Teenagers want plans that don't feel like a kids' day out. This list is for 13 and up: Cold War bunkers and spy museums, climbing gyms and ice rinks, towers with a view and day trips worth the train ride. It updates as we add places and events, so check back before the next free weekend.
Berliner Unterwelten leads guided walks through bunkers and tunnels beneath the city. The Dark Worlds tour starts behind a green door in Gesundbrunnen station and winds through a WWII air-raid shelter left as it was, full of wartime artifacts buried for decades.
Other tours visit a Cold War nuclear bunker and escape tunnels under the Berlin Wall. Talks are pitched at adults, which suits curious teens best.
A private museum about the Berlin Wall, open since 1963 beside the old border crossing. Its rooms hold the real things people used to get out of East Berlin: repurposed cars including an Isetta, a homemade hot-air balloon, a mini submarine and motorized hang-gliders.
The displays are mostly photos and text, so it suits school-age kids who already know some of the story.
The memorial runs 1.4 km along Bernauer Straße, where the border split the street in two. Rusty steel rods trace the line of the Wall, and markers show escape tunnels and spots where people died trying to cross.
From the viewing tower at the Documentation Center, kids look down into the last preserved stretch of the death strip, watchtower included. Best with school-age kids who know some of the history.
The glass dome on the roof of the Reichstag Building, home of the German parliament, has a spiral ramp that winds up around a mirrored cone to an open top. Kids can look down through the glass into the plenary chamber, then walk the roof terrace for views over the government district and city landmarks.
Audioguides on the terrace come in twelve languages, with a children's version in German.
The youth company of CABUWAZI Tempelhof, 18 young artists, performs a new circus production about wanting to be yourself and still belong. Solo and group acts on Chinese pole, aerial silks, straps, hoop diving, wire, trapeze and contortion show both the joy of freedom and the pressure of being left out. Directed by Jeele Johannsen.
Berlin's big New Year's Eve party turns the square in front of the Brandenburg Gate into an open-air dance floor, with DJ sets, drinks and snacks. This year's motto is "Yeah 27". It is a crowd at a famous landmark, so it suits older kids who are fine with loud music and a late night.
A hands-on history museum for kids and teens, run by the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district. Its main exhibition, Villa Global, is a house of 14 rooms, each furnished by a different Berliner, from a toddler to a grandmother to a rapper, with video interviews to watch.
An open studio and school-break workshops add crafts and making. It suits curious kids from about 10 into the teens.
Built on the former no man's land of the Berlin Wall at Potsdamer Platz, the museum traces spying from ancient ciphers through the Cold War to cyber espionage. Kids send Morse code, encrypt messages at a digital Enigma station, test secret inks in an agent lab and hunt for hidden bugs. The two-course laser maze gives each player one minute and an infrared video of the run.
Egyptian and prehistoric archaeology fill this Museum Island building. The Egyptian route leads from royal portrait heads to the bust of Nefertiti, and the lower level covers everyday life, the afterlife and the gods.
Upper floors hold Schliemann's finds from Troy, the Berlin Gold Hat and the Le Moustier Neanderthal. It suits kids who like ancient Egypt or treasure; toddlers tend to tire before the top floor.
The Computerspielemuseum traces video games from Pong and Computer Space to today, with more than 300 exhibits and many playable classics. Kids can try a 1980s-style arcade, game on old consoles in living rooms set up like the 1970s, 80s and 90s, work a giant controller, and browse the Wall of Hardware's 70-plus devices.
It suits kids who already play games; toddlers will find little to do.
Berlinale Generation is the Berlin International Film Festival's section for young audiences. Kids and teens watch features, documentaries and animation from around the world, often with filmmakers and their young stars in the room for questions afterward. Children's and Youth Juries, made up of young viewers, choose the winners of the Crystal Bears.
The Grunewaldturm is a 55-meter red-brick tower from 1899, built on the Karlsberg hill in the Grunewald forest as a memorial to Emperor Wilhelm I. Kids climb about 200 steps to a platform 36 meters up, with views over the treetops and the Havel, as far as Potsdam on a clear day.
The emperor's marble statue stands in the hall, and a restaurant terrace sits at the foot.
Der Kegel is a climbing gym built around a former bunker, now an 18-meter cone-shaped climbing tower on the RAW grounds in Friedrichshain. Around it sit 550 square meters of indoor and outdoor bouldering up to 4 meters, across every grade, plus a small roof terrace with a snack bar.
