Berlin hotel with easy access to main train station, but in good area

Sights in Berlin are scattered around the city. But public transportation is very good.

I stayed at an Ibis in Alexanderplatz, which was good and inexpensive, but I had to take public transportation to see the WWII sights. Very easy to do, however.

Don't miss the Topography of Terror, near Checkpoint Charlie.

A short walk from the station there is a MotelOne, an Ibis-style chain hotel, clean and with AC.

budget allows for somewhat more upscale. Novotel, H2, Mercure, Holiday Inn are all in my $ range. Are there some areas in Mitte to be avoided? Such as someone mentioned Hackescher Mkt as having open prostitute--we'd probably not feel comfortable there with teens.

We have stayed (twice) at Hotel Pension Columbus very close to the Zoo station and easy walk to shopping at KuDam. Direct bus access to museums, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate. Great breakfasts, super owners, and very reasonable price in safe neighborhood.

Hi, Elaine. I think you should feel very comfortable in pretty much all of Mitte. If you haven't done so, I would encourage you to read the TripAdvisor reviews for the Crowne Plaza Potsdamer Platz, if you are interested in it. Most people liked it; some people felt like not much was in the immediate area. People generally seemed happy with transportation links to the rest of the city.

A lot of visitors to Berlin like to stay in Prenzlauer Berg; good transportation links make it an option. A lot of people also like the Alexanderplatz area; my female travel companion, though, is totally creeped out by Alexanderplatz (especially at night).

I stay at mittendrin when in Berlin. It's a 4-room "boutique hotel" (I'd call it a B&B) located in an early 20th century flat in the former West Berlin off the Ku'damm near the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. It's owned by the lovely, warm, congenial Sabine, who is a former actress. Breakfast is enormous and enjoyed at a common table with other guests from around Europe. There are 3 U stations within 2.5 blocks, and the city center is a 10-minute U ride away. Sabine's largest room can be a family room for 4; it has its own bathroom, which is directly across the hallway from the room. Price is at the upper end of your budget: 219-259 euro/night, depending on length of stay and time of year, but a stay here is truly a remarkable experience (check TripAdvisor reviews). There is no A/C, so if you are going in summer, it's probably not a good choice (though it's fine in May, when I travel).

Also, I want to put a plug in for the Alliiertiermuseum (Allies Museum), even though you are not interested in museums. It is located on Clay Allee (as in General Lucius Clay, the US general who succeeded Eisenhower as military governor of post-war Germany) in the old US military area; one of two buildings with exhibits is the old cinema for US troops. The museum is FREE! It tells tells how the Allies reconstructed Berlin. It has the original front facade of the Checkpoint Charlie building (the building at Checkpoint Charlie is NOT the original) and a Hastings TG 503 that was (likely) used in the Berlin airlift (plane can be toured on Sundays only for 1 euro). Across Clay Allee from the museum is the US consulate, which was the former US post-war military headquarters, which was the former Nazi Luftwaffe headquarters. Another really cool thing for people interested in WWII/Cold War things to do is a tour of Tempelhof Field to see its monumental Nazi architecture, to stand where the Berlin Airlift happened, and to see the basketball court put in by the Americans.

Re: Mitte in Berlin...of course Mitte is all right.

"...how do we get there from the train station?" Berlin Hbf and Alexanderplatz are both junction points for both the U-Bahn and S-Bahn, so several lines go through both stations. From Berlin Hbf to Alexanderplatz you have a number of S-Bahn lines to choose from.

Fred, Berlin Hbf is not a junction point for the U-Bahn. So far, only the U55 stops at Hbf, and this line is not yet connected to the rest of the U-Bahn network (it only goes to Brandenburger Tor).

I walked around the Hackescher Market twice in 2015 and don't remember being at all concerned about the environment, but both visits were in the daytime and I can be oblivious ro things others observe. I do want to mention one of the reasons I was in that area: It's where I picked up the tram to the Gedenkstatte Berlin-Hohenschonhausen at Genslerstrasse 66. (Please forgive the missing umlauts; I'm not very skilled on the tablet I'm using to post this.)

The site is a former Stasi prison where you'll learn a great deal about what happened to enemies of the DDR regime after the end of the war. There are worthwhile English-language tours preceded by a film. If the tour times don't work for you, there is a museum-like area you can visit that has a lot of explanatory material (in English) that covers much of the information provided on the tour. I'd estimate that it's probably at least a 2-hour visit not including travel time. There's a significant distance to cover on foot from the nearest tram stop, so for 4 people it would probably make sense to get a taxi from a convenient spot on east-central Berlin. As of 2015 there was a small cafe on site. I don't remember what it offered beyond the cold soda and cup of fruit I purchased. I imagine there are sandwiches.

I learned about the site on TripAdvisor, where I got up-to-date directions for taking public transportation. I later saw a brochure in one of the Berlin tourist offices.

Two other Cold War sites I found really fascinating can be very, very crowded. It would be worth trying to find out what times are less busy: Mauermuseum/Haus am Checkpoint Charlie (focusing on escape attempts) and Alltag in der DDR (everyday life--consumer goods, education, leisure activities, etc.). Both are well-signed in English. I believe they are open into the evening; showing up in the late afternoon might be a good strategy. The latter was full of German families, evidently taking their post-Cold War children to see what life was like in the gray days of the DDR.

Thanks for the information on the U-Bahn. I've only seen the station at Hbf. The S-Bahn is what I use most often in Berlin.

The prostitution isn't in Hackescher Markt itself but later in the evening along Oranienburgerstrasse heading further west from there. In my experience it isn't particularly threatening when walking - the women are basically standing on the pavement every hundred metres or so and not even catcalling people. It's actually a moderately pricy restaurant and bar street.

We stayed at the Circus Hotel. The hotel was only about 15 minutes from the main train station using the tram. It was also a very safe area.

thanks everyone. When I plugged in transport routes, it got me to thinking about the Mercure Berlin City which is on the tram line and also a direct U to Checkpoint Charlie, where we could start our next day. We are only in Berlin via train for 2 nights, then via train elsewhere. Is this an OK area? Price is great for us.
Dave, thanks so much for the Alliiertiermuseum tip--added to our list!