.

Agreed on the espionage museum, is that the stazi one?

So much to do and see. U and s-bahn are great to get around.

TV tower is interesting.

Get curry wurst while on the go.

Also look at the plaques outside buildings. Really brings home the history of the city.

sekond

I took my 15 year old to Berlin in the spring for a long weekend.

Particular hits with her were:

Berlin Wall memorial - Bernauer Strasse. When you get out of the u-bahn there's a whole section where you can walk and see remnants of the wall, pictures of events etc. You end up at the actual memorial and a watch tower that you can climb.

Mauerpark flea market - we could have spent the whole day there browsing and picking up little bits to eat and drink from the stalls.

Spy Museum - interactive and interesting. We ended up doing it because it was a bit early for dinner and we were in the area, but it was one of the best things we did.

Bundestag building. We just did the dome tour (you have to book in advance but it is free). We got a very early appointment so we were nearly first in there, and the view over the city was amazing.

The open top bus tour was actually great too - interesting information and a good view of the city. We got a 24 hour ticket and as we were only in Berlin a few days it gave us a chance to get an overview of some of the places we didn't have time to visit. We hopped off at Unter den Linden for a coffee and a look at the Bebelplatz book burning memorial. We also used it to go past the East Side Gallery and see the murals there (by that stage we actually couldn't walk another step, so stayed on the bus as it slowly drove past)

Oh, and the shopping :) We tried the Mall of Berlin first, but most of it was a bit too high end. The Alexa centre at Alexanderplatz was much more her vibe. I had to drag her out of it!

artanevilla

+1 on the Spy Museum, the DDR museum is good as well.

The Topography of Terror is highly rated but wasn't for me. It's the site of the SS HQ but it's just an information centre. Just a modern building with boards telling the story of the war in text, no artifacts or anything like that. Felt like going to a college library to read a leaflet on the Third Reich.

sekond

Oh I forgot one of the other hits... TimeRide Berlin. It's a VR "bus" tour of East Berlin in the 1980s. It's a couple of minutes walk from Checkpoint Charlie. We both really enjoyed it and it was cleverly done. I think the also may have a walking tour version, but the pretend bus and VR glasses were good fun, and gave really good feeling for how things were before the wall came down.

The Nal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121244796#Comment_121244796

I enjoyed The Topography of Terror. Fine for a 30 minute mooch. Free aswell.

Schalker

My family didnt enjoyed it so much in 1945