BERLIN
And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words,‘Ich bin ein Berliner!’
In addition to being the capital of Germany, Berlin is also a city with an enormous history and is known for its highly developed cultural life. It is the city of festivals, nightlife, museums and art exhibitions. Although that is of course all slightly different in today's time, Berlin has more than enough to offer for an unforgettable weekend. And how is Berlin with children? We'd love to tell you that below!
Why Berlin?
Traveling in 2020 will unfortunately look different, but that does not mean that there is nothing to discover. A great moment to (re)discover and appreciate the beauty of Europe. Normally we go backpacking with our daughters Lotus (11), Jaïra (4) and Joëlla (3), but this time we left for Berlin for a long weekend!
More Berlin
How long, and when?
To Berlin with children, this is how you get there
Car or train? We chose to travel to Berlin by car, from Utrecht it is approximately 635 km. If you leave early in the morning (we left at 04:30) then it is a short six hour drive. So nice for the (holiday) traffic jam! A good alternative is Intercity Berlin, from Amsterdam you go directly by train to Berlin in just over six hours. You can also depart from Utrecht by train. I'll explain the reason why we chose the car later!
How many days for Berlin with children?
There is so much to do in Berlin that you can easily spend a week here without boredom. Because Berlin is really big and because there is a 'center' in both West and East Berlin, two full days are the minimum you need. We were there 'only' three days, so you can easily go longer.
Choice for a nice hotel
As mentioned (and known) in Berlin you really have an 'east' and 'west' part. It is good to take this into account when you are looking for a hotel. There is plenty on offer in both parts, and you (almost) cannot avoid having to use public transport to discover Berlin. To put it very exaggerated, West Berlin is the 'richer' part and East Berlin is a bit grayer and less 'luxurious'.
For that reason we chose a hotel in Berlin Mitte, this part is fairly in between. For us, the NH Berlin Mitte hotel was ideal. This hotel is located 300m from Checkpoint Charlie and most places of interest are within walking distance. If you are more interested in shopping, then Upper Room Hotel Kurfürstendamm is a must. For East Berlin it is worth looking for a hotel around Alexanderplatz.
TOP 5
1.
Checkpoint Charlie
2.
BRANDERBURGER TOR
3.
BERLIN TV TOWER- FERNSEHTURM
3.
KAISER WILHELM GEDÄCHTNISKIRKCHE
3.
THE WALL
West Berlin
The advantage of leaving early is that you also arrive (relatively) early. Since check-in was not yet possible at NH Berlin Mitte, we first drove to the Kurfüstendamm. You can park in one of the many garages for only a few euros. That is the big advantage of Berlin, parking is cheap and is possible everywhere. Moving yourself by car is very easy to do here, large wide roads with little traffic. So the car is a great alternative to public transport in the current (corona) time.
The Kurfüstendamm is the shopping street in Berlin, with the Champs Elyseés as a source of inspiration. All luxury brands are represented here, from fashion to cars. Halfway up is the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtkirche, one of Berlin's most famous icons. This church is worth visiting! The church is badly damaged as a result of the enormous bombings of the Second World War, and that is precisely what makes it impressive. Next to the monumental tower is a new octagonal bell tower. The contrast is enormous. The children thought it was very special to see.
For lunch you can go anywhere here for a Frankfurter or bratwurst, cheap and typically German, so you should try it and there's a good chance your kids will like it too. A little further on you will find the second largest department store in Europe; the prestigious KaDeWe. KaDeWe stands for Kaufhaus des Westens, the epitome of capitalism before, during and after the wall. The department store is huge, and before you know it you'll be shopping here for a few hours. The 60,000m2 is filled with everything you can think of, from designer clothes to toys. Shopping makes you hungry, so you can eat here in one of the many restaurants. What you should not miss with children is the fourth floor, there is a toy department such as we do not know (anymore) in the Netherlands. It is gigantic and really where everything can be found here. For my children this was probably the most beautiful half hour of the day.
