Anyone been?

My gf and I are planning to go to visit some of her family in Switzerland, and we may fly over and do Oktoberfest beforehand. Her family has told us that it brings every thief and pickpocket around, so it's better to do it in a group so you don't get tricked/have set plans/etc.

Looking for a good tour group or advice on getting over there, what tents to go to, etc.

5/10/2010 10:55:47 AM

Have you already set the dates to go to Switzerland?? If not, try and hit the REAL Oktoberfest, which is a couple weeks before the commercial one. The first one is the one that the Germans celebrate before all the tourists get in. I don't know what your and your girlfriends' status as "crazy party people" is...but Oktoberfest is a shit show.

First, all the hotels and hostels are probably already booked. They open booking the day after Oktoberfest ends, and I was told that everything in Munich is usually booked by the end of the week. I met an Australian in Switzerland who was renting a car in Berlin, driving down to Munich, and sleeping in the car because he couldn't find a place to stay...and he tried to get a place the Christmas before Oktoberfest. So unless you already have a place to stay, plan on crashing in a tent or a car...or just doing a day trip.

Second, as mentioned earlier, it's a shit show. Fights, puking, and peeing everywhere. Australia rents out a room every year during Oktoberfest just to set up an temporary embassy to deal with all of their countrymen who lose their passports and get in fights and get arrested.

This post wasn't meant to be a deterrent. I wouldn't mind hitting up Oktoberfest if I was passing through Germany at that specific time, but I wouldn't plan a trip around it or make it a main part of my trip (unless this was about 4 or 5 years ago...but I'm getting old and I'm a little over that shit). Munich by itself is amazing. And the "real" Oktoberfest they hold a couple weeks before is much better (or so I hear...I was there a week before that happened).

Just some food for thought.

5/10/2010 1:43:51 PM

I realize this thread is about Oktoberfest.... which I am not. Hear me out, maybe I can offer some insight.



ahh forget it.

5/10/2010 1:47:20 PM

Thanks for the information, Oktoberfest isn't the reason we're going, we were already planning to visit her family in Switzerland and we're spending most of our time going through Switzerland with her familiy. Headed to the Matterhorn and various cities.

5/10/2010 1:52:04 PM

I'm going to Beerfest this year to spread the ashes of my dead grandfather at his request....

GAM GAM REALLY WAS A WHORE!!!!

5/10/2010 2:19:09 PM

Make sure you hit up Interlaken and do some activities. Probably the most beautiful place I visited while traveling through Europe (equal to Santorini Greece, but the Greek Islands and Swiss Alps were amazing for different reasons, obviously).

5/10/2010 3:22:57 PM

Quote :

"Australia rents out a room every year during Oktoberfest just to set up an temporary embassy to deal with all of their countrymen who lose their passports and get in fights and get arrested."

LOL! I believe they would do this too. Those Aussies can get crazy.

5/10/2010 3:38:04 PM

ive been! definitely book everything early. we ended up having to stay in tents, which really wasnt that big of a deal because we were too drunk to care.

as for pick pocketers, ive never seen any in germany, the cops take pretty good care of them. prauge and paris were pretty sketchy though

5/10/2010 9:33:26 PM

did you buy tickets to the beer tents ahead of time? people have mentioned doing that, but when I look on Oktoberfest websites I don't see anything about buying in advance...

5/10/2010 9:51:10 PM

^You don't pay for admission to the tents. you can make reservations but we didn't last year and really had no problem walking in and ordering a beer. its a lot of people but they're prepared for it. the reservations are handled by each beer tent. i would avoid the weekend if possible. all the hotel rooms double or triple in price for those 2 weeks but there are rooms to be found especially if you're looking this early.

5/10/2010 11:01:59 PM

i went last year and my group stayed at the hotel adria in munich. pretty nice, free breakfast & coffee (& water--- HUGE!) in the morning

a word of caution.. the whole fucking place shuts down for this event. we rolled into town around 945pm and couldn't find anything to eat..literally. we went to a bar and begged for scraps and were given stale bread but we had no other option since all the restaurants stop serving food earlier thanks to oktoberfest!

so tip, bring snacks just in case!

tents are crowded as shit and its a madhouse trying to get in. we got in line around 9am and got in about an hour later. there are reserved tables, and there are open tables. you can't get food or beer unless you're at a table. thing is, people are real big on NOT letting you sit at their table, even if there are open seats. we had like 9 people... so we just forced ourselves on this table of germans and bought them beer. we won them over and by 4pm we were ready to leave and they didnt want us to go

about the germans, you should know they're a coconut culture & americans are a peach culture. germans are hard to win over but once you do you're in. they're not easy going & nicey nicey with strangers like americans can be.

beer steins are heavy, don't hold it the whole time or you'll have sore hands like i did

fun times! and definitely dress up, everyone does!! even cheesy halloween costumes will do!

