Accommodations in Berlin

Check in RS guide book for good suggestions. We stayed at Pension Peters and we liked it. Public transit was close and we could get anywhere. Good breakfast too. Chose a B&B for ease in the morning.

We have twice stayed at Hotel Pension Columbus, very close to Zoo bahnhof and 100 bus which goes to museum/Reichstag areas. Great breakfast, lovely hosts, cost-effective. Nice area to walk -- KDW department store only blocks away on Ku'dam.

Berlin is a very large and spread-out city so you will need to use public transport heavily no matter where you stay.

I don't know about flats as such, but two places I have stayed that offer self-catering, and that are pretty good, are Miniloftmitte between the Hbf and the Scheunenviertel, and the Adina Checkpoint Charlie (which isn't actually very near Checkpoint Charlie, but is well-placed).

If you want to rent an apartment and are confused about what neighborhoods to look in, this link to a prior thread might help: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/germany/first-time-in-berlin-need-neighborhood-advice

My response on this thread included links to 3 other threads on the same subject. Hope this helps a bit.

OK, Lorraine, this is the 4th time you've posted essentially the same question. It appears no one has any strong apartment recommendations for you, though forum members have given you lots of hotel/B&B/neighborhood recommendations. If an apartment is what you want, I think you're going to have to do the leg work on this one -- pull up Airbnb or a similar site and search away, using the neighborhood recommendations you have received previously. Read the reviews to help guide you. On Airbnb, based on the main recommendations previously given in prior threads, I find for Novemeber...

-lots of apartments around Savigny Platz in Charlottenburg with good transportation through the Savignyplatz S station (S5, S7, and S75 lines, which travel together going east for a good distance)

-a good number of apartments around Kollwitzplatz/Kulturbrauerei, a nice area of Prenzlauer Berg with decent transportation through the Eberswalder Straße and Senefelderplatz U stations (U2 line).

-apartments sprinkled throughout Mitte, even (rather pricey) apartments near the Brandenburg Gate (lots of U stations).

Alternatively, look at the Adina Apartment Hotels in Berlin -- someone recommended the "Checkpoint Charlie" location in one of the other threads you created. Adina offers apartment-like accommodations in more of a hotel setting than an "authentic" flat.

Good luck... hope you find what you are looking for...

Hi Lorraine,
I can agree with @Dave on the Adina Hotel/Apartments. A couple years ago we stayed five nights at the Adina Apartment Hotel Berlin Hackescher Markt, and can highly recommend it. Our room was virtually a one bedroom apartment with full kitchen amenities and a large open area for bed, etc, and a large balcony. We fell in love with it. The location was great, with a local train station about 3minute walk, bus stops close by, as well as Museum Island. And the Brandenburg Gate is only 2km away or 25min walk. And being in the old East German area the surroundings had a lot of character. Oh and theres a fantastic little cafe just around the corner that we frequented, as well as the Hackescher Market for open air restaurants for delicious meals...

@Lorraine, I am wondering if you are aware that breakfast traditionally is included in the room rates of hotels and pensions in Germany. So unless you have some special requirements or wishes, there is really no need to fix it yourself.

That said, some large hotel chains have in recent years adopted the American tradition of not including breakfast in their rates and will charge extra for breakfast, so you may want to make sure when booking.

Cooking is usually not allowed in hotel and pension rooms. You will in fact have to rent a small apartment or a room with some sort of kitchenette if that is important to you. Just try a Google search for "apartment" or "Ferienwohnung" and "Berlin", and tons of offers will pop up.

I can also recommend the Adina Apartment Hotel Berlin Hackescher Markt. We stayed there a few years ago and found it to be an excellent location and a very pleasant place to stay.

Just to emphasize again that there is no real "central" area of Berlin of interest to tourists, like you would expect in other European cities. Rather, Berlin is spread out over many far-flung districts. Indivdual districts are walkable, but the distances between them are too far to manage on foot. But most are well connected by public transportation. I would only recommend against staying near the main train station, because it sits rather isolated by itself in kind of an industrial/construction dead zone.