35 min
50 min
U1 · U3 · U6 · U7 · U8
19.7 / km²
18
17
1,346
City average
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Mixed after dark
Kottbusser Tor and Goerlitzer Park have an open drug scene after dark. It is aimed at buyers rather than at visitors, but walk around the park at night rather than through it.
Staying in Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg is two districts that share a name, and locals still insist on the difference. Kreuzberg 36, east of Mehringdamm, is Oranienstrasse, Kottbusser Tor, Goerlitzer Park and the Turkish market on the Maybachufer: the best street food in the city and the loudest streets in it. Kreuzberg 61, west of Mehringdamm, is Bergmannstrasse and Viktoriapark, middle-class, leafy and twenty minutes from Potsdamer Platz.
The downsides are specific and they are all in 36. Kottbusser Tor has an open drinking and dealing scene that does not stop at night. Goerlitzer Park is the city's best-known drug market; the police raid it and it stays what it is. Oranienstrasse is loud until 04:00 on a Wednesday, not just at weekends. The May Day riots start here, around Oranienstrasse and Mariannenplatz, and have done since the 1980s.
Book Bergmannkiez if you want to eat well and sleep, and Oranienstrasse only if you plan to be out until it closes. Either way you are ten minutes from Checkpoint Charlie on the U6 and thirty-five on foot from Museum Island.
What works
- The best street food in Berlin, from the Maybachufer Turkish market to Markthalle Neun
- U1, U3, U6, U7 and U8 all cross the district, so nothing in the city needs two changes
- Bergmannstrasse and Viktoriapark are calm, leafy and 20 minutes from Potsdamer Platz
- The Landwehrkanal towpath runs the length of the district and is the nicest walk in Berlin
- Checkpoint Charlie and the Jewish Museum are a 10-minute walk from the northern edge
What does not
- Kottbusser Tor has an open drinking and dealing scene that runs around the clock
- Goerlitzer Park is the city's known drug market, and raids have never changed that
- Oranienstrasse is loud until 04:00 every night, not only at weekends
- The May Day riots start here, around Oranienstrasse and Mariannenplatz
- Rates in the quiet half now match Mitte's without matching Mitte's location
Areas such as Görlitzer Park are well known for all sorts of illicit substances being on offer, but if you don't sell or buy this shouldn't preoccupy you.It does have a reputation of being full of pickpockets and drug dealers though and the police makes regular visits to this place to check on the situation.