Germany Travel Guide
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Three For Two With The Rocco Forte Collection
Not going to Europe this summer? This might tempt you. Stay two nights at a Rocco Forte Collection hotel (with 12 to choose from in places you’d like to be anyway, like Rome, Prague, Berlin and St Petersburg), and they’ll throw in a third for free.
The only caveat – the offer is only valid for stays during high summer, between July 27 and September 4. Unfortunately, that’s also when most of the locals will have deserted places like Rome for the seaside – but hey, at least the buses will be a little less crowded.
With this offer, the Hotel de Rome in Berlin costs $861 per room for the three nights – not so bad for $287, given that it includes breakfast (although it excludes VAT). Brown’s Hotel in London, meanwhile, will set you back $950 for the full stay. So now all you have to do is choose which one.
Tags: Hotel Openings / Berlin Hotels / Budget Hotels / → All Tags
Add The Michelberger to Our 'Worst Hotel Rooms For Drunk People' List
Remember our list of the Worst Hotel Rooms for Drunk People? Yes, well: just as we were reminiscing about our fantastically blurry, buzzed and stumble-y weekend, we came across photos of Berlin's new Michelberger Hotel on Contemporist. And as we gazed at the pics of these rooms, the party girl alter-ego inside of us, well...she cried.
The 119-room hotel is on its way to Berlin and is slated for a September opening. Contemporist says:
Five different room categories offer a range of different layouts. The rooms display a high level of space efficiency and lots of vertical drama and airiness - a feat allowed by the placing of loft bed areas above the bathrooms. Most rooms are for singles, couples and threesomes but other options including The Big One allow groups of 4 or even more to room together.
Tags: Killer View / Berlin Hotels / → All Tags
You Can Sorta See the Berlin Cathedral From the Radisson Blu
We are suckers for a room with a killer view. We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.
Oh, this? Oh, no big thang, just the Berlin Cathedral, a.k.a. the Berliner Dome.
We're sort of on a Berlin high here at HC this summer (since our own JetSetCD just returned from a jaunt out to Germany), and so this shot out the window of room 6111 at the Radisson Blu Berlin made us sorta giddy.
Also making us giddy: the ginormous cylindrical aquarium that runs up the middle of the hotel's lobby atrium — which makes for a pretty fly killer view on the inside of the hotel, too.
Rooms like this are a bit on the pricier side, though: we're assuming this was taken from a business class room (the website shows that only biz class rooms seem to have a view of the Berlin Cathedral), and those go for about 245 Euros — around $245 USD.
[Photo: Wolfgang Jung]
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Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin's Gift Shop Overflows With Pricey Products
It may be the Berlin hotel of choice for visiting dignitaries, like Queen Elizabeth II and President Obama, and it may occupy a sweet spot next to the Brandenburg Gate, but the Hotel Adlon Kempinski suffers from a serious case of inflated ego.
Perhaps they'd remember that it was out of their windows that Michael Jackson dangled his baby? Or maybe they'd take a second look at their less than 5-star website? But no, the Hotel Adlon sure loves itself and knows that when you pay some 1,900 Euro for one night, you too are head over heels for their snooty exclusivity.
For the reason that the Adlon simply can't imagine that their guests would stay with them and be able to continue living without a hotel-monogrammed cheeseboard, you will find the hotel's very own store around the corner on Wilhelmstrasse. If you think the W Hotels' stores are a bit much, then please stay away from the Adlon.
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Prosecco, Petit Fours and a Pool at Berlin's Hotel de Rome
By now it's probably obvious that no matter what world city in which we find ourselves, we will be willing to sniff out a great hotel tea service. If we're not staying at the tippy-top 5-star hotels, oftentimes a drink in the bar of one or indulging in some afternoon tea is the way to go to still have access to the luxury experience. Our recent visit to Berlin is no exception, and we found ourselves headed to the rooftop bar at the iconic Hotel de Rome.
Just off the main drag of Unter den Linden street, the Hotel de Rome sits at the back of a tourist-filled square, but the busloads have come to see the platz's sunken memorial to the Nazi book burning and not the stately hotel only steps away. For this reason, the Hotel de Rome is pleasantly quiet, and its rooftop bar seemed to sit just as many locals as visitors.
Tags: HotelChatter Reviews / Berlin Hotels / Marriott Hotels / → All Tags
Inside The Marriott Berlin: Our Temporary Home On the Platz
We suppose now is the perfect ime to thank the power of Twitter; without it, we wouldn't have scored a 5-star property in Potsdamer Platz in Berlin for less than what the busloads of tourists at 3-star Novotels were paying.
Granted, we didn't choose Marriott Berlin for being the city's "Contemporary American Lifestyle Experience," but were stuck with it as a result of using a $50 Twitter coupon from Cinco de Mayo that we received from Priceline's @TheNegotiator account. A name-your-own-price search later, and we had three nights nailed down in the center city.
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Behold: the Marriott Berlin's 'Contemporary American Experience'
Just how well-located can a hotel be without actually causing guests to trip over hoards of tourists? We think we found the answer in the Marriott Berlin at Potsdamer Platz this past week, which a few blocks' down from the Brandenburg Gate and the Tiergarten, while within walking distance to most everything else.
