Product Description

As Berlin is laid out on an epic scale, this travel guide is organized so that you can take in as much of the city as possible. It will guide you to all of the interesting monuments, museums and art collections Berlin has to offer, as well as giving you ideas for family fun and where to go shopping. The maps, photographs, detailed illustrations, the 3-D aerial views of Berlin's most interesting districts and a huge selection of hotels, restaurants, shops and entertainment venues makes this guide the ultimate travel guide.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27132 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Turtleback
• 352 pages

Customer Reviews

an idea source more than actual guide
First of all, be warned that this book is a "2006" edition, which probably hasn't been updated since 2000 (see review by Marco). I got the book being aware of the issue, and treated it as a source of ideas of what to do and see around Berlin (it being my first time in the city). In this capacity, I enjoyed the book immensely. It gives great background on Berlin, and supplies plenty of ideas for what places to go to, and what to notice when there.

You just cannot rely on the listed opening hours to build your itineraries, so if you have a place you *must* visit, double-check its hours on the web (example: nowadays Potsdam palaces are open from 10am-6pm April to October, and 10am-5pm Nov to March). However I never felt being "confused" or "misled" by directions and descriptions of where everything was. Except you HAVE to get an up-to-date map of the train system (or check the ones at ticket machines, as other people mentioned).

Finally, (even though I'm being redundant) do not attempt the suggested itineraries on p10-11! The "culture" looks especially frustrating because it has you wandering back and forth three times between Unter Der Linden and Checkpoint Charlie Area for no good reason... Just sit down with a map, and in 5 minutes you'll have a better plan.

The worst DK guide out there
I hate the thought of writing a bad review for a DK Travel Guide - they are by far the best travel guides available. But I feel I have to warn everyone about this one. There's always at least one bad apple in the barrel, and I've found the 'bad apple'.

First up, the good things. The background, history and descriptions of all the buildings are typical DK - first class, and better than every other guide out there. You can get the background story to the city and its art and architecture before you arrive.

I took the 2008 edition away with me to Berlin in April 2008. You'd expect up-to-date information, wouldn't you? I agree that some things do change; opening times change, museum regulations change etc. BUT - so many things change in a single city, in such a short time since this updated version was written?

I ended up missing so many things due to this book's wrong opening times to so many museums. Here are just a few things that happened -

- It states that all museums are closed on Mondays, and I arrived on a Monday at 9:30am. So I took my time spending the day wandering around the city. At 4pm I had a look at the Pergamon Museum, and saw its open on Mondays. I found that there are many museums open on Mondays. I could have spent a large chunk of my first day in one of the museums.

- I missed the Picture Gallery at Sanssouci because this guide stated the wrong closing time, even though I had paid for entrance to it.

- I lost a lot of time, in the first 2 days there, getting lost on Berlin's train system because the plan at the back of the book is wrong in so many places. Lines aren't shown, wrong line numbers are shown, several lines now go further than shown in the guide. Use the maps on the ticket machines.

- I wasted 2 hours traveling to a combined bookshop/art gallery that is a massive department store at the stated address. After this, I stopped relying on the practical information giving about anything.

- I nearly missed the magnificent Gemaldegallerie (Picture Gallery) in former West Berlin because the guide stated that photography isn't allowed inside. (One of my criteria for visiting a museum is to take photos.) I went there to visit the gallery's bookshop, and discovered that photography IS allowed, just without flash - and I should hope so! Luckily I went to the gallery's shop first things in the morning.

As another reviewer has already said, the 'Four Great Days In Berlin' suggested intinaries on page 10 and 11 would be impossible to do. The writer of this small section obviously has never done their own itinary. How can anyone take a 1 hour train journey to Wannsee, then walk for an hour in the forest to an art gallery, then walk further on to a lake, then take a boat trip on the lake to an island, then walk around the island, then get back to the train station to take the train to Potsdam, to 'enjoy the lovely Park Sanssouci ...' All this in the morning before lunch! (I spent an entire day at Park Sanssouci.) If anyone follows their itinaries, they wouldn't see anything at all - their trip to Berlin would be a huge blur in their mind.

Clearly DK have just reprinted the first edition of this guide, dating from 2000, and are passing it off as a newly revised edition for 2008. There is no way that entire buildings can be changed and train lines extended in the space of a few months since this newly revised guide was 'revised'. (Not even the efficent Germans could manage that feat). I have no idea what errors are in the restaurant and hotel areas of this guide as I didn't use them.

I have always used DK Guides whenever I travel, and will continue to do so. They are the market-leaders in travel guides. But my experiences with this one will make me very cautious in future. I'll be double checking the practical information given in all their guides in future.

* Just treat this guide as a book written in 2000 - don't trust any opening times or other practical information.

Excellent
It's an astonished travel guide. Well printed book, excellent routes for walking, pictures full of color for informing what excactly are you going to see. As all the travel giudes of DK editions, this one is best choice for visiting a place, too.
The pictures, the historical events, the places descriptions, they all are also souvenoirs to reminds you, your pleasant travel to a place.