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Bike Rentals & Bicycle Tours around Berlin |
Getting Around by Bike
Bicycle Rental
Berlin's biggest selection of rental bicycles:
Call a Bike |
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Limited Supply of Cycle Hiring Opportunities
Tourists as well as Berliners who do not have access to a bicycle must rent one to explore the capital by pedal power. But they do not yet have a huge choice. Only 14 bicycle rental services are available. They charge about €10 a day.
A list of Berlin bicycle hire companies (in German) is published by the German bicycle association, ADFC. An article on bike renting in Berlin appeared in the daily Berlin newspaper (taz; in German) on 29 March 2005 (free retrieval until at least 31 October 2005).
Many suppliers have fewer than 10 bicycles to offer. The market leaders are Deutsche Bahn's (DB AG) Call a Bike with a fleet of 4,200, available from spring to autumn inside the S-Bahn loop, and Fahrradstation (in German) . |
Although Call a Bike logged 23,000 rentals in 2004, compared to 18,000 in 2003, bicycle hiring accounts for a minor share of cycling. It is estimated that on a normal summer's day fewer than 1% of all bike trips are on rented wheels. However, Berlin Tourismus Marketing has observed a trend to exploring the city on a rental bike among young travellers.
New Ideas for a Better Rental Supply
The possibility of returning a rented bicycle at various destinations is so far only offered by Call a Bike . The scope of bicycle types leaves much to be desired. The bikes of the DB AG affiliate are only made for downtown rides. They are too heavy for long trips and have inadequately cushioned suspension.
Other major European cities enable their visitors to explore their sights and attractions for free. Copenhagen has had 1,500 bicycles posted at fixed borrowing stations for the past eleven years. In 2004 almost 30,000 riders made just under 100,000 journeys on the CityBike Vienna (in German) fleet, offered nearly all year and almost everywhere in Vienna.
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Velotaxi - one of several cab services in Berlin |
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Taxis - Rental Bikes with a Chauffeur
A very special cab service is provided by Velotaxi . As many as 80 velotaxis circulate from March to October between noon and 8 p.m. on four regular routes covering Kurfürstendamm, Tiergarten, Unter den Linden und Potsdamer Platz. |
Guided Tours
The German bicycle association ADFC has been offering guided bicycle tours through Berlin and Brandenburg for many years. In 2005 it organized almost 500 day trips, tours over several days and study excursions with the help of over 60 experienced tour guides. The tours aim to give the ocassional cyclist a love of the two-wheeler. Bikes & Tours 2006 (in German) , put together in collaboration with S-Bahn Berlin GmbH is also available as a brochure from ADFC (in German; in ADFC bookshops or by mail order with an advance payment of €1.44 in postage).
ADFC is by no means the only bicycle tour company. zweirad.touren (Tours on Two Wheels) and Berlin on bike specialize in helping you discover Berlin by bike and the bicycle hire company Fahrradstation (Bike Station; in German) also organizes guided tours.
FAT TIRE BIKE TOURS - BERLIN Our bike tours were designed with the English-speaking traveler in mind (we are American-owned and -operated). After years of conducting bike tours in Berlin, Fat Tire Bike Tours has become one of the largest bike tour companies in Europe. As opposed to offering bike tours as an afterthought to a different core business such as promotional tours, walking tours, or bus tours, we focus narrowly only on what we do best: great bike tours!
Self-Guided Bicycle Tours
For leisure cyclists who prefer to go it alone, there is an enormous range of books and maps to choose from. Publishing houses, transport companies and Berlin newspapers produce specially-designed bicycle tours which include information on trip length and duration, places worth visiting and how to get there and back. We have only listed a number of publications here. For more information, we recommend you have a look in any good bookshop.
Die S-Bahn excursion flyers (in German) can be downloaded from the Berlin S-Bahn website. Maps for leisure cyclists (in German) can be purchased and ordered from the Transport Association Berlin-Brandenburg (VBB).
In 2003 and 2004, the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel brought out "Radpartie ins Grüne", a series of bicycle tour maps which has since been published in book form by the Nicolai publishing house. In 2004 the Berliner Zeitung also published a supplement containing cycling routes, which it expanded in 2005 with five new maps
The long-distance routes to Copenhagen and Usedom both begin at Schlossplatz in Berlin Mitte. The tour to Copenhagen currently leaves from Spandau. In 2005-2007, the stretch from the Reichstag to the bathing area "Badestelle Bürgerablage" in Spandau will be extended. Details of the long-distance Copenhagen route can be found on the long-distance bicycle tours website or by contacting ADFC Brandenburg (in German) . Brandenburg ADFC (in German) and the website of Reiseland Brandenburg (in German) provide information on the Berlin Wall route, the Berlin-Usedom long-distance cycling tour (in German) and on many other bicycle tours through Brandenburg .
The cycling tour Wannsee-Route RR1 , the first of 20 routes in the Senate cycling tour network which has been running since spring 2005, comes highly commended. A leaflet containing information on the Wannsee route can be ordered here free of charge (in German) .
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You'll never lose your bearings with a Berlin cycling tour map |
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Handy Tips for Organizing Your Own Cycling Tours
The Senate Department for Urban Development's Map of Cycling Routes and Facilities and the Berlin city bicycle map (in German) , published by the ADFC, offer a helping hand to the more independently-minded cyclist.
To plan your own route, just go to the website of the Transport Management Headquarters, VMZ Berlin , or to ADFC BBBike (in German) . Put in your starting point and your desired destination and you will automatically receive several recommended routes. |
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