FROM THE AIRPORT

Berlin is served by three airports. Schönefeld is 18km south-east of the centre, reached on the Expressbus SXF to west Berlin’s Bahnhof Zoo or Potsdamer Platz in the east of the city (both £2.10), or by bus 171 to S-Bahn terminus Flughafen Berlin-Schönefeld on S-Bahn line S9 (£1.40). Tegel is 8km north of Bahnhof Zoo, served by buses 109 or X9 (£1.40), or the TXL JetExpressBus (£2.10) zips to east Berlin main street Unter den Linden. Tempelhof is 4km south of the centre and adjacent to U-Bahn station Platz der Lüftbrucke on line U6 (£1.40).

WHERE TO STAY

Famous names
One Berlin legend – the Adlon Kempinski hotel – is bang next-door to another, the Brandenburger Tor (views of which cost £70 extra). This is where Greta Garbo declared huskily that she wanted to be alone, where Charlie Chaplin lost his trouser buttons to fans as he scampered inside and where Michael Jackson dangled his baby from a balcony. The heritage is included in the price tag, but this still oozes modern, five-star luxury and service is faultless to the point of being invisible.
Doubles from £230. Unter den Linden 77 (www.hotel-adlon.de)

Style conscious
Hugely classy following a makeover, the Dorint chain’s Berlin flagship, the Sofitel am Gendarmenmarkt, is a luxury boutique number for the fashion set, an effortless blend of cutting-edge but tasteful design and five-star facilities; rooms even come with a PlayStation.
Doubles from £190. Charlottenstrasse 50-52 (www.dorint.de/berlin-gendarmenmarkt/uk/home.html)

More style
Streamlined style and modern art by George Baselitz in the Art’Otel Berlin Mitte, a central boutique number carved out of a 19th-century palace where you can select from décor tones of red, green, blue or aubergine – ask for a room with a view overlooking the Spree river. It’s well located in the Nikolaiviertel’s cosy nest of streets, just east of Museuminsel and a short walk from hip bars and fashion outlets around Rosenthaler Strasse.
Doubles from £147. Wallstrasse 70-73 (www.artotel.de/berlin_mitte/berlin.html)

Way-out west
The Propeller Island City Lodge is a true original in a western suburb that’s more art installation than hotel. It’s the vision of artist-owner Lars Strochen, whose décor in themed rooms is frequently eccentric – beds ‘float’ in mid-air, step through a door and you’re back in granny’s flat and one kinky room is a kaleidoscope of mirrors – and occasionally teeters towards the asylum; one room has padded walls as if to prove the point. Not the most comfy but certainly the most quirky address in Berlin. Reservation essential.
Doubles from £51. Albrecht Achillesstrasse 58, Wilmersdorf (www.propeller-island.com)

THE BEST DINNERS IN TOWN

Gourmet’s choice
Creative without ever showing off, chef Kolja Kleeberg has been wowing Berlin gourmets for the last two years at VAU with refined Neue Deutsch Küche (a sort of German nouvelle cuisine) and has received the culinary crown of Michelin stars. A menu that uses only the freshest ingredients changes with the seasons and the wine-list is a connoisseur’s heaven.
Three courses around £55 excluding wine. Jägerstrasse 54-5 (www.vau-berlin.de)

Belle Epoque Berlin
Lutter und Wegner is a 19th-century Viennese-style charmer of panelled wood and mirrors whose delicate slivers of Wiener Schnitzel are the best in Berlin, say those in the know, and whose Sauerbraten (marinated roast pork) has received the nod as the finest in the country.
Three courses around £35 including wine. Charlottenstrasse 56 (www.lutter-wegner-gendarmenmarkt.de)

A taste of tradition
Berlin’s oldest restaurant, Zur Letzten Instanz, was opened by a royal groom in 1621 and seems to have been frequented by everyone passing through ever since – from conquerors like Napoleon to visiting dignitaries such as Gorbachev and Chirac or simply Berlin locals chugging down Berliner Weisse wheat beer. Its warren of cosy rooms is an atmospheric spot to explore rib-sticking fare on a menu that changes every 100 years or so.
Three courses around £15 without wine. Waisenstrasse 14-16 (www.zurletzteninstanz.de)

DON’T MISS

What else but the wall? Checkpoint Charlie has all the fame but is shamelessly touristy, worth a visit only for obligatory snaps of the replica East-West interface and a museum that salutes the ingenuity of escapees. Better is a 1.3km section of the real thing on Mühlenstrasse, Friedrichshain, preserved as the East Side Gallery of fading but euphoric post-reunification images such as the celebrated ‘Brotherly Kiss’ of Brezhnev and GDR premier Erich Honecker clinched in a smacker. Or visit the evocative Gedensktätte Berliner Mauer at 111 Bernauer Strasse whose two barriers are divided by the Todestreifen (death strip). GDR junkies should also marvel at the gloriously ugly Palast der Republik on Schlossplatz – Berlin plans to raze the hulking former East German parliament building in 2005.

WHAT TO SEE

Its protracted renovation funded by Europe’s largest slush fund (£1.1bn), UNESCO-listed Museuminsel drops a five-museum megaton of culture: there are Roman and Greek antiquities in the Altes Museum and Pergamonmuseum; and 19th-century masters in the Alte Nationalgalerie. Every bit as dazzling is the century-spanning masterclass hung in Berlin’s artistic heavyweight, the Gemäldegalerie. To loaf free from culture and traffic, flee to Potsdam (S-Bahn S7). Hankering for a life ‘sans souci’ (without care), 18th-century Prussian king Friedrich the Great sketched Park Sanssouci, a German Versailles of palaces and quirky outbuildings scattered throughout naturalistic gardens that are at their most beautiful in autumn colours.

NEED TO KNOW

The main tourist information office is in the Europa-Center, Budapester Strasse 45, near Bahnhof Zoo, but a satellite bureau is in the south wing of the Brandenburg Tor. www.berlin.de; www.berlin-tourist-information.de

Travel writer James Stewart is author of Flying Visits: Germany, published by Cadogan Guides in November, 2004.

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