Berlin

We had some trouble making up our minds of where we wanted to spend New Years. We talked about Prague, Munich, Amsterdam, etc. Ultimately we decided to go all out in Berlin!

In Berlin, we tried to be as strategic as possible since we knew our time there would be a bit more expensive, and we were still cognizant of the budget. We ended up staying our entire time here on Amex points. With this we were able to stay at the Schultz Hotel, which was right next to the Berlin wall and along the river. Our setup here was perfect since we crammed 5 people in the room comfortably. This was primarily for new years eve, going into new years day (Late checkout is critical!!).

The first area we went to explore was Boxhagener Platz and it was a really cool setup. There were so many restaurants and bars in the area. It was easy to check in grab a drink or bite and move to the next place. I really recommend coming here and exploring. If you go further south towards the train tracks, there is a long strip of more club like spots that seemed interesting. It was really just a fun experience to walk around and explore. We had dinner at Ali Baba, which was really affordable and delicious!

The following day was New Years Eve and it was one of the most fun New Years celebrations I can remember. We decided to walk around the city and see some different areas. We were just trying to explore, eat and really just enjoy the moment. We ended up renting electric bikes and scooters to cover more ground. We went to Markthalle Neun, which was a really cool indoor market with plenty food and drink options. I really recommend it if you’re with a group and all looking for different things.

New Years night was unforgettable! We started off the night, with buying a bunch of fireworks and launching them off right by the Berlin Wall. I think that was one of our highlights, it was just such a surreal moment with the history behind us and enjoying the moment. Berlin on New Years was absolutely crazy, there really didn’t seem to be any rules, and people were just going all out. There were people stopping traffic in the streets to fire off rockets and the bridges were out of control.

We had bought tickets in advance to a huge party called Hyte. Once we got there, we could see it was basically a massive warehouse with DJ sets in different areas. There must have been a couple thousand people there and it was so much fun. I’m not really, big into techno (house music) but the entire environment was just so much fun. After a long evening of dancing and drinking we decided to get a few hours of sleep. Our friends told us it was really important to get tickets for holidays like this. I can be difficult to get into unique places when you’re a foreigner in Germany. From what we were told, they tend to be pretty selective with who they want to let in.

On New Years Day, Rainier and I completely took advantage of our AMEX points. We ended up staying at the Waldorf Astoria in Berlin. Since we have the Platinum card, we were able to get a 12pm check in and a 4pm checkout the following day. It also included a free room upgrade and $100 credit for food (which we ordered so much room service). It was a ‘Don’t leave the room’ type of day since we were a bit hungover.

Overall Berlin was so much fun because of the experience. We would really like to go back and see all the sites a bit more, but were really happy with how things played out. Great people and great times!! Huge shout out to Mike, Jack and Max for joining us!!