This is a bunch of tips for people traveling to Berlin.
Thanks to AJ, Katharine, Magali, for their suggestions/input. And maybe other folks I forgot!
Also thanks to all the people who told me "I'll be visiting Berlin" until it pushed me to clean up my notes and evolve them from a preciously copy-pasted, disorganized stash, to a linkable, disorganized gist.
Berlin businesses don't enjoy shelling out a significant % of their sales to VISA and MasterCard (let alone AMEX), meaning that Berlin is basically cash-only. Yes, some venues will accept your plastic money; no, you shouldn't rely on it. Sometimes they will only accept "EC" (the local payment network). So, always have euros with you. However, you will find many ATMs, and most of them won't charge you a $3 "just because" fee for using them.
Places that will reliably accept cards include:
- big grocery stores like ALDI, REWE... (but NOT corner stores)
- most hotels and their bars/restaurants
I'm told that you can now purchase public transit tickets with credit cards, but I don't know if it's only in some specific places (e.g. airports/main stations) or everywhere. You can definitely use European debit cards.
Important: if, when paying with your card (or withdrawing money) you are asked whether you want to pay in EUR or in your money (e.g. USD), you should generally pick EUR (even if the terminal insists that by paying in USD, you will get a fixed rate). Look up "currency conversion scam" to know more. This is not specific to Germany, by the way.
Servers are paid normally in Germany, so tipping is not expected. You can, however, leave a few euros on the table if the server was particularly helpful. If somebody points out to you that "service is not included," they are trying to scam you.
A lot of places have WiFi, but don't rely on it. Good to know: Europe has abolished roaming fees between a bunch of countries, so if you're visiting multiple places (or if you're visiting from Europe!) you can get a data plan in one country and then not have to worry about it anymore.
Berlin public transit rocks. Full stop. Use it. If you're staying at least a month, take a monthly pass. It's anonymous (i.e. you can let a friend use it when you're not using it), and after 8pm you can even have a +1 with you for free. If you're staying a few days, you could get a transit+museum pass. A very safe bet is also the 7 EUR daily pass.
If you're buying your monthly transit pass at a machine (you can do that e.g. at the airport or train station at your arrival), you probably want to get the "Umveltkarte". This is the one that costs 81 EUR (as of September 2019). Good to know since the machine offers many options!
Bikes are also a thing. I personally love LIDL-BIKE, it lets you rent bikes for ~1.50 EUR per half-hour. Bikes are geolocalized, so you just have to look at their mobile app to find one (in my neighborhoods, I never walk more than 2 minutes to get one) and you can return them anywhere (within city limits). There are other bike rental systems but the LIDL ones seem a bit more responsible, sustainable, and better maintained on average, so I favor these.
The only people using cabs are tourists, and partygoers who arrive at the club or leave it during the S-Bahn downtime (between 1:30am and 4:30am). If you are in one of these categories, or if you decide that you must get a cab anyway: Berliners don't enjoy very much sending a large chunk of their income to foreign companies. Meaning that Uber, while available, is not very popular. If you want to order a cab, you can install the app "FREE NOW" (formerly known as "MyTaxi"). It works just as well. You will pay normal taxi rates, and you even get the opportunity to pay with your credit card through the app (for a 1.50 EUR extra fee).
I recommend to install the Citymapper app: if only because it'll show you right away transit times for different transport types (walking vs bike vs car vs transportation).
- DDR museum: it's small enough to be done in a few hours; it has great interactive exhibits (like a reconstitution of an East Germany apartment, complete with soviet Hitachi wand, I kid you not)
- Berlin Story Bunker: huge exhibit about Hitler, his rise to power, WW II, and his death
- Berlin Wall Memorial
- Holocaust memorial: since that one is right next to Brandenburger Tor and the Bundestag (things that many visitors want to see), I highly recommend to check it out; it's ... something
- Artist hideouts in the passageways around Hackescher Markt
- Tempelhofer Feld (the old airport turned into a park), especially around sunset
- Flohmarkt at Ostbahnhof: old vintage weird stuff, every Sunday
- Flohmarkt at Mauerpark
- C-Base: spaceship wreck (try to go for a meetup)
- Max + Moritz: good German food
- Henne: famous chicken place
- Kimchi Princess: fancy korean
- Seoul Kitchen: not as fancy but still good korean
- Tak Tak: Polish (Pierogi!!!)
