It's a sort of lounge/nightclub. I think it is a restaurant during the day. I was stumbling around Zoologischer Garten on a Thursday night and some kid handed me a flyer which (out of character for me) I took and it said there was live music playing. So I went over there and when I went in I was really surprised. There was a great band doing covers of soul classics and some other things i didnt recognise with an amazing piano player (who looked like Pat from Saturday Night Live) who took solo after solo and did not disappoint. Not to mention that the place was very stylish, chic but not expensive. Most people were sitting down and listening to the music but another group was dancing. I had a great time there and went back twice during that stay. I heartily reccomend it.

Kantstrasse 17
west on kantstrasse from the Zoo Station in Charlottenburg.

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Hot location with hot girls!!

www.optica-club.de

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Zitty is a weekly (I think) listings guide that I discovered talking to some locals. Pick up a copy as soon as you arrive in Berlin to make sure you don't miss the best acts whilst you're out there.

Try any newsagent, or see www.zitty.de (German language website)

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They're in the same building. Panorama Bar is open on Fridays and Saturdays and Berghain is only open on Saturdays and occasional Thursdays.

They’re like no other clubs in the world. They open at midnight, don't get going until 5am, and close at around 2pm on Saturday/8pm on Sunday.

Pano is friendly, social and quite mixed gay/straight, Berghain is mostly gay and much more hardcore; there's a kind of 'heaven and hell' split.

The regular DJs are always good and there’s usually a star on the roster (recent ones include Miss Kittin, Erol Alkan, Andy Weatherall). Dress code is clubby. The bouncers won't let you in if they don't like the look of you. Entry is 8€ Friday/10€ Saturday, and worth it.

Behind Ostbahnhof. Every taxi driver in Berlin only has to hear the words 'Panorama Bar' to zip off in the right direction.

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This outdoor bar is situated on the banks of the Spree river, facing Bar 25 on the opposite side. But it is much more relaxed and far less posh and swanky. There’s a few different areas: a sandy beach to sit down with a cocktail, an open-air dance floor, a restaurant and even a pool table under one of the trees. At night, little chandeliers and a cosy campfire are lit and the whole place takes on an enchanted-wood-style atmosphere.

Köpeniker Strasse 48/49;
www.kikiblofeld.de

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Bar 25 is hard to pigeon hole - it's an outdoor club by a river with a couple of very large huts that house the music. It's open from Thursday to Monday straight - this should give you an idea of what to expect. They're quite selective about the people they let in (we knew a regular) but if you try hard/nice enough they'll let you in. It's only open during the summer and if there was ever a case of a lost weekend this is it. I'd particulary recommend the rope swings by the river.

www.bar25.de

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Go for a drink at Cafe Moskau and admire the incredible, still-intact socialist interior of the former GDR building. The open-plan steel and glass construction was transformed into a restaurant on the first floor, bar/lounge on the ground floor and club in the basement in the 90s but all the original chrome lights, wood panelling and spacious glass corridors remain.

It's a great club venue - very low-key, relaxed Berlin crowd - and it's not often you get to watch the sunrise in a glass-fronted open-air courtyard, once the meeting point for Soviet generals and the building's 160 employees.

34 Karl Marx Allee, 10178 Berlin, www.das-moskau.com

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Excellent Indie/Electro/Hip-hop nightclub in the Volks building. Art Deco interior with chandeliers, and parquet floors. We saw a Japanese punk band who did a cover version of Hard Day's Night. Crowd are friendly and chatty, mostly 25+, entry was about 8 euros. Don't go before 11, it'll be dead as a dodo.

Rosa Luxemburg Platz station

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Easily the coolest club in Berlin, the Sage Club is in a disused area of Heinrich-Heine-Straße underground station in East Berlin. It attracts a mostly local crowd of young, beautiful and trendy people. Each night is a different style of music: rock/alternative on thursdays; R'n'B/funk/soul on fridays; and house/electro on saturdays.

With two indoor rooms and an outdoor chillout area - complete with a VIP pool - it's hard to imagine a more spectacular venue. A great way to see a side of Berlin that 99 per cent of visitors miss.

Köpenicker Straße 76
U-Bahn: Heinrich-Heine-Straße

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Week12End is a club on the 12th floor of an office block in Alexander Platz. The line-up is ultra hip, mostly minimal techno, the crowd are the beautiful people, and the view is absolutely extraordinary, from Karl Marx Allee in the east, right round to the Museum Insel and beyond, you can sit in the window seats and take in the city with a beer and some ponding music. Be a local and a tourist simultaneously. Opens at 11pm but doesn't get going until half midnight, Thursday-Saturday. Cover charge approximately €8-10.

Alexanderplatz 5, take the lift to the 12th floor

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