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Berlin hotels

Overview                    Prepare                    Get Around                    Highlights

Hotels in Berlin have one common selling point - they are great value, even in the five star class - and they also have a reputation for being spotless, even when they are budget hotels. Berlin hotels provide accommodation at all levels, from luxury hotels to the cheap and cheerful, and are a fantastic base from which to explore this dynamic and enthralling city.

 accommodation at all levels, from luxury hotels to the cheap and cheerful.... 

Those who are sightseeing will want to find a hotel in the central Berlin area - Friedrichstrasse and Alexanderplatz are good examples - which gives easy access to most of the main sights of the city. Given Berlin's history, it is not surprising that most of the hotel provision is contained in the west side of the city. There is a new train station, where new hotels are planned, and development of quality places to stay continues unabated. Popular locations for Berlin hotels include the districts of Pankow, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf and Freidrichshain-Kreuzberg. Cheaper hotels are generally found in the areas that made up the former East Berlin.


Cheap hotels in Berlin are best sourced using our price comparison before booking in advance to reserve your room and rates.

 

Overview

Overview

The 20th century began and ended right here in Berlin. The German capital knows how to look backward and forward at once, how to roll up its sleeves and how to kick up its heels, how to remember and how to renew. Shaking off its heavy past, today Berlin is fast-changing, lively and fun.

See

Downtown Berlin is about Germany's triumphs and tragedies, with the Reichstag parliament building, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and the Brandenburg Gate all within walking distance. Nearby, find Checkpoint Charlie – a remnant of the Berlin Wall – and the Jewish Museum, both signposts of the city's recent history. Sprinkled in between are the architectural marvels of the new foreign embassy buildings, which symbolise the hope of a born-again city.
Spend

You're guaranteed to go home with something you didn't even know you wanted. Berlin's obsession with novelty means the best in shopping here is in the scruffy, boho neighbourhoods like Mitte, Nikolaiviertel, Prenzlauer Berg and the emerging Friedrichshain. The best shops get by on a mix of charm, idiosyncrasy and original concepts.
Get Out

The rigours of winter make Berliners avid outdoor types. In the middle of the city is the Tiergarten, the city's vast green lung. In the south-east, the city's largest lake is Müggelsee, where bathers can escape the summer heat.
Culture

The Berliner Philharmoniker is one of the world's great orchestras. Its Philharmonie home is in Mitte, where the Berliner Staatsoper (state opera) is also based. Equally highly rated is the Deutsche Oper Berlin in Charlottenburg. For something more contemporary, Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichshain are dotted with live music venues, featuring everything from decadent Weimar-era cabaret to post-punk noise-art.
Eat & Drink

Go for classic downtown A-list favourites or sample the delicious Turkish flavours of Kreuzberg. With trendy Mitte and innovative Prenzlauer Berg in between, Berlin's restaurant, café and bar scene is so diverse and changes so fast it doesn't get a chance to grow stale. Ethiopian one year, Eritrean the next, Berliners draw on the world for culinary inspiration.
New Perspective

Take a ferry along the River Spree and see Berlin from below street level. Or admire the vistas from inside the glass dome on the historic Reichstag building.

Prepare

Prepare

Bring your history books to get the most out of Berlin's fascinating past. Take your wide-angle lens to capture its architectural jewels on film. Pack your thermals and woollies in winter, and your bicycle helmet to explore using pedal power in the warmer months.

Berlin Year

See the best the film world has to offer at the Berlin International Film Festival (or Berlinale) in February. Take to the street with pride of the gay and lesbian variety on Christopher Street Day in June. Celebrate Berlin’s cultural richness at the Carnival of Cultures in May/June, and click your fingers to the swing of November's JazzFest Berlin. Get into the Yuletide season at one of the Weihnachtsmärkte (Christmas markets) in December.
Public Holidays

New Year's Day (1 Jan), Good Friday (Mar/Apr), Easter Monday (Mar/Apr), May Day (1 May), Ascension Day (May/Jun), Whit Monday (early Jun), Day of Unity (3 Oct), Christmas Day (25 Dec), Boxing Day (26 Dec).
Weather

Winters – though often mild – can chill to the bone when the Russian wind blows in from the north. Temperatures range from 5°C to around -4°C. Summers are delightful. Warmth of around 30°C isn't unknown, but generally it stays between the mid-teens and mid-20s.
Electricity

230V AC, 50 Hz, European two-pin plugs are standard.
Dialling Code

+49 (national), (0) 30 + seven- or eight-figure number.
Money

Euro (€) is the currency.
GMT

GMT +1
Berlin Tourist Info

Visit Berlin website

Fit In

Dress for the kind of Berlin you want to connect with. There's business Berlin, highbrow Berlin, designer Berlin, carefree Berlin, party Berlin and decadent Berlin. Berliners love novelty and idiosyncrasy, so this is one city where you can take some wardrobe risks.

