I will be visiting Berlin, June 15-19

Looking for recommendations:
1. Inexpensive, local cuisine
2. Interesting places to eat
3. Places for people watching / activity during the day and during the evening
4. How to get a tourist map & transportation map (shows locations of attractions)
5. Is there a tourist card that allows admission to a number of museums and attractions at a fixed cost? Website that tells about tourist card? In your opinion was it worth the cost?
6. Something(s) that you would recommend doing or seeing that isn?t in the typical guide book.
7. Website that will list events when I am there.
8. How to get to Potsdam? Is there a tourist card for Potsdam?

Dennis:

I will answer a few of your Qs:

#4- Maps should be available at visitor centers in town & at the airports. Here is the website for transportation map:

http://www.bvg.de/e_index.html

#5. Yes. I bought mine at the visitor center, but the following website does give you an option to buy online. (Just click on the "SchauLUST" sign on the R. I felt it was a good value given the # of museums I wanted to go visit.

http://www.berlin-tourist-informatio...sw_museen.html

#6. When we visited the Bundestag, instead of standing in line in the cold forever, we had a lunch reservation at the roof garden restaurant. That allowed us to skip the line completely. The food was good, but not inexpensive.

#7. This is Berlin tourism website which lists upcoming events.

http://www.berlin-tourist-informatio...gen/index.html

#8. Potsdam - The fastest route is to take a Regional Express train by DB from one of the big stations (eg Alexanderplatz & Zoologischer Garten) to Potsdam. Takes 30mins. From Potsdam train station, bus #695 will get you to Sanssouci Palace.

Hope this helps. Have a good trip.

The WelcomeCard gives you 3 days of public transportation throughout city and suburbs (ie, good for Potsdam, Oranienburg CC, etc), and a bunch of discounts for other stuff. See below:

http://www.berlin-tourist-informatio...lcomecard.html

Dennis-

Regarding transportation:
Just to point out, the Welcome Card is €21 for 3 days and covers all zones A-C. Most tourist sites are in zones A&B, while Potsdam is in C.

You can also choose to buy a Day Ticket each day, €5,60 and covers zones A & B (and pay separate ticket for your daytrip to Potsdam).

Since you will be there for 5 days, you can also consider buying a 7-day ticket for €29,00 which covers zones A-C.

Also, just to point out, the museums that have discount with the WelcomeCard are not the most popular museums in Berlin.

Dennis- the sites mentioned by yk will give you most of the info you need. Where will you be staying? Berlin is huge and very spread out - no sense going all over the city just to find a good restaurant even though public transportation is excellent! For "people watching" I suggest UdL or Ku'd. For a little off the beaten path I might suggest an excursion to Spandau. Get off the U-Bahn at Zitadelle, walk to the fortress, then walk along the lake to the town of Spandau stopping for a beer at one of the cafes. Spandau is a delightful little town - suburb. Hard to believe it is so close to Berlin! Let us know where you are staying and we will offer some more ideas.

Dennis-

A place that offers good prices and huge selection for food is at KaDeWe. I am sure KaDeWe is mentioned on your guidebook. Its cafeteria on the top floor provides good quality for the price it charges, and the portions are large.

Dennis, thanks for posting this question. I'm going to Berlin July 18-23. I would love to read your trip report when you return.

Get <i>Berlinwalks</i> by Peter Fritzsche and Daren Hewitt. It is excellent in taking you around different sections of the city and explaining the socio-historical background of the neighborhood and what you are seeing.

The single most fascinating thing I did in Berlin was to visit the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. It tells the story of the Wall and how the government secretly planned its construction and put it up literally overnight. It shows, through text, pictures and actual objects, all the ways that people used to try to escape -- digging tunnels, underwater methods, hot air ballons, specially constructed ladders, strapped underneath and in the engine compartments of cars, with fake IDs, and many others. It shows you just how desparate and clever these people were.

Thank you for all of the information. I will be staying at the Hotel Berlin, Lutzowplatz 17. After Berlin, I will be traveling in Poland, Prague and Budapest until July 6th.

I would second the idea of doing the Checkpoint Charlie Museum...very interesting and informative. In re Potsdam and the palaces...Sans Souci is the much smaller (but perhaps better known) of the two....the Nieuw Palace is more interesting inside and there are periodic English-language tours of the latter. If you have time to do only one of the two I would recommend you tour the NP rather than Sans Souci, although both are worth the time if you have that much time.

Mentioned on this on your Warsaw/Krakow post, but www.inyourpocket.com is good for Berlin also.

Best wishes,

Rex

TOP

Denis- if you go to &quot;viamichelin.com&quot; and enter the address of your hotel you will get a map of your location and a listing of nearby restaurants. Keep in mind a &quot;Kneipe&quot; is the Berlin equivalent of a British Pub or an American local tavern - good beer, good schnapps, and usually good local cuisine. Your hotel location is close to the Nollendorfer Platz UBahn station, so access to other sections of Berlin should be quite easy. For a &quot;taste of Berlin&quot; I would recommend &quot;Grossbeeren Keller&quot; and &quot;Zur Letzten Instanz&quot; for local specialties. Have a wonderful trip and enjoy Berlin.

Some stylish people watching in the area on Gendarmenmarkt.
There is Newton Bar for good drinks at night. Also Borchardt is a local haunt for celebreties and normal people. Same (to a little lesser extent) goes for Luther &amp; Wegner. Both offer reasonable good food, although I would not exactly call them inexpensive.

t