Novotel Berlin Am Tiergarten
Strasse des 17 Juni 106-108
10623
BERLIN
GERMANY
Tel: (+49)30/600350
Fax: (+49)30/60035666
The Novotel Berlin Am Tiergarten is a 4**** hotel and part of the Accor Hotels group, it is fairly centrally located about 1km from the Zoological Gardens stop on the S-Bahn and directly across the road from the Tiergarten stop. Both of these stations have direct connections to Berlin Schönefeld Airport located about 20km southeast of the city.
The hotel has 274 rooms of which 27 are adapted for people with mobility problems. The first thing you notice is that the lock that you insert your key card in to that is usually on the door is on the wall of the adapted rooms. After inserting your card and retrieving it before you can get your hand on the door handle the door opens itself! About a minute or so later it then closes. I’m sure there must be some way to get it to open like this from the inside when you are leaving but I didn’t work it out and the door is very heavy. I intended to ask at reception but forgot.
The room has a large and low double bed, room telephone, small table, desk, chair, armchair, free internet access (both Wi-Fi and lan), high definition tv, minibar and hot drinks facilities. There was plenty of room to move around and I didn’t even have to re arrange the furniture which was a change from many other places I have stayed. It seems that whoever designed the room has really thought about access so the one thing that was not good comes as a real surprise. The kettle is on top of the minibar (see photo to right) and that shelf is above my head height whilst sitting in my wheelchair! The kettle can not be moved to the desk for use either because the base is permanently wired in so has to be used where it is. I did brew a mug of tea when I arrived but wouldn’t really recommend it and didn’t use it again. I will be contacting the hotel to mention this later in the week.
The wet room had a sliding door to get in and had lots of room to manoeuvre around. I always check the mirror in this room as even in adapted rooms it appears to be too high and here it seemed the case. I then noticed a lever below the mirror that angled it forwards so it could be used. I have never come across this before but then found they were like this in all the public conveniences that I used over the weekend. For showering there was an adjustable height shower chair provided, the adjustment was to extend the legs in the same way you lengthen crutches.
I can definitely recommend Novotel Berlin Am Tierpark for anyone using a wheelchair who is visiting Berlin. It is quite centrally located and there is an S-Bahn (Metro) station directly across the road (I will be writing another blog about the Berlin rail accessibility) and within (st)rolling distance of the zoo, Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Bikini Berlin etc. These are even easier to get to if you first travel just one stop on the S-Bahn. I will be staying here again the next time I am in Berlin.
(I would like to thank Mikey, my monkey puppet, for his assistance with this blog.)