Besides the touristic KaDeWe, there are of course many more shops in this area. In addition to all (international) retail chains, you will also find dozens of good restaurants in this area to eat or coffee shops for a delicious coffee with cake. You will also find the Berlin Zoo here: Zoological Garden Berlin. We skipped the zoo this time, but I can recommend it to everyone. This zoo (Berlin has two, and you guessed it: one in the west and one in the east) is one of the oldest in the world. Precisely because it is such an old, unique and charming zoo, the walking here alone is a reason to visit the Zoological Garden. In addition, it is also the zoo with the most different animals in the world.
Berlin Mitte
Shopping with children can sometimes be a bit more difficult, so we try to limit it to a few hours. At the end of the afternoon we drove by car to our hotel in Berlin Mitte. In just under 10 minutes we are at our hotel on the Leipziger straße. A beautiful hotel with an even better location. As a backpacker we prefer to stay in nice, small (and cheap) hotels with our children. This hotel is not, except cheap: Although this is a 4-star hotel, we only paid €253 for two nights with five of us. For that we got a nice family room with balcony and delicious breakfast. The NH hotel is approximately 400 meters from Checkpoint Charlie, 800 meters from Unter den Linden, 900 meters from Potsdamer Platz, 1200 meters from the Branderburger Tor. The famous Fernsehturm is a little further away; 2.3 km. If you find it interesting: You can easily book a room via Booking.com.
After checking in (and letting the kids rest in the hotel room) we walked to Checkpoint Charlie. This famous "house" was, of course, a checkpoint on the border of the American and Russian sectors. The current house is by the way a replica. Hardly anywhere else in Berlin can you imagine the time of the 'wall' as well as here. On the street, the old wall is made 'visible' by a strip of cobblestones in the asphalt. If you would walk into Zimmerstrae (on the corner with Checkpoint Charlie) you would see how close the wall was to the houses. Incredibly impressive. Of course we took the standard tourist snapshot behind the sandbags at the checkpoint. Our oldest daughter is 11, and of course she already understands more about the concept of 'the wall'.
In addition to Checkpoint Charlie, here are two more places worth visiting. First of all, the famous Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, a museum dedicated to the Berlin Wall and the Cold War. It is a beautiful museum that visually shows this dark period. The second spot, and often overlooked, is the Black Box. This is on the only unbuilt area around Checkpoint Charlie. It is very cheap and through an exhibition with image, audio and information boards it takes you back in time. I took my 11 year old daughter inside, and I can assure you that a visit of less than 20 minutes will leave you quite impressed. She thought it was very impressive, especially since the Berlin Wall was recently covered at school.
Eating in Berlin with children… Well, eating out is the favorite moment of parents with young children. I probably don't have to explain to other parents that this is sometimes a challenge. It is no different with us. That is why we chose the Hard Rock Café for the first evening. The reason is simple, you can find one almost everywhere we travel. So the menu is known, and after dinner they want to take a look in the store. So burgers and fries. But no 'nagging' children due to fatigue.
Tropical Island
On Sundays practically everything is closed in Berlin. Great to get up a little later and take a nice long city walk or to visit the zoo, for example. For everyone who has a Sunday in Berlin with small children, we recommend going out in Berlin! The reason is very simple, Tropical Islands is just under 70km away. Before we leave Berlin, we only drive for a while to see the East Side Gallery, a remnant of the Berlin Wall. This part has been painted by no fewer than 118 artists. Absolutely worth it!
Then take the car and in less than an hour you will reach the impressive Tropical Islands swimming pool. Trust us, it's totally worth it. Tropical Islands is situated in an old zeppelin shed. This is the largest building (by volume) in the world. The building, 360 meters long, 210 meters wide and 107! Meters high, is an architectural gem. The pool is so large that you can spend the night in the pool. This can be done in houses or in tents. Once you have arrived, it is a swimming pool that you will not find elsewhere. It consists of various 'areas', such as a real rainforest where flamingos and parrots live. A little further you will find a real beach with sand. You can make use of the numerous sunbeds or simply position your towel on the sand. You can walk straight into the pool from the beach. Here you will also find quite a few slides for the little ones among us.
