Where to stay in Berlin and Prague

June 17, 2018 2:41 PM

We're heading to Berlin and Prague this year. Looking for advice on which areas we should stay in.

The main criteria is to be within easy walking distance of good restaurants and bars, and with good transit connections to the rest of the city. If you have any specific recommendations on hotels or apartments, that would also be welcome.

posted by Jakey to Travel & Transportation (9 answers total)

For Berlin, I suggest Mitte or Prenzlauerberg. For Prague, Old Town (Staré Město) or Malá Strana. That said, both cities have excellent public transit and are very walkable.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 4:07 PM on June 17, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Downtown Prague is so walkable that you can stay on either bank and be quite comfortable. I've stayed in Nove Mesto, which is very close to the clocktower, the Jewish Quarter, and the train station, and in Praha-Smichov, which is on the other side of the river, but is right on the tram line. It's also close to Petrin Hill.
posted by elsmith at 5:35 PM on June 17, 2018

For Berlin I recommend the area around Savignyplatz.
posted by Rash at 6:56 PM on June 17, 2018

Berlin specifically: I just spent 13 days in Friedrichshain on Rigaer Str. and in another place on Niederbarnimstraße and it was a friggen blast. But then again I like to be just off streets named after Karl Marx in what used to be the DDR that are covered in graffiti and packed tight with bars, art galleries and broken glass...

If you’re into that kinda thing there’s also Kreuzberg.

If you’d rather have a quieter section of Berlin that has more museums, craft beer, art spaces and vegetarian restaurants without being too tightly packed and covered in grafitti then I’d recommend Moabit.

Also though the circus hostel over by Rosenthaler Platz is a really great area too.

Fuck just about everywhere in Berlin is close to transit and places to eat, the rest is depending on what atmospheric nuances you’re after.
posted by nikaspark at 9:18 PM on June 17, 2018 [1 favorite]

If you like craft beer I really enjoyed Kaschk just off the Rosa Luxembourg Platz U-Bahn station and The Castle over in Mitte. Also Brew Dog is north and east of Kaschk on Invalidenstraße (a hefty walk down the same street is The Castle) and near Kaschk is a great restaurant called Fleischerie that my wife and I enjoyed a lot.
posted by nikaspark at 9:27 PM on June 17, 2018

The Falkensteiner Hotel Maria Prag is very nice. It's right across the street from Praha Hlavní Nádraží (Prague's main railway/metro station), five minutes' walk from Wenceslas Square, and ten minutes' walk from the Old Town. It's also not far from Dish and Nota Bene, which are both great places to get food and craft beer. You might also want to check out Taste of Prague's map and blog to get a feel for the layout of the city.
posted by neushoorn at 10:25 PM on June 17, 2018

Best answer: We enjoyed staying at the Alexanderplatz Motel One, the former hub of East Berlin and well-connected to a lot of transport.
posted by johngoren at 4:45 AM on June 18, 2018

Yeah, Berlin recommendations depend on what you're into. I feel like there's a different feel between East Berlin and West Berlin. I briefly lived in Friedrichshain, and I absolutely loved it there. Very cool, very laid back part of the city, and also very easy to get around from there, with S-Bahn lines running into the city center, and U-Bahn lines running to Kreutzberg and Prenzlauerberg, which are both really cool neighborhoods in their own right (although I spent much less time in Prenzlauerberg).
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 6:56 AM on June 18, 2018

I was just in Prague - Old City is just amazing, incredibly walkable and easy to get around. I was there for a conference and we stayed at the Marriott Prague Old Town and could walk everywhere we needed to. Prices are pretty reasonable for a downtown hotel (by US standards anyway), and bonus if you want to use points for the hotel.
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 6:57 AM on June 18, 2018