Berlin is an ideal city for Local Travel – or what we at Slow Travel Berlin would call “Slow Travel”. It’s a distinctive city in both German and European terms, with a unique historical development. In the last century it has endured two world wars and a cold war, which, as you can imagine, creates a very special atmosphere. The city is vast, with large streets and lots of empty spaces which, combined with a relatively low population (around four million), creates a less stressful vibe than more ‘compressed’ cities like London, Paris, New York.

You can usually get a seat on a bus or tram, for example, and even quite central parts of the city can sometimes feel quite empty. It’s a pretty broke city – “poor but sexy” as the famous motto goes – and therefore doesn’t have such an invasive commercial presence. Couple that with the famously liberal nightlife here and you have a city that’s extremely popular with an international creative community who tend to value quality of life and experience over accumulation of wealth and corporate success.

It’s one of the greenest cities in Europe too, with plenty of large parks to collapse in once you’ve exhausted the club scene, and it’s very bike-friendly – generally quite flat with plenty of cycle lanes. All this makes it a fantastic city to explore in a leisurely, interactive fashion. You can easily – and cheaply – indulge in some random train, bus and tram hopping. It’s only a few euros to ride the system for a whole day and Berlin is a pretty safe and friendly city. You’ll find history and surprises everywhere.

You could also think about taking a course here, since Berlin has a fantastic creative scene and there are a multitude of artists, photographers, chefs, musicians, writers living here, many of whom run courses and workshops in their respective fields. Since rents and day-to-day living are relatively cheap here, Berlin is a great choice to come and write that short story or novel, learn a language or record your demo. Berliners are generally open and the city has a lot to explore in terms of sights, museums, parks, great cafes, galleries and more. We’d recommend you set aside a decent amount of time (if you can) to do it real justice.

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