Beautiful little lake in Berlin's Tiergarten where you can sit in a beer garden next to the water…read moreand down some brew, or grab bite, and where you can hire little row boats and cruise out on the water. Be sure to bring your cucumber sandwiches, champagne and parasol for the boat ride; it's chill and distinguished at the same time :)

From the owner: Berlin Bootsverleih bietet bei einer Auswahl von mehr als 100 Booten für jeden Anlass das perfekte…read moreSchiff. Ob Partytour über die Spree, Floßtour über die Havel, Junggesellenabschied oder romantischer Urlaub auf einem Hausboot. Berlin Bootsverleih hat Berlins größte Auswahl an Booten und Schiffen.

Within hours of my arrival in Berlin, my travel companion deposited me along the River Spree with…read moreinstructions that I should take a boat tour while she did Bikram yoga. I felt not unlike a toddler left at daycare for the first time: where am I? where is she? will I ever see her again? After gaining assurances that the boat returned to the exact spot from which it left and that it did so one hour after departure, I purchased my ticket and went aboard. It was fall and the weather was still nice but starting to grow chilly. I walked to the open air deck at the top, admired the wooden chairs, and plopped down. Quickly, a menu appeared before me. You can get cocktails on this here boat. The boat took off and I was served by a very, very, VERY attentive waiter and I soon discovered why. I was the sole paying passenger aboard this boat. The waiter photo-bombed my selfies, posed for me, took my photo, asked for my Facebook address, inquired if I'd be receptive to a visit from him ... I was observing the bored German waiter phenomenon. A boat ride tour of the River Spree is a nice thing to do. It in no way prepared me to better understand Berlin's layout but that's understandable. The boat had a taped narration, first in German then in English, which I wound up paying no attention to. It seemed so unnecessary and impersonal for only me. Besides, I was busy being distracted by that waiter. It grew cold up top and I retreated below deck. The waiter followed. He took my hand and led me from the seat I'd selected all the way to a separate indoor seating area at the very front of the boat. If you want to sit inside, definitely head here before anyone else finds out about it as it affords a front facing view of everything you'll see. Obviously, advance tickets for such a tour were unnecessary. During more popular travel months, who knows? The tours run hourly and the boat holds many so getting aboard is likely not an issue. There are many such river tours offered by competing businesses. I liked this one for the style of the boat and the cocktails. Several photos posted by others here show boats, but they're not the boat you're on; they appear to be boats people viewed while touring. Before offboarding I learned that this river tour would be closing soon for the winter months. If you want a boat tour to yourself with 1:1 service consider heading here in mid-October.

This company is the worst company I have ever come across. The people running it are very rude and…read moreunprofessional. When we tried to check in, they turned up late and the boat was not equipped to host 9 people. We believed the boat could host 9 people therefore it should be equipped for 9 people. There weren't enough plates, glasses and mugs. The plates were dirty and clearly not ready for us even though they turned up late. For 3 weeks we experienced problems with the boat things were regularly breaking. There were continuous problems with the throttle, one of the winches didn't work from day 1 and the genoa furling drum was faulty. There was a sofa in the saloon which had some screws lose, so when we hit some rough weather the screws came out and the sofa moved across the floor scratching it. One of the cabins had bunk beds which quickly became nicknamed the 'deathbed' the top bunk sunk to a few inches from the person sleeping in the bottoms bunk. Clearly not very safe. Also, the spray hood had been ripped from the start. The genoa uv protector flew off when we were trying to furl it, with the faulty furling drum. On of the cabin windows was smashed by a wave causing water to flood the bed. During this rough weather we also realised that water flowed in through the hatches even when they were locked shut. On return of the boat we cleaned and got off the boat at the right time and a girl came on to check the boat. Firstly she kicked us off the boat so she could check which was completely dodgy. We felt like they wanted us off the boat so they could cause more damage and blame it on us. The girl was so rude and blamed us for anything she could. She came up with the most outrageous things: the steering wheel had leather around it and she said that we'd broken it as it came apart in the middle. So apparently that's not wear and tear?! She got on the boat and picked up a winch handle and said we'd broken it... She hadn't tested it with a winch so how did she know it was broken? Unless, it was broken before and she wants to blame it on us?! Apparently the window that broke was purposely broken by someone... It's about 2cm thick flexiglass. How can someone break that on purpose?! There's some scratches on the skirting board in the galley and that was us as well. We didn't go anywhere near the skirting board that would manage to scratch it. Surely that would be wear and tear of a boat that's chartered all summer. This woman clearly doesn't know the difference between wear and tear of a sailing boat that is taken out on the sea in conditions that can't be predicted certainly and actual damage caused by the crew. She also doesn't realise that the upkeep of huge boat is the responsibility of the owner, not the customer. If you're thinking about chartering a yacht with this company, DONT DO IT!! ITS THE WORST DECISION YOU WILL EVER MAKE. The people are not pleasant to deal with and will cause you more stress on your holiday than it's worth. And if you do choose to go with them, expect to be charged an arm and a leg for the upkeep of the boat.

From the owner: Yachtcharter & Segelreisen weltweit seit 1988 mit ca. 80% Stammkundenread more

Alex was a good tour guide and with great humor. She translated German to English throughout. We…read morewere very satisfied with the length and the information she provided. Like the fact that our boat had top glass cover as the weather was cold and a little rainy. Kept us warm and dry throughout the tour. She also made an effort to address each group in the tour. She was very personal.

We took this tour and it was amazing. Our tour guide Alex was very knowledgeable about the sights…read more It's totally worth the 12 it was very relaxing and just a break from the running around the sights and figuring out where to go. Alex was very nice and professional as well as funny. She speaks English and translated everything perfect. This boat is not open air. So if you're here during the winter months or it's raining it's perfect there's bathrooms and it's very comfortable.

Sehr empfehlenswert!…read more Die Bootsschule Lokal ist absolut top. Kathi und Marina sind zwei fantastische Frauen - kompetent, geduldig und super herzlich. Ich habe mich jederzeit gut aufgehoben gefühlt und kann die Schule nur empfehlen. Ich bin so begeistert, dass ich nächstes Jahr den SBF See (Motor) ebenfalls hier machen werde!

The most important information for obtaining a boat license is taught during the lessons. The…read moretraining with the boat was effective and successfully led to obtaining a recreational boat license.