Hi.

My husband and I are planning a 3 or 4 days citytrip in Berlin next January (mid-January).

What can you tell us about Berlin?
- Where to stay (I read Mitte is the best?)? We are on a short budget but would like to find a nice hotel room.
- We'll be there for my 30th birthday. I would love to go to the Staatsoper for Swan Lake (January 12th). Are 3rd category tickets (36€) ok? How long before the ballet are the distributions known?
- What are some of the "not to be missed" sites and visits? We're more into outdoor activities than museums (a few is ok but not 3 days of it).

Thank you so much for you input

Are you going over a weekend because the shops don't open on a Sunday.

Go to the zoo we loved it.

Also make sure you buy the transport pass for the UBahn, SBhan, buses and trams its brilliant.

We walked around a lot because the buildings all over the city are beautiful.

Kathy on here lives in Berlin.

Sorry I can't help with hotels as we stayed with a friend but we had a wonderful time just jumping the train to places and wandering around eating

Have a great time.

Helen

Mitte or Zoo area is a good idea for choosing a Hotel, as it´s quite in the middle of the city.

Category 3 tickets are okay. The performance starts at 7.30pm, I think the cast will be known at some point in december.

Places you shouldn´t miss:
- Reichstag and Regierungsviertel (government district), Brandenburger Tor, memorial for the jews, Unter den Linden, Gendarmenmarkt, Berliner Dom, Alexander Platz <- all this is quite close to each other, also close is Hackesche Höfe which is nice to visit as well
- Zoo Berlin is a place I like a lot. Famous polarbear Knut isn´t here anymore as he died last spring, but Berlin has some other special animals, like for example giant panda Bao Bao who is the oldest known male giant panda currently living
- East Side Gallery
- Checkpoint Charlie
- Potsdamer Platz
- another place I really like is Castle Charlottenburg

Always a good choice is to take Bus 100 or 200 from Zoo to Alexanderplatz and then the other busnumber the way back. With those two tours you see the most famous places of Berlin (you pass almost everyhing I mentioned here!) - and all this for the cost of a normal bus ticket, and you can leave the bus whenever you want and then continue the tour later. Tourist bus is not needed here.

If you have a bit more time it´s also worth it to visit Potsdam. The city of Potsdam is pretty and castle Sanssouci is awesome as well.

Thank you very much Helen and Kathy for your help.

We should be there from January 11th to 15th. I'm in Belgium and most shops don't open either here. For transport, I'm still trying to figure out which out of the welcome card (5 days - zones A-B-C - around 35€/pers) or regular tickets would be more interesting.

So far, we've found 2 nice accomodations in our budget: Mercure Hotel Berlin Mitte (is this a good locations? comments on websites are contradictory) and a studio appartment accross the tv tower.

I'm an "old" student (will turn 30 on January 11th). I'm a phd student and as such, I've got a valid student id. Will I be able to use it (or am I too old)? Are there interesting student discounts? for the zoo?

Is the staatsoper easily accessible? How late do the public transportations run?

Thank you

We bought the 5 day zones A-B-C was fantastic.

Charlottenburgh was beautiful as was Postdam

I think the latest we were on public transport was about 11pm I was in early stages of pregnancy so in bed early

Helen

Lauranne wrote:

Thank you very much Helen and Kathy for your help.

We should be there from January 11th to 15th. I'm in Belgium and most shops don't open either here. For transport, I'm still trying to figure out which out of the welcome card (5 days - zones A-B-C - around 35€/pers) or regular tickets would be more interesting.

So far, we've found 2 nice accomodations in our budget: Mercure Hotel Berlin Mitte (is this a good locations? comments on websites are contradictory) and a studio appartment accross the tv tower.

I'm an "old" student (will turn 30 on January 11th). I'm a phd student and as such, I've got a valid student id. Will I be able to use it (or am I too old)? Are there interesting student discounts? for the zoo?

Is the staatsoper easily accessible? How late do the public transportations run?

Thank you

For public transportation ticket you only need A-B-C if you plan to leave the city (like for going to Potsdam), otherwise A-B is enough.

Your student ID will work.
the Zoo does have discounts for students, same goes to most other places.

You won´t go to Staatsoper. It´s closed as it´s renovated currently. The performance will be in Deutsche Oper, which isn´t so pretty (actually it´s quite ugly) but therefor you have better sight from the seats there.
There is a train station called Deutsche Oper, so yes, it is easy to get there. Public transportation runs late enough for ballet visits. Usually they stop somewhere around 1pm in the night, but there are always night busses (who travel much less often, but they DO travel!) somewhere to be find, so you will never be stuck in the middle of nowhere in this city.

I was in Berlin for two days as a last stop on a Holocaust tour. The Holocaust Memorial is outside and it is very interesting (not what you would normally think of as a memorial). The museum was also great in the very impressionable kind of way. I also went to the zoo and recommend it. It was a lot of fun after seeing so many depressing things. They have a lot of cool animals like Kathy mentioned, polar bears and panda bears and such. The other two tourist things we did there were looking at the Berlin Wall and we drove by Checkpoint Charlie. I really did like the city even with my very short impression of it. Lastly, this might not be for you at all, but my friends and I had a really good time at this bar called "The Sand Bar" The floor was all sandy and beachy and it was fun and kind of novel thing to do as I'd never been to a bar like that before and the drinks were really good. I hope you have a great trip!

Thank you very much for your answers and advices.

I think I read that Schoenefeld airport was in zone C.

The sand bar sounds fun (especially as we'll be there in winter).

I've booked the plane tickets (only 115€ for 2 from Brussels. I'm very happy with this deal) and the Ballet tickets. We just need to find a place to sleep (we still have to decide in what part of the city we want to stay). I'm so looking forward to this trip (and Swanlake!!). I'll make sure to post a few pictures on DDN.

Right, Schönefeld is in C, it´s outisde the city.

Ballet distributions are up (have been for a few weeks actually). We are going to see this distribution:

Odette/Odile: Iana Salenko
Prinz Siegfried: Marian Walter
Königin: Elena Pris
Rotbart: Leonard Jakovina
Benno: Rainer Krenstetter

*Happy dance*

So happy to have the opportunity to see Iana Salenko on stage!

Oh Iana and her husband, very nice