Despite the old marketing that files it under Mitte, the Waldorf Astoria Berlin stands firmly in Charlottenburg, in the City West district, inside the Zoofenster tower on Hardenbergstrasse. It opened in 2013, a new-build skyscraper rather than a converted 1920s bank, and rises above Bikini Berlin, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and the western end of the Kurfurstendamm. With 232 rooms and suites, it is a proper big-city luxury hotel aimed at travellers who prefer leafy, well-heeled City West to the tourist churn around Museum Island.
The interiors nod to Art Deco and the original New York Waldorf, all dark wood, brass and a dramatic double-height Lang Bar that is one of Berlin’s better hotel bars. The sixth-floor Guerlain Spa is the highlight, a thousand square metres with a proper pool, saunas and a fitness suite that earns its keep on a grey Berlin afternoon. Dining runs through the hotel’s restaurant and the Peacock Alley lounge for afternoon tea, with the Ku’damm’s own restaurants and the KaDeWe food hall minutes away.
Book it for City West rather than for walking to the Brandenburg Gate, which is a short U-Bahn ride east. Rooms are large, quiet and well insulated from the busy street, service is polished, and the spa lifts it above most of its Berlin rivals. It is a grown-up, comfortable base in the smartest part of the old West.
