The first time I visited Berlin, in the early 1960s, there were few families vacationing in the divided city. The Berlin Wall had just been built, and the few tourists who ventured across East Germany to Berlin toured the beleaguered city in organized motor coaches — and there weren’t many of those.

At the time, West Berlin stopped at the Brandenburg Gate, where a concrete wall, ribbons of barbed wire and DDR guard towers made sure no one left or entered the communist territory of East Berlin. In 1989, the city was reunited, and automobile and pedestrian traffic now flows both ways through the iconic 18th-century Brandenburg Gate. Thousands of bikers stream through and around it as well on their way across town.

For those who remember the Wall, it is still a miraculous feeling to pedal through the former “no man’s land” around the Brandenburg Gate; younger Berliners and bicycling tourists enjoy the flat and spacious area around the monument, where the atmosphere is festive, night or day.

I have been to Berlin often, alone or with friends and family, and upon arrival we always head straight for Berlin on Bike (Knaackstrasse 97, tel 49 30 4404 8300, www.berlin onbike.de/english), where we rent bikes from the friendly and helpful staff. Unless snow is covering the ground, biking around Berlin is the best way to really see the city, and age is irrelevant. Most of the city is very flat (great for older legs), protected bike lanes parallel the main roads (perfect for kids), and bike trails meander through all of Berlin’s parks and forests and along its many waterways (the city has more square miles of designated “green” areas than any city in Europe, a bonus for all ages). One of the most interesting bike trails in the world, the Berlin Wall Bicycle Trail, follows the original footprint of the Wall, with informative historic markers, maps and photographs along the way.

Two summers ago, when my younger brother, Robbie, was living in Bavaria, we met in Berlin for a few days and rode bikes throughout the former East Berlin neighborhoods, stopping for a beer at the outdoor patio at Nola’s am Weinberg, a casual restaurant/café overlooking a park. It is located on one of the few small hills in the city, but pedaling up the nearby streets was easy — Berlin may have lots of wild-looking countryside tucked into its concrete, urban fabric, but you can ride for hours without encountering a strenuous incline.

My daughter, Risa, biked with me in Amsterdam (another bike-friendly city) when she was 9 years old, but likes riding in Berlin better. “It was rainy and cold in Amsterdam in July, and the cobblestone streets were slippery,” she says now, 10 years later, after enjoying a few warm, summer days biking around Berlin in T-shirt and shorts. “In Berlin, around every corner, there is always a story to be told.”

While riding down Rosenthalerstrasse, we saw a small sign on the front of an older building that read, “Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt” (tel 49 30 2859 9407), which turned out to be the small workshop where German businessman Otto Weidt protected blind Jewish Berliners during the Holocaust, employing them in his broom and brush factory and hiding them in a back room when soldiers checked the premises. Everything has been restored, and the photographs tell the sad yet heroic details of the period.

Bicycles are great for exploring the out-of-the-way places in former East Berlin neighborhoods, where tiny museums and bookstores fight for sidewalk space with trendy restaurants, art galleries, clothing boutiques and music clubs. Since reunification, the eastern side of Berlin has been rejuvenated, with dazzling modern architecture; beautifully restored historic buildings; and quirky, privately owned businesses whose owners are living out their own personal fantasies, like the café/museum/art gallery/bookstore devoted to the rock group the Ramones (Krausnickstrasse 23).

Cyclists can also enjoy Berlin’s leafy suburbs by bringing bikes on the extensive U-Bahn and S-Bahn city transit system. These surface and underground trains are fast and efficient; and the system offers visitors several types of adult, child and bicycle fare packages.

Bicycles are everywhere in Berlin — flying around the modern Potsdamer Platz on weekend afternoons; slowly gliding through the vast Tiergarten, Berlin’s Central Park; parked outside the Reichstag, where tourists visit the Norman Foster-designed glass cupola atop the building; rolling along the Kurfurstendamm, the main commercial artery on the western side of Berlin; even wheeling by the beautiful 18th-century Prussian palace of Sanssouci in Potsdam, a 30- to 40-minute S-Bahn ride from downtown Berlin.

