• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

The view from the rooftop balcony at Hotel de Rome.    (Photo: Courtesy of the Hotel de Rome)

Order a glass of Gewürztraminer on the open-air roof deck at Hotel de Rome (from $576), a bank turned Rocco Forte hotel in hip Mitte. Ask the front desk to loan you a red fleece shawl. Rooms boast Bauhaus décor, oversize windows, and mosaic tiling in the bathroom. Book yours overlooking the Bebelplatz; the former Nazi book-burning site is now filled with vendors peddling them secondhand.

Get all of your sight-seeing done from Mandala Suites (from $307), a quick walk from the Potsdamerplatz, Sir Norman Foster’s Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, and Holocaust memorial. The svelte, 130-square-foot studios have big marble bathrooms, balconies, walk-in closets, and kitchens. Take breakfast at the modern-Italian vista lounge on the eighth floor; then burn it off at the adjoining yoga space or TechnoGym—less Sprockets than it sounds.

Embrace capitalism at the glitzy rooftop casino of the Park Inn (from $215), a 1,012-room hotel centrally located in former East Berlin. All rooms are priced similarly, but request a renovated one for wraparound balcony vistas of the Alexanderplatz and the Fernsehturm, the city’s iconic, space-age TV tower.

Published on Aug 7, 2008 as a web exclusive.