Exploring Berlin, Germany: Where to eat, what to see, where to stay

CNA

15-05-2025

Berlin is home to bureaucrats and hedonists, lobbyists and artists, lovers of techno and devotees of classical music. The city's turbulent 20th-century history is visible in the bullet holes on facades, the graffitied remains of the Berlin Wall and the monotonous residential blocks erected during the post-World War II reconstruction. But Berlin's younger generations are forward-looking, and its restaurants, bars and clubs are focused on the newest trends. A sprawling city, Berlin is decentralised, with dozens of kieze, or neighbourhoods, each with its own character and heart: From Prenzlauer Berg, with pretty prewar apartment blocks and tchotchke-filled antique shops, to Kreuzberg, with leather-clad denizens and brightly lit spatis, convenience stores that stay open late and sometimes offer outdoor seating. The best time to visit Berlin begins in spring, when the city's outdoor spaces are bustling with activity into the wee hours. This year, the Museum Island's 200th anniversary shines a light on some of Berlin's oldest cultural institutions, while new restaurants and bars offer plenty of fresh opportunities to explore.
FRIDAY
4pm | Learn about modern art
At the Neue Nationalgalerie, or New National Gallery, the main exhibition, on view indefinitely, showcases art from 1945 to 2000. Short essays provide context on cultural, economic and political shifts during those periods. Lucio Fontana's slashed canvas hangs next to a text about the 1950s economic boom and a throwaway society, and a video of Marina Abramovic's 1975 performance Freeing the Body plays alongside an essay on oppression, objectification and liberation. The Gerhard Richter exhibition, on view until September 2026, includes one of the artist's most famous works, Birkenau, a meditation on the Holocaust. The museum leans into interactive activities. In the main exhibition, a machine with a hand crank pops out postcards with assignments — for example, to find a human-shaped sculpture and sketch its point of view. Grab a pencil and get going! Entry to all exhibitions, 20 euros (US$22; S$29)
6.30pm | Decompress with drinks and music
Take a mental bath at Unkompress, a listening bar in a quiet residential section of the trendy Kreuzberg neighbourhood. In this minimalist space, the focus is on music. An entire wall is dominated by a unit featuring an audiophile's dream setup: Two turntables, massive Cornwall speakers and a collection of 300-plus records. Settle back and let jazz, funk, disco, '90s downtempo or other soothing tunes wash over you as you sip natural wine, craft beer or mezcal (7.50 euro for a glass of house wine). A handy chart on the menu plots drinks according to fruitiness, minerality, fanciness and eccentricity. As in many newer bars in Berlin, there are plenty of non-alcoholic wines and beers. Check the bar's Instagram for its event schedule, which includes DJ gigs, artsy workshops and bring-your-own-vinyl evenings.
8.30pm | Dine on elevated German cuisine
Given its dark wood panelling, stately bar and red candles, Marktlokal appears to be an upscale, tradition-bound restaurant. But this is Kreuzberg, and the friendly waitstaff with pink-dyed hair and chokers immediately dispel any fears of snobbishness. The food, too, rides the wave between old and new, with beloved German ingredients refreshed through the chef's imagination. White asparagus, a popular seasonal vegetable, is enlivened by hazelnut and fermented wild garlic, while beef tartare is deepened with smoked oyster mushroom mayo and Sichuan pepper. The wine list offers mostly natural options. Don't miss dessert, which rotates like the rest of the menu and recently included caramelised bananas with vanilla ice cream, walnuts and caramel sauce (dinner for two, around 120 euros).