The grande dame of bike trails, however, is the 96-mile Berlin Wall Bicycle Trail route around West Berlin that follows the original East German fortification constructed during the 1960s. Most families biking around Berlin do parts of the trail, which is divided into 14 individual sections, each between four and 12 miles long. Bicyclists and walkers can rent mini GPS devices which allow them to follow the trail as it deviates around streams and dead-end streets or through crowded neighborhood shopping districts. Along some parts of the trail, bits of the Berlin Wall can still be found, partly hidden in the underbrush or as small blocks of concrete in a children’s playground. Although a good stretch of the original Wall remains in a few places, most of the concrete barrier has been dismantled, presenting a challenge for bikers to try to locate the remaining pieces.

With so many adults enthusiastic about riding the Berlin Wall Trail, children are excited about it as well, and it is common to see kids in backpacks riding the trail behind their parents. If the downtown trail section gets too crowded, use the trains to access outlying sections like the route from Hermsdorf to Wollankstrasse, where north of a stream known as the Tegeler Fliess the trail leads to the 13th-century village of Lubars, the only remaining village within the Berlin city limits, a bucolic environment that seems far from bustling downtown.

Bicycles have proven so popular in Berlin that there are now more than 30 bicycle rental outlets in the city, mostly in the eastern section or near the family-friendly Zoological Garden in the west. There are also hundreds of three-wheeled pedicabs (rickshaw-style taxis), often used by older visitors who want the experience of biking through Berlin but whose legs are not up to the task. Families with small children like the all-weather enclosure that surrounds passengers.

According to the Berlin Department for Transportation and Urban Development, more than 780 miles of city streets have parallel bike paths; additional urban and suburban bike routes are planned. The Berlin Wall Bike Trail has become a popular activity for Berlin families as well as visitors; for detailed information on the various segments of the trail, visit www.berlin.de/mauer/mauerweg/index/index.en.php.

Info To Go

Tegel Airport (TXL), five miles from central Berlin, has frequent buses ($2.80; 20 minutes) and taxis ($25) to downtown, as well as rental cars. This airport will close when the new, much larger Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport (BBI) is scheduled to open in June 2012 about 12 miles southeast of the city. The modern glass and steel Berlin Central Station offers high-speed rail service to the rest of Europe. Visit www.germany-tourism.de.

Lodging

Arcotel John F Berlin
Named for President John F. Kennedy, this 190-room hotel is near attractions in the eastern neighborhoods. Its Foreign Affairs restaurant has a German/Austrian menu. Werderscher Markt 11, tel 49 30 40 5046 $$$

Cosmo Hotel Berlin Mitte
This member of Design Hotels offers high-tech guestrooms with goose-down duvets and 32-inch flat-screen TVs; the restaurant features Chef Ottmar Pohl’s aroma cuisine. Spittelmarkt 13, tel 49 30 5858 2222 $$$

Amano
This stylish boutique in the Mitte neighborhood has a summer roof garden, free Internet, on-site bicycle rental and a trendy bar. Auguststrasse 43, tel 49 30 809 4150 $$

Dining

Nola’s Am Weinberg
The 1950s-era East Berlin café has an outdoor patio. It specializes in Swiss cuisine, but the German-style business lunch is delicious. Veteranenstrasse 9, tel 49 30 440 40766 $$

Pasternak
This Russian/Jewish restaurant in Prenzlauer Berg offers everything from blini and thick soups to salmon caviar; indoor or outdoor seating is available. Knaackstrasse 22/24, tel 49 30 441 3399 $$–$$$

Restaurant Florian
This unassuming, upscale restaurant, in business for 25 years, offers fresh flowers, white tablecloths and friendly staff to translate the menu. Reservations are required. Grolmanstrasse 52, tel 49 30 313 9184 $$$