Berlin this July - what will it be like?

[tellmewhentheLangshiplandscoz]

We've flights with RyanAir booked for mid July although we haven't paid anything for our hotel yet and can cancel that booking up until the day before arrival. The flight is showing as still going ahead (at the moment), there's no need to quarantine on arrival and possibly none when we get home.

I'm really torn about whether we should go (if the FCO advice is lifted of course) as we will obviously lose the cost of the flights if we don't.

Can any Berlin residents give me an idea of what life's like there at the moment? And do you know whether things will change much over the next 3-4 weeks? My gut feeling is we will only end up spending more money than the value of our flights and our time in the city will be a million miles from what we imagined

Thanks in advance x

our time in the city will be a million miles from what we imagined

This alone wold stop me going I think. I just can't see how a city break would be worth it at the moment.

Thanks Soup.

And to add, I realise in the grand scheme of things it's not a fortune of £ to lose and yes it's only a city break and Berlin will still be there next year.

It's just so crap all round! Everything has been impacted.

(Obviously there are worse things than missed holidays)

Bumping to catch Berlin folks

Hot! Well it was when I went. Almost 40 degrees.

@SoupDragon

our time in the city will be a million miles from what we imagined

This alone wold stop me going I think. I just can't see how a city break would be worth it at the moment.

Well we are in Paris on a city break right now - it is far better than we could have hoped for. Parisians are all out and about (albeit mostly in masks) bars, restaurants, various attractions and shops are all open - the Louvre reopens Monday. There is one glaring difference - there appears to be no foreign tourists at all (except us!). I imagine Berlin is much the same. We wouldn’t hesitate to go, OP. Just follow the current guidelines and you’ll still have a great time I’m sure!

We were supposed to be flying to Berlin this week, but it was cancelled a fortnight ago. We were flying Ryanair. They seemed to only be flying to Berlin every other day now, although that may change now the travel restrictions are being lifted.

I was quite relieved that Berlin was cancelled, but I'm having a similar dilemma about a booking for a week in Italy at the end of August. Things might be completely different by then, it is so hard to know. The biggest risk is the flight, once we're there I think it will be possible to be outdoors and socially distanced most of the time. And a holiday would be so nice.

We're thinking about Germany, although not Berlin. I want to go somewhere nice that we can drive to from the eurotunnel, and the Rhine Valley is only 5 hours away (from Calais) BUT there are 2 sticking points 1) Insurance - current annual cover are still refusing to cover us 2) getting accommodation - the Germans are clearly doing the same as a lot of Brits i.e. staying in their own country for a holiday, so there's very little accommodation available, and I don't want to book anything until a day or two before we travel, because even if we can get medical insurance, there's no cancellation insurance to be had anywhere.

The accommodation problem is also an issue if we decide to holiday in the UK. I'm starting to think we won't be going anywhere this summer.

A good friend lives in Berlin and reports that it’s broadly business as usual there. Just quieter, with less tourists and more people wfh. I’d go if the flights were going, hotel was open and no quarantine, but probably not with kids.

Thanks so much for everyone's reply, I appreciate it. I think we're 99% agreed we won't go. I don't feel it'll compare to what we'd planned and I'd be too worried about catching something while we're there/ on the plane or disruption if Berlin were to have a local lockdown whilst we were there. It's too much money at the moment to not enjoy it like we should. Plus I cannot be arsed with wearing a mask for an entire week. Although the photos would be great for posterity!

We were in Rome last October walking happily amongst crowds all day and evening, feels like that was a different planet.