The best tips for Berlin, according to me.

Berlin was the first citytrip I ever did with my father, to see the remains of the Berlin wall. Over the years, I spent several weekends here. So, here are the favorite places of me and my family in Berlin:

Why you’ll love Berlin

Berlin is an easy city to love. There are so many amazing places, hipster food places, parts of the city with rough edges. And even though quite some of its roughness has been lost over the years (having some people say Brussels or even Copenhagen are the ‘new Berlin’), there is still much to explore.

My best omakase experience in Berlin

The Japanese habit of omakase (お任せ) when you’re ordering at a restaurant pretty much means, “I’ll leave it up to you”, inviting the chef to be innovative and surprising in the selection of dishes. I try to do it in every city I visit, and apply the idea behind to everything between how I pick my runs, how I pick my food, how I plan activities with my kids, how I explore cities and how I travel in general. So, I tried this in Berlin as well.

My best omakase experience in Berlin was at the Michelberger restaurant, next to the Michelberger hotel. We were tired after a long day and settled for the closest restaurant nearby, which turned out to be the Michelberger restaurant. We had some amazing different small bites. 

The best hotels in Berlin, according to me

• As you probably know by now, I love the IHG’s Indigo hotels brand (like the Indigo City Centre in Antwerp). In Berlin, there are three: Berlin Ku’damm (West-Berlin), Alexanderplatz and East Side Gallery.
• Michelberger hotel is the hipster and out-of-towner favorite. Nice rooms, good location, cosy atmospehere. 

The best places for food in Berlin, according to me

• Father carpenter coffee brewers is a great place for both coffee (obviously) and lunch (see picture).
• Michelberger restaurant next to the well-known hotel is actually really nice. The restaurant uses only organic ingredients in their kitchen and where possible, they’re locally grown, seasonal and produced by farmers in the countryside around Berlin

The best places for a drink in Berlin, according to me

Fully in line with the omakase way of traveling (with traveling in general and with food) is the iron rule with favourite locals is that one should never seek bars out from a guide book but always stumble upon one by chance (a more Berlin-specific rule is that the best have very good light-fittings and no name on the outside).

• Alt-Berlin is 123 years old and considered by many Berliners to be the oldest bar in the city. It used to be a smelly dive in Mitte until it had to make way for a fashion chain in 2014. But one of the regulars bought up the tobacco-infused wood panelling and moved it inside the empty premises next to a GDR-era ballroom a few kilometres north, where it reopened in May 2016.

The best things to do in Berlin, according to me

• Spend some Christmas days or even New Years eve in Berlin. With a group of friend we once drove to Berlin to just celebrate New Year. We spent the evening and night in the Tiergarten park with all the Christmas stalls. 
• The Holocaust Memorial is truly a memorable experience. Head to the Holocaust Memorial to reflect upon the horrendous mistakes of history. The creator, Eisenman was able to create -with some simple elements- this space for visitors to feel uneasy and confusing (with no order to be found).
• Checkpoint Charlie was arguably the most famous crossing between East and West Germany during the time of the Berlin Wall. Nowadays, the checkpoint has been redeveloped to show how it once stood.
• The abandoned Tempelhof airfield is the entire ethos of post-Wall Berlin summed up in 900 acres – half resembling New York‘s Central Park, half Burning Man was voted in 2014 to be preserved as a public park for joggers, kite-flyers, urban gardeners, dog-walkers and beer drinkers.

The best places to get some work done in Berlin, according to me

• I loved the cozy vibe at Father carpenter coffee brewers as it is a great place for both coffee (obviously) and lunch (see picture). The different corners allow you to open up your laptop and get some serious work done.

The best places for a run in Berlin, according to me

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