Berlin advice pls?
 

Hi,

First trip to Germany, flying into Schoenefeld airport. I see we can get a train from the airport that drops you off a few main train stations, Ostbahnhof, Alexanderplatz and Zoo Garten. I'll get this train, but am not sure where is best to stay? Somewhere within easy walking distance of one of these stations, somewhere with enough restaurants and bar and bit of street life and somewhere that feels like you're in the centre of things?

Help? Hotel recommendations would also be very much appreciated, budget not more than 100 euros per night if poss.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!

Sarahx

Topping this for you. I generally stay within a few minutes' walk of the Zoo station although MANY posters here prefer the Mitte section of the city.

There is a lot of what you want near the Zoo but there is probably just as much in the other areas.

Have you done <b>any</b> research at all in terms of hotels, etc.? Do you know where to look for such??????

Here's a link to my Berlin trip report - http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34614269

Berlin is a very easy city to get around with a great train and underground system and you are right about the transport from the airport you will land at. I wouldn't worry too much about the exact location of your hotel provided it's somewhere central.

It's a big city and so you will need to use the transport system quite a bit to get around.

Unless there is some special event going on, your budget should be easy to meet, even for a fairly nice hotel.

Look at these sites:
http://www.accor.com (note that many hotels here have Hot Rates, which are nonrefundable, but offer significant savings)
http://www.hotels.de
http://www.hrs.de (the same site that the German railway uses)
http://www.bookings.org
http://www.holiday-inn.com (the Express by Holiday Inn brand often offers great value considering the breakfast particularly)

When I took that train from Schoenefeld airport, one of the stops was Friedrichstrasse, and I had a hotel within walking distance from there. That was very convenient for walking to sites like the Brandenburg Gate and Museum Island.

Thank you all, if i had to choose locationwise between getting hotel near Zoo or Friedrichstrasse for example which would you choose as a better location?

Re hotels have looked on Expedia and Easy Jet but they all seem to be in loads of diff areas and none mention that they are near Zoo or Mitte so am a bit lost...

I recommend a hotel in Mitte, near S-Bahnhof Friedrichstra&szlig;e. A hotel at Gendarmenmarkt would even be better, however the hotels there are more expensive.
For hotel search, I recommend www.hrs.de. They display a pop-up map, so you can see the location.
The bargain hotels as well as the hotels which have contracts with cheap airlines have usually bad locations, so be careful!
In any case, make sure that there is a U-Bahn station not far away. This is most important in Berlin.

I found staying on Friedrichstrasse very convenient.

Here's a site that gives a brief description of each of Berlin's seven districts:
Charlottenburg
Friedrichshain
Government Quarter
Kreuzberg
Mitte
Prenzlauer Berg
Sch&ouml;neberg

http://www.brewersberlintours.com/in...p?sitecat=art2

I also really recommend Brewer's walking tours, although the all-day one is truly exhausting (but very worthwhile).

Bookmarking!

Hi Sarah,

it really depends on you. I am heading to Berlin on the first weekend of May with a bunch of people from work. We grabbed a wonderful Easyjet airfare back in February (although the return time to Madrid is awful, 15:00 in the afternoon), so we decided to go the cheap way and we have booked two 4-bed rooms at a hostel in Mitte, near the H&auml;ckeschen H&ouml;fe. It opened last year and looks pretty good to me. It is called City Stay Mitte : http://www.citystay.de/

At the beginning there were only three of us going, but we had already decided on the area, so I checked www.hrs.de and some other sites with the help of a map and my memory. We found some decent hotels and pensions. We toyed with the idea of the Friedrichstrasse, actually. But as the group increased in size, we decided to go the hostel route.

We just want to visit a couple of museums and galleries, do a bit of sightseeing, and going out, so the location seems good for us. Part of us have already been there, and for a couple of us will be a first time, so I am trying to create a schedule good enough for all of us. We will have to leave out a lot of places, but I really hope we will enjoy it.

Rgds, Cova