Time Out Berlin (Time Out Guides) (ISBN 1904978568)

Fantastic! All the Hip, Accurate Information You Need to Visit Berlin:
I bought this guide before going to Berlin to study German for a summer. I had no experience with Time Out guides before this, but I just knew I was sick of the bland and sometimes out of date recommendations I kept getting from Lonely Planet guides and ready for something new. Well, what a great decision--I lived in Berlin for 11 weeks, and this guide was the only thing I ever needed. Ideal for the 20-40ish crowd, it definitely has a younger, more hip (or maybe "cosmopolitan" is a better way to describe it) focus than any guide I'd encountered before, and I loved that. For one thing, because of that kind of focus, I found all these great, inexpensive "art hotels" listed in the book, and the experience of staying in those amazingly unique hotels absolutely made my trip. The guide also has great suggestions for fun bars and clubs, restaurants and cafes, shopping, and English-language bookstores. The history and sightseeing sections were thorough and fascinating to read, there's a section on the city's fabulously modern architecture, and there's a great guide to museums and art galleries. There are also sections on music (classical and opera), things to do in Berlin with children, sports and fitness, gay and lesbian Berlin, day trips (Potsdam, etc.), overnight trips (Dresden, Leipzig, etc.), and even a section on visiting Hamburg or Prague. Especially important is the guide's directory, which provides basic information about everything from the climate, to driving in Berlin, to health care providers, to public toilets. The vegetarian restaurant suggestions (important to me, personally) were reasonably ample, but as it turned out I mostly lived off falafel from street vendors anyway. My copy is tattered and written all over after almost three months of continuous use, and I never found a single mistake in the book. Berlin has so many treasures, and this guide helps you to the best of them all. Highly recommended!

Time will tell:
Time Out's 320-page guide is both compact & comprehensive. I've used it to plan a visit to Berlin & will be in a much better position to assess how well its savvy-sounding advice pans out in actual practice after I've put it to the test. If Rimmer's opinions turn out being ill-informed, I'll post an update. So far, I'm satisfied that for $13 I got good value for money.

It worked:
I was in Berlin for two weeks, and this guide helped a lot. Its not a heavy book, easy to carry in a day bag, and all the tips for sightseeing etc were helpful.

Best Guide Going:
This is the best guide for you if you've think you've outgrown the Lonely Planet books or aren't getting enough detail and insight from the Eyewitness Guide. The color pics and maps outdo the LP guide and the variety of touristy and off-beat sites beat the EWG. While LP is best for the younger/collegiate, budget traveler and EWG is great for broad overviews in a colorful format, the Time Out is the ideal prep for a grown-up trip to Berlin and even better to have in your pocket.

Adequate:
I chose this over the other guides for my recent trip to Berlin based on the reviews here. Normally I use Let's Go! or Lonely Planet guides. The layout took getting used to: it's arranged by category (hotels, restaurants, sights, etc) then by district within the category. The biggest complaint I have with the book is that it's not targeted at the on-a-budget traveler. It was hard to find restaurants listed that were inexpensive - maybe 1 out of every 3 or 2 of 5 was less than 10 E for meals. Also, the book has no mention of the (frequent!) German holidays, when businesses and museums have altered or no opening hours. But it helped me in planning out what I wanted to see, so it wasn't a total wash.