Char­lot­ten­burg has one of the lar­gest shop­ping streets in Ber­lin: Kur­fürs­ten­damm, also known as KuDamm, is a long bou­le­vard with shops, bou­ti­ques, lar­ge depart­ment stores and shop­ping cen­tres. Many of the world's big­gest brands have their Ber­lin flag­ship stores on this famous street. Oppo­si­te the Kai­ser Wil­helm Memo­ri­al Church, the church that was des­troy­ed in the Second World War and is one of Berlin's most important land­marks, is the "Biki­ni Ber­lin", one of the city's newest shop­ping cen­tres. Through the glass faça­de, you can look out over the baboons of the neigh­bou­ring Ber­lin Zoo, stroll through small pop-up shops and bou­ti­ques or take a break in the lavish­ly desi­gned food court with 14 dif­fe­rent restau­rants. At the Sun­day flea mar­ket on the wes­tern edge of the Tier­gar­ten, for exam­p­le, or the weekly mar­ket on Karl-August-Platz, which takes place on Wed­nes­days and Satur­days, you can buy all kinds of tre­asu­res: from lea­ther goods and antique came­ras to flowers, spe­cial wines and antipasti.

Char­lot­ten­burg has many sty­lish and fri­end­ly bars for wine, beer or cock­tails. The­re are many of them around Savi­gny Platz. "A-Tra­ne", for exam­p­le, is con­side­red one of the best jazz bars in the city, and the com­pact venue regu­lar­ly hosts con­certs by inter­na­tio­nal musi­ci­ans. "Jour­ney into the Night" crea­tes the fee­ling of an urban jungle with plants han­ging from the cei­ling and is one of the places whe­re you can take a short holi­day in the midd­le of the city. Cock­tails in a sty­lish bar can be enjoy­ed at the "Gal­an­der Char­lot­ten­burg" on Stutt­gar­ter Platz, for exam­p­le. For a drink with a view, head to the Mon­key Bar on the top flo­or of the Biki­ni Hotel. From the 10th flo­or, it is one of the hig­hest roof­top bars in the city and has an unri­val­led view over Berlin.

In Char­lot­ten­burg, you can still find a few Ber­lin insti­tu­ti­ons such as the "Schwar­ze Café" in Kant­stra­ße. The neigh­bou­ring Savi­gny­platz and Schlü­ter- and Bleib­treu­stra­ße offer num­e­rous tren­dy restau­rants, espe­ci­al­ly Asi­an ones. For exam­p­le, the "Dao" has been ser­ving authen­tic Thai cui­sine sin­ce the 1970s with clas­sic dis­hes such as red and green cur­ries, lemon­grass soups and pad Thai. If you want to learn how to prepa­re the­se yours­elf, you can do so at the Thai coo­kery school right next door. Fur­ther along Kant­stra­ße is "Madame Ngo", a Viet­na­me­se restau­rant that ser­ves some of Berlin's best phở. And if that's still not tra­di­tio­nal enough for you, you might find some­thing among the num­e­rous street ven­dors in Thai Park, which takes place every Sun­day in sum­mer in near­by Preus­sen­park in Wil­mers­dorf. Dozens of small stalls have been set up here: in addi­ti­on to pork nood­le soup, spring and sum­mer rolls and sti­cky rice with man­go, you can find all kinds of exo­tic fla­vours. You can spend the mor­ning hours with sun and good fri­ends in num­e­rous invi­ting cafés on many cor­ners of Char­lot­ten­burg. Café au Lait, for exam­p­le, is known for its hear­ty break­fast (until 3.00 pm). "Impa­la Cof­fee is an airy café on Wil­mers­dor­fer Stra­ße. Ano­ther favou­ri­te is Café Kranz­ler, which ope­ned in 1834 and is loca­ted on the infa­mous Kur­fürs­ten­damm. Tho­se who pre­fer gree­n­ery may pre­fer to stroll through the Tier­park to the city-wide favou­ri­te "Café am neu­en See" instead.

Char­lot­ten­burg has an exci­ting mix of insti­tu­tio­nal art coll­ec­tions and inde­pen­dent gal­le­ries. Oppo­si­te the palace is the Muse­um Berg­gruen with a world-class coll­ec­tion of pain­tings by Pablo Picas­so, Hen­ri Matis­se, Paul Klee and other modern clas­sics; in an iden­ti­cal buil­ding is the Scharf-Gers­ten­berg Coll­ec­tion with works of sur­rea­lism by Fran­cis­co Goya and Sal­va­dor Dalí. C/O Ber­lin and the Foto­gra­fie Muse­um regu­lar­ly orga­ni­se pho­to­gra­phy exhi­bi­ti­ons - the Foto­gra­fie Muse­um focu­ses on Hel­mut New­ton, with the legen­da­ry Ger­man photographer's came­ras, work dia­ries and per­so­nal effects on dis­play on the ground flo­or. Popu­lar inde­pen­dent gal­le­ries include Gale­rie Max Hetz­ler, Gale­rie Buch­holz and Con­tem­po­ra­ry Fine Arts. Char­lot­ten­burg is also home to num­e­rous thea­tres, inclu­ding the Thea­ter des Wes­tens and the Schil­ler Thea­ter, as well as cine­mas such as the Del­phi-Film­pa­last and the Zoo Palast, who­se sty­lish inte­ri­ors are remi­nis­cent of the gol­den age of cinema.

The resi­dents of Char­lot­ten­burg are spoilt for choice when it comes to parks. The Tier­gar­ten is one of the lar­gest gar­den parks in Ger­ma­ny, the green lung in the cent­re of the city. Form­er­ly the hun­ting grounds of Brandenburg's rulers, it is home to sta­tu­es, smal­ler gar­dens - inclu­ding Eng­lish gar­dens - as well as many sta­tu­es and monu­ments. The park is a popu­lar place for jog­ging and cycling. In addi­ti­on to the pic­tures­que lake and café, the­re are also beer gar­dens that are always busy in sum­mer. Char­lot­ten­burg Palace, an 18th cen­tu­ry baro­que palace, has lar­ge grounds with orna­men­tal gar­dens, a view­point and a mau­so­le­um and is an ide­al place for a weekend geta­way or even a pic­nic (see desi­gna­ted pic­nic are­as and sun­bathing spots). A popu­lar Christ­mas mar­ket is also held here in December. 

Char­lot­ten­burg is loca­ted in the west of Ber­lin. The most important under­ground lines include the U1 to Kreuz­berg, the U2 to Mit­te and Prenz­lau­er Berg as well as the U7 and U9. Tegel Air­port is easi­ly acces­si­ble by bus, Schö­ne­feld by train. The Bran­den­burg Gate or Pots­da­mer Platz, for exam­p­le, are just a few minu­tes away by car.