Berlin - Best Hop On Hop Off Bus
 

We will be in Berlin for 3 days in May. Our interests include sights (but not really museums), shopping and eating. Our hotel is .near the Kurfustendamm U Bahn station. After carfull consideration I think the best way to see Berlin is to choose the best Hop On Hop Off bus tour. Now the question is what is the best Hop On Hop Off bus tour to take. One that has easily identifiable buses, stops that are easy to find (bus signage?) and one that has a stop not far from our hotel. There are many to choose and I have read many stories about problems people have had finding the right bus, problems using the vouchers that one gets online etc.

The best way to see Berlin is to go on a walking tour or bike tour instead of a bus tour. Read reviews over on Trip Advisor and you will see the difference. The bus tours are more expensive, and you might get one sentence describing a building as you whizz by, instead of any kind of in-depth explanation. Berlin deserves more than this. Plus, the buses really stink up the air in the city.

Recommend Insider Tours for the best quality tour. Have been on 4 of them and look forward to doing some more next July when I get back up north.

Berlin is just to big to walk. In this trip we will be doing Prague, Dresden, and Paris- all of which are IMHO walking cities but not Berlin- its too spread out. We did the hop on hop off bus on our first trip to Paris and it was great as it gave us a good overview of the city after which we walked it.

Still waiting for the Berlin experts to weigh in.

True, Berlin is too big to walk from west to east .
I have seen HoHo buses in front of KaDeWe store , but never took one.Sorry.

The bus 100 from near Zoo train sation takes you all the way east...nicer than metro, IMO.
If you get off at
Reichstag, it is easy to walk to many attraction in the east ( and shopping on Friedrichstraße.)

Berlin is not full of beautiful building, you may find a HoHo tour less interesting than one of Paris.

I think the best way to Berlin is to go on bike tour
but also not bad idea to go of a bus tour
I had good experience with Sightseeing Berlin bus tour and also boat tour..

I agree that walking in Berlin is a great way to see it, but if you aren't up for that, then here are some options:

HOHO Bus - don't know if either could claim to be "the best", but try City Sightseeing (the red and yellow ones) or BBS (yellow with glass on roof)

Bike Tour - if the weather is good and you're up for it, these are great ways to cruise around the city (Fat Tyre are a good company)

Segway Tours - you either love them or you hate them; if you're in the former camp, try City Segway.

Tabrant Tour - a very Berlin way to see Berlin! There are a few companies doing these tour, try Trabant Safari.

And if you do decide to do a walk, there are some great walking tours to be found with different themes (Third Reich information, Jewish history, Stasi info, etc), plus some are shorter so don't discount them completely as a way to discover Berlin.

The very best and cheapest Hop-On-Hop-Off bus is the public bus nr 100 from Bahnhof Zoo to Alexanderplatz. It runs along Unter den Linden, the main sightseeing route and stops every few 100 metres. From the upper deck, you get excellent views.

The fare is € 2.60 per person.

Here is the route:

http://www.bvg.de/index.php/de/binar...22168/file/1-1

I have been in Berline several times on business, but never got a comprehensive look. The last time I tooka boat tour and really got a good sense of the city. It's a re;axed way to travel, good commentators and you see a lot of the city. A nice day for sitting on the open deck makes for a perfect trip

The tours all follow the same route: Spree, Landwehrkanal, Spree so it makes not much differejnce which tour you take. They all also stop at or near the same spots to pick up and discharge passengers. These stations are mostly near the main Spree bridges. There should be one not too hard to get to from your hotel. I am not sure whether you can get off and skip a boat at any poimt. Check that out. A stop-over near the governmemt offices would be worthwhile.

traveller1959:
This bus 100 looks like a great ride to see a lot of the city. A few questions. It ends at Alexanderplatz- does the bus stop there and everyone gets off? I guess my question is how will I know if its the last stop? Also if we want to ride back does the bus traverse the same route back? And if so do I look for the 100 bus with the Zoo Garden identified (as its destination)? I assume I'll need exact change to board?

Public transit in Berlin is excellent.
You can buy a day ticket that gives you unlimited rides on bus, metro and trams..
...only 6.70 euros
http://www.bvg.de/index.php/en/17181...+Overview.html

Is the day ticket good on Ubahn and Sbahn as well as the buses?

Yes,
they are both part of the metro system.

I would recommend taking a bike tour when the weather allows it. Alternatively you can rent bike from the "DB Deutsche Bahn" bike stations for a day or a week for very little money.
The public transport is another way to get around the city fast and cheap. The bus line 100 is not one of the Hop-on-hop-off busses but has almost the same rout but you only pay the normal public transport price of 2.60€. It will get you from Kurfürstendamm to Alexanderplatz, Tiergarten, the Brandenburgertor and the government quarter.

Public transportation in Berlin is easy and excellent. Our family just spent the week between Christmas and New Year's in Berlin and took advantage of the Berlin Welcome Card 5-Day pass for zones A,B, and C, affording us unlimited travel on the U-Bahn, S-Bahn, regional trains and buses, as well as a few discounts at some museums. Having the ability to travel wherever and whenever around the city without first having to purchase a ticket was a plus. Do yourself a favor and purchase at least a day ticket; scrambling for exact change is no fun.

The M100 bus (and all Berlin public transportation) has onboard indicators as one approaches each station. No worries, you'll know when you're at the end of the line. :)

Take bus 100 from its terminus at the Alexanderplatz to the end near the Tiergarten. Then take bus 200 back on a slightly different route to the Alexanderplatz. The Alex is not the terminus of Bus 200, but you willrecognize the place where you got on the Bus100 before, and just get off there.