Berlin Day Trip

We took this fantastic 4 hour Berlin tour with Insidertour (our guide was Brian Bell). We learnt so much about the history of Berlin. A lot of the history specialty museums are made free by German government because they want people to learn and remember the history (e.g the SSS/gestapo museum near finance ministry and the holocaust museum under the Holocaust Memorial).

Brian Bell was hands down the best tour guide we have ever had (the best ... not one of ...). His theater background made him a great story teller and his passion/love for this city showed through clearly. He was extremely knowledgeable too and answered any question with lots of historical artifacts. We were planning to leave the tour early because 4-hour is quite long but we stayed till the very end.

If you love chocolate, this chocolate store is a must visit in Berlin. The second floor of the store is a cafe where you can sample some of the chocolates from downstairs or try declicious deserts made of (well you can guess it) chocolate!

Cool brunch spot on the "5th Avenue" of west Berlin. This came highly recommended from a local friend. Food was surprisingly good as its Yelp rating is just ok. So sometimes you can’t fully trust the reviews/ratings :).

We met up with some local friends in this glass beer house right along the canal. It seemed like a popular spot among the locals as we had to wait a while to get a table.

Cosmo Mitte is a centrally located hotel. It’s walking distance to Museum Island and a few other top sites so it’s a good base to explore Berlin. It’s also part of SPG if you have got some points to spend (which is not obvious from its brand).