Travel: Five-star Berlin

For years, backpackers and pleasure-seekers have been flocking to Berlin for its industrial music, underground art scene and generally edgy vibe. But assume that Berlin is all warehouse raves and graffiti art, and you will miss its best bits. After all, Berlin already had one luxurious heyday in the 1920s: a time when jazz greats came to see and be seen in smoky velvet lounges, when hotels housed a cast of international characters and crystal-chandeliered theaters invented a saucier form of cabaret. Berlin was the Roaring Twenties.

In 2009, the city celebrated 20 years of reunification marking the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. Strolling through the spruced-up streets of Berlin today, you would hardly know the city had ever been split. The lines between East and West have been glossed over with the building of sleek, modern structures where tower blocks once stood, the reintegration of the city's public transit where East Berlin underground stations were once bricked up and all but abandoned, and the ceremonious acceptance and recovery from a history that has crippled the spirit of lesser cities.

Berlin's five-star hotels are back, its culinary experience is bar-none in Central Europe, and its edgy art scene stands on the shoulders of an extensive public museum system housing some of the world's greatest artists, both historic and contemporary.

Five-Star Hotels

The moment you walk into the Ellington Hotel (Nürnberger Straße 50-55; +49 (0)30 6831-50; Ellington-hotel.com) located in the posh western district of Charlottenburg, you can practically hear the distant smoky notes of Duke Ellington's big band echoing off of the green-and-white tiled staircases and brass fixtures. The hotel shouts 1920s from its extremely long, New Functionalist facade outlined by even rows of brass-enclosed windows. During its heyday, the building housed one of Berlin's liveliest nightclubs, Femina Palace, where flappers danced to jazz and big band music into the wee hours. Duke Ellington wasn't the only famous jazz legend to perform here; the likes of Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Lou Reed all made appearances and are now enshrined in black-and-white photos that contrast against the stark white walls of the hotel's massive breakfast room. A jazz radio station has taken up residence in the hotel's airy lobby bar, projecting smooth sounds from a small sound booth that illuminates "On Air" in retro font.

Although the rooms appear luxurious, well-appointed with comfy beds, lavish duvets and designer hand soaps, luxurious service is not what the Ellington is about. Still, the blocky layout of the former upper-story offices can't be helped, and the real treats are to be found in the details of the lobby bar, the elegant Duke Restaurant and the preserved ornate staircases throughout.

On a quiet, leafy street in East Berlin, Hotel Hongimond (Tieckstraße 11; +49(0)30 - 28 44 55-0; Honigmond-berlin.de) seems a world away. Its mansion-like presence makes you feel like you've stepped into someone's very fancy home: A collection of posh, mismatched furniture stands on antique Oriental rugs, with vases of fresh orchids and lilies offering a sweet scent. A creaky hallway lined with ornately framed prints of famous paintings, each hung slightly askew, leads to the rooms, where breezy windows open from an antique four-poster bed and mahogany writing desk out onto a verdant courtyard.

You'd never know this street was once the heart of the German Democratic Republic. Members of the opposition used to meet in the dusky confines of Honigmond's restaurant to discuss the future of East Berlin, while, around the corner, poets, priests and beatniks quietly plotted against the regime.

Five-star dining

It's really not difficult to find good food in Berlin; in fact, it's quite difficult to stumble onto bad food in the city. Nonetheless, a little help in discovering the city's secret corners is a welcome relief, thanks to Berlinagenten's Gastro Rallye (Gastro-rallye.com), a uniquely designed gastronomic tour of Berlin's best kept culinary secrets.

Starting at the trendy Rosenthaler Platz in the charming Mitte district, we enjoyed three courses at three different restaurants, as our illustrious guide, Gabriella, talked about life in Berlin over the past 10 years. Between restaurants, we were treated to insider tidbits about the surrounding buildings and architecture. Once tableside, our conversation turned to the culinary delights before us, such as the artichoke and rucola pizza on naan bread at a hip fast-food café followed by a pan-Asian bento box on the paper lantern-lined back terrace of a Vietnamese teahouse. As the early evening passed into night, we learned more about the GDR and Berlin's comeback after unification over crème brûlée and a spritz (soda water, prosecco, and Aperol) at a flashy modern lounge.

Five-star art

You can't come to Berlin expecting the Louvre, but you will find art. Heaps of art. So much art that you couldn't fit it into a week's worth of sightseeing if you tried. You'll want to start out at the UNESCO World Heritage site, Museum Island, an island on the Spree River that is home to five institutions of the Berlin State Museums system. Ancient-history buffs should peek into the Altes Museum, where stacks of Greek and Egyptian sculptures, tablets and jewelry will keep you fascinated, continuing on to the Neues Museum for more Egyptian and pre-historic art, including the famed bust of Nefertiti.

In the Alte Nationalgalerie, several lofty floors house Classical, Romantic and Impressionist paintings, including a lot of German painters, as well as an original cast of the Rodín sculpture The Thinker. The most impressive building of the lot, the Bode Museum, houses the city's Byzantine collection, while the Pergamon is home to an impressive Near and Middle Eastern collection, including many works of Islamic art.

For something a little more local, the KW Institute for Contemporary Art provides a space for local contemporary artists to display their works, with a constantly rotating series of exhibitions that include photography, multimedia and performance art.

Berlin's Roaring Twenties first mention comes alive through Germany's most iconic architectural movement: Bauhaus, a style made famous by Walter Gropius. The simple lines and geometric shapes of the Bauhaus style are all over Berlin, but the Bauhaus Archive and Museum of Design is a good place to get an overall feel for the history and elements of the style before embarking on your own tour of the city.

Getting there and around

Berlin is just a four-hour trip from Prague by either train or car. Five speedy Eurocity trains connect Prague's main railway station, Hlavní nádraží, with Berlin Hauptbahnhof daily. Berlin's efficient public transport system, which consists of an underground metro (U-bahn), trams, suburban trains (S-bahn) and buses, connect every inch of the city and make driving superfluous. Consider getting a Berlin WelcomeCard, which comes in seven varieties from two to five days, and offers unlimited use of public transport, as well as discounts at the city's museums, stores and restaurants. The card can easily be purchased at any ticket machine in U-and S-Bahn stations, as well as at tourist info points and hotels around Berlin.  

Megan Eaves can be reached at
megan.eaves@gmail.com