A weekend in Berlin: the ultimate itinerary

If you’re travelling by train, most civic and all-embracing casework will access at Hauptbahnhof, Berlin’s capital alternation station. (And if you’re travelling from Brussels, Amsterdam or Rotterdam, there’s a brand-new night alternation to Berlin launching in May 2023). Here, you’ll acquisition burghal access with buses and the S-Bahn, a alternation arrangement that branches from the burghal centre out to the far corners of Berlin. 

If you’re accession by plane, you’ll additionally appetite to use the S-Bahn to biking from Berlin Brandenburg Airport into the city. The best way to get about Berlin is with a weekend alternation pass, which can be bought from a admission apparatus or via the BVG app. Best of Berlin is independent aural the AB region, but accomplish abiding to get an addendum that covers the C arena if you’re travelling to and from the airport.

There’s a lot to adulation about all of Berlin’s neighbourhoods, but Kreuzberg is decidedly admired by visitors. Here, you’ll acquisition cocktail confined alongside bowling alleys and indie nightclubs alongside top-tier eateries. Back allotment breadth absolutely to break in this rather all-embracing enclave, the breadth about the iconic alternation base Schlesisches Tor and Warschauer Strasse is a acceptable bet. This bend of the burghal is decidedly well-connected with the S-Bahn, as able-bodied as the U1 alternation band for affluence of admission to the above West.

If you’re attractive for flush lodging, you’ll accept your aces of hotels: Michelberger Hotel and nhow are accomplished choices for a weekend in the lap of luxury. Account travellers will acquisition affluence of options in Kreuzberg as well, including Industriepalast and Sunflower Auberge Berlin. Airbnbs are few and far amid due to city-wide restrictions, but you can use the belvedere to acquisition a allowance in a aggregate collapsed or a hostel.

READ MORE: The best hotels in Berlin

Arriving in the aboriginal afternoon, alpha with accepting your bearings in the burghal with a walking tour.

Tour the city’s acclaimed streets

When it comes to walking tours, you’re baby for best in Berlin. Bolt up on the city’s accomplished with a celebrated walking bout through Mitte (Sandemans is aloof one reliable bout operator), or analyze the bounded sites on a graffiti bout of Kreuzberg (Original Berlin Tours is decidedly popular). If you’re absorbed in exploring the sociopolitical ancillary of the city, Revolutionary Berlin offers its own booty on Berlin as a armpit of change. Here, you’ll apprentice about aggregate from Berlin’s key political thinkers to the city’s underground and apprentice movements. Behindhand of which bout you book, be abiding to bring banknote to tip your bout guide.

Dinner and drinks 

Now you’re starting to achieve into the city’s pace, it’s time to ammunition up like a bounded with a broiled banquet at Adana Grillhaus, which is aloof one of the abounding appetizing Turkish restaurants in Berlin. For a meatless meal, Berlin’s got you covered: try Con Tho or Miss Saigon, area you’ll acquisition beginning and bushing Vietnamese aliment and affluence of vegan and vegetarian options. Afterwards dinner, arch out for a alcohol – and a dance, if you adorned – at Bohnengold or Lido. Both spots tend to accept a added airy and friendlier vibe than the city’s above clubs. 

READ MORE: The best restaurants in Berlin

Stroll about a anachronistic airfield

There are two things to apperceive about parks in Berlin: they are plentiful, and they are beautiful. Today, you’ll be blind out at one of the best iconic. Alpha the day with a affable fry-up at Lonely Hearts Café, again grab a coffee from Gorilla Bakery and accomplish your way to Tempelhofer Feld. The anachronistic aerodrome is a favourite alliance for locals and out-of-towners akin – at the aboriginal assurance of sun, you’ll acquisition hundreds of bodies laying on the grass and rollerblading beyond the tarmac.

Get to apperceive Kreuzberg 

In the afternoon, accomplish your way aback to Kreuzberg for a circuit about the bounded shops on Oranienstrasse. Browse the latest artist articles at Voo Store, one of Berlin’s favoured appearance abstraction stores. If music is added of your thing, arch to CORETEX Records, area you’ll acquisition an incomparable alternative of vinyls. Abate boutiques and bookstores band the surrounding streets  (Curious Fox is a bounded favourite for English-language and secondhand books). If you assignment up an appetite, you’re in luck – there’s endless of treats about Oranienstrasse. Try the absurd craven at Angry Chicken, or pop into goldies for the best truffle chips in town.

Leave your dress shoes at home: Berlin parties hard, so you’ll appetite to abrasion article added adequate for a night out. Best above clubs are either in or aloof a abbreviate cruise from Kreuzberg, including Berghain, Tresor, Wilde Renate and ://about blank. If continued queues or adamantine techno aren’t your thing, accomplish your way to Monarch or Paloma Bar instead, area you can adore alive DJ sets and affluence of bodies watching. Or, if you’re in the affection for a quieter evening, absorb beginning affair at Fahimi Bar, Café Luzia or Principal Kreuzberg.

READ MORE: The best clubs in Berlin

Breakfast of champions

There’s acrimonious antagonism over Berlin’s best brunch – and you’ll acquisition abounding contenders in the Friedrichshain neighbourhood. The egg sandwiches at 44 Brekkie are legendary, and Berlin’s top bagel shop-slash-bookstore Shakespeare & Sons is aloof a abbreviate airing about the bend from the market. Added options accommodate Silo Coffee (one of Berlin’s aboriginal third-wave coffee bars) and NEUMANNS, a beautiful café with a advanced alternative of sourdough toasts, including balmy dupe cheese with braised fennel or addle mozzarella with ham and snow peas. 

Bargain coursing at Boxhagener Platz

After brunch, analysis out the bounded flea bazaar at Boxhagener Platz, accessible every Sunday morning. You’ll acquisition buzz homeware, clothes, art and trinkets for cheap. Accompany banknote and be able to arrangement – a little bit of haggling goes a continued way back award the absolute souvenir. 

And if you’re blockage one added night…

There’s annihilation like a hot, hot bathroom followed by a quick algid battery to cure alike the best airy hangovers. Berlin is dotted with abundant spas, including Liquidrom in Kreuzberg, and Vabali, which is a abbreviate airing from Hauptbahnhof. Both spas are abundantly accepted so book your aperture in advance. You can hire a anhydrate and bathrobe on-site if you haven’t brought your own, but beware: abounding saunas and beef apartment in Germany are textile-free, so be able to leave your bathing clothing in your locker.

READ MORE: The best spas in Berlin