My wife and I will be arriving in Berlin on September 1 and staying four nights. Rick's Germany book recommends staying in the Prenzlauer district. According to him It is the place to be in Berlin. Hip, great restaurants, etc. We are in our early 70's, very active and accustomed to big city life. But we do not necessarily want to be surrounded by 20 something hipsters, for example, when we are out to dinner. In other words, we do not want to stand out from the crowd as the odd old couple. The area also seems a bit far from many of the usual tourist attractions. We are considering the Meyers Hotel in the area. Our we being overly concerned?
Posted by
Chicago
565 posts
Prenzlauer Berg is much more a family neighborhood than a "hip" one. Rick really needs to get to Friedrichshain much more often if Prenzlauer Berg is his definition of hip.
The S-Bahn easily carries you to all the sites, so that shouldn't be an issue. I have found the food in Prenzlauer Berg to be much better and less expensive than Mitte, which is where a lot of the sites are, and it is a quite welcoming neighborhood.
Posted by
New York City, NY, USA
5678 posts
Our Rick Steves tour stayed in that area. We ranged in age from 17 to 80 and each decade in between! The district worked well for all. The S bahn connection was good, but I think that there also was a decent U bahn stop as well. It is a great city. I loved staying in the East as in the 70's we'd of course been in the west---somewhere at a hostel past the zoo.
Pam
Posted by
Germany
868 posts
Prenzlberg was hip ten years ago. The hipster crowd first moved to Friedrichshain after that, and now to Kreuzberg and Neukölln, as far as I know. Prenzlauer Berg (Berg = Hill), today also known as "Pregnant Hill", is fully gentrified and mostly a quarter of afluent 30-somethings, with families, and single mothers, and their "projects" (i.e. children).
Posted by
OP
Connecticut
12 posts
Thanks for your help. We will be staying in the Prenzlauer area.