Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Neuen Kranzler Eck
Kurfürstendamm 22; U-Kurfürstendamm.
Mon-Sat 9.30am-8pm, Sun 10am-6pm.
Tegel Aiport
Terminal A /Gate 2; buses #X9; 109; 128; TXL. Daily
8am-9pm.
CALLING HOME FROM
ABROAD
Note that the initial zero is omitted from
the area code when dialling the UK,
Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South
Africa from abroad.
Australia
00 + 61 + area code + number.
Ireland
00 + 353 + area code + number.
New Zealand
00 + 64 + area code + number.
South Africa
00 + 27 + area code + number.
UK
00 + 44 + area code + number.
USA and Canada
00 + 1 + area code + number.
USEFUL WEBSITES
W
berlin.de
The city's o
cial site, with loads of general
information, plus the latest events.
W
berlin-online.de
An excellent, all-purpose source for news,
business, politics, entertainment, restaurants, listings and the like.
W
findingberlin.com
Online magazine run by a group of
twenty-something creative types that provides a great feel for the
aspects of the city they love.
W
slowtravelberlin.com
Articles suggesting ways to meander
around offbeat Berlin.
W
uberlin.co.uk
British expat blog with lots on the music scene.
so is acceptable in most cases, though when you
run up a particularly large tab you will probably
want to add some more.
Travellers with disabilities
Access and
facilities
for the disabled (
Behinderte
)
are good in Berlin: most of the major museums,
public buildings and the majority of the public
transport system are wheelchair friendly, and an
active disabled community is on hand for helpful
advice.
A particularly good meeting place with lots of
useful
information
is the
Hotel MIT-Mensch
, Ehrli-
chstr. 48 (
T
030 509 69 30,
W
mit-mensch.com;
S-Bahn Karlshorst; €84 for a standard double room
in peak season), which provides friendly lodging
run by and for wheelchair users. For more formal
and in-depth information check out
Mobidat
(
W
mobidat.net), a Berlin activist group that
campaigns for better access for people with
disabilities. They have a wealth of information on
wheelchair-accessible hotels and restaurants, city
tours for disabled travellers and local transport
services. Their online database lists more than
40,000 buildings in Berlin, including hotels, restau-
rants and theatres, indicating their degree of acces-
sibility. Less useful is the tourist o
ce (see above),
though they do have listings of suitable
accommodation.
The public transport system is disabled-aware:
four out of five buses and around half its trams
have ramps to allow access - look for a blue wheel-
chair symbol on the side of vehicles. Trains are
generally easy to board, but getting onto the
platforms less so - most but not all U- and S-Bahn
stations are equipped with lifts. The o
cial U- and
S-Bahn map indicates which stations are wheel-
chair-accessible; for more information check with
the BVG first (see p.22).
Tourist information
Before you set off for Berlin, explore the
German
National Tourist Board
website (
W
germany
.travel), and that of the
city tourist o
ce
(
W
visit
berlin.de), which is more detailed, has a helpful
accommodation service and maintains an excellent
events section detailing most mainstream cultural
happenings in the city. They run five tourist infor-
mation centres (see below) and a call centre (Mon-
Fri 9am-7pm, Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 10am-2pm;
T
030 25 00 23 33), that provides information as
well as accommodation bookings. They also
produce a handy free map.
Berlin has two essential
listings magazines
-
Tip
(
W
tip-berlin.de) and
Zitty
(
W
zitty.de) - which come
out on alternate weeks.
Zitty
is marginally the better
of the two, with day-by-day details of gigs, concerts,
events, TV and radio, theatre and film, alongside
intelligent articles on politics, style and the Berlin
in-crowd, and useful classified ads. Reading copies
of these can be found in any bar. A third magazine,
also with a good deal of listings information and
possibly more useful if you don't speak any German,
is the monthly English-language
ExBerliner
(
W
exber
liner.com), which caters to Berlin's expats.
TOURIST OFFICES IN BERLIN
Brandenburg Gate
Pariser Platz (south wing); U- &
S-Brandenburger Tor. Daily: April-Oct 9.30am-7pm; Nov-March
9.30am-6pm.
Fernsehturm
(TV Tower) Panoramastr. 1a; U-Alexanderplatz. Late
May-Oct daily 10am-6pm.
Hauptbahnhof
Europaplatz;
U- & S-Bahn Hauptbahnhof. Daily
8am-10pm.
