SHOPPING: Ku'damm

U Kurfurstendamm

www.kurfuerstendamm.de/en/

Repeatedly referred to as Berlin's own Champs-Élysées, Ku'damm's tree-lined avenue of designer boutiques, upmarket restaurants and expensive hotels provides a taste of luxury in the city. During the nineteen-twenties the area of the "New West" was a vital part of leisure and nightlife, but the avenue has suffered between then and now. The shops and businesses owned by the Jewish community became victim of "Reichskristallnacht" in November 1938, and most of the boulevard was destroyed in air raids. Once rebuilt, Ku'damm became the central shopping street of the former West Berlin, and naturally a place of protest and demonstration. German Reunification caused the boulevard to compete with more central areas like Potsdamer Platz and Friedrichstraße, but it has since retained it's status as an upmarket and exclusive area to shop. 

Although the likes of Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Burberry might be out of most people's budgets, window shopping on a sunny day will feel luxurious enough, and grabbing a coffee to people watch with is definitely one of the more suave afternoons you'll spend in Berlin. 

SHOPPING: KaDaWe

Tauentzienstraße 21-24 | Schoneberg 10789

U Wittenbergplatz

Mon-Thurs 10.00-20.00  | Fri 10.00-21.00  | Sat 9.30-20.00

www.kadewe.de

If there's one word to describe this department store, that word is "luxury".  Only beaten by Harrods in London, KaDeWe is the second largest department store in Europe, with a footfall of forty to fifty thousand a day. At over one hundred years old KaDeWe has lived through two world wars, barely surviving the latter, after being bombed and totally destroyed from the inside out.  After being rebuilt, KaDeWe became a symbol of economic prosperity in the former West Germany, and it's success continues in the present day. 

With an overwhelming eight floors, set aside at least two to three hours to look around this store. If you're making a quick trip here, the sixth, seventh and eighth floors are an essential visit. There is not a single food item you will not find here, and the gourmet quality of it all will be impossibly tempting as you wonder round the two football pitches worth of food. If you've got some money to spare tuck into some lobster and prosecco, and if you're on a budget, sample a huge variety of chocolates, cakes, meats and cheeses at any of the hundreds of food counters. If you leave the KaDeWe hungry, you've only cheated yourself.