We offer guided tours with various themes for children from age 5 onwards, for teenagers and adults. The tours can be booked during opening hours – some selected tours are also available after hours. Find all our public tour options below or in our event calendar. Please note the information on booking conditions. Unless otherwise stated, prices do not include admission.
Highlights of the Exhibition
This overview tour focuses on the museum’s key attractions: the 13-metre-high Giraffatitan skeleton, the primeval bird Archaeopteryx, Knut the Polar Bear and the amazing biodiversity wall. A further highlight of this guided tour is a visit to the East Wing, showing the museum’s scientific wet collections.
- Participants: children from age 5, teenagers and adults
- Cost: for a 45 min tour in German €5.00 / reduced: €2.00, in English €6.00 / reduced: €3.00
- Cost: for a 90 min tour in German €10.00 / reduced: €4.00, in English €12.00 / reduced: €6.00
- Flat rate: for groups under 11 people for a 45 min tour in German €50.00, in English €55.00
- Flat rate: for groups under 11 people for a 90 min tour in German €100.00, in English €110.00
Dinosaurs and Fossils
150 million years ago, there were land-dwelling dinosaurs, ichthyosaurs hunted their prey in the sea and pterosaurs ruled the skies. This guided tour explains what the world of dinosaurs looked like many million years ago and what other animals and plants populated the Earth during that period.
- Participants: children from age 5, teenagers and adults
- Cost: in German €5.00 / reduced: €2.00, in English €6.00 / reduced: €3.00, for 45 min
Evolution in Action
Looking at examples including the primeval bird Archaeopteryx, lobe-finned fish, lungfish and the primeval horse Eurohippus, evolutionary processes and mechanisms such as selection, adaptation, convergence and homology are explained and discussed.
- Participants: teenagers from age 15 and adults
- Cost: in German €5.00 / reduced: €2.00, in English €6.00 / reduced: €3.00, for 45 min
Conservation of species and biodiversity
More plants and animals have become extinct in recent years than ever before since the end of the dinosaur era. This guided tour is focusing on what needs to be done to save endangered species such as giant pandas, tigers, rhinos and polar bears from the Tasmanian Tiger’s fate – a species now extinct since 1936. This includes also a debate on the possible contributions of each individual to the conservation of biodiversity.
- Participants: children from age 10, teenagers and adults
- Cost: in German €5.00 / reduced: €2.00, in English €6.00 / reduced: €3.00, for 45 min
Taxidermy at the Museum
The process of mounting animals can be followed step by step in the exhibition. Providing various examples, the guided tour shows how a taxidermy piece is prepared, details special techniques used while also presenting famous museum animals like Bobby the Gorilla and Knut the Polar Bear.
- Participants: children from age 6, teenagers and adults
- Cost: in German €5.00 / reduced: €2.00, in English €6.00 / reduced: €3.00, for 45 min
System Earth
Today’s diversity of species, but also the mass extinction of entire groups of animals, has been influenced by a number of factors. Populations were separated by the formation of mountain ranges or by continents drifting apart. Meteorite impacts are thought to be responsible for mass extinction events, while volcano eruptions also created new habitats for plants and animals. This guided tour explores the complex biological and geological interdependencies that influence the earth.
- Participants: teenagers from age 13 and adults
- Cost: only available in German €5.00 / reduced: €2.00, for 45 min
Minerals
The minerals gallery houses more than a thousand different types of minerals, including some precious pieces Alexander von Humboldt collected in Russia, as well as the rock sample in which Klapproth proved the existence of uranium for the first time. This guided tour explains the use of minerals in our daily lives, what their components are and how they are used in industry, engineering and technology.
- Participants: children from age 10, teenagers and adults
- Cost: only available in German €5.00 / reduced: €2.00, for 45 min
Special guided Tours
Urban Ecology and Climate Change
Outside the museum
Berlin is the greenest and species-richest capital in Europe. The urban ecology tour will introduce visitors to many such city-dwellers near the Museum and look at their adaptation to urban life. One particular focus of the tour will be the signs of climate change that are already visible and how they affect plants, animals and humans in Berlin.
