The Berlin Pass is a popular package for tourists. According to their website:
"includes everything you need for the perfect city adventure, from entry to top attractions and museums to a handy Travel card for the public transport system"They offer free entrance to popular places (more than 50) and they include a travel card which means you can go around Berlin without worrying about buying tickets each time.
The price for a 2 days package is at the moment of this writing 71€ which at first sight can be really cheap compared against the price of all the other activities. But is this really the case? Do you really save money? Is it worth it? Is there a way I can lose money by buying this ticket? Lets make a small analysis.
How much money are we paying with the Berlin Pass?
If you are paying 71€ for 2 days this means you are paying 35€ per day, a day usually has 24 hours but most of the attractions are open between 10:00 a.m. and 19:00. So actually you only use it around 8 hours per day or 16 hours in 2 days.
So, what is the price per hour that you are paying? 71€/16 hours = 4.4€/h
Keep it above 4.4€ per hour
This number is important, if your activities cost less that 4.4€ per hour then you are wasting your money.
For example lets say you go to a museum that costs 12€. If you are planning to spend 6 hours there then you are paying 12€/6 = 2€ per hour!. You are losing money.
The trick to be sure that you are really making the most of it is to find the price of the attraction and divide it against the time you want to be there. If it is less that 4.4€ then forget about it!
To make it easier for you I created a table that can be useful. I assumed that you spend at most 2 hours in a museum. Please modify it if this is not the case.
| Place | Price | Time in hours for visiting | Price / Time |
| Fat Tire Bike Tours | 24 | 4.5 | 5.4 |
| Berlin Bus Tour | 17 | 2 | 8.5 |
| Insider Walking Tours | 15 | 4 | 3.75 |
| Hamburger Bahnhof | 14 | 2 | 7 |
| Checkpoint Charlie Museum | 12.5 | 2 | 6.25 |
| Pergamon Museum | 12 | 2 | 6 |
| Egyptian Museum Berlin | 12 | 2 | 6 |
| Neues Museum | 12 | 2 | 6 |
| Middle Eastern Museum | 12 | 2 | 6 |
| Museum of Pre-History and Early History | 12 | 2 | 6 |
| Museum of Islamic Art | 12 | 2 | 6 |
| Berlin River Cruise | 11.5 | 2 | 5.75 |
| Bode Museum | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Altes Museum | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Neue National Gallery | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Gemalde Gallery | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Alte National Gallery | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Berlinische Gallery | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Berggruen Museum | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Photography Museum | 10 | 2 | 5 |
| Dahlem Museum | 8 | 2 | 4 |
| Ethnological Museum | 8 | 2 | 4 |
| Museum of Asian Art | 8 | 2 | 4 |
| Kunstbibliothek | 8 | 2 | 4 |
| Jewish Museum Berlin | 7 | 2 | 3.5 |
| Berlin Film Museum | 7 | 2 | 3.5 |
| Bauhaus Archive | 7 | 2 | 3.5 |
| Berliner Dom | 7 | 2 | 3.5 |
| Deutscher Dom | 7 | 2 | 3.5 |
| Ephraim Palais Berlin | 7 | 2 | 3.5 |
| Olympiastadion Berlin | 7 | 2 | 3.5 |
| Natural History Museum | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Medical History Museum | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Museum of Decorative Arts | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Schwules Museum | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Musical Instrument Museum | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Berlin Botanical Museum | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Georg Kolbe Museum | 5 | 2 | 2.5 |
| Brücke Museum | 5 | 2 | 2.5 |
| Stasi Museum | 5 | 2 | 2.5 |
| Anne Frank Centre | 5 | 2 | 2.5 |
| Berlin History Museum | 5 | 2 | 2.5 |
| Märkisches Museum | 5 | 2 | 2.5 |
| Church of St. Nicholas | 5 | 2 | 2.5 |
| German Technology Museum | 4.5 | 2 | 2.25 |
| Labyrinth Children’s Museum | 4.5 | 2 | 2.25 |
| MACHmit! Museum | 4.5 | 2 | 2.25 |
| Communication Museum | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| German Guggenheim | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Art Forum at Berliner Volksbank | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Humboldt Box | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Childhood and Youth Collection | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Düppel Museum Village | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Anti Kriegs Museum | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Alliierten Museum | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Following this table and unless you have a good reason you don't want to go to Anti Kriegs Museum because it is free but you should go to the Berlin Bus Tour, the price/time relation is the biggest one... almost twice than 4.4€!
