Prost! Munich, Germany & Oktoberfest
Visiting Munich for the first time during Oktoberfest can be overwhelming. You want to get a feel for the city, but you also have to do diligent planning if you want the option of sitting down at a table during the festival. If you start the planning pretty far in advanced, you can do both and it's well worth it!
General Munich
Hotels - while I would recommend staying in the Altstadt (Old Town), with all it's old European charm on a normal trip, we chose to stay by the Central Station during the festival. It's about a 15 minute walk from this area (near Hauptbahnhoft) to the Altstadt, so it's not a terrible option to stay in this area even when it's not Oktoberfest. There seem to be an abundance of hotels here. We chose Le Meridien and there was also a nice Sofitel across the street. It's also super convenient when you get off the train from the airport to literally walk across the street to your hotel.
Food - though I wouldn't call Munich a food destination, I was pleasantly surprised. I would recommend researching a few things you want to try and noting the German name in your phone because a lot of places did not have English translations readily available.
Augustiner - this beer house had one of our favorite things we had while there - Schweinshaxe, or pork knuckle. Crispy on the outside, tender roasted pork on the inside - delightful; they also have a solid sausage variety plate and wheat beer (Weissbier)
Cafe Glockenspiel - overlooks the Marienplatz, and, while the food was nothing spectacular, it provides a hearty, good breakfast when you are sick of sausage (eggs, bacon, etc.) and need a good baseline before you start drinking liters...
Little London - eclectically decorated, upscale British steakhouse that provides a much needed respite from Bavarian food. We ate here our last night and were thankful for the perfectly cooked cuts of steak, nice wine by the glass selections, and plethora of gin drinks after a few days of beer and festival food
Must try foods in Munich - regardless of what restaurants, be sure to try the pork knuckle (see above), potato salad (this was done WELL everywhere I went, including the airport), Weissbier if you like Hefeweizens at home, and roasted chicken (crispy, salty skin and perfectly cooked)
Things to See - my visit to Munich was largely focused on Oktoberfest, but we did spend some time wandering the city. No heavy sightseeing for this trip, though.
Englischer Garten and the Chinese Bier Garden - we wandered through the park on a nice fall morning to have a liter at the beer garden. Laid back, casual, and nice to be outdoors
Marienplatz and the Glockenspiel - the main square, very old world Europe. The Glockenspiel dances twice a day and seemed to be a very popular tourist attraction. I personally didn’t understand the hype (hey, that’s just my opinion though), but was glad I saw it while enjoying an outdoor liter in the square
Hofbrauhaus - the original Hofbrauhaus is huge, rowdy, and smells a tad like vomit. Due to the smell, the heat, and lack of tables inside, we posted up in the courtyard. It was a nice, fall night and we really enjoyed the outdoor area. You’ll have to work hard to flag a waiter and tip them well to keep them coming back
The area around Hofbrauhaus is very cute - nice restaurants, some outdoor spots to have beers, and tons of souvenir shops. Definitely worth exploring
Oktoberfest 101
This was one of the more difficult travel items I’ve navigated. It's difficult to get straightforward instructions on what to do to get a table. While you can certainly enter tents without table reservations, we wanted a table so we could have the true “stand on your bench and cheers” experience.
To get a table reservation - you have to put in requests with individual tents and they’ll get back to you if they have openings. Start looking in January/Febrary timeframe of the year you want to go. We used this website to link us to the individual tent websites. We put in about 6-8 requests and got ONE response back a couple months later with a weekend lunchtime opening. TIP: some of the tent websites only have the "reservations" option when you are viewing the page in German. If you switch to view in English, the option goes away - very sneaky. We used a lot of Google translate to help fill out the reservation forms
It’s very hard to get night/weekend session reservations, so if you stay at a nicer hotel that has a concierge, such as Le Meridien, we utilized concierge services to secure a weekend nighttime reservation
In either circumstance, be prepared to make a bank wire of cash, which you need to do in person at the bank and is just another annoying step
Once you've filled out the paperwork and made the EFT, you'll receive your tickets (or the concierge will keep them in the safe) and you are good to go
We bought our lederhosen and dirndl in advance off eBay. We were so glad that we did, because ours were plenty nice and while they were easy enough to buy once you get to Munich, they were very cheap looking and cost more than what we paid
If you get a table, your ticket will likely include two liters of beer and a 1/2 roasted chicken. Night session starts at 4:30 and goes until tent closing (10p on) and while the chicken is filling for dinner at the beginning of the session, it is not enough for the whole night (I speak from experience)! If I had to do this over again, I would eat a hearty meal in lederhosen/dirndle around 3pm, head straight to the grounds for the 4:30 session, have some beers and order my chicken a little later (~7:30). Also, the chicken doesn't come with sides, so I would add on some potato salad to soak up all the bier
Those liters of beer really sneak up on you. I had 4 (I think) between 4:30 and 11ish. In hindsight, I was plenty drunk at 3 and should have left it at that; my husband should have capped at 4
When it gets super crowded, there may be people who try to crash your table. Those tables are expensive and if they do, simply tell security
People will be randomly snorting white powder out in the open - after getting over our shock, we realized it's some kind of powdered menthol that the waitresses sell in the tents
If you go to more than one session, like we did, bring two blouses for your dirndle, two shirts for the lederhosen, and two pairs of high socks for men. We did this and it was great to not put on beer soaked shirts for the second session
For the ladies - comfy shoes (not the time to rock stilettos), cross body small bag
And, maybe most important of all, DRINK WATER. Water was less readily available in Munich that other cities and we felt dehydrated the entire time. Remember this and make a point to stock up
Any Oktoberfest tips I'm missing?