11pm | Bop the night away
Berlin's club scene is world-renowned, but it can be intimidating. If you've got the dancing bug, check the Resident Advisor website for DJ lineups at clubs around the city. Buy tickets if possible — this will help if there's a long line. Test your luck at Berghain, a world-famous club inside a former power station, notorious for its exclusivity. To increase your chances of entry, come alone or in a small group, speak quietly while in line, and wear an all-black outfit that looks fit for a dance floor. Friday nights at Berghain's Panorama Bar are chiller, with a friendlier vibe at the door. Cash-only inside. For an easier entry, head to Sameheads, where the bar upstairs is decorated in raunchy neons and the downstairs dance area is in a graffiti-covered room. The music ranges widely and might include Italo disco, trance, house and dark techno. For a grungy experience, consider Renate, inside an abandoned building. The club, a Berlin institution since 2007, will close at the end of 2025 because of rising costs.
WHERE TO STAY
Hotel de Rome, a 145-room, five-star hotel that was a bank in the 1880s, has one of the best locations in Berlin: Its windows look directly onto the pink-hued Berlin State Opera. An open-air roof bar also provides city views, and an Italian restaurant, Chiaro, offers inventive Italian dishes and a leafy garden terrace. The basement — formerly used as the vault — is home to a spa with saunas and a pool. Rooms start at 450 euros, or US$512.
Ginn City & Lounge Yorck-Berlin sits at the intersection of two neighbourhoods worth exploring: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, full of trendy restaurants, bars and boutiques, and Tempelhof-SchOneberg, home to several popular parks, including Tempelhofer Feld and Natur Park Schoneberger Sudgelande. From the hotel, attractions like the New National Gallery and the Museum Island are a short ride on public transit. A bar offers standard cocktails and there's a rooftop terrace. Rooms start at 114 euros.
The newly opened Bellman Hotel is a short walk from the many cafes, bars and restaurants of the Neukolln neighborhood. The rooms are stylish and comfortable and there's a satisfying breakfast buffet offering cheeses, fruits, and vegan and non-vegan sweet treats. The hotel has a gym as well as a restaurant. Rooms start at 75 euros.
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Start the day with a flaky, chewy chocolate croissant and a coffee at Symple, a cafe with spacious outdoor seating shaded by a large tree in the charming Prenzlauer Berg neighbourhood. Afterward, stroll around the Kollwitzplatz Weekly Market, where toddlers zoom by on scooters and friends in black leather gather for a quick bite. The goods on sale blend tradition — organic honey, oversize wool blankets, woven basket bags — with unexpected finds like vulva-shaped soaps and genderless jewellery. The surrounding area is known for its antique shops and boutiques. For a quirky souvenir, visit kunst-a-bunt, where you'll find prints, colourful egg cups and treasures like a 1924 silver tea strainer. Pop over to abricot coco, a clothing shop, for sustainable basics in comfortable, airy cuts produced in Latvia and Portugal.
10.30am | Pay a visit to East Germany
Dive into the history of East Germany, or the German Democratic Republic, at the state-funded Museum in der Kulturbrauerei, where entry is free. There are 800 objects in the Everyday Life in the GDR exhibition, with a large section dedicated to the connections among factory work, personal life and the state. A rhyming public service announcement warns about the risks of drinking on the job and a small alcove is filled with remnants from a nursery inside an enormous factory complex. The exhibition also reveals how people spent their money, where they went on vacation, which newspapers and magazines they read, and the kinds of clothes they wore. Furniture and decorations interspersed throughout the space — doilies, laminated wood cabinets and plastic chairs — evoke the sensation of traveling back in time.
12pm | Pit stop for kebab
As you leave the Kulturbrauerei, you might see a line on the block and hear reggaeton and rap. Follow the music to its source, Ruyam Gemuse Kebab 2, one of the fast-food shop's two locations, to taste a famous Berlin dish: Vegetable kebab. Graffiti is scrawled on the walls and the friendly staff — who shout their thanks every time a visitor leaves a tip — give the entire operation the feeling of a party. The sandwiches are filling and tasty: Fluffy bread is stuffed to the brim with sliced chicken — a vegetarian option skips the meat — along with fried potatoes, onions, carrots, lettuce, fresh herbs, lemon juice and garlic sauce (6.90 euros, cash only).
