A gift for a friend who recently moved to Berlin?

October 18, 2019 10:48 AM

I'm looking for a gift for a friend of mine who recently moved to Berlin, Germany. What's a good gift for someone who is new to Berlin (coming from the USA)?

I'm a big fan of train travel, so my thought was a gift card for DB/Deutsche Bahn. It doesn't look like they offer such a thing, but maybe a BahnCard discount card would be a good gift, although I'm not sure how easy it is for me to order one for someone else, or if it is really that useful for traveling. Open to any other ideas that people have!

posted by wikipedia brown boy detective to Travel & Transportation around Berlin, Germany (8 answers total)

It is not easy to order one of those cards for someone else. It's not easy to order one for yourself if you live in the US. When I bought one, they tried to bill me for a second year and I didn't get the bill so it went to a German collections company, I had to wire money twice to a company that was almost impossible to get in touch with, and it was about as fun as it sounds. This was a couple of years ago, so I'm not sure if anything's changed.
posted by beyond_pink at 10:58 AM on October 18, 2019

And to follow up with some ideas!

Museum pass - access 30 museums, valid for 3 days
Gift certificate for the Vabali Spa (spa with beautiful grounds, sauna, etc. - 40 euros gets you in for the whole day)
Gift voucher for a food tour by Fork & Walk
GiftingOwl gift certificate for various city tours
posted by beyond_pink at 11:33 AM on October 18, 2019

Before my next trip, I want to get myself a copy of 111 Places in Berlin That You Shouldn’t Miss. I flicked through it at the airport as I was leaving last time and it looked to be full of slightly off-the-beaten-track places.
posted by penguin pie at 1:38 PM on October 18, 2019

Following on the Berlin idea, a year long museum pass is very nice. Not just because it makes it free to visit museums, but also because you can skip the lines at most of them. The 50 EUR version is probably the right one; the 25 EUR museum has very limited times. It covers most of the big museums in Berlin, those run by the government.

Much more prosaic is a monthly Berlin transit pass. The 81 EUR one is probably the right choice.
posted by Nelson at 2:17 PM on October 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

A massive Costco jar or two of generic aspirin. When I was there (granted, over a decade ago) they told us that aspirin was crazy expensive due to Bayer still owning the patent.
posted by bink at 9:13 PM on October 19, 2019

There are trial BahnCards that are for three months. You could send the friend money and have them order it themselves. Make sure they know they have to cancel it at least 6 weeks before it runs out, or it'll be renewed for a year.

Here's a link to the BahnCard page in English.

And a more detailed page about the trial options.

If the person is under 26, the options are cheaper.
posted by starfishprime at 1:37 AM on October 20, 2019

If you’re tech savvy at all set them up a VPN to your network for watching US Netflix or other region-locked content. You should obviously be in the same page about what they can/should do through that connection. I gather Germany is very locked-down internetwise re online streaming etc. Or buy them x months of VPN access.
posted by J.R. Hartley at 9:22 AM on October 20, 2019

I really enjoyed the Berlin graphic novel by Jason Lutes; it details life in Berlin between WW1 and WW2 with a meticulous approach to the artwork and storytelling.
posted by JDC8 at 10:42 AM on October 20, 2019