The Berlin Gay Map lists one hundred and eighty gay and gay-friendly businesses, so finding suitable accommodation is easy with choices in every price range and for every style of home-away-from-home. Several places offer playrooms or slings in the rooms but many are simple gay hotels and Bed & Breakfasts. Staying in Schoneburg is probably the most central for everything Berlin has to offer, but with an excellent and inexpensive public transit system, anywhere in Berlin is close to some of the GLBT community.
Two convenient hotel choices in Schoneburg are the Hotel Berlin, Berlin and The ArtHotel Connection. The first is a modern, recently renovated large hotel with all amenities and gay-friendly staff. The ArtHotel Connection is a smaller gay boutique hotel with old world charm, luxurious rooms and very helpful gay staff. Both are located close to subway stops and buses making it easy to travel to all the gay quarters of Berlin.
There are many ways to enjoy tours of Berlin either by yourself or as a part of an organised group.
Tours on bicycles include biking the Berlin Wall, Potsdam by Bike or an Insider tour. Walking tours include Reich Berlin, a concentration camp memorial tour, Cold War Berlin or perhaps a refreshing pub crawl.
- The unique “Berlin From Below” tour will take you down into Cold War Bunkers and underground tunnels in the dark world beneath the city.
- Boat tours along the River Spree and Landwehrkanal allow visitors to experience the old and new city either by day or night.
- For those with more ambition sightseeing flights are available by helicopter, flying boat or in the classic airlift “candy bomber”.
- Whichever way you choose to tour this city you can be sure its many wonders will entertain and educate every vacationer searching for the real Berlin.
Of course, Berlin is a shopper’s paradise with everything from small boutiques to the renowned KaDeWe department store. The Galeries Lafayette, Potsdamer Platz Mall and stores along Kurfurstendamm offer every major designer label and probably some names that will be new to even the most accomplished shoppers. Bruno’s gay emporium has two very large locations stocked with everything gay under the rainbow. Be prepared for European prices and a day of shopping that will leave you with some great memories-even if you can’t afford to buy everything you see.
