With Easter fast approaching, this week we’re providing information on European city breaks in places with good disabled access. If you were thinking of booking a last minute holiday this Easter then these may be ideal places to go. We’ve found some places to stay and hopefully provided as much information as possible about where to go if you are, or are travelling with, a less able person. Today we’re looking at Berlin:
Whether you’re less able or not, Berlin is one of the best cities in the world to visit right now. Its amazing blend of culture, history, style and nightlife make it one of the most exciting places to go. When you add to that the fact that Berlin has won the EU Access Award for 2013 it might be the best place for the less able to visit at the moment.
Berlin is the current holder of the Access Award city which is a title bestowed by the EU to the European city which has done the most to improve its disabled access. While giving the award to Berlin Vice-President Reding, the EU’s Justice Commissioner said that “people with disabilities still face too many barriers in everyday life, but cities like Berlin are leading the way in making life more accessible for all.”
As part of their competition entry the Berlin team produced this video explaining what they’ve done to improve access in the city. It’s a really helpful and informative guide, showing what has been done to help the less able in Berlin.
A press release, announcing the Access City 2013, said that “the jury selected Berlin for its strategic and inclusive disability policy, which has invested heavily in turning the formerly divided city into an accessible, barrier-free environment. The jury highlighted Berlin’s transport system and investment in accessibility for disabled people in reconstruction projects. Berlin’s comprehensive approach to accessibility is fully embedded in the city’s policies and broadly supported by its decision-makers.”
At Blue Badge Style, we’ve always noticed that Berlin generally has an excellent attitude towards access so this award comes as no surprise. That may seem like a bit of a sweeping statement to make about an entire city, of 3.5 million people, but it is definitely something that you notice. You can see that Berliners do generally have a helpful approach towards access. Often when we’ve asked venues in Berlin if they have a disabled toilet they even seem confused by the question. “Why wouldn’t we have one?” they seem to wonder.
We really love Berlin and think it would be a great place to go for an Easter break. With that in mind we had a look around and picked out some venues that have received good BBS ratings to. We’ve picked a couple of hotels, bars and a restaurant that give a taste of this vibrant and exciting city.
Situated on the bank of the River Spree, in the music and clubbing centre of Berlin, the nhow presents itself as ‘Europe’s first music hotel’. It’s ultra-modern and youthful with bright and bold decoration. The disabled access is good. There is a disabled room with a shower that is accessible in a wheelchair.
For it’s daring design and good access we gave the nhow Hotel a provisional 2.5 BBS Ticks. Ticks.
In a similar area to the nhow, this hotel is also part of the youthful music scene in Berlin. The beer garden operates as a music venue in the evenings. It’s very trendy and stylish.
We gather that the access is extremely good. But they told us they are always looking to make things easier for the less able. Hard to fault that sort of attitude. We gave them a provisional 3 BBS Ticks.
This is a cool hotel with two outstanding bars inside. Both offer a great selection of cocktails and the hotel won the bar team of the year and best hotel bar awards at the 2013 Mixology Awards. There is a terrace bar with great views of the area and another bar inside which holds DJ nights. They are both accessible in wheelchairs.
The hotel has great access for the less able. There are 5 disabled rooms with wheel in showers and grab rails. They got a provisional 2.5 Ticks.
Named after legendary Berlin fashion photographer Helmut Newton and decorated with 18 foot images he took of nude supermodels, this is one of Time Out’s 20 best cocktail bars in Berlin.
They do have a disabled toilet but it can be hard to get around it’s narrow spaces especially after nine o’clock. We gave Newton Bar a provisional 2 BBS Ticks.
This cool bar with a 1920’s, clandestine, speakeasy vibe is owned by the mysterious Cookie company which is something of a coolness institution in Berlin. World’s Best Bars says that you can’t just stumble upon this place; you have to be told of it’s existence.
It’s very cool and tries to work around the access problems there (one of which is that they have a disabled toilet at the top of a flight of stairs!). We gave them a provisional 2.5 BBS Ticks.
This super-stylish steak house has gained for attracting ostentatious displays of wealth. But it really has more taste than that. The restaurant is actually a very classy place with great food, drink and style. It’s decorated with art from the owner’s collection and enormous fridges full of the meat from the menu.
The restaurant has a disabled toilet, attentive staff and is accessible for wheelchair users by using an entrance at the back, near the car park. We gave it a provisional 3 BBS Ticks.
Tourist Attractions
There is so much to see and do in Berlin that it would be impossible to cover it all here. For more information you can go to the Berlin Tourism website. There is a brilliant free walking tour of the central sites in the city which lasts about three and a half hours. It isn’t as bad as that might sound – the walk is at a gentle pace and there’s a break half way through so less able people shouldn’t have a problem. But if that is not an option for you then you can always go on sightseeing bus. These are both good ways to take in an overview of the city and it’s major attractions.
One of the great things about Berlin is that it has such a rich history and although parts of that may not be particularly positive, the city never hides from it’s history. Along the tourist areas of the city centre, the city government has marked the location of where the Berlin Wall used to stand, with a row of cobblestones in the street. The new Reichstag building includes a massive glass dome on its roof as a symbol of transparency in government – an acknowledgement of the mistakes of Germany’s past. Small details like these make you very aware of the significance and history of the city you are in.
We can’t vouch for all of them but we do know lot of the major tourist attractions are accessible. We simply don’t have time, space or manpower to go through the whole list of Berlin’s sites – there are far too many worth visiting to list them all here. But with the work put in for the Access City award it’s safe to presume that the majority of major attractions are accessible for the less able. Certainly, the Reichstag, the Jewish Museum, the Olympiastadion and many outdoor sites are accessible.
However, we should mention that The Berlin Television Tower is not able to permit entrance to wheelchair users or people with acute walking difficulties. They say on their website that “mobility disabled visitors should bear in mind that, in the case of an evacuation, they must climb down 986 steps”.
Other than the odd blip like that, Berlin seems like the perfect place for an Easter getaway for the less able. It has the iconic heritage of its past to explore, along with the buzzing cultural excitement of its present. It’s a city that is constantly changing and brilliantly dynamic. Now that these changes have spread to cover improving accessibility, there has never been a better time for the less able to visit Berlin.