Charlottenburg is Berlin's western bourgeois heartland — grand apartment buildings, the Kurfürstendamm shopping boulevard, the city's best Jugendstil architecture, and a bar and restaurant scene that attracts an older, better-dressed crowd than the eastern districts. It was the centre of West Berlin during the divided city years and retains a certain self-conscious elegance.
The Kurfürstendamm (universally shortened to Ku'damm) runs east from the ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church — the bombed-out tower preserved as a monument — for several kilometres of shops, hotels, and cafes. The most interesting part of Charlottenburg is north of the Ku'damm around Savignyplatz, where the S-Bahn arches house a cluster of good bookshops, galleries, and restaurants, and the streets radiating outwards have Berlin's best concentration of pavement cafes.
Schloss Charlottenburg, the baroque palace at the neighbourhood's northern edge, is one of Berlin's most impressive historical buildings — set in formal French gardens with a carp pond and an excellent collection of 18th-century Prussian royal apartments. The Egyptian Museum opposite holds the famous bust of Nefertiti.
From Zoo station, the Tiergarten is immediately accessible — the city's main park, with the Café am Neuen See and the Schleusenkrug beer garden providing pleasant outdoor stops in summer.