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Takeoff. Landing. As we touched down on a chilly March morning, it hit me: I was going to be living in Berlin for six months.
It had been a long time since I’d stayed in one city for so long, but I’d engineered it so I could spend my final quarter of Stanford abroad…and receive financial aid at the same time. I’d heard nothing but great things about Berlin, and when Stanford offered me a paid summer internship, meaning I’d be living scot free in the city, I couldn’t say no.
Within weeks of arriving, I understood why Berlin had received so much praise—the only other city I’ve ever seen as revered is Buenos Aires. Let me tell you now exactly why you should log on to kayak.com and buy a ticket to Berlin, Germany.
1) Incredibly cheap cost of living for a European capital
I was blown away when I saw the prices in Berlin. Living expenses are as cheap, or cheaper, than most cities in South America! (Buenos Aires included). I could afford dinners an the nightlife—Berlin is by FAR the cheapest capital city in Western Europe. Here are some examples of my costs (everything is converted into dollars at 1 € = $1.50)
- My rent (huge room with a host family): $225/mo
- Entrance to excellent bars and clubs: $0-4 on average, top clubs $15
- Average expenses at a grocery story/week (compared to my USA expenses of $60): $40
- Cost of a used bicycle on Craigslist – $40
- Beer from a bar: $4
- Beer from a kiosk (you can drink legally on the street or on the subway): $0.90
[Side note: one time I only had 1EUR on me, and I entered a gas station to buy water. Water cost € 1.25. Beer cost € 0.60. Needless to say, my decision was made for me]
As you can see, prices are incredibly reasonable…especially for a city as awesome as Berlin.
2) Berlin has an amazing startup culture
If you’re into buisness building and the startup scene, you’ll find no better place than Berlin. Some awesome startups, including SoundCloud and Betterplace.org, are centered in Berlin.
Berlin is also home to the fabled Betahaus, an open startup coworking space, where you can rent a spot to work for dollars a day (or work in the cafe for free). I co-founded the weekly 4 Hour Workweek meetup, which continues to meet at Betahaus every week. You can also access their workshop that offers unlimited access to tools and wood to build anything. I used this space to construct our famous Mobile Disco.
3) Incredible music scene and nightlife
The nightlife in Berlin starts late and never ends: Berghain, for example, starts around 1am on Friday night and doesn’t end till the middle of the day on Sunday.
I generally went out 4-5 nights a week, and there was always something to do–Monday included. Europe’s most famous clubs are located in Berlin – Berghain, Watergate, Cookies, Bar 25, and Club Der Visionaire. If you’re looking for a hardcorse, thumping, music part scene, check out Berghain or Watergate. For a chiller, more relaxed scene, go to Luzia’s bar or (my personal favorite) Club Der Visionaire.
If you like electronic music, Berlin will be your Mecca. Minimal house and techno reigns supreme, but you can find whatever you’re looking for. I loved it so much that I began DJing and producing. You can check out my music at http://soundcloud.com/maneesh.
You’ll find people of all types out every night, eager to meet new people. Germans, tourists, expats–you name it, you’ll find them in hordes. And everyone speaks English, if languge learning isn’t your thing (and it should be!)
4) Beautiful nature, lakes, canals, and parks
Berlin is famous for being ‘Europe’s greenest city,’ and residents will let you know instantly that there are more canals in Berlin than any other city in the world, including Amsterdam or Venice. Make a friend with a boat or take a canal cruise—either way you’ll love to see how connected the city is via water.
You can swim in most of the major lakes in spring and early summer. The city is incredibly flat, so it is easy to get around by bike. There are beautiful parks every few hundred meters. What’s not to love?
5) The awesome history, abandoned buildings, and street art (and relaxed police)
There are amazing abandoned buildings all over Berlin. Berlin’s population was twice as large during World War II (explaining the cheap housing prices) so many of the buildings have been left abandoned and open to exploration. Check out the Abandoned Building Twilight Tour where you get to explore the abandoned buildings by night.
I remember playing hide and go seek in an abandoned beer factory, and I threw my most memorable DJ gig on an abandoned boat offshore in a canal. The cops shut us down at 5am, shouing “Please stop the music after this song! We like this song!”
And check out some photos of the amazing street art below.
Graffiti on a remnant of the Berlin Wall
The park next to my club where I ended up every night
6) Berlin’s central location makes it easy to travel around Europe
Berlin is placed squarely in the center of Europe, so it’s super easy to get around. I used a car sharing web site, www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de, to get to Amsterdam for just 30EUR. You’re only a few hours away by train from Prague, Budapest, and Munich, and dozens of other cities. And budget airlines fly out of the city’s two airports–I flew roundtrip to Oslo for just €12!
7) The amazing, delicious döner kebabs
Berlin is home to the world’s biggest collection of Turkish residents outside of Istanbul. One of Turkish cuisine’s most prevalent dishes–the Döner Kebab—was actually invented in Berlin. You’ll find Kebab shops open 24 hours, serving delicious spinning meat and veggies in a special type of bread. Usually, they cost less than $4. Perfect after a night out.
