Food
Doner- mustafas (at the u6/u7 mehringdamm stop)
Reuben- mogg&melzer in mitte
Currywurst- curry 36 (just down the street from mustafas)
Nice restaurant- lokal in mitte
Markets- markethall neun is kreuzberg (gorlitzter on u12) is incredible, Turkish markets in neukolln on Tuesday/fri
Other good places- theke in mitte for lunch salad, bastard in kreuzberg, santa maria on Tuesdays has 1 euro taco/tequila shots, haus of small wonder in mitte, ana blume in prenzlaur berg for brunch, clarchens ballhaus an old 1920s dance hall for classic german food and to watch dancing
I’m a veg but people are obsessed with Burgermeister
Café to do work
In shoneburg- taubenschlag, mokaloko (both on the same residential st, in between sudkreuz sbhan/shoneburg stops)
In mitte- st oberholtz, westberlin (near checkpoint Charlie)
In krezuberg- betahaus
Bars
Luzia- solid bar in kreuzberg that’s happening every night of the week
Bohnengold- another solid kreuzberg bar, has a back room that opens for dancing on weekends
Kumpelnest 3000- crazy bar in shoneburg.. who knows what will happen there
Neue Heimat- jazz show and street food on Friday nights in freidrichshain, has really cool events
Geist im glass- cool, small bar for chill night w/ a loft and amazing mixologist
Biergartens
Klunkerkranich- really cool rooftop parking lot bar in neukolln. open on the weekends, live music during the day and cool scene @night
Prater biergarten in prenzlaur berg
Café am see neun in the tiergarten (can rent a lil rowboat)
YAAM- next to east side gallery, rasta vibes to chill out in there are a lot of cool strand bars and faux beach bars that open up along the Spree when the weather gets nice, fun to chill there
Clubs
Check on residentadvisor.net to find out what’s going on @night
Ritter Butzke- one of my favs. fun, local crowd. good vibes in kreuzberg
Club der visionare- Chill outdoor/indoor on the water in kreuzuberg
Chalet- consistently good music, converted house turned club
Other good clubs- aboutblank, kosmonaut, ava, prince charles, tresor, casiopia, (personally I don’t love watergate which tends to be more touristy& if you want to go to the classic berghain be prepared to wait in line for 2 hours and most likely get rejected. Try during the day on sunday)
Parks
Maur park flohmarkt on Sundays always (berlin wall death strip turned park)
Gorlitzer park (buy drugs here)
Tempelhof (abandoned airport turned park)
Tiergarten (giant park in the middle of mitte w a lake, biergarten)
Museums
All of museum island (theres like 4 or 5) for the ancient & historic kulture forum all the cool galleries around the hamburgerbahnhof for really cool contemporary helmut newton gallery for his iconic photograph collection
Others
the whole urban spree area in friedrichshain is awesome to explore during the day AND night (raw, skatehalle, biergartens, neue heimat), get off at warsahaur st outdoor kino movies in kreuzberg olympic stadium and check out a soccer game if you can exploring treufelsberg (but you need to do it w a tour which is annoying)
blubbering mess- abandoned water park (and all of abandoned berlin is awesome you can google sites)
KaDeWe- walk around the food floors and rooftop and the half bombed church
bike ride around Potsdam (I never did the bike tour around berlin but people loved it, same with the craft beer tour)
picnic/biergarten at wansee lake
there are a million film festivals that go on- definitely go to the berlinale as well as the feminist film festival and Jewish film festival
General Tips
public transport via ubahn/sbahn/busses are amazing. Use them. Seems like its on the honor code but buy a ticket, I was checked at least once a week and they wear normal clothes so you can’t see em coming
ca$h rules everything around me (cards rarely accepted)
it’s okay to drink ANYWHERE!! beer is cheap but even cheaper at a spaete (bodega if you will)
resident advisor for nightlife will become your best friend
hit up all the museums when its COLD out because when the weather is nice everyone’s
outside
view from the TV tower is expensive and kinda eh… prob not worth it unless your parents come or something
go out in small groups, don’t talk in line, super casual dress (sneaks and black), def don’t show up earlier than 1