Berlin or munich

My family and I want to travel for a week to Berlin or Munich. We like to go to a city, with good transportation system, huge historical and modern buildings to see, with lot of thinks to do for at least a week. (We are not going for clubbing and also don%26#39;t like smoking places). Berlin from pictures looks just wonderful with lot of history, a beautiful zoo, huge modern and historic buildings, parks e.t.c. However we have read in some reviews that the city is not like the pictures, that is a dirty city full of graffiti, with old ugly buildings and people asking for cigarettes and pickpocketing and drunk at nights. How real are all these? Is Berlin suitable for us? Can you recommend me the city which is better for us? Thank you.

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I think that almost any large German city will meet your needs, you might like to choose one based on the cheapest airfare and also whether the hotel rooms have their prices greatly raised by large events such as trade fairs.

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I have lived in Berlin and have visited Munich many times. I think if you want an opportunity to get around easily, see a little of the %26quot;typical%26quot; (really Bavarian) atmosphere, with historic palaces and an interesting old town as well as the modern, then Munich would be a good choice. That said, Berlin is also full of history, though now much more modern and edgy. For earlier history, one can visit Frederick the Great%26#39;s Sanssouci Palace and the rest of Potsdam, as well as Charlottenburg Palace.

Both cities have good public transportation (U-Bahn). I find Munich easier to get around in simply because the major sights are more easily located. Berlin is quite spread out. You don%26#39;t mention scenery: Munich is located close to many attractive day trips in or near the Alps or the Danube. Berlin is on a flat plain--not the %26quot;typical%26quot; scenery visitors think of when planning a first trip to Germany.

Both cities have many fascinating museums if that interests you. You can%26#39;t go wrong with either choice; just research on TA or in a good city guidebook like Insight Guides and come to your own conclusion!

Cheers, L.

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Berlin does have a lot of graffiti (some %26quot;artistic%26quot; some not)and some run-down old buildings alongside the new. It also has impressive public buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries esp. in Mitte district as well as Charlottenburg Palace and of course there%26#39;s also all the 20th-21st century stuff.

What I%26#39;ve not noticed as a problem is pickpockets (and living in Barcelona I am well aware of the scale of the problem here); people do walk around carrying beer bottles and yes there are the odd drunks but I wouldn%26#39;t let that put you off.

As mentioned already, Potsdam also has plenty of sights for a day or two incl. an attractive Old Town as well as the palaces, Russian colony etc. Spandau has an attractive Old Town and impressive citadel and is easily reached by S-Bahn too.

I think this question Berlin vs Munich came up fairly recently so you could look in forum search for other contributions.

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