Playful Berlin knows how to toy with its out-of-towners. Zesty bars and underground clubs have gained Germany’s capital a reputation as Europe’s spunky younger child. A pacesetter for fashion, film, and culture in general, the city doesn’t just talk the talk, but walks the walk, with luxe cinemas, catwalks, art galleries, museums, and live music venues being as staple an ingredient in Berlin’s makeup as its currywurst and champagne.
Simultaneously, the city has endured through revolution, Nazism and a divide that once tore the urban east and west into two. Subtle and not-so-subtle hints flicker around almost every avenue, whether it’s grand edifices like the Brandenburg Gate, post-war Plattenbauten high-rises, or mid-park guard towers and slabs of the Berlin Wall.
One thing is for certain amid it all: Berlin has a long-lasting love affair with glamour and luxury. Celebrities and high-flyers flock to the over 300 art galleries and jet-set for calendar events like Berlin Fashion Week, Berlin International Film Festival, and Berlin Art Week.
Design hotels lock playful arms with elegant beaux arts-style lodgings. Fine-dining gourmet venues are as fiery as Berlin’s underbelly, whether that’s visionary arts restaurants, fine-dining rooftop bars, or Michelin-starred Manhattan-style holes.
A luxury weekend in playful Berlin doesn’t necessarily have to turn a blind eye to Berlin’s grittier and gutsier side. However, it may select yacht-style cruises over bike rides or riverside festivities over techno pits. The bedrock for all of this is undoubtedly Berlin’s luxury hotels and restaurants, which combine the glamour of Berlin’s runways, the innovation of its nightlife, and the grandeur of landmarks like the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag.
Cruise the River Spree on the SunCat 46
Sprightly Miss River Spree sees plenty on her 400-kilometre route through the Lusatian Mountains and Spree Forest. However, little can out-rank her Berlin stretch, which is lined with typical Berlin clubs, bars, and parks like the Tiergarten where Berliners gather to drink vodka and Berliner Weisse.
Champagne is the refreshment of choice on the SunCat 46, Berlin’s closest impression of the yachts of the Ionian Coast or the Cote d’Azur. Silent, emission-free, and powered by solar-electric since 2014, the exclusive yacht-style ship is far more glamorous than a humble bicycle or a cramped tourist boat.
Wayfarers can drink in sights like the Nikolai Quarter, the East Side Gallery, Berlin Cathedral, Museum Island, and the Berlin government quarter with a champagne flute in hand at all times.
Join Berlin’s high society at Clärchens Ballhaus
In the 20th century, Berlin high society descended upon ball houses for dance and all forms of joviality. Clärchens Ballhaus is one of few that made it into the new century. It remains a destination for those who appreciate the finer things, whether it’s wine tasting and dining on veal and crunchy plum salad in the German-cuisine restaurant or sojourning for Latin dancing in the Spiegelsaal and a private classical concert by candlelight in the vintage Hall of Mirrors.
Attend the opera at Komische Oper Berlin
Berlin’s musical scene may be dominated by mind-numbing – or some might say, mind-waking – techno, however, for centuries, the 1882 Komische Oper Berlin has hosted operas, dramas and symphonies. The gold-red auditorium hosted the German-language music drama Singspiel in the 17th century and satirical sketches into the late 19th century. Lively operettas took centre stage post-war, and since its reopening in the mid 1960s, works by Jewish composers have been reintroduced. Nowadays, Komische Oper Berlin hosts everything from symphony concerts to traditional baroque operas accompanied by three-course gourmet meals.
Have a luxe film experience
When it comes to the big screen in Berlin, forget Odeon chains and popcorn. Cinephiles can get their luxury big screen fix in Kino International, a 1960s cinema on the Karl-Marx-Allee attended by stars such as Steven Spielberg, Wim Wenders, and Tilda Swinton. Attending a premiere at Kino International is a celeb-style experience, but half of the story is grabbing a post-film beverage in the panoramic bar once frequented by Berlin’s GDR state leaders post premieres.
Astor Film Lounge is another red-hot auditorium that will upgrade the Berlin cinema experience. Equipped with a cocktail bar and luxe leather seats and footrests, it is based in the former hall of a humble restaurant refashioned into the current Art Deco-style cinema in 1948.
Party at the Badeschiff
If partying in the likes of Berghain isn’t to your taste, upscale drinks can be had in the city’s upper crust venues. The Badeschiff’s beach bar was born in golden-twenties Berlin and mashes sugary summer cocktails with steady electronic beats and an open-air Spree-side barge pool. Available to book exclusively, festivities can continue into the late night.
