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Berlin is a city that has always drawn people who see the world differently, a magnet for creatives and visionaries. Across the city, no stone is left unturned. Underused mall parkades become beer gardens; public bathhouses become boutique hotels; wartime bunkers become art galleries; airport runways become picnicking and kite-surfing spots. Restaurants are tucked into dark alleys, behind unassuming doors and within inner courtyards. Over the course of this carefully curated tour, we’ll visit sites that longtime residents may never have laid eyes on—and of course, enjoy plenty of delicious food and drink along the way. Skirting the city’s traditional tourist sites in favor of its hidden wonders, immerse yourself in a lesser-known Berlin.
Arrive in Berlin and check into Hotel Oderberger. Now a spunky boutique hotel filled with art, the Oderberger was originally built in 1898 as a public bathhouse. It survived WWII unscathed, and guests can still swim in the original art deco pool. This evening, we'll meet in the hotel’s Fireplace Lounge for introductions. We’ll take a brief historical tour of the premises before heading to dinner, where we'll raise a glass to the adventures that await us.
Hotel Oderberger, Berlin
Welcome Dinner
We’ll travel by train about 40 minutes beyond the city limits to visit a huge, abandoned hospital complex, originally designed as a sanatorium and later used as a military hospital during both world wars. After lunch, we’ll make our way back into the city to learn about the Geisterbahnhöfe (Ghoststations). These stations were created as a solution to a subway system that crisscrossed two countries during the Cold War, when Berlin became divided. At the time, East Germany barricaded and closely guarded or booby-trapped certain train stations to prevent them from becoming escape portals to West Germany. As part of our tour, we'll explore original scale tunnel replicas while hearing about betrayed and failed tunnel projects, as well as the two most successful and spectacular projects from the time of the Berlin Wall—Tunnel 29 and Tunnel 57. Take the rest of the afternoon to wander on your own or perhaps take a dip at our hotel before meeting back up for our private dinner in an unusual location. The remainder of the night is yours to get some rest or explore the city’s famous nightlife.
Hotel Oderberger, Berlin
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
After breakfast, we’ll set out for a private tour of "The Bunker." Originally built in 1942 as an air raid shelter, this historic structure has had many lives—as a prisoner-of-war camp, a textiles storeroom, a fruit storage facility, and later a popular techno club. The Bunker is now a beautiful 32,000-square-foot exhibition space housing a personal art collection. Next, we’ll enjoy lunch and a personal tour of Clärchen’s Ballhaus. Founded in 1913 by the businessman Fritz Bühler and his wife Clara, Clärchen’s Ballhaus has become a microcosm of history and an embodiment of the essence of Berlin. The late afternoon and dinner will be on your own tonight before we reconvene for some nighttime exploration: an after-dark tour of Teufelsberg (Devil’s Mountain), Berlin’s highest hill. Perched atop this hill you’ll find an abandoned NSA listening station, used during the Cold War and abandoned after the fall of the Berlin Wall. We’ll get a fascinating glimpse into Teufelsberg’s history and the city’s alternative subculture.
Hotel Oderberger, Berlin
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
This morning, we’re venturing underground at Berliner Unterwelten (Subterranean Berlin), home to one of the last remaining civilian air raid shelters in Berlin. An expert guide will take us behind an inconspicuous green door in a subway station; in the dark passages and confined rooms of the shelter, we’ll learn about the experiences of average Berliners during World War II. In the afternoon, we’ll visit a once-abandoned hospital that’s now a center for the arts, an underused mall parkade transformed into a beer garden, and a city cemetery that’s been turned into a community garden—witnessing how the city is being transformed by creatives and collectives. For dinner, our destination is Berlin’s most popular indoor street food market, the best place to discover what’s new and exciting on the local food scene. For those who still have energy to spare, we’ll wind down at the Holzmarkt. Built on a formerly languishing wasteland, it has evolved from a wooden shack serving as a dingy open-air techno club on the river Spree into a quirky urban oasis with restaurants, cafés, artist studios, and an outdoor beer garden.
Hotel Oderberger, Berlin
Breakfast, Lunch
This morning we’ll travel by subway to Tempelhof Airport for a fascinating glimpse into this symbol of Berlin's turbulent history. Built as an expression of Nazi ideology, Tempelhof is weighed down by a history of forced labor and weapons production. However, due to the important role it played in the Berlin Airlifts of 1948 and 1949, it has also come to stand as a symbol for freedom. Its empty main hall, restaurants, and cellars remain a photographer’s eerie dream. More recently, the runways and fields have been converted into a giant public park, while the airport building itself is home to one of the largest refugee shelters in the city. We’ll have lunch together before a free afternoon of independent exploration or, if you’d like, continue with your guide. There are lots of nearby spots to explore in the gentrifying NeuKölln neighbourhood, such as quirky art galleries, the weekly outdoor Turkish Market, a cargo ship-cum-swimming pool anchored in the Spree River, and a former brewery where you can now enjoy a delicious piece of cake among the giant copper kilns. We’ll gather back together for a farewell dinner—in a secret location where we’ll need to knock before entering.
Hotel Oderberger, Berlin
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Today, catch flights home or onto your next destination—or perhaps spend a few more days exploring Berlin. Our guide will be happy to provide additional recommendations. Until next time!
The cost of this trip is $2,625, based on double occupancy.
You’re in good company. Solo travelers typically make up about half of our small groups. With curiosity at the center of our experiences, there’s a natural camaraderie that develops over the course of a trip.
Due to the layout of the hotel we'll be staying at, twin rooms are not available. Solo travelers can have their own private room for a supplemental cost of $490. After booking your trip, please request a single room when you fill out your traveler information form and we’ll send a separate invoice for the cost.
Travelers should be comfortable walking between four and five miles over the course of any given day, and spending significant time outdoors. All transportation will be by foot or by public transit.
You should plan to arrive in Berlin by 4 p.m. on Day 1 and depart anytime on Day 6. We encourage you to extend your stay if this will be your first visit to Berlin, and are happy to help arrange extra hotel nights.
Situated in one of Berlin’s most beloved neighborhoods, the Hotel Oderberger is a hip hotel with a fascinating history. It first opened in 1902 as an art-nouveau public bathhouse and, following a forced closure in 1986, reopened in 2016 as a boutique hotel. It has managed to fully integrate its history into a modern aesthetic and offers all the comforts of a four-star hotel, including a fantastic in-house bar.
If this will be your first trip to Berlin, we recommend staying a few extra days before or after the tour to visit the more traditional tourist sites, which are not included in the itinerary. We recommend the Jewish Museum, the Berlin Cathedral, Kurfürstendamm, Charlottenburg Palace, Potsdamer Platz, Pergamon Museum, Grunewald Forest, Soviet Memorial, Alexanderplatz, the old Reichstag building, and the Gendarmenmarkt, among many others.
The travel industry is booming in Europe. If you’ve been to any tourist hotspots in the past five years, the crowds are all the proof you need. This trip is different; you’ll barely touch foot on the well-trodden tourist paths. Instead, you'll spend time in the lesser-known parts of Berlin, meeting with locals involved in the creative revolution of the city and visiting places that offer insight into the area’s history in an unusual way. Not only does your participation help fund the unique places surviving at the edges of mass tourism, but it also encourages you to see the potential for the creative transformation of spaces around where you live.
In September, daytime temperatures can reach up to around 80°F, dropping to the low 60’s in the evenings.
Most dietary restrictions can be accommodated, but please let us know in advance.