went to Berlin with hubby and 2 teenage girls in September last year to watch hubby in the Berlin marathon, great fun (for us any way!!) as it finishes going through the Brandenburg gate.

Stayed at Holiday Inn at Humboldt Park which was great for Sbahn and also had a big shopping mall which was good for eating places and..shopping!! No problems with transport and the area is the Turkish area so lots of interest.

We visited the Zoo which the girls were smitten with as they could get so close to everything, checkpoint charlie museum (crowded), KeWaDe (amazing and fab food hall and ice creams in the roof garden), Topogrophy of Terror and an absolute must is the Jewish Museum.

Food wise we grazed but there is a great german cafe on Friedrichstrasse Station which sells fab bratwurst and fried potatoes.

If you go to starbucks at Brandenberg gate end of Unter den Linden they have really good little guide books for free and they promote all the local gigs etc and also a bar tour of Berlin which if you are without kids looked to be great fun!

I loved Berlin, hope you do too!!

Where is the best zone/region in Berlin to stay and does anyone have any hotels they would recommend.

Hi
I lived in Berlin for two years back in the 80's.
Although much has changed since (the wall coming down and the major rebuilding/updating) it remains a fantatsic city to visit.
I would recommend staying in the city centre, anywhere off the Ku'damm would be good, the UBahns and buses are clean, regular and go everywhere that you can imagine.
The Berlin Zoo is one of the best zoos in the world, definitely worth a full day, shopping is great but pricey on the Ku'damm, check the Unter Den Linden for other fab shops, see the Brandenburg Gate, climb the Seigersuller (spelling is dodgy on that one).
Spandau Prison was mostly demolished in the late 80's and early 90's but I believe they have left a small portion open as a museum.
Tegel airport is a lovely small airport built around a circular car park/bus depot, Schonefeld is much bigger and I don't know what it is like nowadays, it is much further out from the centre though so may not suit you.
Above all have fun.

Oh and Berliner Kindl (BK) and Schultheiss beers are lovely, eat currywurst from roadside stands and try the many types of schnapps - especially brombeer

I've been to Berlin 4 times and stayed here - http://www.hotel-schoeneberg.de/ everytime.

It's in a quiet sort of area, but there are plenty of bars & restaurants just across the street & 1st on the left.

I love the city and always have a great time there. For anyone wanting to do something different, you can get to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp quite easily by train, something which I would recommend, if you have time.

Looking at a break in Berlin in late may.
Found a hotel that seesm a bit of a bargain but not sure if its location is very central , good for bars , food and shoppong as well as the sights .
Also not sure what to expect from Berlin as a city break.

Olivaer Apart Hotel - 3* in Berlin

Konstanzer Str. 1, Berlin, 10707, Germany

Any info much appreciated

Berlin April 2006

Arrived Berlin Friday night about ten thirty on the Easyjet flight from Newcastle, not a bad flight, if not a bit noisy with 4 (yes 4) separate stag nights on flight.
Walked over to the train station and caught the S9 to Charlottenburg and walked the couple of hundered yards from there to the AKON Opera Hotel on Kufurstendam.

I've put a hotel report up for the hotel, suffice to say it was spot on, just what we wanted.

On Saturday morning we got up and went for breakfast on the 6th floor with a panoramic view of the Ku'damm.

Decided to spend Saturday getting our bearings, going to the tourist information office, shopping etc.., and finished it off with a wander around Savignyplatz.

We also got a three day welcome card, which is very good value if you are going to use the discount vouchers, if not just get a pass for the transport system.

Also discovered the Imbiss am Zoo next to Haagen Daaz near Zoologischer Garten station, serving the best currywurst in Berlin.

Sunday morning the weather started out quite nice so we set off to Schloss Charlottenburg for a walk around the grounds, of course after we'd been there about an hour it dulled over and looked like it would rain.
Not to worry, we thought we'd go to the Egyptian Museum, unfortunately it isn't where our guide book said it was anymore, its now on Museum Island so we went to Museum Berggruen instead, the guide book let us down there again, it stated there were paintings by Van Gogh and Picasso, plenty of Picasso but alas no Van Gogh, cant win them all.
We then jumped on the S Bahn to Hackescher Markt for something to eat and went to the Anne Frank Zentrum, its very similar to the exhibition in Amsterdam (only its all in German) however at the moment there is a special exhibition on (in English) about children who went into hiding in Berlin during the holocaust, it was very interesting.

Monday we went to had a wander from Alexander Platz down to Potsdamer Platz and then jumped on the bus to the zoo.

