Munich for Oktoberfest 2024

quote:

---

then train to either Paris, Zurich, or Prague

---

Why so far? Why not stay in Germany or Austria. Lots to see and do.

Def pick Paris or Prague over Zurich though.

I have a friend that lived in Germany for years and he said it was an amazing experience to do once but he didn't want to do Munich Oktoberfest after that one time. Shitshow is an understatement of the century, but just go in knowing it and have fun. Having a hotel within walking distance would be amazing.

quote:

---

Never been to Europe so thought process was to hit a couple different countries in one trip.

---

I say the following but always say do what you want to do anyway:

To me...always the worst process to take. Assume you will go back.

Try to keep things down a bit and simplify. Allow time to see the things and enjoy yourself.

Paris, to me, is at least a 5 day trip to REALLY enjoy it (you can see the majority of things I guess in 3-4 days if you move fast).

PERSONALLY...I'd either stay in Germany and maybe take the Romantic Road and stay in cool towns like Fussen and Rothernberg or Heidelberg then fly out of Frankfurt (don't stay there it kinda sucks)...or head down to Austria and see some things in that region of Austria closer to the Alps, its crazy beautiful.

quote:

---

if your wife and friends just really want to go to Paris or Prague, frick it, do it.

---

Noted.

Will start doing some research on Germany/Austria specific as well.

There is more than enough to do do in Munich to keep you and the wife busy besides the typical Oktoberfest activities.

The BMW museum, Dachau, Residenzmuseum, and the Nymphenburg Palace are few places that I recommend.

If you get the chance, go and stay a day or two in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Only a couple hour drive from Munich and the scenery is absolutely beautiful.

Can he use your bathroom?

No problem. We have 2. Always happy to help.

Just came back from a 12 day vacation in Germany and Budapest. Started in Berlin, then to Munich for oktoberfest, Nuremburg, ended the trip in budapest.

For oktoberfest- be sure to reserve your tables in advance if you want to gurantee a spot for a particular tent at night. During the day I didnt have a problem tent hopping and exploring the fest. In the afternoon/night is when the tents were all packed. If you didnt have a reservation finding a seat, even for a small group, was tough. We had tickets to the Paulaner tent the night we went. There was twenty of us so we had multiple tables and were really close to each other. Was really fun. Went back the next day solo and made friends in all the tents I went to. Was much easier to move around especically at night.

Augustiner- everyones favorite beer. was really good.

Hacker-pschorr was another pretty tent. "Heavens of the Bavaria". Beer is ok but the inside views were awesome.

CASH ONLY

Do not wear a costume, costume lederhosen/dirndl, or a T-shirt version. Better off wearing normal clothes over that. I advised a friend to not wear an amimal halloween costume and he was actually denied entry to one of the tents.. He goes to the souviner shop and buys a t-shirt lederhosen. The bouncer was just as furious than before but eventually let him in. There are places to rent real dirndls and lederhosen second hand if you want to be festive but not pay outright for a set.

Dont sleep on Budapest. bunch of night life, and history.
One of our days was spent at the thermal pools. Not only were the thermal pools relaxing, but ventured into the hot saunas and cold pools as well. They offer massages and they werent badly priced. I opted for the beer bath jacuzzi instead, $45 for 45 minutes plus unlimited
self pour draft beer.lol... sign me up.

done it a couple times and go to Munich on a regular basis...

My suggestions:

For Oktoberfest, do one day on, one day off...

My favorite day trips from Munich are Berchtesgaden and Kehlsteinhaus if you like WW2 stuff

Garmisch...go see the old Winter Olympic ski jump and do the Partnachklamm walk..so beautiful

quote:

---

Do not wear a costume, costume lederhosen/dirndl, or a T-shirt version. Better off wearing normal clothes over that

---

I strongly disagree. I wore normal clothes and felt really out of place. Locals kept asking why I didn't dress up.

I always thought lederhosen was a Halloween or cheesy dress up thing and had no idea how traditional and actually worn around Munich they were. There were store fronts with lederhosens next to Prada, Gucci and other high end clothing stores. Go ahead and buy the real deal lederhosen and you'll have a much better time.

I'd do day or overnight trips to Salzburg and places near Munich. Don't forget your passport when taking the train to Salzburg. I left mine in the hotel and had a pretty tense situation on the train with the local police coming back into Munich

Oktoberfest also shuts down at 10 even on the weekends, the younger people all go out afterwards and they have huge parties. But the waitresses will literally pick your bench up so you fall off the bench at 10:30 and sometimes sooner.

As said, just don't go hard multiple nights in a row and you can plan plenty of other stuff.

IMO the best course of action is to sight see the city until around 2-3 and then go. At that time you beat the people working or going for dinner outside of maybe Sat and Sun. You can fairly easily find solid seats then. Go for a couple of hours until 8 or so, then walk around the fair grounds or slowly walk home. Get to bed at a decent time, and wake up and play tourist again without being hungover.

ETA: Another pro tip is that most of the tents specialize in a certain food. So one will specialize in pork knuckle (highly recommend), one in duck, one in chicken, etc. So if you see something that looks good you can either find it on the street as most of it is also sold to people walking by, or go to a tent that specifically sells it.

ETA2: You definitely will want to look somewhat authentic. Men wearing an Oktoberfest plaid button down and women a dirndle or as close to it. Not wearing one will make you somewhat out of place but wearing certain things like oktoberfest tourist shirts will make you look like somewhat of a jackass. Most of the Italians eat up the cheasy tourist stuff.