Will be in Berlin 9/8-9/10. Looking for a good day tour on 9/9 or 9/10. We will have half day on 9/8. My husband loves museums but too many to decide which one to go to.
We will be in Munich from 9/11-9/13. Advise on what to do in our short time. Arriving late on 9/11.
Thank you.
Denise Ashford
Denise,
Rick's book has very good walking tour overviews of both cities that can be done in a half day (or longer if you go into any museums or sites that interest you). You can also download audio walking tour on his app.
I'd start with that, or review in the book (or this site) the "at a glance" sections of both cities which give brief descriptions of the many things to do in each. Munich is less spread out than Berlin, so easy to cover a lot of ground in less time there.
I recommend a visit to the Bode Museum on Museum Island. All the masterpieces that were lost in the WWII bombings have a photograph of them in the space where they were hung. So many beautiful works of art.
Also, a must see, is the staue of Nefertiti at the Neues Museum, also on Museum Island. Nefertiti is in it’s own room. Stunning.
Take time for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews, behind the US Embassy.
Would suggest you do Rick Steves tours, in Berlin I did the War Memorial to Murdered Jews, Reichstag, and visited one museum on Museum Island - Pergamon Museum.
Munich - I did a day trip to Neuschwanstein (if that is your thing), and also day trip to Dachau & Nymphenburg Palace. And then hung around Munich for another day, doing some walks in Munich, visiting beer hall ;)
For Berlin, my recommendation would be Insider Tours. They offer a variety of 4 hour walking tours that are all really good.
For Munich, try Radius Tours.
In Berlin, definitely make reservations to go in the Reichstag dome; it was a highlight of our trip. We visited the German History Museum; you could spend hours in there, or you could visit only those periods of German history in which you are most interested. The Rick Steves tour is easy to follow and takes you by many places and you can decide which ones you want to enter. In Munich, we visited Dachau and found it moving and informative. It probably took us 5-6 hours to get there via S-bahn, tour the facility, eat lunch and return to Munich. We still had much of the day to enjoy Munich.
The NY Times frugal traveler, Lucas Peterson, shows how to have "A $1,000 Day in Berlin for $100".
My wife and I were just in Berlin a few weeks ago. What do you mean by a day tour--we took a bus tour that was so-so, a little on the expensive side at 52 Euros for a two-day ticket. The route had us stuck in traffic quite a lot of the time. It was good to get an overview of this very huge city though. For me the two greatest museums were the Pergamon and the Gemaldegarie. The Neues Museum was great as well. Two museums in one day is pretty much the limit, unless you want only a cursory visit. Book a timed entry to the Pergamon if you decide to go there. When we were there a couple of weeks ago they were letting in twenty people every ten minutes, probably because some sections are closed. I think if the whole thing was open it might have been a whole day visit. Definitely try and visit the Reichstag--get the guided tour, we found this very rewarding. You get to sit for a while in the actual parliament chamber.
I’ve also been wondering about getting an overview tour of Berlin and Munich on our first day in each city, partly to get our bearings. If I’m understanding correctly, the RS walking tour is all we need in Munich, correct? Because we have people in our group (of eight) from 9 to 69, I’m wondering if a bus tour might be the thing to do in Berlin. The post about spending much of the tour stalled in traffic is certainly a turn-off, though. Thoughts?
Ho-Ho bus tours are almost always consistently awful. Read their reviews on Trip Advisor. I did a good walking tour my first visit to Berlin 11 years ago and still know my way around. You don't need a bus tour to get a good overview of the city.
Both of these cities have very good walking tours at very reasonable prices. Insider Tours for Berlin or Radius tours for Munich.
If you want a bit more flexibility and want to just have your family group together with all of those varying ages, then consider a private tour.
For Berlin, check out Jeremy the Berlin Expert and for Munich, Dark History.
http://www.theberlinexpert.com/
https://dark-history.eu/
Totally agree with Mrs Jo. If you have a grouo that size, hire a guide or do one of the Radius/Original Walks tours. Don’t do Big Bus tour, esp in Munich where much of the city core is pedestrian only.
