The best way to get to know Berlin - a walking tour

It is now possible to take a range of amazingly different kinds of English-language tours in Berlin ; there are almost 30 in total!  Outside of the English-speaking world there can hardly be a better choice of historic walking tours. This is all thanks to the fact that Berlin ’s history is so momentous and that the sights in the centre are more or less within walking distance of each other. Public transport is excellent and, best of all, the city is nowhere near as crowded as say, London or New York where the walking tour industry also thrives.

You can take one of the free walking tours of the city with New Berlin Tours and Brewers Berlin Tours  or you can pay for a guided tour with one of the longer-established tour companies, Original Berlin Walks or Original Insider Tours .

The free tours say they work hard for their tips while the paying tours say they prefer to pay their guides a wage! You take your pick. What is certain is that all the tours promote their guides as native English speakers with a passion for the history of the city.

The range of tours on offer begins with general history tours which cover the main sights in Mitte (the old centre of town in former East Berlin ). You can expect to cover the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Wall, Hitler's bunker, Holocaust Memorial, Museum Island, Checkpoint Charlie  and a great many other sights on these introductory tours. Others on the Third Reich, Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, and Cold War /Communist Berlin and Potsdam are offered by all or most of the tour companies.  

It’s a little difficult initially to tell each company apart since they appear to offer similar programmes; however on closer inspection there are some distinguishing features:

Brewers Berlin Tours also offers a popular 8 hour walking tour of the main sights; a “Sinful Berlin” tour which sounds scintillating (!) and Trips with Terry, the former Royal Navy man who founded the company.

Original Berlin Walks appeals to the history-hungry tourist, has pioneered many of the historic themes listed above and now runs 11 tours in total including unusual ones such as “ Berlin , Nest of Spies”, Jewish Life, World War II cemeteries and New Architecture.

New Berlin , in addition to its free tours, also operates hugely-popular pub crawls as well as a free bike tour. The company is represented in other capitals throughout Europe and is clearly making a hit with the backpacking fraternity.

Original Insider Tours are also big with the younger traveller and in addition to their themed tours and the pub crawls that they introduced to Berlin , they offer a bike tour to Potsdam . Uniquely, Insider also runs a beer and sauerkraut tasting tour.

The English-speaking tourist to Berlin who wants to explore the city on foot is spoilt for choice  - make the most of what's on offer!