Rope climbing on the tower is lead-only with your own rope, so most families come to boulder.
Teufelsberg is a hill built from World War II rubble in the Grunewald, and on top sit the ruins of a Cold War listening station run by US and British intelligence. Its radar domes and walls now hold one of Europe's largest street art galleries, and a 360-degree viewing platform looks over the city.
Kids can follow a spy puzzle trail across the site, with a prize at the end.
The Humboldt Forum fills the rebuilt Berlin Palace with the Ethnological Collections and Asian Art on the top two floors, the BERLIN GLOBAL exhibition on the first floor, and a changing exhibition on the ground floor.
The Palace Cellar, Sculpture Hall and a Video Panorama sit alongside, and a roof terrace about 30 meters up looks out over Museum Island, the Brandenburg Gate and Alexanderplatz.
The DDR Museum shows daily life in East Germany through original objects visitors are allowed to handle. Kids sit behind the wheel of a Trabi driving simulator and walk through a furnished prefab apartment whose children's room is stocked with East German toys to play with.
Other rooms cover the Wall, the Stasi and a kindergarten corner. The Stasi section suits older kids more than toddlers.
Futurium is a museum about how people might live in the future, on the Spree between the main station and the Reichstag. The exhibition is split into three thinking spaces, human, nature and technology, full of interactive stations.
In the Futurium Lab, kids can craft, solder and program at hands-on workshops, and the rooftop Skywalk opens when the weather allows.
Teufelsberg is a hill built from World War II rubble in the Grunewald forest, topping out at 120 meters above sea level, the city's second-highest point. When snow falls, families sled and snowboard down its open slopes, which once had a ski lift and an official sled run.
The old run is now closed and partly fenced off. The abandoned US listening station sits on the summit.
Magic Mountain is a big climbing hall with roped walls, bouldering areas and an outdoor climbing garden. Autobelay stations let a first-timer climb without a partner after a short briefing at the desk.
Kids can start with a trainer-led taster session, climb alongside their parents in a family session, or join term-long kids training and holiday camps. It suits active kids who like heights.
Teenagers want plans that don't feel like a kids' day out. This list is for 13 and up: Cold War bunkers and spy museums, climbing gyms and ice rinks, towers with a view and day trips worth the train ride. It updates as we add places and events, so check back before the next free weekend.
Berliner Unterwelten leads guided walks through bunkers and tunnels beneath the city. The Dark Worlds tour starts behind a green door in Gesundbrunnen station and winds through a WWII air-raid shelter left as it was, full of wartime artifacts buried for decades.
Other tours visit a Cold War nuclear bunker and escape tunnels under the Berlin Wall. Talks are pitched at adults, which suits curious teens best.
A private museum about the Berlin Wall, open since 1963 beside the old border crossing. Its rooms hold the real things people used to get out of East Berlin: repurposed cars including an Isetta, a homemade hot-air balloon, a mini submarine and motorized hang-gliders.
The displays are mostly photos and text, so it suits school-age kids who already know some of the story.
The memorial runs 1.4 km along Bernauer Straße, where the border split the street in two. Rusty steel rods trace the line of the Wall, and markers show escape tunnels and spots where people died trying to cross.
From the viewing tower at the Documentation Center, kids look down into the last preserved stretch of the death strip, watchtower included. Best with school-age kids who know some of the history.
The glass dome on the roof of the Reichstag Building, home of the German parliament, has a spiral ramp that winds up around a mirrored cone to an open top. Kids can look down through the glass into the plenary chamber, then walk the roof terrace for views over the government district and city landmarks.
Audioguides on the terrace come in twelve languages, with a children's version in German.
The youth company of CABUWAZI Tempelhof, 18 young artists, performs a new circus production about wanting to be yourself and still belong. Solo and group acts on Chinese pole, aerial silks, straps, hoop diving, wire, trapeze and contortion show both the joy of freedom and the pressure of being left out. Directed by Jeele Johannsen.
Berlin's big New Year's Eve party turns the square in front of the Brandenburg Gate into an open-air dance floor, with DJ sets, drinks and snacks. This year's motto is "Yeah 27". It is a crowd at a famous landmark, so it suits older kids who are fine with loud music and a late night.
