Budgeting for Berlin trip - how much for food?
May 5, 2013 6:10 AM Subscribe
I'm planning on taking a solo trip to Berlin for a week. As a general guideline, if I stick to cafes (and the occasional doner kebab) how much should I expect to spend on food?
Agree with neilb449. I spent about a week working in Berlin this past January. I was near Kotbusser Tor in Kreuzberg.
For lunch, I found amazing pizza places on Orianenstrasse serving gourmet pizza slices. You can fill up for about 4-6 euros. For dinner, I'd be at Mercan every night eating delicious Turkish food. The cost is 6 euros.
Throw in a coffee and pastry at a cafe for a couple euros and you get about 15 euros.
posted by vacapinta at 9:01 AM on May 5, 2013
For lunch, I found amazing pizza places on Orianenstrasse serving gourmet pizza slices. You can fill up for about 4-6 euros. For dinner, I'd be at Mercan every night eating delicious Turkish food. The cost is 6 euros.
Throw in a coffee and pastry at a cafe for a couple euros and you get about 15 euros.
posted by vacapinta at 9:01 AM on May 5, 2013
Budget for beer. The tap beer was excellent in Berlin. But €1 tall boy cans from corner stores were a cheap option.
I steered clear of the 'greasy' train station type really cheap food, because there are a lot of sandwitches and pastry options. We ate at local cafes or hunted down places that sounded interesting on foursquare (hot dog soup and yoyo's were great veg places)
I'm sorry I can't recall exactly how much I was spending on food, but I never noticed it to be costly. Around the same of slightly more then London, less then Reykjavík, and way less then home - Sydney.
posted by Burgatron at 9:42 AM on May 5, 2013
I steered clear of the 'greasy' train station type really cheap food, because there are a lot of sandwitches and pastry options. We ate at local cafes or hunted down places that sounded interesting on foursquare (hot dog soup and yoyo's were great veg places)
I'm sorry I can't recall exactly how much I was spending on food, but I never noticed it to be costly. Around the same of slightly more then London, less then Reykjavík, and way less then home - Sydney.
posted by Burgatron at 9:42 AM on May 5, 2013
Breakfast (coffee / tea / muffin ) €5
Lunch (takeaway currywurst or quick cafe meal / coffee / tea / small beer) €10
Dinner (decent cafe with 2 - 3 beers) €15
= €30 euros a day
Without beer, probably €20 for food and coffee / tea would be a minimum.
The trick to Berlin is not the price floor (how little can you spend) but more how much can you get for what you do spend? There are some amazing cafes in East Berlin where you can fill up with a good quantity of delicious food for €10 - €15.
Our travel style there was to 1) nice breakfast in East Berlin for €5 – €8. Pack up on breads, pretzels, fruits, and the like from the grocery store with a few cans of beer for the day. Then have a healthy dinner (€15) and a few pints at the bar (€10 - 15).
posted by nickrussell at 10:01 AM on May 5, 2013
Lunch (takeaway currywurst or quick cafe meal / coffee / tea / small beer) €10
Dinner (decent cafe with 2 - 3 beers) €15
= €30 euros a day
Without beer, probably €20 for food and coffee / tea would be a minimum.
The trick to Berlin is not the price floor (how little can you spend) but more how much can you get for what you do spend? There are some amazing cafes in East Berlin where you can fill up with a good quantity of delicious food for €10 - €15.
Our travel style there was to 1) nice breakfast in East Berlin for €5 – €8. Pack up on breads, pretzels, fruits, and the like from the grocery store with a few cans of beer for the day. Then have a healthy dinner (€15) and a few pints at the bar (€10 - 15).
posted by nickrussell at 10:01 AM on May 5, 2013
If you stay at a youth hostel, you can get breakfast (muesli and/or bread and cold cuts) for free. Great way to extend your daily food budget allotment.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:13 AM on May 5, 2013
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:13 AM on May 5, 2013
As an option that is rarely brought up - but when I found about it really flipped my wig - the theaters almost all have 'Cantines', where you (and the actors/tech crews of said theater) can eat for cheap and often well. Open these links in Chrome and you can auto-translate them.
Volksbühne (has the advantage of being by Rosa Luxembourg Platz - which is close to Prenzl. Berg)
Berliner Ensemble (Brecht's Theater - lots of Robert Wilson shows)
The prices everyone else has quoted are pretty right on. You can get pretty ok pizza/foccia and/or falafel for cheap, if you're eating on the fly. There's also cool food markets at Markthalle Neun.
Have fun!
posted by From Bklyn at 1:29 PM on May 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
Volksbühne (has the advantage of being by Rosa Luxembourg Platz - which is close to Prenzl. Berg)
Berliner Ensemble (Brecht's Theater - lots of Robert Wilson shows)
The prices everyone else has quoted are pretty right on. You can get pretty ok pizza/foccia and/or falafel for cheap, if you're eating on the fly. There's also cool food markets at Markthalle Neun.
Have fun!
posted by From Bklyn at 1:29 PM on May 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
No beer, and eating modestly: €20/day. Also just a note hardly anywhere takes cards. Cash cash cash in Berlin!
posted by manicure12 at 8:08 PM on May 6, 2013
posted by manicure12 at 8:08 PM on May 6, 2013
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You have to have Currywurst at least once!
posted by neilb449 at 7:55 AM on May 5, 2013