Get Around

Get Around

Berlin's 3.4 million inhabitants live in a cluster of neighbourhoods, each with its own strong sense of identity.

Having been two cities for much of the latter half of the last century, Berlin's sights are spread out. Luckily they are connected by a highly developed and user-friendly transport system.

In downtown Berlin, find the top attractions, along with upscale hotels, restaurants and department stores. In the south, Kreuzberg is a bustling slice of the Middle East, and the centre of the city's Turkish migrant population. Schöneberg in the south-west is the beating heart of the gay and lesbian communities. In the west is palatial Charlottenburg, while to the east is fashionable Mitte and bohemian Friedrichshain.
S-Bahn and U-Bahn

It's best not to think of Berlin's train and underground rail networks as independent of each other, because they're so seamlessly integrated. Operating from 4am to past midnight, there are 15 S-Bahn and nine U-Bahn lines. Maps of the system are readily available and display the network as a simple whole.
Bus

In addition to the rail network there's the bus system. Buses are not as quick, but at least they're comfortable. After midnight they operate every half hour for the price of a regular ticket. Tickets are sold on board and stops are marked with an 'H'.
Bicycle

As soon as you arrive in Berlin - at least in the warmer months - you realise the city has an ongoing love affair with pedal power. Cyclists are everywhere and getting around on two wheels is the best way to enjoy the city when the weather is right, especially in the green spaces of the Tiergarten. Bikes can be taken on ferries and trains.
Tram

One of the legacies of Berlin's split is its tram system, which exists only in what used to be the eastern part of the city. The network of 22 lines, all servicing the east, is one of the few infrastructural survivors of that period and recently underwent an extreme makeover of sorts, with sleek new yellow trams replacing their rickety old ancestors.
Ferry

Although ferries ply Berlin's waterways, they're a minor public transport option. They are, nevertheless, an excellent way to discover the city from new angles, and a great means of getting to Wannsee lake.
Transport Tips

Ticketing on Berlin's various public transport services is fully integrated, which means you can use the same ticket on S-Bahn, U-Bahn, bus, tram and ferry services. The 48-hour, 72-hour or 5-day Berlin WelcomeCard includes all transport. Buy in advance online or at the airport. Just remember to validate your ticket at one of the machines before travelling!
Time Travel

The crypt under the ornate Berlin Cathedral includes the sarcophagi of many of Prussia's blue-bloods, including the greatest Prussian of all, Frederick the Great. The nearby Berliner Fernsehturm – the iconic Communist-era telecommunications tower – makes for a neat historical contrast.
Berlin Transport Link

Berlin Public Transport Authority (BVG) website

Highlights

Highlights

No city better encapsulates history's sudden shifts than Berlin, but the city is as much into renewal as it is about learning from the past.

Begin your visit with the iconic attractions: the Brandenburg Gate, symbol of the Prussian might that turned Berlin from a provincial to a world capital. Nearby is the Reichstag, symbol of the city's paradoxical history, with its fascinating grafting of the new on to the old – a metaphor for the whole city. The golden angel atop its pillar, known as the Siegessäule, officially commemorates a military coup, but unofficially symbolises the city as a whole.

Further afield, Alexanderplatz is a monument to the broken promise of East German socialism. The Mauermuseum at Checkpoint Charlie mythologises one of the city's most famous flashpoints as the spot where East Germans tried to escape into the West. For a moving experience visit the Jewish Museum, as fascinating for its Daniel Libeskind-designed jagged structure as its wealth of information on Jewish culture.
Sightseeing Tips

Many of Berlin's finest museums are conveniently bunched together in Mitte, on what is known as Museumsinsel (Museum Island), overlooking the River Spree. You can buy a combined ticket. If you're in Berlin on a Thursday, consider setting it aside for museum-hopping; many Berlin museums offer free entry on that day, even if only for the afternoon.

Content provided by Frommer's Unlimited © 2009, Whatsonwhen Limited.



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