Berlin is full of great things to see and do. You might start a Berlin Mini Break exploring its WW2 history, before moving onto the Cold War and division of the city by the Berlin Wall. You could visit the museums on Museum Island or soak up the art and culture on offer throughout the city. Visit the Reichstag (German Parliament) to marvel at its stunning cupola and viewing platform before strolling through the Tiergarten. However, if you’re looking for things to do in Berlin beyond the main sights, here are 3 great ideas.
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Take a Trabi Safari in an East German icon
Trabant (meaning ‘companion’ in German) was a series of cars produced in East Germany between 1957 until 1991, affectionately known as ‘Trabis’. They were small, inexpensive, and very popular cars in East Germany performing a key role in the lives of its citizens, including attempts to escape to the West (if you visit the Mauermuseum at Checkpoint Charlie you can learn more about this).
You can book a Trabi Safari for your Berlin mini break on Get Your Guide and drive one of these iconic cars yourself. There are several different tours to choose from of different lengths (75 minutes or 215 minutes).
Once you’ve checked in at TrabiWorld Berlin for your tour, you can practise your skills on the Trabi simulator before squeezing into the tiny, and very basic, interior of your allocated car. Breathe in!
We were asked to get into line with the other Trabis on the safari, ready to drive in convoy around the streets of Berlin. Then we were asked to test our radios which we would use to listen to commentary and driving instructions from our guide in the lead vehicle (“Watch that clutch car number one, you shouldn’t need to rev that much!”).
Each car was painted a different colour, and so the convoy of Trabis made quite an eye-catching sight on the roads. As a result, my lasting memory of the trip was of people jumping into the road in front of us to take photographs of the Trabi convoy. Whilst the route took us past many key sights in town (the Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, Wall Museum, East Side Gallery), the real experience of this tour was about experiencing the car rather than seeing the sights!
Driving the Trabi was a surprisingly physical experience – less than responsive controls and no air con so we had to drive with the windows open as it was so hot. The radio communication was patchy so that we only caught every other word – all fine until we came to traffic lights which changed and separated the convoy. Cramped interior so it was a relief to get out and stretch our legs at the end of the tour, BUT all that said, we wouldn’t have missed the experience as it was highly memorable (maybe for all the wrong reasons) and brilliant fun!
Travel out of town to Teufelsberg
How Teufelsberg came about
For a less physical experience on your Berlin mini break, take a taxi ride out of town (25 minutes’ drive) to Teufelsberg in the Grunewald Forest at the western edge of the city. Teufelsberg, or Devil’s Hill, is a 115-meter hill made entirely out of rubble from World War II (bricks, stone, tiles, lintels), transported there from the city centre in trucks by the Nazis in 1945 until it became the highest point in Western Berlin. Transport of the rubble stopped when the Russian tanks arrived in Berlin.
Eventually the Americans recognised the usefulness of this artificial hill and from 1950s onwards, they erected antennas and radars, encased in domes like great white golf balls (‘radomes’), on its two hilltops for spying purposes. The American forces used huge dishes for intercepting and jamming radio signals and communications from the Eastern Bloc until the end of the Cold War in 1989.
The Allies left in 1991 leaving a disused American listening station on a ‘hill made of rubble’ offering spectacular views over the forest to the city. Over time locals entered the site through the fences and began using it for a site for graffiti away from the eyes of the police. The graffiti site became so extensive that it became an unofficial open-air street art gallery, before being formalised in 2014 and opened to the public.
What you’ll find at Teufelsberg
There are some small exhibition spaces near the entrance giving the history of Teufelsberg and the area. Then a short walk to the top of the hill brings you to a series of low-lying dilapidated buildings where every inch of wall space is covered with political murals and those expressing the wish for peace and hope.
As you walk around the back of the buildings you will see stairways leading 5 storeys up to the ‘golf balls’. Each level of the 5 storey building is filled with huge murals and graffiti.
One of the most striking murals on the site is ‘When David turned into Goliath’ which fills all 5 storeys of the building side. It features a female with black hair and boxing gloves looking defiantly at the viewer by Berlin Street Artist Akut (2022).
The radomes are metal frames partially covered in weatherproof material designed to hide which the direction the radars are pointing. Some of the material here is still in place, covered in graffiti, and some of the frames are exposed. You can stand inside the structures whilst admiring the views across the Grunewald Forest and beyond to the city.
Our teenagers really enjoyed the trip to Teufelsberg on our Berlin mini break as it ticked the Instagram photo box, whilst Richardo and I were interested in the history!
We visited Teufelsberg under our own steam in a taxi from the centre of Berlin.
Book a cycling tour for history on the move
My other suggestion for a fun activity on a Berlin Mini Break is to take a cycling tour on the city to learn about its history on the move. There is lots of choice for your cycling tour, such as this one on Get Your Guide:
We took a tour with Fat Tire Bikes which focussed on the history of the Berlin Wall. For more details, check out my blog 4 Different Ways To Learn About The Berlin Wall on a Berlin City Break.
Other suggestions:
For other ways to explore the main sights of Berlin, check out my blogs:
Follow This Berlin Easy Berlin Walking Tour (Self Guided) For An Introduction To The City or
Looking for Bowie in Berlin on a David Bowie Walking Tour (and boats!).
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