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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
It’s up to date and easy to use.
Expert travel writers tell you all you need to know about Berlin.
Visit the must-see sights, or break away and try something a bit different.
The city is divided into districts, each with a locator map and information about the best sights, shops, restaurants and entertainment venues. There’s also a handy foldout map.
Published in 2007 and updated in 2011, I bought this for a brief stay in Berlin thinking that it would be fairly up to date and useful but I actually found it to be very frustrating. It reduces Berlin to 25 key attractions and although it’s got the main museums in there (which can take up hours), it also includes statues and sights that can be viewed very quickly so there wasn’t much of a balance when it comes to planning activities.
The city’s divided into 7 areas and suggests walking tours for each one – I did the tour for Unter Den Linden, which I found very interesting and one of the best things about the book. However a lot of the information was out of date or incomplete – e.g. to get into the Reichstag you have to arrange an invitation either over the internet or through a booth near the building and bring ID with you but this isn’t mentioned in the book. Similarly the Museum Berggruen and Kunstgewerbemuseum are currently closed for refurbishment, which isn’t dealt with in the book.
The information on the attractions is fairly superficial so if you’re looking for ideas of what to do, there wasn’t enough information to really form an opinion and the sections on entertainment and shopping suggestions didn’t hold anything for me with the exception of information on English language cinemas, which was useful (although it didn’t tell you that a good place to go for English language films is a cinema located next to the Sony Center in Potsdamplaza.
The map is useful and there’s a tube and tram map as well, but you can get fold up versions from any hotel in Berlin for free so there’s not a lot of point in buying this book just for that.
All in all, I wasn’t that impressed with the book and I’ll be checking out Lonely Planet for a guidebook during my next visit to the city.
The Verdict:
This is a fairly superficial guide that focuses on only 25 attractions and although updated in 2011, I found that some of the attractions highlighted were actually closed for refurbishment until spring 2013 and 2014. The map and tube/tram map are useful but you can get these from any Berlin hotel for free. Ultimately I didn’t think this was particularly good value for money and I’m going to try Lonely Planet guides for future trips.
It’s up to date and easy to use.
Expert travel writers tell you all you need to know about Berlin.
Visit the must-see sights, or break away and try something a bit different.
The city is divided into districts, each with a locator map and information about the best sights, shops, restaurants and entertainment venues. There’s also a handy foldout map.
Published in 2007 and updated in 2011, I bought this for a brief stay in Berlin thinking that it would be fairly up to date and useful but I actually found it to be very frustrating. It reduces Berlin to 25 key attractions and although it’s got the main museums in there (which can take up hours), it also includes statues and sights that can be viewed very quickly so there wasn’t much of a balance when it comes to planning activities.
The city’s divided into 7 areas and suggests walking tours for each one – I did the tour for Unter Den Linden, which I found very interesting and one of the best things about the book. However a lot of the information was out of date or incomplete – e.g. to get into the Reichstag you have to arrange an invitation either over the internet or through a booth near the building and bring ID with you but this isn’t mentioned in the book. Similarly the Museum Berggruen and Kunstgewerbemuseum are currently closed for refurbishment, which isn’t dealt with in the book.
The information on the attractions is fairly superficial so if you’re looking for ideas of what to do, there wasn’t enough information to really form an opinion and the sections on entertainment and shopping suggestions didn’t hold anything for me with the exception of information on English language cinemas, which was useful (although it didn’t tell you that a good place to go for English language films is a cinema located next to the Sony Center in Potsdamplaza.
The map is useful and there’s a tube and tram map as well, but you can get fold up versions from any hotel in Berlin for free so there’s not a lot of point in buying this book just for that.
All in all, I wasn’t that impressed with the book and I’ll be checking out Lonely Planet for a guidebook during my next visit to the city.
The Verdict:
This is a fairly superficial guide that focuses on only 25 attractions and although updated in 2011, I found that some of the attractions highlighted were actually closed for refurbishment until spring 2013 and 2014. The map and tube/tram map are useful but you can get these from any Berlin hotel for free. Ultimately I didn’t think this was particularly good value for money and I’m going to try Lonely Planet guides for future trips.
