Hi
My husband and I are on a cruise in May. One of the ports is Berlin.
Does anyone have any recommendations for a good private guide there?
Thanks
Posted by
Lexington, KY (formerly Southeast US)
4757 posts
I recommend Robert Sommer. He was the 15-year-old son of a fairly high-ranking East German bureaucrat when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. He knows the city incredibly well and can give many personal anecdotes about growing up in East Berlin, his dabbling in the East Berlin teen music subculture, his first trip into West Berlin, post-unification life in Berlin, and the capitalist product he held out the longest on trying. He has a PhD but presents information in a manner that is easy to understand. I did a tour comparing post-WWII East Berlin and West Berlin architecture with him and loved it, but he does a lot of "Intro to Berlin"-type tours, too. And he's a nice guy!
Posted by
San Francisco
16221 posts
Lessing, that great dramatist, has his house in the Nikolaiviertel.
Posted by
Knoxville, TN, USA
7209 posts
If you really want to see Europe cruising is not the way to do it.
Posted by
Mandeville, LA, USA
602 posts
If you have not been to Berlin before, go for it. You can get a good orientation of the city, which just may inspire you to make a longer trip to Berlin in the future. I will saw Berlin on a day-tour on a Baltic cruise and later returned for nearly a week to see the city.
The top guides can arrange transportation to and from Berlin for a group. Popular guides are Heidi Leyton and Jeremy Minsberg (check out their websites).
Also, I am sure this topic has been discussed a number of times on this forum. And it frequently comes up on the cruisecritic.com website.