A hands-on history museum for kids and teens, run by the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district. Its main exhibition, Villa Global, is a house of 14 rooms, each furnished by a different Berliner, from a toddler to a grandmother to a rapper, with video interviews to watch.
An open studio and school-break workshops add crafts and making. It suits curious kids from about 10 into the teens.
Built on the former no man's land of the Berlin Wall at Potsdamer Platz, the museum traces spying from ancient ciphers through the Cold War to cyber espionage. Kids send Morse code, encrypt messages at a digital Enigma station, test secret inks in an agent lab and hunt for hidden bugs. The two-course laser maze gives each player one minute and an infrared video of the run.
Egyptian and prehistoric archaeology fill this Museum Island building. The Egyptian route leads from royal portrait heads to the bust of Nefertiti, and the lower level covers everyday life, the afterlife and the gods.
Upper floors hold Schliemann's finds from Troy, the Berlin Gold Hat and the Le Moustier Neanderthal. It suits kids who like ancient Egypt or treasure; toddlers tend to tire before the top floor.
The Computerspielemuseum traces video games from Pong and Computer Space to today, with more than 300 exhibits and many playable classics. Kids can try a 1980s-style arcade, game on old consoles in living rooms set up like the 1970s, 80s and 90s, work a giant controller, and browse the Wall of Hardware's 70-plus devices.
It suits kids who already play games; toddlers will find little to do.
Berlinale Generation is the Berlin International Film Festival's section for young audiences. Kids and teens watch features, documentaries and animation from around the world, often with filmmakers and their young stars in the room for questions afterward. Children's and Youth Juries, made up of young viewers, choose the winners of the Crystal Bears.
The Grunewaldturm is a 55-meter red-brick tower from 1899, built on the Karlsberg hill in the Grunewald forest as a memorial to Emperor Wilhelm I. Kids climb about 200 steps to a platform 36 meters up, with views over the treetops and the Havel, as far as Potsdam on a clear day.
The emperor's marble statue stands in the hall, and a restaurant terrace sits at the foot.
Der Kegel is a climbing gym built around a former bunker, now an 18-meter cone-shaped climbing tower on the RAW grounds in Friedrichshain. Around it sit 550 square meters of indoor and outdoor bouldering up to 4 meters, across every grade, plus a small roof terrace with a snack bar.
Rope climbing on the tower is lead-only with your own rope, so most families come to boulder.
Teufelsberg is a hill built from World War II rubble in the Grunewald, and on top sit the ruins of a Cold War listening station run by US and British intelligence. Its radar domes and walls now hold one of Europe's largest street art galleries, and a 360-degree viewing platform looks over the city.
Kids can follow a spy puzzle trail across the site, with a prize at the end.
The Humboldt Forum fills the rebuilt Berlin Palace with the Ethnological Collections and Asian Art on the top two floors, the BERLIN GLOBAL exhibition on the first floor, and a changing exhibition on the ground floor.
The Palace Cellar, Sculpture Hall and a Video Panorama sit alongside, and a roof terrace about 30 meters up looks out over Museum Island, the Brandenburg Gate and Alexanderplatz.
The DDR Museum shows daily life in East Germany through original objects visitors are allowed to handle. Kids sit behind the wheel of a Trabi driving simulator and walk through a furnished prefab apartment whose children's room is stocked with East German toys to play with.
Other rooms cover the Wall, the Stasi and a kindergarten corner. The Stasi section suits older kids more than toddlers.
Futurium is a museum about how people might live in the future, on the Spree between the main station and the Reichstag. The exhibition is split into three thinking spaces, human, nature and technology, full of interactive stations.
In the Futurium Lab, kids can craft, solder and program at hands-on workshops, and the rooftop Skywalk opens when the weather allows.
Teufelsberg is a hill built from World War II rubble in the Grunewald forest, topping out at 120 meters above sea level, the city's second-highest point. When snow falls, families sled and snowboard down its open slopes, which once had a ski lift and an official sled run.
The old run is now closed and partly fenced off. The abandoned US listening station sits on the summit.
Magic Mountain is a big climbing hall with roped walls, bouldering areas and an outdoor climbing garden. Autobelay stations let a first-timer climb without a partner after a short briefing at the desk.
Kids can start with a trainer-led taster session, climb alongside their parents in a family session, or join term-long kids training and holiday camps. It suits active kids who like heights.