5/11/2010 12:21:13 AM

i went in 2003. a friend and i took a train from southern france to munich that was about 19 hours each way and horrible. smelt of body odor the whole time. it was a spur of the moment kind of thing, so we didnt even have a place to stay. we were used to winging it, so werent too worried. when we got there, we spent about 3-4 hours trying to find a place, and the best we could find was a closet, seriously a closet, in an office building, for 55euro. it had a mattress on the floor and that was it. desperate for alternatives, we ended up going back to the train station to see if we could find any like-minded english speakers to share a better place. we saw two girls in the distance who looked to be speaking english and went to go talk to them. they ended up being two aussie sisters who were also looking for a place to stay. struck up a conversation and before we knew it we were off together to find some cheaper accommodation. some friends of theirs (they came on some kind of party-bus from london) were staying at this campground a few minutes from town and suggested the place to us. we went to check it out and eventually got a 2 person tent in a massive tent-city to share between the 4 of us. the campground was pretty awesome, it was all oktoberfest partiers, beer vending machines, music playing all over, topless women, beer-selling party buses going to and from oktoberfest every 15 minutes, all day long - it was money. not to mention the aussie sisters were pretty damn cute. oktoberfest itself was pretty crazy, after dark it gets a little energetic. lots of fights, asians puking all over, etc - so i suggest leaving before it gets to that point. we 'brought home' a total of 12 1-liter beer steins with us. even bought a suitcase from a turkish bazaar just to carry them home. my 6 (one from each beer house) are in my kitchen right now. oktoberfest, time of my life, id do it again

5/11/2010 2:10:01 AM

Thanks for all the advice so far guys. I found a hotel that's a couple blocks from the Oktoberfest grounds that I can use my hotel points on + about $120 for two nights.

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/lemeridien/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1860

I have a friend that lives in Munich, so my hope is that I get us a hotel room and we can walk to the grounds pretty easily, go one of the days we're there and get in line early like NCSUWolfy and jab mentioned. Luckily my points are only good for weekdays, so it looks like we're going to try to get a hotel on 9/21 - 9/23.

5/11/2010 8:37:36 AM

yes, 'tis fun
http://joelion.com/gallery/europe/germany/munich/oktoberfest/

5/11/2010 9:45:46 AM

Thanks - after looking online it seems like we're at a disadvantage because we're not going with a big group of people. Bookings look like they're limited to a minimum of 10 people to get something reserved.

5/11/2010 10:15:36 AM

^ go to train station and meet cute girls to shack up with, works every time

5/11/2010 5:25:23 PM

I'll look into it, gf probably won't appreciate it but I'll keep it in mind, worse comes to worst

5/11/2010 6:10:53 PM

does your gf have a sister?

5/11/2010 6:29:22 PM

So....

Here is where we're staying for two nights (third we're staying with a friend that lives in Munich):


View Larger Map

Oktoberfest is the kidney bean looking area just SW of the hotel. Half mile walk from the looks of it. Anyone have recommendations on good restaurants? Preferably local food and might see what their take on American food is like.

The restaurants I've found for local fare are

http://www.tripadvisor.in/Restaurant_Review-g187309-d896760-Reviews-Spatenhaus-Munich_Bavaria.html
http://www.tripadvisor.in/Restaurant_Review-g187309-d958072-Reviews-Seehaus-Munich_Bavaria.html

9/22/2010 2:13:45 PM

I'm going to Hickory's Octoberfest- supposed to be pretty good

9/22/2010 2:47:22 PM

eat at oktoberfest, the rest of the city shuts down at night anyway

9/22/2010 10:50:11 PM

On the menu it may look like MaB but its pronounced Mas, and its not a stein, its a Krueger

9/24/2010 9:59:04 AM

Thanks for the info.

I'm out - flight leaves at 2:50pm.

9/25/2010 11:38:59 AM

Have fun!!!!!

9/25/2010 11:45:24 AM

Oktoberfest was awesome.

10/11/2010 8:07:12 AM

did your hands get sore from holding the bier steins? mine did!!

good stuff, i hope to go back next year. looks like you had fun

10/11/2010 10:05:12 PM

I went, fun times. I don't know what your friend was talking about with pickpockets. Munich has like no crime, there literally isn't a single poor person in the whole damn city.

10/11/2010 11:57:50 PM

Bttt

7/5/2011 1:27:59 PM