Berlin tours

Insider Tours offer several different walking tours of Berlin along with tours to Potsdam and Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. I believe they offer a day tour to Dresden too, but it has to be reserved ahead of time, etc.

They do a Cold War tour, a 3rd Reich tour, and a regular 4 hour tour of the main sights of Berlin. This is one of the original tour companies in Berlin and they have an excellent reputation with outstanding guides. Most of the tours run around 12€, with the longer ones to Potsdam, etc. costing 15 €. Not sure about Dresden.

Just show up at their meeting point at the appropriate time, near the Tiergarten (the trains stop there at a large station as does bus #100) in front of Dunkin Donuts. There is always quite a few people there as I think there is another tour company that meets there too.

Their website is: www.insidertour.com

Definitely do Potsdam for a day. You can do it on your own by train or even better rent a car, visit the Sanssouci and New Palais castles, Cecilienhof castle, downtown Potsdam (pedestrian zone and Brandenburg Gate (not the same as in Berlin)) and then drive along the shores of Lake Wannsee towards the Olympic stadium. Beautiful scenic ride and you can stop at viewing tower or spend some time at the beach. Another must-do daytrip is a cruise thru Spreewald forrest (it's like if Venice was a rain forrest). One of many sources to do this would be http://www.spreewald-online.de/index.php?L=en.Then also spend a day at Lake Müritz, Germany's largest domestic Lake (Lake Constance borders to Austria and Switzerland and therefore isn't considered as domestic). A coffee or dinner at the waterfront in Waren is beautiful to romantic. Other great day trips could be: Leipzig, Görlitz (from Dresden), Baltic islands of Rügen or Usedom (there is a special tourist train from Berlin going to Wollin (on the now Polish side of Usedom). Wollin used to be called the bathtub of Berlin before WW2. Also the Rheinsberg area (town, castle, lake) in the state of Brandenburg is definitely worth a day's visit.

Berlin Free Walking Tours is an AWESOME way to go! They offer a free walking tour of all of Berlin. It's about 4-5 hours and the tour is in English and it's free! You can tip at the end which is recommended. They show you everything there is to see in Berlin on this one tour. It's amazing! I did it last year and I'll be doing it again this year with my younger brother because it's such a good deal! And they offer other tours as well for a low fare. So we'll be doing the Potsdam tour as well for 12 euros. The tour guides are friendly and very informative and make the tour interesting and not boring! I highly recommend Free Berlin Walking Tours!!!

I want to second the suggestion to go to Potsdam. I took the SBahn and it was a short walk to the sights. It's easy to spend a day there. I loved it all. Pam

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! Those walking tours sound great.

If anyone has any suggestions for reasonably priced restaurants, I would appreciate that also. How much can I expect to spend per day for lunch and dinner (our hotel has breakfast included). Would 50 EUR be enough to get two decent meals?

I bought a small Fodor's guide to Berlin that includes a few restaurants, but I don't see that Rick Steves has a particular guide to Berlin.

I suppose I could buy the old standby Michelin red guide to Germany? Most of Michelin's recommended restaurants, however, tend to be rather expensive.

Hi Tyler,
Rick's restaurant recommendations for Berlin are in his Germany book and also his Best of Europe book. I'd check out KaDeWe Department store for interesting lunch options--they have an amazing self-service cafeteria plus an excellent deli/food department for picnic items.

You'll have a great time in Berlin!!

One of my favorite things to do in Berlin was the boat ride on the Spree River. It's a great way to see a great bit of Berlin and of course there is delicious beer! We got on near the TV tower, floated all around the city and got off near the Reichstag. From there you can walk to the Holocaust memorial and Brandenburg Gate. They do the tour in English and German. Loved it! Have a great trip.