Have you ever wanted to drink and be able to drive around? Then beer bike Berlin! And good news – beer biking in Berlin is even legal.
We had a few days in Berlin and were also celebrating Jennifer’s birthday, so we were looking for something fun and different to do. We came across Beer Bike Berlin and it seemed like a great way to celebrate as well as see some of Berlin’s sights. We gathered up a group of our travel blogger friends and spent two hours laughing, pedaling, and drinking with Pete of Hecktic Travels, Peter Parkorr of Travel Unmasked, Emma, Michael of Go, See, Write, Steph of Why Wait to See the World, and Mike (they all have awesome blogs so go check them out!).
Basically the beer bike is a rolling bar pedal-powered by you and your friends. The sober guide (though I think I’d need to be drinking to do this job) sits in the middle and steers while everyone else enjoys some beer from the tap. There is also an on board stereo with MP3 hookup for your iPhone so can rock out to your own music. If you forget your music (like we did), they also have some music with hits from the 80’s and 90’s to play.
The beer bike can hold up to 16 people and you need at least a group of seven to power the bike. We choose the 2 hour tour on the bike and had a group of 8. They do limit you to 10 liters of beer per hour, but I think most would find that is plenty. Our group just managed to float the mini 10 liter keg on our two hour tour, but it was also 30 degrees and started snowing on our way back. (We had to drink fast; our guide told us the beer could have froze!) Is beer not your thing? You can also get some hot Glühwein if you order it in advance.
Our two hour tour brought us through many of Berlin’s historic sights and our guide gave us the history behind each of the buildings or monuments. I enjoyed the quick stop for pictures at the Brandenburg Gate. The gate is the last remaining one from the original 18 gates. It was heavily damaged during WWII, but was patched up after the war. It also underwent a €6 million renovation from 2000-2002. Everyone wanted to pose for pictures with the us and the beer bike at the Gate, including a bride who was incidentally missing her groom.
Beer biking is great for stag parties, bachelor parties, or just anytime you want to enjoy an afternoon with a group of friends. While you may snap a few photos of your own while on the beer bike, I guarantee it’s not as many as will be snapped of you while you beer bike Berlin . Believe me, the beer bike gets some attention! Every street we pedaled down we instantly became the center of attention. We did race a Porsche at one intersection, but unfortunately we weren’t able to keep up even with the traffic and utilizing the bike lane.
Jenny says
I’ve never seen anything like this…what fun! It’s not surprising that everyone was taking photos of you!
Jennifer Dombrowski says
It was funny because a couple people said “Oh don’t do a beer bike. Such a cheesy, touristy thing to do!” Well, that may be but sometimes it’s fun to be a cheesy tourist and our group had a lot of fun.
Peter Parkorr says
Thanks again for inviting me on the Beer Bike Jen! And it was great to meet (and drink with) you Tim. The beer biking was actually a lot less dangerous than I thought it would be, and it was great fun. Even the cheesy tunes from the 90’s went down well! 🙂
Jennifer Dombrowski says
Really glad you could join in the fun, PP! I wasn’t entirely keen on the cars whizzing by behind us, but the beer made me quickly forget that part.
Michael says
This was surprisingly a lot of fun!
Also that’s an awesome group shot of us!
Jennifer Dombrowski says
It did end up being a lot of fun, which had a lot to do with the company. 🙂 So glad you and Steph could join in the fun!
Cathy Sweeney says
This is legal? Very cool. The hubby and I would love to do this — next time, I guess. I hope that bride found her groom, by the way.
Jennifer Dombrowski says
Haha! With all the construction going on in Berlin, we were often biking in the car lane. The looks on people’s faces, especially tour buses that would get stuck behind us, was priceless!
Adam says
Can’t believe you did that in winter! You all must be crazy.
Jennifer Dombrowski says
I think the others all must like me a lot to agree to beer bike in the freezing cold. And when it started snowing halfway through, we definitely qualified as nuts.