Some elements of the zoo were excellent, the big bears, the polar bears, the wolves etc.., however the tiger was a bit distressing, all it seemed to do was pace up and down in a cage, it wasn't in a compound which I wasn't keen on, and the elephants were all kept inside, which may have had something to do with the weather.

Monday we did Museum Island, we got the card for 12euro which gives you access to Altes Museum (where the Egytian museum is now) which was excellent, and the Pergamon museum (where you can see the Ishtar gate from Babylon and the enormous reconstruction of the pergamon alter from Turkey).
The card also gains you entry into the Altes Nationagalerie but we warned, they wouldn't let my partner take her handbag in, it isn't a big handbag and its been in museums all over The Louvre, The Rijksmusuem etc but they said it was too big, so we didn't go in.

Wednesday we were due to fly out of Berlin in the evening, so after a leisurly breakfast we walked up the Ku'damm to The Story of Berlin museum and spent a good couple of hours in there, it is basically what it says on the tin, with some very interesting interactive displays.

In the afternoon we went to the IMAX for a nice sit down so as we didn't get too knackered to travel home.

It was our third trip to Berlin, the previous 2 just being Friday to Sunday, and still there are things we want to do, so we may go back next Easter.

Looks like we made a good choice of hotel then! We picked Agon as it seemed to be in a great position. Never been to Berlin but we are going in September for a long weekend-husband is running the marathon. We have 3 full days but only 2 for site- seeing really. I like the idea of the bus tour first to get out bearings. We found this useful in Barcelona.

Thought I'd add my two penneth as my partner and I went out to Berlin for a few days in February.

We had a fantastic time staying in the Park Inn on Alexanderplatz (if you decide to stay there ask for a floor high up so you can see the whole of the city!).

We tried flying in with Ryanair from Stansted, but they wouldn't let us on the plane along with about 10 others even though we were an hour early (big argument ensued!). But ended up flying with Air Berlin about 40 mins after the Ryanair one went, the service was fantastic so they will be highly recommended. We flew into Tegel (I'd planned out the trip from Shoenfeld, so I had to come up with a contingency). The contingency plan was dead easy as it only took us 25 mins on the bus which stopped right outside the hotel.

After a little kip (we'd been up since 3am) we set off on a treck around to get our bearings. During which we found Checkpoint charlie, all the embassies! and brandenburg gate. That evening we were still pretty tired so ate in at the hotel and had an early night.

Beforehand I'd been recommended to go on a walking tour of Berlin with a company called Brewers Tours, it was an 8 hour walking tour, which meets every morning outside the Australian Ice Cream shop at Friedrichstrasse station. The tour was fantastic, being 8 hours we managed to cover a lot of ground and didn't use public transport once. The tour was in English (with an English lady called Victoria), her knowledge of the city was amazing, not only was she showing us sights but also stories as to their purpose, origination, history etc..... It wasn't just the main sites either, there were lots "off the beaten track". If you are going on a tour this is the tour to do, I cannot recommend it highly enough. http://www.brewersberlintours.com/index.php?sitecat=tour I think we were lucky, as it was February and snowing the group was small so we covered quite a lot of ground quickly!
That night I can't remember where we ate, but we ended up in a couple of bars recommended to us by Victoria off Oranienburger Strasse. One was a very rough looking place, but if you went down in the cellar (former air raid shelter!) the place was packed, and they had a live jazz band down there who were really just a group of mates jamming, but fantastic nonetheless. The other bar was quite studenty, but we were
enticed in by the fact that they served around 200 different beers!

On the Thursday we used the U-bahn for a trip out to the Olympic Stadium, we didn't have a guided tour but opted for the audio tour, which was very impressive. On the U-bahn back we stopped off at KaDeWe, which was an experience although for the sakes of the bank balance decided not to buy anything! We then jumped back on and the U-bahn and got off close to the Topography of Terrors, we spent a couple of hours there, and a couple of hours in the CheckPoint Charlie museum (which is a tad disorganised and repetitive!).
I think that evening we ate in a restaurant underneath Hackescher Markt station and had a few drinks in that area.

On our final day we decided to go up to the top of the TV tower and have breakfast at the revolving restaurant, which was great. We then set about finding a few places we'd been shown on the tour but couldn't spend a lot of time at (or couldn't get decent photo's because it was snowing so much on the tour!). We stopped at an amazing cake cafe/shop next to the Opera house and spent the rest of the afternoon before having to go and get our flight shopping.

The trip out of Berlin to Schoenfeld was dead easy, 1 train straight there, and thankfully an easy flight back with Ryanair (the last time I use them though!).

I couldn't recommend Berlin enough to anyone thinking of going, it's a fantastic place.

