February 7th, 2006 | The lowdown by Jara Gatti

A & O Backpackers Hostel.

During a recent visit to Berlin I had a good experience at the A & O Backpackers hostel. A stay is 13 Euros per person for an 8-bed room (they also have 10-bed rooms, and there is a small charge if you don’t bring your own sheets.) A large buffet breakfast is an additional 4 Euros.

We stayed the entire weekend during Berlin’s Oktoberfest and there were beds available, so you shouldn’t have a problem. They have a bar/cafe, internet, and kitchens on each floor. There are lockers in the rooms, but you have to bring your own lock, and there isn’t one locker per bed, so if, like us, you find all the lockers in your room are in use, you can leave your things down at the desk when you go out.

Getting to A&O is easy enough. From Ostbahnhof, Friedrichstrasse, Zooligischer Garten, or Alexanderplatz, main stations around Berlin, take the S5, S7, or S9 (an S inside a square is the symbol for Berlin’s Strassenbahn, or above-ground tram, system) in whichever direction is NOT going toward Zoologischer Garten.

You’ll need to buy an A-area ticket from each of these stations and stamp it at the red boxes that look like parking meters on the tracks. Get off at the Ostkreuz stop and follow the signs for Sonntagstrasse (at the top of the stairs, and when the signs mysteriously disappear, make a right). When you get to Sonntagstrasse. you can only go one way, so follow it a couple blocks to Lenbachstrasse and make another right.

At the corner of Lenbachstrasse. and Boxhagenerstrasse you’ll see a huge green-and-yellow pizza sign, and the hostel is tucked right behind it. If you want ideas about what to do in Berlin they have some brochures at the desk and most of the clerks speak English, so whether you have plans or are just winging it, I’m sure you’ll have a good time.