Experience sexy Berlin — on a budget

updated 4:26 p.m. ET Nov. 12, 2008

BERLIN - If you show up in Berlin strapped for cash, you're in good company. The German capital's sizable student population, high unemployment rate and swelling starving artist contingent makes penny-pinching a citywide obsession.

This is, after all, the city that has not only been dubbed one of the hippest in Europe because of its raging nightlife, plethora of museums, independent art galleries and concert spaces, but it's also known for being wracked with debt. So much so that in 2003 Mayor Klaus Wowereit lent it the accidental slogan: "We're poor, but sexy."

Getting around: The BVG, which operates the trams, subways and buses, can whisk you from east to west Berlin for euro2.10 ($2.65). It's a real bargain when you consider the lengths East Berliners once went to. A Berlin Welcome Card provides 48- or 72-hours of unlimited travel on public transportation for euro16.50 ($21) and euro21.50 ($27), respectively.

Of course if the weather's favorable, and you need to burn off the beer belly you acquired in Munich, Berlin is incredibly bicycle-friendly, with bike lanes on most major thoroughfares. Bike rentals tend to go for about euro12 ($15) a day throughout the city. Plan your route here. Another option is the super-budget bike hire from Regenbogenfabrik, from just euro5 (about $6) a day.

Famous places

East Side Gallery: This brief stretch of the Berlin Wall along the River Spree features famous murals by international artists and has sadly suffered more recent additions by taggers (Warschauerstrasse S-Bahn).

Reichstag Dome: The glass dome atop Berlin's Parliament building offers dazzling views of the city, for free, and an opportunity to gawk at Germany's law makers below (S-Bahn Unter den Linden).

Schloss Charlottenburg/ Sanssouci Grounds: If your less-than-royal status leaves you unwilling to pay the palace entrance fees, you can still loll in the lovely parks for nothing and pretend it's your backyard (U-Bahn Sophie-Charlotte Platz/ S-Bahn Potsdam).

Herbert Knosowski / AP file Tourists walk past one of the most famous paintings of the East Side Gallery. This brief stretch of the Berlin Wall along the River Spree features famous murals by international artists, and has sadly suffered more recent additions by taggers.

Tiergarten: Get happily lost among the hundreds of trails sneaking through the park, which all seem to lead to the gleaming Victory Column in the center where President-elect Barack Obama enthralled a crowd of some 200,000 people back in July as he sought to burnish his foreign policy credentials. The trip apparently worked. Around dusk you may even spot a fox or two, and a few hours later, packs of white-booted prostitutes (it's legal in Germany) (U/S-Bahn Tiergarten).

Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedaechtnis Kirche: This bombed-out church makes no attempt to hide its scars — the contrast of its decapitated steeple and the serene stained glass of the new chapel are sobering testaments to the city's ongoing struggle to deal with the wounds of World War II (U-Bahn Wittenberg Platz).

City tours: New Berlin Tours offers free citywide walking tours that leave from Brandenburg Gate at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The S-Bahn's elevated East-West Route through the city (S5, S3, S7, S75) is a great way to take in the sights from a seated position.

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