2.30pm | Discover thousands of years of art history
Museum Island, a UNESCO-protected site celebrating its 200th birthday with five years of events starting at the end of May, is home to six buildings showcasing art and artifacts. In an area that's less than half a square mile, discover a 3,300-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti attributed to Thutmose, paintings by Monet and Renoir, and a collection of Etruscan objects. The Panorama, a temporary exhibition in place while the Pergamon Museum, one of the six buildings on the island, undergoes renovation, immerses visitors in an enormous artwork that depicts the ancient city of Pergamon in 129 AD. At the Altes Museum, the first museum built on the island, find funerary sculptures, bronze cauldrons, mummy portraits and other remains of classical antiquity. The Garden of Delights exhibition has a Berlin flavour with ancient depictions of people engaging in erotic Not Safe for Work activities (ticket for the island and the Panorama, 24 euros).
5pm | Have dinner before the opera
Set on a bustling block, JOMO Restaurant offers spacious outdoor seating, ideal for people-watching on a weekend evening. Inside, the space is airy and chic, with rustic wooden floors, a smattering of plants and red rugs, and a glass-enclosed kitchen in the centre. The menu runs the gamut with dishes like carbonara udon with French ham, smoked trout tartare with cauliflower, and Sicilian-style tuna and salmon crudo. The sweet-cheese croquettes with dulce de leche mousse and berry sauce are reminiscent of a beloved Slavic dish called syrniki and are a nod to two of the owners' Ukrainian roots. The milk punch, made with clarified coconut milk, pineapple juice and rum, tastes like a tropical vacation. On the non-alcoholic front, the 'condensed lime' drink is tart and refreshing (dinner for two, 80 euros).
7pm | Catch a classical performance
Since opening nearly 300 years ago, the Berlin State Opera has hosted some of history's best-known conductors, including Felix Mendelssohn, Richard Strauss and Wilhelm Furtwangler. The opera has been rebuilt several times; its most recent renovation was completed in 2017. With a neo-Classical exterior, three-tiered auditorium and red velvet seats, the opera is — to put it simply — grand. The current season includes Sacre, a ballet with music by three composers, Cassandra, a contemporary opera about the climate crisis by Bernard Foccroulle, and Verdi's 1853 opera La Traviata (tickets start at 12 euros).
SUNDAY
10am | Load up on a nutritious brunch
The sisters Xenia and Sophie von Oswald mix and match Persian, German and Australian influences at rocket + basil, an easygoing, no-reservations eatery near the busy Potsdamer Platz, with exposed brick walls painted mint green inside. This is the place to load up on fibre, with a weekend menu that includes an omelette filled with butternut squash and leeks, then topped with a kale and sesame salad, or a thick sourdough toast piled high with cannellini beans, roasted radicchio and hazelnuts, with dill sprinkled on top. For a sweet option, try the mascarpone pancakes, served with caramelized bananas, maple syrup, pistachio butter and barberries. If you have space left, grab a baked good at the counter; the moist pistachio-rosewater cake and the tahini-halva brownie are equally delightful (brunch for two, 40 euros).
12pm | Catch your breath by a lake
The secret to enjoying the warmer months of the year in Berlin is to head for the city's lakes. The cool waters and lush greenery encircling the city — about one-fifth of Berlin is forested — are nearby and free. With 3,000 lakes in Berlin and its adjacent state, Brandenburg, choosing one can be difficult. Fortunately, the city's tourism agency provides a useful map showing 32 options and how to reach them. Wannsee, Schlachtensee and Krumme Lanke, in the city's southwest, are 40 minutes to 60 minutes away from the centre and offer plenty of opportunities for swimming, sunbathing (clothed or nude), taking nature walks, playing volleyball and table tennis, and renting paddle boards and boats. If you're in the mood for art, the Haus am Waldsee, a museum in an English countryside-style villa, is a 15-minute walk from Schlachtensee and showcases contemporary works (entry, 9 euros).
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