A Tour or Two

Brewers Free Walking Tour

Starting from the Altes Museum on Museum Insel daily at 1.30pm
www.brewersberlintours.com

One of the best walking tours in the city and it’s free. Good news, no?

From the initial meeting with your guide, on the steps of Berlin’s first museum, you’ll pick up on the relaxed tone that makes this tour what it is. Beginning with a quick and casual context-setting in the Lustgarten, your out-going leader will take you around the most important and impressive places from the city’s history, starting with a stroll along once-upon-a-time royal boulevard Unter den Linden and finishing up at the impressive icon that is the Brandenburg Gate. The tour lasts three and a half hours with a short break for lunch at Checkpoint Charlie, where you can pick up a quick bite from one of the many fast food vendors around. Bearing in mind the chatty style of trip, you might be surprised to come away having learned rather a lot with zero effort.

Brewers guides work on a tips-only basis, paying 5€ to the guys in charge for each person who takes the tour. If you reckon it was worth it, be generous.

Sandeman’s NewBerlin Free Bike Tour

Starting from the corner of Oranienburger-straße and Tucholsky-straße daily at 11am and 3pm
S-Bahn Line S1: Oranienburger-straße
www.neweuropetours.eu

Another lovely free tour and this time with bikes. Oh yes.

Sandeman’s New Europe has been on the go since 2003, offering informally informative tours aimed at the budget-minded traveller. This two-wheeled version of the already popular walking tour is perfect if the idea of seeing the whole city on foot isn’t your cup of tea. The group meets outside the old post office, which during WWII was the base for the SS to keep tabs on mail. From here, you’re led to the bullet-riddled shed round the back of the building to get acquainted with your bike and then you’re off. The three-and-a-half-hour tour covers all of the must-sees, plus a few extras, starting with Berlin’s first Jewish synagogue and ending with an energetic, solo re-enactment by your guide of the events leading up to the fall of the wall. Graduates from top universities around the globe, the laid-back guides are seriously clued-up on the city’s history and able to answer even the most obscure of questions. Seriously, just ask.

The tour and bike are free but you will need to bring some photo ID and a 15€ deposit.

The NewBerlin guys earn only what they receive in tips from you and have to pay 5€ per head to the big administrative types for maintenance and the like. Bear this in mind and pay what you think the tour was worth, or at least what you can.