The capital of Germany has a vibe all of its own, not one to be mistaken for any other major European city, and its character makes it an enthralling short-break destination.
It is calmer and quieter than you might expect but also – in the nicest way imaginable – grungier. It has a well-deserved reputation for craft beers, a legendary club culture and boisterous nightlife, world-class museums, restaurants galore... all enhanced by transport systems that make it easy and inexpensive to get everywhere.
History is inescapable in Berlin and a visit to Topographies of Terror is both free and compelling. Standing on ground that once housed the headquarters of the SS, the Gestapo and other top Nazi officials, being here becomes palpably haunting after seeing the photographs and documents on display. It's a disturbing experience but seeing it feels necessary.
A number of other primary sights in the city are free to visit and within walking distance of one another: after visiting the Reichstag building, a five-minute walk brings you to Brandenburg Gate and then, less than 10 minutes away, the Holocaust Memorial.
Nearby is Potsdamer Platz, a vast vacant lot when the Berlin Wall bisected the square but now a major entertainment and shopping centre. The empty wasteland became Europe's largest building site when, breaking free of history's gravity, the Wall came down in 1989 and Berlin (and then the rest of the country) was reunified.
A section of the Berlin Wall abuts Topographies of Terror and it is a half-hour bus ride to the longest section (1.3km), the East Side Gallery, decorated with paintings by artists from around the world, including the arresting portrait of Brezhnev and Hönecker's kiss.
Memorabilia and segments of the Wall are dotted around city streets and you will pass one on the pavement if trying to find Cookies Cream (the video on the restaurant's website is of some help). You wander uncertainly down alleys behind the Westin Grand hotel and then up steps before, voilà, you step in to a darkly-lit bar and an industrial-chic setting for a fine-dining, vegetarian experience.
By turning apparent shabbiness into coolness, the restaurant and its hugely inventive menu – it will have you googling for food terms like kosho and vadouvan – is emblematic of Berlin's unique and appealing complexion.
German favourites like schnitzel, currywurst and doner kebab are readily available but Berlin's food scene rivals London's for diversity and there is much to explore, from kerbside dining and pop-up events to the top-of-the-range Michelin-starred restaurants.
Typical of the mixture is Kanaan, founded by a Palestinian and an Israeli, serving Middle East food – babaganoush, shakshuka, falafel and wicked desserts – in a friendly café-like milieu for weekend brunches and evening meals. For a special dining experience, besides Cookies Cream, there is ultra-modern Thai at Kin Dee and an extraordinary 10-course tasting menu at Nobelhart & Schmutzig. At Kin Dee, the three staggered starters introduce new tastes – forget traditional Thai cuisine – as green peppercorns explode in the mouth; more surprises follow and wines are available that cunningly complement Asian food.
To max out on fine dining (and maybe your credit card as well), nowhere does it more extravagantly than Nobelhart & Schmutzig. A few doors down from Checkpoint Charlie, the best seats are at the counter facing the kitchen where you watch orchestrated teamwork deliver plates of delicacies, mostly characterised by a key ingredient like chicken, squash or kale, with aplomb and an impish sense of theatre.
Berlin's culture capital, invested in prestigious museums and a dizzying array of exhibitions, galleries and monuments, can only be dipped into on a short visit. The Pergamon Museum heads the list with stupendous, reconstructed buildings from Babylon and Asia Minor – the highlight being the ochre- and blue-tiled Gate of Ishtar and the Processional Street – that make the dismantling of the Parthenon marbles by Lord Elgin seem a small-scale heist.
Time should also be found for places like Galerie Buchkunst, devoted to photography, and the Soviet Memorial in Treptower Park dedicated to Soviet soldiers killed in the liberation of Berlin in 1945. The park's riverside setting, created for East Berlin's citizens, makes for uncrowded strolls by the River Spree and is easy to reach from the city centre.
WHERE TO STAY
Berlin has accommodation of every kind, from hostels to five-star luxury, and Berlin's official travel website (visitberlin.de) is a good place to start looking.
Central localities and transport hubs like Alexanderplatz are convenient for a short stay. Alexanderplatz was East Berlin's centre and it was here that a mass protest took place in November 1989 and continued until the unexpected fall of the Berlin Wall.
The Leonardo Royal hotel (leonardo-hotels.com/berlin) is close by: its hugely attractive Art Deco lobby and stairwell has been preserved, remarkable for a building from 1953, and a smart and comfortable modernity characterises the bedrooms, restaurant and bar.
Spandau is an easy-to-reach neighbourhood west of the city centre, with a large lock on the River Havel and the Centrovital Hotel has river-facing bedrooms. The hotel has a pool and rooftop bar and its spa and Aruveda Center boasts an impressive range of treatments for men and women, from massages to body wraps. Various packages suit short stays and a riverside walk leads to old Spandau town with cobbled streets, old-school shops and train, metro and bus stations.
NEED TO KNOW
Aer Lingus operates two flights daily from Dublin to Berlin with fares starting from '59.99 each way including taxes and charges. For more information visit aerlingus.com
The Berlin Welcome Card – for two, three, four, five or six days – covers all public transport, including the airport, and includes discounts for places of interest with admission charges. Also available is a three-day Museum Pass that covers most of the major museums. Both are available from visitberlin.de.
For Topographies of Terror, see topographie.de; visits to the Reichstag are free but require booking at bundestag.de; for Buchkunst Gallery, see buchkunst-berlin.de; for guided walks based about Berlin's tumultuous political history, see revolutionaryberlin.wordpress.com
For Cookies Cream: see cookiescream.com; for Kanaan: kanaan-berlin.de/en; for Kin Dee: kindeeberlin.com/en; for Nobelhart & Schmutzig: nobelhartundschmutzig.com/en
For Leonardo Royal hotel: see leonardo-hotels.com/berlin; for Centrovital hotel, centrovital-berlin.de