- Kanaan: Isreali/Palestinian food
- The Bowl: hipstery healthy food
- Emma Pea: vegan burgers
- Khwan: thai (awesome tasting menu if you're at least 3-4 people)
- Datscha (multiple addresses): great Russian food
- Matreshka: great Russian food too
- Chen Che: vietnamese + tea house
- Salt'n Bone: meats, also good beers/cocktails
- Sasaya: fancy-ish japanese
- Ristorante a Mano: fancy italian
- Hops & Barley: some craft beers; always met fun people there
- Kaschk: great beer selection; flights
- Herman: great belgian selection
- Redwood: cocktails
- Reingold: also cocktails, speakeasy-ish
- Birra: craft beers (Italian and local), cheese platters, and cold cuts
According to Teapsters, Tea will invariably be bad in Berlin. Still, if you want to try your luck ...
- Paper and Tea (P&T): a few addresses
- the Ritz-Carlton on Potsdamerplatz has good French tea (yup yup)
- Tea Tee The
- Chen Che which is also a great vietnamese place
- Pick'n Weight: thrift/vintage
- Mankii: fancy vintage designer stuff
- Chapati (multiple locations): if you want to look like a circus child, a hippie, or somebody from Lothlórien who lost their way (and by that I mean that their stuff is ultra dope)
Kids: don't do drugs!
Grown ups: you can find half-decent weed pretty much anywhere in xberg, fshain ... Check Görlitzer Park. It has such a reputation that "making a trip to Gorli" means "buying weed" and I'm pretty sure that some dealers even have their own page on Yelp. If you manage to cross the park without being asked at least 3 times if you "want something," try again without the police uniform maybe? (And even then...)
Do not, ever, buy drugs just outside of a club. At best, you'll get ground pain killers laced with aspirin; at worst, you don't even wanna know. Rumors say that the quality of the drugs inside the clubs is consistently okay, because people running clubs don't want accidents. Of course that's completely silly; no responsible club owner would encourage in whatsoever way the use of drugs, right. Tssss. But next time you see two people leaving a bathroom stall together, ask them questions (they were probably not having sex, given that you don't necessarily have to go to a dirty bathroom stall for that in some clubs in Berlin).
Berlin clubs are something else. Music will be loud, but sonic pressure will be more intense in the lower end of the spectrum, which means that you will physically feel it, but you will probably still be able to talk with people without screaming. Most clubs will have areas where you can chill (without Netflix though) in a relatively quiet atmosphere, sometimes on couches who have seen better days. In the summer, lots of clubs are awesome outside areas. You can smoke anywhere, which means that if you're a non-smoker and go to a smaller club (or stay too long in a "boiler room") you will feel the urge to burn your clothes and your hair the day after.
Drinks are relatively cheap. Beer will be basic German stuff. If you ask for a "strong drink" you probably won't be able to finish it (or you shouldn't anyway). All containers (bottles and glasses) are consigned, so you will get some DIN EUROS (ho ho ho) from your next drink by bringing back your empty bottle – and could even get a free drink by picking up a bunch of empty bottles on the way to the bar.
OK so where to go?
The connoisseur's landing page is Resident Advisor (this page takes you to "what's up tonight in Berlin?")
- Berghain: THE cathedral of techno. You will wait 2 hours in line and then the bouncer (who has his own Wikipedia page by the way) will turn you away. To get in, I had to rent a flat across the street, and I'd try my luck each time I'd go for croissants, I mean schnitzel. Got in after 7 tries.
- Kit Kat: if you want to show off to your friends by telling that you went to Kit Kat without taking the risk of seeing things that cannot be unseen, go there on a Monday night, for Electric Monday. It's pretty tame (save for the decor, which is basically the spiritual child of Dali, Manara, with touches of Fifty Shades) but you'll have fun. Or, if you want the real thing, just go to Gegen, for fuck's sake. (Or for fuck. Hrrmm.)
- Polygon (formerly Kosmonaut): one of my faves. Big enough to have multiple floors and corners, small enough to still feel intimist.
- Sisyphos: amazing place, a bit off-center. Wonderful outside area in the summer. It got more and more popular lately, and at peak hours, expect 2-3 hours wait to get in (or be rejected by the bouncer), so I don't recommend that you'd try this as your first club.
- Ritter Butzke: great. Has small outside area.
- and many more (I just listed the first 5 that came to mind!)
If you want to have a Berlin club experience, and are only there a few days, I recommend that you buy "advance tickets" on Resident Advisor. They guarantee that you will get in. Of course, not all places have advance tickets (the most illustrious ones never do). If you want to enjoy the music, I also recommend to do your research, i.e. to look up the artists who will play that night (all of them have a SoundCloud profile) and see if it's your jam.