Leigh says
Now there’s a concept though they would never allow that in Canada. Great idea though- and so is limiting the amount you can drink. Looks a tad cold. Mulled wine might have been even better.
Jennifer Dombrowski says
We were hoping for mulled wine but didn’t realize we had to order it in advance. We did ask how many people fall off the beer bikes. Surprisingly no one has fallen off yet, but many possessions have been lost en-route.
Andrea says
And you guys did it in the cold! Awesome =)
Jennifer Dombrowski says
All the other beer bikers were stag parties, so us girls that went are hardcore biking in the snow! 😉
Andrew says
We have a Beer Bike in Freiburg too. I see it around every so often, but have never tried it. It really does look like a blast. 30E always seems steep enough to not get many people interested.
They are in a lot of German towns. We saw a bunch of women on one in Frankfurt main square try to run down a stag party of guys before their driver hit the brakes.
Jennifer Dombrowski says
Interesting there is one in Freiburg also. Admittedly, I don’t know much about Freiburg.
It was a really fun way to see Berlin, though the company makes or breaks it I’m sure. We had an awesome group!
Hans Couwenbergh says
Aha, they have the beer bikes in Berlin as well. In Belgium you will also find them in some cities! Very enjoyable read: thanks!
Hans Couwenbergh says
Start to see more of these in Belgium as well. Still a great story!
PB says
Seem like a nice time, and as you wrote before, sometimes it’s nice just doing cheesy touristy stuff (but just sometimes :)^
Jennifer Dombrowski says
Great lunch suggestions! We’ll hang on to these for our next trip to Berlin.
Ali says
We have this in Freiburg too and it looks like a lot of fun. There’s also a wine bike version. I’m not sure I’d want to do it when it’s as cold as when you were there, but I’d love to try sometime in the spring or summer.
Merlijn Boshuizen says
Hi Jennifer and Tim, I really enjoyed reading this story.
Have you ever been to Amsterdam? I have recently started a new kind of beer bike in Amsterdam: LimoBike.
LimoBike isn’t just a regular beer bike – it’s truly unique, designed and manufactured as the world’s only limousine party bike! The bike is entirely white with cool light alloys, stylish seats and has many luxury features that you would expect in a limousine (including a driver in full chauffer attire). In addition, the roof is detachable for summer cabriolet riding and each group receives a red carpet welcome!
We offer various themes like VIP Beer Bike, Bubbles Bike, Boogie Bike, BBQ Bike and many more. Ideal for stag / hen party, corporate party and teambuilding event. I hereby invite you and your blogger friends to come to Amsterdam and have a free ride. Check out our site: http://www.limobike.nl and give me a shout 🙂
Merlijn says
Hi Jennifer and Tim, I really enjoyed reading this story.
Have you ever been to Amsterdam? I have recently started a new kind of beer bike in Amsterdam: LimoBike.
LimoBike isn’t just a regular beer bike – it’s truly unique, designed and manufactured as the world’s only limousine party bike! The bike is entirely white with cool light alloys, stylish seats and has many luxury features that you would expect in a limousine (including a driver in full chauffer attire). In addition, the roof is detachable for summer cabriolet riding and each group receives a red carpet welcome!
We offer various themes like VIP Beer Bike, Bubbles Bike, Boogie Bike, BBQ Bike and many more. Ideal for stag / hen party, corporate party and teambuilding event.
I hereby invite you and your blogger friends to come to Amsterdam and have a free ride. Check out our site: http://www.limobike.nl and give me a shout 🙂
Jennifer Dombrowski says
Hi Merlijn! A limo barbecue bike sure does sound fun! We did make a quick trip to Amsterdam a few months ago, but we definitely need to go back. We’ll get in touch if we’ll be visiting.
Travelling Monk says
Whenever I travel in Europe, I have seen these crazy contraptions as my wife would call them and while I sort of feel like they are only for the stag and hen do crowd, if I had a few german beers in me I may just give it a try. thanks for posting, any idea if they are still on the streets in 2015?