# Is Charlottenburg a Good Area to Stay in Berlin? Map & Verdict

Verdict: Mixed. Fine for some travellers, wrong for others.

Interactive map: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-berlin/charlottenburg
Every Berlin district: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-berlin.md

West Berlin's old centre has the most hotel rooms, the widest streets and the quietest nights. It is also twenty-five minutes from the Berlin you came to see.

Facts: 75 min walk to Museum Island; 60 min to the airport; price €€€; best for families, business trips, quiet, couples; lines U1, U2, U7, U9, S5, S7, S41.

When the city was split, West Berlin built a centre of its own around Bahnhof Zoo and the Kurfuerstendamm, and that is what Charlottenburg still is: department stores, wide boulevards, Schloss Charlottenburg, the zoo, and by a distance the largest supply of mid-range and upscale hotel rooms in the city. Rooms are bigger than in the east, off-season rates fall a long way, and nothing keeps you awake.

Then 1990 happened and the centre of gravity moved back east. Museum Island, the Brandenburg Gate, the East Side Gallery, the clubs and every district people describe when they describe Berlin are twenty-five to thirty-five minutes away on the U2 or the S-Bahn, each way, every day. Museum Island is seventy-five minutes on foot, which means never. The Ku'damm itself is chain retail now; the interesting shops left for Mitte years ago. Bahnhof Zoo lost its long-distance trains, so arriving by rail means crossing the city first.

Book Charlottenburg for space, quiet and price, especially with children or on a longer stay. Do not book it expecting to walk out of the hotel into anything.

What works:
- The largest supply of mid-range and upscale hotels in Berlin, so off-season rates drop hard
- Quiet at night: no club scene, no bar strips, wide streets and old buildings
- Schloss Charlottenburg, KaDeWe, the zoo and the Gedaechtniskirche are all in the district
- U1, U2, U7 and U9 plus three S-Bahn lines; Alexanderplatz is about 25 minutes
- Rooms are larger than the eastern districts sell at the same price

What does not:
- Everything most people fly to Berlin for is in the east, 25 to 35 minutes each way
- Seventy-five minutes on foot to Museum Island, which rules walking out entirely
- The Ku'damm is chain retail; the shops worth a detour moved to Mitte
- Bahnhof Zoo no longer takes long-distance trains, so rail arrivals cross town first
- Skews older and quieter than the Berlin visitors describe to each other

Hotels in Charlottenburg: https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D199%26dest_type%3Ddistrict%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1

## Other districts in Berlin

- [Mitte](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-berlin/mitte): Recommended. Everything on the first page of your itinerary is inside one 25-minute walk. You pay the highest rates in Berlin for it, and half the district is asleep by 21:00.
- [Prenzlauer Berg](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-berlin/prenzlauer-berg): Recommended. Whole streets of unbombed 19th-century apartment blocks, a playground on every corner and no club scene at all. That last part is why people book it.
- [Friedrichshain](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-berlin/friedrichshain): Mixed. The cheapest central beds in Berlin and the loudest nights. Book it if the trip is Berghain, the RAW-Gelaende and the East Side Gallery. Do not book it to sleep.
- [Kreuzberg](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-berlin/kreuzberg): Mixed. Berlin's best eating and its best-known drug park are four blocks apart. Kreuzberg 61 is calm and residential; Kreuzberg 36 around Kottbusser Tor is neither.
- [Neukölln](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-berlin/neukoelln): Mixed. The northern strip above Hermannplatz has the cheapest rooms and the newest bars in Berlin. The rest of the district has nothing for a visitor at all.
- [Schöneberg](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-berlin/schoeneberg): Recommended. Quiet 19th-century streets, Europe's oldest gay quarter and rates below Mitte's. You trade a twenty-minute U-Bahn ride for a night's sleep.
- [Moabit](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-berlin/moabit): Mixed. The budget chains behind Hauptbahnhof are five minutes from the platform and thirty-five from anything you want to look at. Good transport, no reason to walk out.
- [Tiergarten](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-berlin/tiergarten): Mixed. Berlin's biggest park, the Philharmonie and the embassies, with Potsdamer Platz on its eastern edge. Superb to look at and nearly empty of ordinary streets.
- [Wilmersdorf](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-berlin/wilmersdorf): Mixed. The quiet half of City West, south of the Ku'damm. Good value, safe, leafy, and a district almost no visitor has a reason to walk around.
- [Gesundbrunnen](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-berlin/gesundbrunnen): Mixed. Wedding's eastern half: cheap beds, a major rail interchange and the Berlin Wall Memorial. Also the area Wikivoyage names for robbery risk.