A Döner from Mustafa's Gemüse Kebab, the most famous kebab in Berlin
Writing this article has already made me research tickets for going back. You can fly there for just $578 R/T from NYC if you leave this week 
I hope you love Berlin as much as I did! Just beware the winter: it gets pretty cold.
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Great article Maneesh, I have added this destination to my bucket list. Someday I’ll be able to say that I lived and had a great time exploring Berlin. Can’t wait for the day to come…
I am so glad that you’re finally going to write about all your travels..I thought I’d seen the best highlights after your mobile disco video but apparently I was wrong. And lol at the cops
u and your döner… hahaha – great!! good article. it was nice 2 meet u!! come back 2 my town…
excelente nota!!!!!!!!!! increible si bien buenos aires es caro (para los nativos de argentina) pense que Berlin era mas caro…..
Me encantaria viajar alli!!!
Estaria bueno ver fotos de la habitacion….
saludos
All great reasons – and probably why I’m still here. Also, sorry to have never met you at the 4hww meeting when I went over the summer. I think you were out of town or something but would’ve been nice to meet.
Great article, although not going there to live I am heading there for a week soon. Can’t wait.
I’ve been to Berlin, and all the above mentioned reason are dead accurate,
but there’s one thing Berline doesn’t have:
Berlin girls are not as hot as Latin American girls.
My proof? Who has won the most Miss Universe/Miss World/etc. competition? I rest my case.
Cheap beer, good nightlife, huge kebabs. Great if you’re a braindead college student I guess.
I’m convinced. see you next summer Berlin!
I just want to correct that Berlin is really cheap (you can live with around 500€/month) but you have to pay a little bit more than 200$ for a room. If you’re a lucky person you get something around 300$ and normally you pay up to 450$. I just want to add this
@Matthias Jakel
Is there a specific site/message board/etc to find a good place to find a room-share with techies?
Try Hackernews, or http://www.wg-gesucht.de/ but not sure if you can search by ruby on rails haha
Visit the tech user group meetups, there are plenty! Or just try their mailing lists. Here’s an up-to-date list: http://co-up.de/2011/10/14/usergroup-list.html
As Kristina said, join the local tech/developer community and check out all the great tech events in Berlin and I think you will also find cool people to share a flat with
Hah, I lived in Germany and really liked it but there is no way I would move there to live unless my name was Hans and I was speaking perfect German or had couple of millions bucks not to need work. Germans don’t accept auslanders kindly. They never have and never will… I got discriminated against and at the end had to leave for the land of free, USA.
i had no problem with germans…they LOVED me. It’s just a matter of being interesting…and learn a bit of german, bro, I was speaking only German after 3 months of classes…
Nice article, completely agree, except rent is usually a bit higher than 250 EUR, 350-450 seems more realistic. I just moved from Berlin to San Francisco, which is also great, but I certainly miss all of the above!
The prices are not accurate. I lived there til a few month ago.
It’s cheap yes but its higher, except for water which is around 1.25 indeed.
Author also sometimes seems to think $1 = 1E when it arranges him, other times has a mostly correct conversion.
Rent for a your-own-flat-1room-1kitchen-1bathroom in a half decent place is around 400-500E which is cheap. As comparison the same in Paris is about 1000E.
Kebabs are from 1E (those are horrible, horrible) and 6E (those are generally good). Note how 6E != $4. That’s $8. Double.
Bikes at $40 are broken and crappy. You get a decent one for 50E which is.. $67. Quite a bit more.
So again, yes Berlin is very, very cheap, but exaggerating the prices to make it sound more cool is kinda dumb.
uhh…you sure buddy? I am using prices that I spent while in Berlin for six months this year.
My rent was certainly low, which I mentioned—but I was living in shared space. If you live in your own apartment, of course prices are higher.
Mustafa’s kebabs are EUR2.90. A normal kebab is 2.50 in kreuzberg, the ones at my house were 2 EUR flat.
Where in the city are you living? Because you might just need to get out of Mitte….
Where’d you get the quote on the flight? I’m trying to find the cheapest way out to Berlin on Dec 25-Jan 1 but with everything included the cheapest I can find is about $815 round trip =(
it was from kayak’s recently searched flights…flying during Xmas is going to be bad…sorry bro
Completely agree which is why I’m moving there from LA in a few months.
I love Berlin, and come there as often as possibly. Your article is nice to read and quite interesting. But those persons who make Abandoned Building Twilight Tours are mistaken when they take people to Eldorado bar and say that it is the oldest openly gay bar in Berlin. I made that mistake myself first, and it was great to thing that I was sitting in the bar where even young Marlene Dietrich use to come and maybe sing there. But sadly I found out that that Eldorado bar does not exist anymore. This Eldorado bar is much newer.
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