There are more factors that could be taken into consideration for example the distance between one place and the other but since you have a traveling card for free then you are really not wasting money only time.Which could be also maximized but this could be the topic for another post. Also I didn't considered the topics, the lunch breaks and most important your style.
To summarize you could use this method if you have really problems to decide where to go. A factor to make a decision sometimes is making the most of your money. I'm sure there are more and better methods to do it but this one was the one I found interesting. At the end the most important thing is that you enjoy your visit in Berlin.
Have fun!
City walking tours in Berlin are offered at many different topics and by numerous interesting neighborhoods of Berlin. Here is a list of some of them that we can recommend: All city walks are available in English.
http://www.newberlintours.com/ I would say this is the best one. They offer free tours and in around 3-5 hours you will be able to see the most important places of the city. The best thing, is free. At the end of the tour you can give a tip if you wish to. Most of the people give 5 or 10 euros. I have seen people giving even 20€ but that is too much in my opinion.
Look for the tour name: Free tour.
Look for the tour name: Free tour.
http://www.berlinwalks.de/public/ I haven't tried this one but I heard from some friends that it is worth it. They have experience and nice people that can guide you through whole Berlin. The price is around 10-12 €
http://alternativeberlin.com/ This is again of my favorites. If you like street art and walking, this is the best tour four you. They offer a free tour but the other tours are also worth it. Note: If you don't like graffiti, street art then this is not a tour for you.
Last but not least http://www.insidertour.com/ They offer around 9 different tours with a price range of 10-15€. Normally their groups are smaller so this could be an advantage if you want something more private.
Which city walking tour would you recommend?. Do you have some experience with them? Help us leaving a comment.
Have a nice day :-)
Have a nice day :-)
If you just want to walk and see around, you can go to Karl-Marx-Straße. This is a street full of clothes shops. You can find really cool stuff for even 5 €. Even shoes!
If your budget is limited then you would like to go to some flea markets, there are many in Berlin and you can find original clothes.
If you are into buying online, I can also recommend Asos. Many people buy there frequently. Otherwise, Zalando but you will not find bargains. Some times, for a certain quality you must also be willing to pay a little bit more ...
H&M is another store that people in Berlin really like and if you can go on a sales period then it will be really cheap. They offer decent clothes for a fairly reasonable price. I would say they are at the limit, there are others discount stores like New York were the clothes have sometimes in my opinion very poor quality.
Other recommended sites are Fashion.de which offers a great selection and good prices but I haven't try it yet.
Shopping in Berlin is a fun activity and can be done with a few bucks!. What about you? Do you have a particular favorite shop?
A great option for entertainment and fun while staying healthy during this summer is to make some fitness training. Visiting a fitness studio in Berlin is a good option to endurance training, muscle training and bodybuilding.
If you are not sure about how to do it correctly, most of the fitness centers offer personal trainers. In addition to personal training there are often courses in sports such as aerobics or pilates. There are also some gyms that are for women only.
Here is a list of some alternatives:
One of the most famous is McFit, you can find it all around Berlin and the prices are relative cheap, the only small problem is that you need to make a contract of at least one year.
Super Fit and Fitness First are also two of the most loved ones in Berlin. There are some complains about them but I think this depends on your own luck.
Do you know about a better training place that you would like to recommend?
:-)
