Alright, I’m only two months late, but better now then never right? Here comes your go-to health guide to Berlin!

Because I was super busy with work and my health coaching studies, Vic prepared the entire trip and researched all the places that we wanted to go to (aka she harassed me for three weeks beforehand trying to plan every nitty gritty detail of the trip #slightlyocd). But seemingly it pays off to have friends who study hospitality management, because everything about the trip was simply amazing. In short: I love Berlin because it’s absolute vegan heaven. Okay, you don’t need to read no further. You know everything now. Bye bye.

Since Vic planned the trip, I had no idea what to expect. Normally it’s my boyfriend who gets so lean back and enjoy (that’s debatable) the things I plan out, so it was a nice change to be on the receiving end. These days what I get most excited about when visiting a new place is testing my way through the vegan restaurant scene. Luckily Vic feels the same, so our trip was spent eating, eating and doing some more, well, eating.

But seriously, we had a crazy busy schedule and were basically speed walking from location to location. Which we were both secretly happy about because we ate about the amount of Vic’s weekly meal plan in one weekend. Good thing we were actually writing a healthy jetsetter guide for Well To Do London, at least that gave us an excuse as to why we were stuffing our faces 24/7. A girl has gotta try all the food before she can report about it, right?

We almost missed our flight because Vic somehow miscalculated the time it would take her to get to the train station (very untypical her), but we eventually made it to Berlin looking like “pack mules bearing more luggage that a village of nomads”, as Vic would say. From the airport we headed straight to a café called Two Planets where we were invited by Dana and her boyfriend  from The Plant Based Traveler to join for their pop-up vegan dinner party. We only knew them through Instagram so we had no idea what to expect, but we left the café that night with happy stomaches and knowing that we made new friends along the way. P.S.: Two Planets usually offers vegan food for breakfast/lunch, and from I’ve been told it’s quite good.

Café Pêle Mêle

Tucked away in a little side street in Neukölln, Pêle Mêle looks like a simple and modest cafe from the outside. We headed there for brunch before a workout session (see Sxills Athletes Training Club at the bottom), which probably wasn’t the best idea because the food turned out to be delicious and we stuffed our faces to the max. Everything on the buffet is 100% plant-based and organic, so you can imagine that we went a little crazy. In Switzerland you need to always double check with everything, so it was so nice to just indulge and not have to worry at all. Think tofu scramble, homemade granola and ten different savoury and sweat bread spreads. If I would live in Berlin, this would definitely be a place I’d come back to!

Innstraße 26, 12043 Berlin

Rawtastic

The streets of Berlin may be filled with vegan restaurants, but the raw trend hasn't hit the scene yet. Until now. Simon and Tugba moved from Sweden with the ambitious goals of making raw food accessible to all, and I'd say they are doing a great job! By taking classical dishes likes lasagne or burger and using methods such as marinating or dehydrating together with awesome seasoning, the dishes they create are mouth-watering, filling and satisfying alike. Ya'll know how much I love my desserts, so obviously we couldn't leave with trying one of their raw cheesecakes. Which you shouldn't either, because to our surprise they tasted nothing like any of the raw cheesecakes we've ever had, in a good way.

Danzigerstrasse 16, 10435 Berlin

The Bowl

The Bowl is known as the city's first clean eating concept, meaning all their dishes are 100% plant based, gluten free and sugar free. As the name suggests, dishes are served in colourful funky bowls filled to the brim with flavours from all across the globe. We shared the Falafel Bowl and another one with shiitake mushroom before indulging in yet another dessert; a white chocolate bowl. The interior is gorgeous and the you have a beautiful view onto Friedrichshain from there. I reckon it's the perfect spot for an afterwork catch up with friends over a glass of organic wine accompanied with some guac and dehydrated crackers.

Warschauer Straße 33, 10243 Berlin

Cookies Cream

This gastro restaurant is hidden in a shabby back alley close to the opera. In fact, it's so well hidden that we walked the street for about 10 minutes until we finally found the entrance with the help of a friendly man. But don't be fooled, behind closed doors lies one of the trendiest veggie hotspots in Berlin. The menu offers a modern gastronomic take on both vegetarian and vegan cuisine, filled with innovative dishes using unusual flavour combinations and local/seasonal ingredients. So unusual that what is being served looks nothing like expected! For example, I ordered a dish with eggplant and as you can see on the second picture, they cooked and decorated in a way to make it look like a bloody steak. Now that's creative...I now understand why Cookies Cream is included in every Berlin recommendation out there, and why apparently George Clooney pays a visit every time he's in town.

Behrenstraße 55, 10117 Berlin

Sxills Athletes Training Club

I've been raving about how great functional training is a lot lately. And our workout sesh at Sxills Athletes Training Club only confirmed that. Run by the uber fit duo Alexis Kuraby and Cem Tuna, the semi-private group training sessions are based around a holistic approach to fitness with a strong emphasis on improving form and athletic performance. We did exercises I've never done before, and boooy did I feel it the next morning (coupled with Kayla's BBG bootcamp the day before it was a serious killer). This workout definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone and I can recommend it to anyone who's sick and tired of static training with machines!

Trachenbergring 85, 12249 Berlin

Next to the constant eating, working out, speed walking from A to B, taking pictures and instagramming we even managed to film  a couple of short clips that we compiled into our first city trip video. Get ready for lots of shaky camera moves, confused running around and nonsense blabla. Enjoy!