Next to the beach there is a lagoon, with warmer water, rapids and waterfalls. It's unbelievable, but you really feel like you're in a tropical resort. Outside there is a large swimming pool with, among other things, a large whitewater course, slides and whirlpools. There is something for everyone. In addition to the many swimming pools, there is also a large indoor playground for the little ones, so when they are done swimming you can still go here. You can easily spend a whole day here, which is a great alternative if the shops in Berlin are closed.
Evening Walk in Berlin
After a day of swimming it is time to relax in the hotel (bet the children will close their eyes on the way back?). When night falls, the search for a good restaurant begins.
We always combine that with a nice walk. From the hotel it is easy to walk to Potsdamer Platz. This is a busy and one of the most famous squares in Berlin. The war has completely destroyed this part, making it an empty plain. The wall also ran right through this section. After the fall of the wall, this area turned into the largest construction site in Europe.
The Sony Center is located here, and is full of shops and restaurants. You will also find LEGO Discovery for children here. From Potsdamer Platz it is a short walk to the Branderburger Tor. You will then pass the extremely impressive Holocaust Memorial. These 2710 concrete blocks are all different in height. Walking among them evokes a sense of disorientation and isolation, which is symbolic of the experiences of the Jewish population during the Nazi rule.
Next to the Branderburger Tor you literally walk into the Reichstag, the parliament building of Germany.
Of course, this building, like almost all of Berlin, was bombed. The glass dome (accessible to visitors) is again a contrast to the imposing building. From the Reichstag you can easily walk up to the Unter den Linden, where you can easily find a restaurant (or get a delicious ice cream). This road runs from the Brandenburg Gate to Alexanderplatz. After about 800 meters you cross the Freidrichstrabe, another large shopping street. For us the road to the hotel. A lovely evening walk where we were able to see many sights without the massive crowds.
BERLIN AT ITS BEST
Our last day in Berlin with the kids, and to see a lot of Berlin today, we booked a vintage tour. Our guide is expecting us at 11:00 at the Berlin Cathedral. This ensures that we have enough time to walk there after breakfast. The Berlin Cathedral is impressively large. But make no mistake, the current dom is not as old as it seems! It was built between 1894 and 1905.
The Dom is located on the Museum Island, an island in the Spree. This part of Berlin is the oldest part of Berlin and is full of museums. The Museum Island itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and that is more than logical. The many museums here have either just opened or are still being restored. To the left of the cathedral is the Atlas Museum. In the Nazi period, this museum was often used as a backdrop for large gatherings, but fortunately it survived both the Nazi era and the GDR.
Our guide from the vintage tour arrives just in time in his Volkswagen Samba bus. This is our mode of transport for the two-hour tour in Berlin. Everyone knows the VW vans, and how nice is it (with children) to have this as a means of transport? I can really recommend this tour to everyone, in two hours you will be (privately) driven around Berlin. The stories behind all the museums, squares and streets are told. And you can't escape the stories about Berlin from before, during and after the Second World War. You literally drive through East and West Berlin. Our guide could tell so beautifully about the wall (he was an East Berliner) and experienced the fall.
By driving this classic through Berlin you get the impression how Berlin has been transformed. This is really recommended. We booked the tour here, through the site getyourguide . What made it so cool is that the guide tells everything based on photos. He has made a beautiful book with clear photos, so it became a game for the children to 'find' the buildings in the photos.
After the two-hour tour (in practice this was even 2.5 hours) we are dropped off at the cathedral again. From here it is a short walk to Fernsehturm. This 368 meter high TV tower (2.5x 'our' Euromast) gives visitors a beautiful view. This view is really special for children. When you view Berlin from the Fernsehturm, you realize how big Berlin is. The tower stands on Alexanderplatz, a large square surrounded by many shops. At the rear is a train station and there is also the Alexa shopping center, good for hours of shopping fun.