As usual, we're just teasing you with the video tour of our room above, since the delicious full review of our stay will come around tomorrow. Until then, you can read up on their shameful WiFi plan or enjoy the above glimpse into our temporary home while in Berlin. It's a deal we're proud to admit that we maneuvered thanks to the name-your-own-price function on Priceline with the help of Twitter.
Tags: WiFi Hell / Marriott Hotels / Berlin Hotels / Hotel WiFi / International Hotel WiFi / → All Tags
The Marriott Berlin Charges $530 For WiFi Access
In an ideal, globally-connected world, all hotels would have free and fast WiFi. This is however not a perfect world, and so traveling across borders with the intention of checking your email or uploading pictures to your Flickr is often a bigger headache that it should be.
Our most recent instance of entering Hotel WiFi Hell occurred during our 3-night stay at the centrally-located and business traveler-happy Marriott Berlin. After enjoying free and freeflowing access at a much cheaper hotel elsewhere in the city for our first few days in Berlin, we were admittedly spoiled. Nonetheless, we found the internet plan at the Marriott too exorbitant for any visitor:
· One hour of access (common areas): € 6.95 ($9.72)
· One hour of access (in room): € 5.95 ($8.32)
· 24 hours: € 19.95 ($27.91)
· One week: € 99.75 ($139.56)
· One month: € 379.05 ($530.33)
Tags: Design Hotels / Germany Hotels / Marcel Wanders / Hotel Construction / → All Tags
Coming Soon in Germany:: The Design Hotel-Power Plant Hybrid
Now that the Mondrian South Beach has been open for almost six whole months, the hype as well as the advertising of its Marcel Wanders-designers interior has died down. This means it's perfect timing for Marcel to put himself back out there by leaking photos of his next big hotel project, the Kameha Grand in Bonn, Germany.
Due to to open this fall, the Kameha Grand is going to be one of those hybrid design/business hotels, where they'll be venturing outside of neutral tones but still respectful of business traveler tastes. Boasting 192 rooms, 61 suites, and one massive Presidential Suite with a sweeping staircase reminiscent of Wanders' Miami masterpiece, the Kameha will bed the trendiest of suits.
Tags: NYT Reviews / Germany Hotels / → All Tags
The George Hotel in Germany Seems Culturally Confused
Perhaps even more than us, the New York Times sure does like a hotel with a quirky shtick. Last week, they checked in to a London hotel that can’t quite make up its mind between “rough” and “luxury;” this week a Times-er navigated The George, a Hamburg, Germany, hotel all decked out in British décor.
Weird as it may seem, the design hotel's English theme is a reflection of its location. According to the NYT, the port city of Hamburg and its residents "have always had a fascination with its larger and more famous counterpart across the North Sea and up the River Thames." Apparently locals have long partied it up in London instead of Berlin. Guests get a wee bit o’ Britain through touches like Union Jack throw pillows, a photo of Twiggy and a double-decker bus, and a swanky London-like bar with a 60-page drinks menu (though the restaurant serves Italian fare).
Tags: Nude Hotels / Hotel Hype / Germany Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
Guests 'Must Be Naked' at Germany's First Nudist Hotel
We're going to admit something to you dear readers. We hate pants. More often than not, if you ever walked in on us at home we would not be wearing pants. Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration as we are wearing pants at this moment. But whenever we can not wear pants, it's a good time.
However, we don't think we could ever bring ourselves to check into this nudist hotel, Hotel Rosengarten in Freudenstadt, Germany. From Spiegel Online:
Guests will be required to remove their clothes at the entrance and must be naked at all times while on the premises, according to the strict house rules that have already been posted on the Internet. "We hope to open as soon as possible," Silvia Probsthain, a member of staff at the planned Hotel Rosengarten, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "It will be the first comprehensively nudist hotel in Germany."
"Comprehensively nudist." Wow. Words fail us.
Tags: Berlin Hotels / Hotel Deals / Ritz-Carlton Hotels / → All Tags
Ritz-Carlton Berlin Makes History Cool 20 Years After Wall Fell
A freak-out moment: we actually remember the fall of the Berlin Wall and now there are hotel packages celebrating the 20th anniversary of that momentous day. Ignoring the we-feel-old thing, we our focusing our thoughts instead on this package, put together by the Ritz Carlton Berlin.
Their "Remember the Wall" package is being offered from now until the end of the year and has a bunch of cool inclusives for $417 per double. You get Berlin Wall Museum tickets, a Goodbye Lenin DVD (great movie!), Gorbachev cocktails on arrival and even DDR Rottkaeppchen sparkling wine. You also get a "genuine" piece of the Berlin Wall, but we are a touch skeptical about that--if all the tourists in the world put their souvenir pieces of the Wall back together, we suspect there'd be enough for two or three walls.
Berlin is a great city and the Ritz Carlton there not only has comfy beds but also a truly central location on Potsdamer Platz. A Fall of the Wall anniversary year sure sounds like a good excuse for a quick trip there.
[Photo: gavinandrewstewart]
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