Where to stay
Waldorf Astoria
At 118 metres tall, Waldorf Astoria has dominated the West Berlin skyline since 2012. The grand hotel is sculpted from limestone and adorned with 900 pieces of local contemporary art, which some might say is no contest for its lobby wall filled with sloppy signatures from former famous residents like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Aerosmith.
Whether it’s the Peacock Alley entranceway, inspired by the transatlantic luxury steamboats of the 1930s, or the 31st-floor, 280-square-metre presidential suite laced with gold leaf, Waldorf Astoria redefines Berlin elegance. Guests have reign of a 15th-floor library lounge, the fifth-floor Guerlain Spa, the Roca restaurant specialising in Mediterranean cuisine, and the 1920s Art Deco Lang Bar named after the glamorous movie director Fritz Lang.
Hotel de Rome
History meets luxury at Hotel de Rome. Luxury rooms aside, the hotel has a rooftop terrace overlooking the Bebelplatz, a square that has seen everything from the Berlin Enlightenment to Nazi rallies and features the Opera House and St Hedwig’s Cathedral. Hotel de Rome was formerly the 19th-century Dresden Bank, so the lavish De Rome Spa is based in the former bank vault and the former hall is now adorned with Atelier Prométhée magenta urns.
German celebrity chef Tim Mälzer takes the helm at the Italian-Japanese fusion Chiaro à la carte restaurant, but it’s the rooftop terrace that beckons many to Hotel de Rome. Lined with parasols, lavender, and bamboo, it often hosts acclaimed Berlin DJs.
Hotel am Steinplatz
Hotel am Steinplatz has more artistic flair than the typical private luxury lifestyle hotel in Berlin. A 1913 love child of the architect August Endell and Berlin’s Art Nouveau heritage, the 87-room West Berlin design hotel re-opened in 2013 and impresses even the most discerning art and architecture critics with features such as vaulted ceilings, gothic arches, chrome lighting and geometric facade.
Guests can recline in the bar, a new incarnation of the former chic 1950s basement bar, or sink their gnashers into fresh fish and meat lathered with German flavours and produced by chef Oliver Fritz in Restaurant am Steinplatz. A rooftop spa with a Finnish sauna, bio sauna, and treatment rooms exacting in marine algae extracts takes up two complete floors at Hotel Am Steinplatz.
Where to eat
Golvet
Golvet brings the glamour of a Manhattan bar to Berlin. On the eighth floor of the Loeser and Wolff house, a former tobacco factory, the Michelin-starred high-rise restaurant took over the former 40seconds club in 2017. The restaurant swiftly shifted the attention from the party to Michelin-starred grub.
Chef Jonas Zörner and his team’s preparation for Golvet’s one menu begins six hours before it’s served. They weave regional, intensely-flavoured local products into a five- or seven-course tasting menu. The bar is just as genius with its flavours, calling their drink art ‘cuisine bartending’.
Gendarmerie
Gendarmerie isn’t just a fine-dining standout due to its innovative French brasserie cuisine pioneered by Philippe Lemoine, it’s one of Berlin’s trendiest and artiest gourmet destinations. A wooden Gendarm figure carved by Jean-Yves Klein greets diners at the entrance to the restaurant, but the centrepiece is the Bacchanale, the world’s largest wooden relief, carved and coloured-in by the same Franco-Canadian artist.
The terrace is positioned one block from the Gendarmenmarkt square in Berlin-Mitte, which hosts open-air classic opera concerts in the summer and the restaurant has a daily-changing business lunch menu and monthly-changing set menu.
Currywurst and champagne
Currywurst is, arguably, Berlin’s first and final love. However, the fried pork sausages drenched in sweet curry ketchup and spice, inspired by the ingredients remodelled from British soldiers and served by Herta Heuwer in 1949, don’t exactly lend themselves to luxury.
Still, savouring this key Berlin ingredient doesn’t have to be sacrificed from a luxury itinerary entirely. Simply sidle over to an Original Berliner Currywurst and pair your skin-on or skin-off currywurst with a vintage Dom Pérignon.
In a nutshell
Fiery Berlin has a thing for the finer things, whether that’s elegant Art Deco hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants or something as simple as currywurst and champagne. Absorb it in true Berlin fashion: dressed in black and open to a new beat, whether it’s a historic venue, a luxe film, or a journey down the River Spree.