- Participants: children from age 8, teenagers and adults
- Cost: in German €10.00 / reduced: €4.00, in English €12.00 / reduced: €6.00, for 120 min
- Meeting point: in front of the museum, the guided tour also takes place in light rain
After-work Tour
Guided tour after hours
Groups of 10 or more people can book on this exclusive out-of-hours tour of the museum. The special atmosphere of a natural history museum at night makes this tour a truly extraordinary experience. In addition to guided tours of the museum highlights, you can also book tours of special exhibitions or on specific topics of your choice.
- Dates: bookable between 6:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
- Participants: min. 10 to max. 50 people
- Meeting point: Portal III, right side entrance to the Museum
- Cost: in German €12.00 / reduced: €9.00, in English €15.00 / reduced: €12.00 (including admission), per person for 60 min
After-work Tour
Guided tour after hours with Drinks
Exclusive evening tours can be booked in combination with a one or two-hour drink reception. We offer a choice of water, orange juice, white and red wine. Unfortunately, we cannot offer food or allow food to be brought in.
- Cost: for a 2-h-programme per person (1 h guided tour + 1 h drinks reception) in German €20.00, in English €25.00 (including admission, no reduction)
- Cost: for a 3-h-programme per person (1 h guided tour + 2 h drinks reception) in German €30.00, in English €35.00 (including admission, no reduction)
Torchlight tours
Once the Museum has closed its gates, visitors sneak through the dark exhibition halls, torch in hand. On their search for the different animals of the night, they explore the museum's exhibitions. Don’t forget to bring your torch! Children must be accompanied by adults for safety reasons, maximum 2 children per adult.
- Participants: from age 8: Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays 6:00 p.m. / from age 10: Fridays and Saturdays 8:00 p.m.
- Cost: only available in German €15.00 / reduced €12.00 (including admission), for 90 min
Please note that torchlight tours only take place on the dates in our event calendar. Unfortunately, booking at other times or for groups is not possible.
Torchlight Tours for adults only
Once the Museum has closed its gates, visitors sneak through the dark exhibition halls, torch in hand. On their search for the different animals of the night, they explore the museum's exhibitions. Don’t forget to bring your torch!
- Participants: from age 16: Fridays and Saturdays 10.00 p.m.
- Cost: only available in German €15.00 / reduced €12.00 (including admission), for 90 min
Please note that torchlight tours only take place on the dates in our event calendar. Unfortunately, booking at other times or for groups is not possible.
The following programmes will soon be possible again:
Touch Tour Adventures for the Blind and Visually Impaired
We offer a variety of custom-made programmes for school classes and groups of adults with blind and visually impaired participants.
Touch Tour Adventure "Dinos & Fossils" (bookable again from 2023 onwards)
During the guided tour, children from age 6 learn how fossils were formed and what they can tell us about earlier forms of life. Ammonites, ichthyosaurs and real dinosaur bones can be explored by touch and the children can make a plaster cast of a fossil to take home. Group bookings only.
- Participants: children from primary one and teenagers, max. 6 people
- Cost: only available in German €4.00, accompanying persons free, for 120 min
After Hours Touch Tour Adventure (bookable again from 2023 onwards)
This touch tour gives participants the opportunity to get to know the Museum’s exhibitions at leisure and explore specimens such as fossils, minerals and mammal skulls by touch. Group bookings only.
- Participants: teenagers and adults, max. 6 people
- Cost: only available in German €7.00 (including admission), accompanying persons free, for 120 min
Guided Tours for People with Dementia
Celebrities from Berlin Zoo (bookable again from 2023 onwards)
Every month, we invite people with dementia and their families and carers to a special kind of guided tours, introducing Museum celebrities such as Knut the Polar Bear, Bobby the Gorilla and panda Bao Bao. Stories and anecdotes associated with these well-known favourites help participants to make an emotional connection, perhaps even inspire them to tell their own stories. The tour ends with a get-together over a cup of coffee, where sensory experiences take centre-stage. Hides of animals such as a lion can be explored by touch and various animal sounds guessed. The programme was developed in close collaboration with the Malteser Hilfsdienst e.V. and continually supported by members of staff of the Museum. Seats are available for the guided tour. All rooms and facilities are accessible for wheelchair users. Group bookings only.
- Dates: monthly, on a Friday, 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
- Participants: 6–10 people
- Cost: only available in German €9.00 (including admission, coffee and cake), accompanying persons free, for 60 min guided tour, followed by coffee and cake