Location &/or Hotel in Berlin for 1st time traveling solo

We stayed at the Circus Hotel on a brief visit to Berlin 3 years ago and loved it. It's a boutique hotel located in the historic center of the city, on Rosenthalerplatz in the Mitte area. It had very affordable rates compared to all the other hotels we looked into. We had free wi-fi, and there was a very stylist restaurant on the ground floor with a wonderful breakfast buffet. We were very impressed by our chic room with its huge, ultra-modern (and powerful) shower and by the friendly and helpful hotel staff. The hotel is in a safe area, conveniently located across the street from a U-bahn station. You will be able to get back and forth to Olympic Stadium on the U-bahn, though you might need to make a transfer. I just checked Trip Advisor to see if this hotel is still getting good reviews, and it's ranked #7 of 633 Berlin hotels, based on nearly 2,500 traveler reviews. If we ever return to Berlin, we'll stay there again.

https://www.circus-berlin.de/hotel/

We stayed at the H4 Hotel Berlin Alexanderplatz. (It was a ramada then) last year. There is a slightly more budget H2 Hotel Berlin Alexanderplatz next to it. Location was ideal. The bus (I think its# 200 Rick Stwves recommends for sightseeing is one block away, there is a large shopping plaza with food stalls nearby and is within walking distance of museum mile. We really enjoyed it. In younegr days we would have walked more places from here, but it was walkable to museums and we took the bus or nearby subway/trams nearby. We took a cab to the airport for our departure but the airport bus to Alexanderplatz on arrival. Very convenient

I also recommend the Circus Hotel. It was #1 when we stayed there!! We were able to get soccer tickets from them for the Berlin-Munich game. Also a walking tour. Everything was super about the hotel. Great location too.

Pension Peters is a friendly place in the Savignyplatz district of Berlin with a good breakfast, near the Zoo-bahnhof. The S-6 runs from the Olympic stadium to Savignyplatz until 46 past midnight week days, all night Friday and Saturday night. Takes 10 minutes. There is an all-night restaurant about 3 doors down the street, and lots of other bars and restaurants in the neighborhood. To get to the airport, the X-9 bus starts running from the Zoo-bahnhof to the airport around 3 am, and takes about 15 minutes to Tegel.

On check-in, Euwe will give you a quick orientation talk with maps, transport options, local restaurants rec's in the neighborhood. https://www.pension-peters-berlin.de/en

Thank you for the responses everyone. I've decided on Pension Peters for many reasons but the clincher was that the neighborhood sounds very nice.

I'll also add that the M49 bus runs all night every 30 minutes (more frequent during the day) on Kantstrasse in front of Pension Peters to the Zoo-Bahnhof. So if you don't want to walk the 6 blocks or so, that is available, arriving/departing on the X9 bus to/from Tegel.

Perfect! Thank you Sam.

I can heartily recommend the Pension Peters. It has comfortable, spacious rooms, an excellent breakfast, and is located in a very good neighborhood for first time visitors.

Thank you very much Jack! I'm very much looking forward to it. I have some train questions which I'll start a new thread for.

Hi,

It looks as if your time in Berlin is limited to say the least. If you have time, I would strongly suggest seeing the Resistance Museum (Gedenkstätte deutscher Widerstand) on Stauffenberg Straße, (not far from the central HI hostel on Kluckstraße), after the Topo of Terror, pretty grim stuff. Or, if you are museumed out, (also quite understandable), then the military cemetery, the Invalidenfriedhof, (the oldest Prussian-German military cemetery in Berlin) on Scharnhorststraße, corner of Invalidenstraße, ca 25 mins walk from Berlin Hbf, take the Invalidenstraße exit.

The Resistance Museum points out that the resistance was more than a military resistance, which had its HQ at that site, Bendlerblock, and memorial, which houses the present Museum. The original street name was the Bendlerstraße. There were three groups involved. The military group (in Berlin) housed in the Museum building was the one group that the SS and Gestapo, which you see at the Topo of Terror, did not suspect. If you have a good reading level of German, all the better at both sites, the cemetery and Museum.

Pension Peters is at the corner of Savignyplatz and Kantstraße. The S-Bahn station is close by, which you can take any S-Bahn line to Berlin Hbf or Berlin Ostbahnhof. I like the Savignyplatz area, stay there too but not at Peters.

Savignyplatz is located in Berlin-Charlottenburg.

There are advantages for staying in Mitte too, a trade-off. True, the traditional historical sites are mostly in Mitte. Basically, historical Berlin from that perspective is east of the Brandenburg Gate. Going from Mitte to Savignyplatz is lateral, easily done on the S-Bahn. In Berlin I only ride the S-Bahn, don't need to take the bus or U-Bahn, plus doing a ton of walking.

Wonderful information Fred. Thank you so much. I recently read a biography of Bonhoeffer and was hoping to see something involving him while I was there but hadn't yet researched it. The Resistance Museum sounds very interesting.

@ dbordsave....Yes, both Niemoeller and Bonhoeffer are featured in the Resistance Museum. The famous quotation by Niemoeller (in the original !) is posted on the wall in a way to catch one's attention. It was like that in 1989 on my first time visit to the museum as it was in 2009 the last time I was there.