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10 exciting reasons to visit Berlin in 2018

Spend some time in Berlin exploring the city of Freedom - This content is subject to copyright.
Spend some time in Berlin exploring the city of Freedom - This content is subject to copyright.

From Michelin resaurant openings to a new nightclub in a former power station, our Berlin expert, Paul Sullivan, offers some good excuses for a trip to the city in 2018.

1. Check into a new designer bolthole

Recently opened Orania.Berlin is set inside a gorgeously restored historic building that dates back to 1913. The rooms and public areas are stylish and subtly exotic, with handmade Iranian carpets, designer lights and furniture throughout. The chic ground floor hosts a stage for regular live music concerts, a dapper restaurant and handsome bar. Buzzy Kreuzberg is right outside the hotel door.

Read the full review: Orania.Berlin

Double rooms from €290 (£255) in low season; Oranienplatz 17, 10999 Berlin (00 49 30 69539680; orania.berlin)

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Orania.Berlin
The rooms and interior of the Orania.Berlin are stylish and subtly exotic

2. Experience new-wave Michelin-starred cuisine

One of the newest Michelin-starred restaurants in Berlin, Golvet matches fine dining to stellar 14th-floor views across Potsdamer Platz and beyond. The cuisine – regional, seasonal, experimental – spans immaculately presented dishes like king crab, venison and yellow-finned mackerel and the 13-metre-long bar knocks up killer cocktails.
Potsdamer Straße 58, 10785 Berlin (00 49 30 89064222; golvet.de)

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Golvet/Berlin - Credit: Ole Heinrich/Ole Heinrich
Newly acquired of a Michelin star, Golvet is a unique dining experience 32 meters above Berlin Credit: Ole Heinrich/Ole Heinrich

3. Party in a former power station

Berlin isn't exactly lacking in clubs, but its notorious nightlife landscape just got a new hotspot anyway. Housed, like the notorious Berghain, in a former power station, the club is called OST – the German word for east – and is indeed situated in a semi-industrial area of former East Berlin. With room for around 600 punters and a Pioneer Pro Audio soundsystem, it looks ready to throw some serious parties throughout 2018 and beyond.
Alt-Stralau 1-2, 10245 Berlin (clubost.com)

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4. Watch world-leading music acts at Lollapalooza

September 8 and 9

This relatively new festival continues to go from strength to strength, drawing 85,000 visitors to the city's Rennbahn Hoppegarten every day. This year's edition will feature such prestigious headline acts as Kraftwerk, The Weeknd, The National and Liam Gallagher. There's also an open-air gallery with art installations, festival for children called Kidzapalooza, street theatre, and wine bars.
Lollapalooza, Olympic Stadium, Olympischer Platz 3, 14053 Berlin (lollapaloozade.com)

Lollapalooza - Credit: sf@stephanflad.com/Stephan Flad
Lollapalooza draws in some 85,00 visitors to spend a weekend partying with prestigious headliners Credit: sf@stephanflad.com/Stephan Flad

 

5. Hit the shops – in an erstwhile brewery

Set to help put the lesser-known district of Moabit on the map when it opens in 2018, the Schultheiss Quartier is a brand new commercial shopping and leisure project that's set inside a striking 19th-century former brewery. The project will offer around 100 stores, plenty of cafés and restaurants, office and artist studio space, plus a Meininger hotel on the second floor.
Indira-Gandhi-Straße 66-69, 13053 Berlin (00 49 30 96090; schultheissquartier.de)

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Schultheiss Quarter
Schultheiss Quarter will open in 2018 in a renovated nineteenth century former brewery

6. Bed down at Berlin's most 'provocative' hotel 

Another of Berlin's swanky new boutique hotels, Hotel Provocateur is located in a quiet part of West Berlin (Wilmersdorf to be precise). Decorated in seductive blacks and reds, with splashy chandeliers and designer furnishings chosen by Israeli designer Saar Zafrir), it offers 59 sensual rooms, a fabulous Asian-themed restaurant by celebrated local chef Duc Ngo and a glamorous bar with regular DJs and fashion events.

Read the full review: Hotel Provocateur

Double rooms from €150 (£132) in low season; Brandenburgische Str. 21, 10707 Berlin (00 49 30 22056060; provocateur-hotel.com)

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Hotel Provocateur/Berlin
Hotel Provocateur is decorated in seductive blacks and reds, with splashy chandeliers and designer furnishings

7.  Immerse yourself in a colourful theatre spectacular

Until July 25

Justifiably famed for its Jean Paul Gaultier designed costumes, The One is a striking piece of theatre that spans singing, dancing and acrobatics. Written and directed by Roland Welke, the production features over a hundred performers, cost around €11 million (£10 million), and is inspired by Berlin's underground club scene and the historic Friedrichstadt Palast itself.
Friedrichstadt Palast, Friedrichstraße 107, Berlin (00 49 30 2326 2326; palast.berlin)

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The One/ Berlin - Credit: AFP/TOBIAS SCHWARZ
The One is a striking piece of theatre that spans singing, dancing and acrobatics Credit: AFP/TOBIAS SCHWARZ

8. Explore this year's most hotly anticipated exhibitions

Take a trip to Potsdam before summer and you’ll catch a couple of excellent Germany-related exhibitions at the recently opened Museum Barberini. A retrospective of Max Beckmann ('The World as a Stage', until June 10 2018) showcases the works of one of the country's most influential 20th-century German painters.
Humboldtstraße 5-6, 14467 Potsdam (00 49 0331 236014499; museum-barberini.com)

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Museum Barberini - Credit: HELGE MUNDT HAMBURG
The Museum Barberini is located in the reconstructed palace in the historic center of Potsdam Credit: HELGE MUNDT HAMBURG

9.  Delight in a pioneering take on Thai food

Thai food is fairly ubiquitous in multikultiBerlin, but Kin Dee takes it to another level thanks to pioneering chef Dalad Kambhu. Curry pastes and condiments are all made in house, and local ingredients such as kohlrabi and apple are used in place of traditional ingredients to keep things more sustainable. The tasting menus range from seven to nine courses, most of them breaking some kind of ground while remaining authentically Thai in spirit.
Lützowstraße 81, 10785 Berlin (00 49 30 2155294; kindeeberlin.com)

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Kin Dee/ Berlin
Kin Dee takes it to another level thanks to pioneering chef Dalad Kambhu

10.  Marvel at a revolutionary photography exhibition

Until March 5

This fascinating exhibition at Berlin's Bauhaus-Archiv looks at the revolutionary photography work of the New Bauhaus in Chicago, which was founded by László Moholy-Nagy in 1937, five years after the German Bauhaus was closed by the Nazis. Run by teachers such as György Kepes, Aaron Siskind and Arthur Siegel, the exhibition spans photos, films, publications and documents from the legendary school of photography.
Klingelhöferstr. 14, 10785 Berlin (00 49 30 2540020; bauhaus.de)

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New Bauhaus Chicago: Experiment Photography and Film/ Arthur Siegal - Credit: bpk / The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY / Arthur S. Siegel/Rainy Day
This exhibition is run by teachers such as György Kepes, Aaron Siskind and Arthur Siegel (featured above) Credit: bpk / The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY / Arthur S. Siegel/Rainy Day