Berlin is a fantastic city for museum lovers, and it's getting better every year.

See all museums at a glance

The legacy of a collection-crazy elite in the 18th and 19th centuries combined with the Cold War subsidies to establish impressive museums in both East and West Berlin has lead to the city's incredible cultural wealth. The city has over 170 museums, with some 25 (re)opened in the past 10 years, five in 2006 alone. There are museums dedicated to peace, war, medicine, GDR lifestyle, hemp, the Berlin Wall, watersports, boats, photos, film, Communist flats, sugar and bicycles – to name but a few.

It's not just the collections that attract millions of visitors every year – the setting in grand old houses, purpose-built palaces and modern pavilions make the museums themselves a collection of unique buildings. The significance of the museums for Berlin's tourism numbers is important, but there's not much conservation money to go around, and the upkeep and renovation of the many crumbling museums is very expensive indeed.

Ever since East and West reunited in 1991, Berlin has been reshuffling its collections. Some collections in West Berlin have moved to the city centre (part of East Berlin at the time), for example the Egyptian collection with Nefertiti's famous bust.

The most impressive project of all is the renovation of the UNESCO-listed Museumsinsel, the island in the Spree river that is home to five world-class, temple-style museums. After years of renovations, the grand Bode Museum on the tip of the island will reopen in late October, finally allowing the glorious sculpture, Byzantine art and numismatic collections to be admired again, all according to Wilhelm von Bode's original 'style room' concept where art is viewed as it was in the 19th century (visit the open days on 19-20 October, from 10:00-18:00). The Neues Museum on the island is still being reconstructed and will house the Egyptian collection, and the planned James Simon visitor centre will complete the project. What makes visiting museums in Berlin extra pleasant is the quality of the services offered.

Many museums will have English captions, leaflets or audio guides to help foreigners grasp the matter. The staff is knowledgeable about the art on show, disabled people have full access, and there's always good coffee and cake in the cafés. Compared to other Western cities, museums here are still quite cheap to visit, especially if you make use of one of the various reduction cards.

Now that autumn and winter is upon us, it's time to head into one of the museums you always wanted to (or never thought you would) visit.