Recommended Berlin hotel

After having to cancel 2020 travel plans and finally spending several days in Berlin to do the fabulous museums before joining a Viking cruise to Prague, I’d like to suggest a small hotel in Berlin, Hommage à Magritte (Grolmanstraße 32 33, 10623 Berlin, Germany; phone +49 308 9567087, hommage-a-magritte.com), which was recommended by a reader who answered my “Person to Person” inquiry in ITN.

The hotel occupies the first (our second) floor of a building in a residential area and is close to a metro stop and restaurants.

Rooms range from €100 (for a single, with bath, overlooking the garden) and up. My friend and I had a premium twin-bed room, with bath, reserved for €139 (near $157) a night for five nights, including breakfast and taxes. Our price was for a reservation in September 2020, which is one of Berlin’s most expensive months. 

All my dealings at the hotel were with Roman Stemerowicz, who was more than pleasant, and his English is excellent. He answered all enquiries promptly, and when the shutdown happened due to COVID, he rescheduled our reservation for a year later, in October 2021, and did not raise the room rate.

I was enchanted by the hotel’s painted fake doors and other amusing references to its namesake, Magritte. Our room’s windows were double-paned, so they were quiet, which is important to me. 

While in Berlin, we visited the Pergamon Museum, which is as stupendous as ever with its Ishtar Gate, etc. One needs a timed entry, however, and we got the last hour of the day. The guards were literally (but gently) shuffling us out, and both the gift shop and bookstore had closed. I should have reserved our entry ahead of time from home. 

I hadn’t known until that visit that the “second” floor contains one of the greatest collections of Near East, Middle East and Moorish artifacts in the world, including a dome from the Alhambra. Next time!

MEG QUINN COULTER
Los Angeles, CA