Good luck to all those going out for the marathon in September, I'm a marathon runner myself so know what it's like. PB's alround I think on a lightening fast course (if it's not too warm!)

sorry DerbyPaul
forgot to check this when I came back from holiday.
Great advice. The 8 hour walking tour sounds just what we need. Mind you, I think we had better get that done before he runs the marathon. Can't imagine it the day after! I like the tip about breakfast at the TV tower as well.

Just booked a weekend away in Berlin, staying at the Golden Tulip Hotel Park Consul. Think we will definitely do the 8 hour tour if we can as we're really only there for 2 days - any other recommendations.

We wanted to go to the egyptian exhibit but that will be over by then.

I'm really struggling with how to get the most of my weekend ( next week). We arrive at Tegel at 3pm on Friday. We have all day Saturday then its the marathon on sunday and we fly out 4pm on Monday. Sunday - can only plan from mid afternoon would have to be something that does not involve walking!! Any suggestions for a rough itinery would be welcomed! Also any restaurant recommendations?

Hi Fiona

We were in Berlin last weekend and it was fantastic. This is what we did.

Arrived late Friday night, caught the S9 (you can't go wrong with this train) to the hotel, so tired we stayed in and drank from the minibar!! Bottles of lager were only 1.95 euros.

Sat morning, hotel breakfast - lots of choice, hot and cold. Caught the train to Zoo station S9 again for 10 am. Right outside Zoo station were people with tickets for Berlin tours. It cost us 12 euros each and was approx 4 hours. These walking tours are absolutely the best way to get yourself quickly orientated with the city. They don't go too fast, but you do see all the major sights and get loads of info. They didn't drop us back at Zoo station but left us near to Friedrickstaff (spelling) street, we wandered off and had something to drink/eat in a German restaurant down one of the side streets.

Restaurant wise, the food over there is excellent and reasonably priced.

We then went back to our hotel and slept until 8 pm - we were just so tired. All we did that evening despite our plans to visit Alexanderplatz was to go again to Zoo station area and eat locally - again excellent food.

Sun - breakfast again but much more leisurely. We made a plan of where we wanted to visit again. We took the train to the station near museum island, took a boat tour from there which was nice and relaxing and there was lots to see. Maybe a boat tour might be suitable after the marathon.

We then toured the local bars by the river and went to the Egypt exibition, Brandanburgh gates etc. We basically just wandered around and revisited the places we wanted to spend more time at from Saturday. We rested in the park and peopled watched for quite a while as well.

About 8 pm we caught the train back to the airport.

All in all we had a great time, Berlin seems more like a town than a city and we felt extremely safe. We will definitely go back.

We have some info/map from the Berlin tour and also a booklet - if you want me to send you these, let me know by PM.

thanks for that. The boat tour sounds absolutely right for us! I think I would like the walking tour as well. We can then decide what we would like to revisit or see on Monday.

Have a great time Fiona.

We had a great weekend. We did the usual tourist sites. Sunday was the marathon- great fun( for me!). OH managed to get round in 3hrs 36- not bad for a 46year old!
We visited the Reichstag, the Topography of Terrors, Checkpoint Charlie, the Wall( what is left of it), Jewish Museum and the memorial. Of course we saw the Brandenburg Gate, It was amazing to see it the day after the race. The Avenues beyond it were chock a block with traffic, where the day before they had been chock a block with over 40 000 runners.
Thanks vicyvon for the river cruise idea- we did that after the marathon. The two sites we liked most were the Topography of Terror and the Jewish Museum. The topography of terror is on the site of the Gestapo headquarters on Prinz Albert Strass. It really felt earie at times. I also think it must be so difficult for Germans to have to deal with the past. The Jewish Museum was very touching- it is moving to see actual letters written by Jews just before they were murdered. I had two attempts before I could enter the Holocaust Tower.
There was obviously a lot we didn't manage to do but we were happy with what we did get to see.

We thoroughly enjoyed Berlin when we went, it's good also for a pre-Christmas visit (great Christmas markets) or for New Year - the City puts on fabulous events at these times.

4 of us are going to the Christmas markets on 3rd Dec and staying at Agon Opera hotel. Can someone tell me how easy it is to get from Schoenfield airport to this hotel?

Catch the S9 train to Charlottenburg and then its about a 400metre walk to the hotel.

The hotel is not where most maps show it, it is the black spot on the map.

(Image removed)

Alternatively, I think you can catch the express train to Zoo, and then get a bus down Kufurstendam, but if you dont know where to get off, it could be a bit dodgy. There is a bus stop right outside the hotel.

EDIT: Sorry, but that map was copyright protected and may not be reproduced on our pages without permission. Please feel free to post a weblink instead.
David HT Mod