Best Places to Visit in Berlin With Kids in 5 Days: Your Itinerary

Berlin, like many metropolitan cities, displays some pomp. It is partly due to the height (height and experience) from which sightseers look at it. Adults usually notice standard sights first.

But if you look at Berlin through the eyes of a child, it turns out that the city is full of bright colours and prepares pleasant surprises for its guests. So that children do not get bored on the hackneyed tourist trails, we offer you a special children's route, including all the most exciting museums and entertainment.

One of the skills parents teach their children is how to get to know each other and make friends. A visit to a city should also start with an introduction, and the best way to do this is to take a sightseeing tour by bus. You get a whole host of attractions, no exhaustion from walking, and a chance to get in touch with the spirit of Berlin. A sightseeing tour in a double-decker bus is also a special treat for children, where they can enjoy the view from above. The sightseeing bus has three routes, and you can get off at any stop to take a closer look at something interesting and then get on the next bus.

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The No. 100 city bus is also considered a sightseeing bus and takes you around all the city centre sights. It's a great way to plan your next excursion: children will probably notice the entrance to the zoo or, if you're in Berlin in December, the great Christmas market. Ice rink, merry-go-rounds, music, souvenirs, sweets — the festive whirlwind of activity takes over not only the main square, Alexanderplatz, but also the other squares in the city. The Christmas Market lasts from late November to 25 December.

There's another way to experience the city's architecture. The Berlin-Brandenburg Miniatures Park is a collection of miniature replicas of important buildings in the German capital and the state of Brandenburg. Children can feel like Gullivers among the little houses and participate in the tour as if playing a game.

If the weather — as it does every year in the capital — isn't cooperating for a walk, then take a peek at the Little Big City Berlin interactive museum, where many animated layouts depict the most important historical events of the city. Kids will love it!

If the first day were devoted to getting to know the city, the second would be a day of contrasts. We recommend spending part of the day communing with nature. The magic word is "zoo", and the children can get through breakfast faster than their parents to go and visit the animals.

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The Zoologischer Garten Berlin has around 20,000 animals, birds, reptiles, fish and insects. The animals have comfortable habitats, and people have a great view to see diving hippos, playful cubs and nocturnal predators. Adjacent to the zoo is the three-storey Aquarium, where brightly coloured fish and colourful butterflies compete with grasshoppers to see who has the angriest knees.

By the way, there are two zoos in Berlin, and you can choose the one closest to your hotel. The second zoo, Friedrichsfelde, has its charm. The elephants breed here, and these large animals thrive; they splash around in the pool, sprinkle water on each other, and there's even a kindergarten for baby elephants. And there are wari lemurs and pelicans roaming freely around the zoo.

In contrast, a few more hours can be spent at the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre. What can you build with colourful Lego bricks? Anything: for example, the makers of the centre have made a small Berlin out of the constructor. Your kids will do just as well — at the centre, they can play with Lego and will be offered large parts of the Duplo constructor.

And the number of attractions is almost incalculable. Also, visit the Lego factory, where you can see how the shapeless mass is transformed into neat blocks. You can take your child away with you, as they can participate in the stamping process.

Let's call it Experiment Day. Potsdam, 40 km from Berlin, is home to the enormous Extavium Experimental Museum. The 130 exhibits help children understand the fundamental laws of nature and explain physical and chemical phenomena. With hands-on experiments designed especially for children, visitors can grasp the principles of a solar cell or a nuclear reactor, discover what sound and light can do, and understand the laws of mechanics. The experiments are often surprising — and therefore memorable.

Can you remember ever calling your children savages in your heart? If so, it's time to send them off to the jungle. Without leaving Potsdam, of course, because there's a park here that's more like a natural rainforest. There you will learn about the plants and animals of the jungle, the giant butterflies and the stick eater, which deftly masquerades as dry twigs. You can also see where vanilla, which Mum adds to cakes, comes from and learn about other spices and flavourings.

And the Aquasphere section is all about the mysterious underwater world. By the way, lunch in the jungle tastes much better than in an ordinary café.

Next door is the Volkspark. The park has picturesque landscapes, with blooming lawns and well-equipped picnic areas. Although the nature there is typically Central European, there are plenty of attractions for children: playgrounds, roller-skating and cycling alleys, a lake with a sandy beach and plenty of fun water attractions, and a rope park.

Curiosity Day is the fourth in our children's itinerary. There are two museums for little travellers, Labyrinth and MACHmit! At the Labyrinth, they can play in the real world: toys, costumes and props allow them to take on the role of a shop assistant, fireman, pirate or even a king. Smart kids can also learn new maths and physics skills. You can also participate in serious adult activities like designing street furniture or planting lawns.

MACHmit! is more of a wonderland experience: a fairytale forest, a mirror room, old vials that might have contained magic potions, and a giant maze where you can even climb the walls. It is also a museum of antiquities, where you will be told how books and newspapers were printed before the invention of computers, allowed to play with old toys and explain why those things were used, which are unfamiliar to modern kids.

Children aged 10-14, but curious kids as well, will long remember a tour of the Technical Museum. Splendid collection of aviation, water, railway, and automobile technics, excellent excursion in fabric and paper creation secrets, the juxtaposition of ancient and modern technologies, creative master-classes in a museum park — all this can carry away everyone. Imagine the children's amazement when they see a Z1 computer dating back to 1941! The Technical Museum also includes the Spectrum Experimentarium, Planetarium and Observatory.

The quiet halls of the Pergamon Museum are for those interested in history. Here you'll find unique exhibits discovered by archaeologists in ancient states. How does a small picture in a textbook compared to the original of the richly decorated Ishtar Gate or the Miletian Market Gate? Also awe-inspiring is Pergamon's large panorama, which shows how the city lived more than 2000 years ago. It's not just the buildings and details of life in Pergamon that are reproduced, but even the sounds: the crowds in the marketplace, the cicadas singing in the suburbs.

The final day of the itinerary is a Day of All-Time Pleasure. For example, you can head to the outskirts of Berlin in the morning for a trip to the tropical islands. The reason, of course, is not global warming but the Tropical Islands water park, located under the enormous dome of a former airship hangar. How pleasant to plunge into eternal summer, lie on a sandy beach under the canopy of palm trees, dive into the azure water of the pool or swim in a waterfall.

Children will enjoy the separate shallow pool with lots of safe and fun activities, while older guests can enjoy exhilarating chutes, saunas and spa treatments. A pirate boat ride will appeal to all ages.

To replenish the energy spent on entertainment, you can (once) replace lunch or dinner with a bar of chocolate. The three-storey Ritter Sport chocolate shop is located in the heart of Berlin.

The multicoloured, square packages of famous chocolates in display cabinets, boxes and display cases are a source of confusion even for those who are relaxed about this exquisite delicacy. But the most exciting thing is that any visitor can turn into a confectioner right in the shop, create their variety of chocolate and create an original wrapping. Such a bar of chocolate would make a great souvenir.

We're sure you and your kids will love the friendly, gift-giving Berlin! Choose, plan and travel with the kids! And if you're still undecided about where to stay, look at our list of family-friendly hotels in Berlin where kids are welcome.