Unusual Things to Do in Berlin – 7 Off-the-Wall Experiences

Whether you're looking for a way to clear your head after a few museum visits, you'd like to explore beyond the classic attractions, or you'd just like a break from the tourist crowds, here are seven of our favourite unusual things to do during your stay in Berlin.

There's a whole other Berlin below the city's streets. Guides at Berliner Unterwelten (Subterranean Berlin), located in a former air raid bunker at Gesundbrunnen station, take you through the vast network of passages built by the Nazis, into haunting Cold War fallout shelters or to tunnels dug by East German citizens attempting to escape to the West under the Berlin Wall.

The immense Tempelhof airport terminal was built under the Nazis in the 1930s – World War II prevented it from being even larger. After the war it was a flashpoint in Cold War history as the Americans used it to bring supplies to the city to break the Soviet blockade, but with time, the airport was no longer suited to modern air travel, finally closing in 2008. A referendum saved the airfield from redevelopment, and today Tempelhofer Feld is a vast park for Berliners. You'll encounter them walking their dogs, flying kites, tending their urban gardens, cycling or skating the former runways, or just enjoying a picnic. The field is also a prime vantage point for epic Berlin sunsets.

During the wild years of the 1970s and '80s, West Berlin was a magnet for adventurous artists and musicians looking to immerse themselves in the city's hedonism and unrestrained creativity. One of them was Bowie, who arrived in the mid-70s. Berlin Music Tours take you to his favourite Berlin haunts, including the legendary Hansa Studios, where he recorded seminal works, among them "Heroes". As well as the David Bowie Berlin tour, there are also excursions tracing the steps of Depeche Mode and U2, plus the music scene of former East Berlin.

It's hot and you're wondering, "Where can I chill in Berlin?" It might be surprising, but the city is blessed with several idyllic lakes, so swimming and soaking up the sun is not such an unusual thing to do in Berlin. The Strandbad Wannsee in the west has over a kilometre of pebbly beach backed by modernist 1930s changing sheds. In the east, the Müggelsee is Berlin's largest lake, with three official bathing areas, and is usually less crowded.

The communist German Democratic Republic ceased to exist after East and West Germany were reunified in 1990. The DDR Museum, opposite the Museumsinsel, gives you a taste of what everyday life was like behind the Berlin Wall, in a host of interactive, hands-on exhibits. Relax in the living room of a typical '80s Plattenbau apartment, recreated down to the smallest retro detail, or sit behind the wheel of a real Trabi, the pride of East German automotive engineering.

For a much darker insight into the workings of the GDR, visit the Stasi Museum, located in the perfectly preserved former headquarters of the feared East German secret police.

• DDR Museum: Vera Britain Ufer, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 1, 10178 Berlin.
• Stasi Museum: Normannenstraße 20/Haus 1, 10365 Berlin. You can take an English-language guided tour of the Stasi Museum at 3pm on Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Saturday.

This might not sound like such an unusual thing to do in Berlin, until you learn that "the quiet place" – das stille Örtchen – is a German euphemism for "toilet". And that's exactly what the premises of Burgermeister – the name's a play on the German word for "mayor" – used to be. Right under the elevated U-Bahn line at Schlesisches Tor station, a place that's anything but "quiet", this heritage-protected public convenience (the "Männer" sign attests to its previous incarnation) has been cleaned up and now serves up some of the best burgers in Berlin.

Want to go out in Berlin but you don't like clubbing? Kabarett has been a beloved art form in the city since the wild, heady days of the Weimar Republic in the 1920s. One of our favourite venues for cabaret in Berlin is the Bar Jeder Vernunft, steps from the Spichernstrasse U-Bahn station in Wilmersdorf. Here the crème de la crème of German and international acts perform chansons, comedy and more in the glittering, magical setting of a turn-of-the-century mirrored tent.

Berlin is irreverent, inspiring and in a constant state of flux. Venture away from – must-see – tourist hotspots like Kurfürstendamm, the Brandenburg Gate or Alexanderplatz into spirited, unconventional neighbourhoods like Kreuzberg, Neukölln or Friedrichshain and exceptional Berlin travel experiences will come to you – if you let them.