Berlin is a city of contrasting seasons: long, dark winters when locals bundle up in layers to survive Siberian winds, followed by sweltering summers spent sprawled in parks and next to lakes. In stately western Berlin, the wide boulevards are punctuated by shopping malls and Starbucks coffee shops, completely different in style to its former-Soviet eastern half, with its mass-produced, pre-fabricated Plattenbau apartment blocks. At Potsdamer Platz, visitors find a global capital city with gleaming glass skyscrapers.
But a more transgressive side to the city persists at night in the clubs and bars, despite rising property prices. The many sides to the city joined together in 2019 to celebrate 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Independent’s hotel recommendations are unbiased, independent advice you can trust.
On some occasions, we earn revenue if you click the links and book, but we never allow this to affect our coverage. Only 200 metres of the Berlin Wall remain, weathered to the wire, at Niederkirchnerstrasse, which marked the border between Mitte in East Berlin and Kreuzberg in West Berlin. It’s free to walk the length of it.
Turn your head to see the Topography of Terror , a museum housed in the former headquarters of the Nazi secret police, where a free exhibition details the most horrifying period of German history. From here, walk north past Checkpoint Charlie and Potsdamer Platz, which has been reconstructed since the fall of the wall with a dizzying.
