Munich Oktoberfest: 2nd week: accommodation?

Cheap hotels in Munich during Oktoberfest are about as easy to find as sober people. Your best bet is to find something out in some of the suburbs, like Freising or Erding (both near the airport) and take the train in.

-Steve

Weekends are invariably much more crowded than weekdays, so if you're willing to go during the week, you should be able to find some accomodation (try

or some other reservation site).

It still won't be cheap, though... Prices are set at special Oktoberfest rates even in the dingiest little hotels, so even if you had booked many months ago, you'd still pay through the nose anyway. Rates in the city typically start at 100 Euros per night for a standard bed in a run-of-the-mill hotel and go up to many hundreds for a Hilton/Marriott-type place. Outside the city is cheaper.

A final fallback is always camping if you're desperate. There's a special Wiesn-Camp every year, basically a tent city where you can rent an already set up tent and a mat for something like 50 Euros:

There are also a few other standard campsites in and near Munich that are worth a look.

Or just forget about a hotel, get sufficiently hammered, and sleep in bus shelters ;-)

Marc

I did this nearly 20 years ago when I was a young man...camping with the Aussies at Thalkirchen and occasionally just dossing in the park with a sleeping bag. I need a proper bed now, though.

Any other similar beer festivals in Germany that aren't so crowded? I still have a craving for German beer after 20 years!

Bruce

Kulmbacher Bierwoche (Franconia). Turning from July to August. Cheers, Joris "bruce phipps" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...

I've reached that age as well *sigh* So I've decided to shell out the big bucks for a bed in the city this year --- which is a bit of a waste, really, given that I'm unlikely to remember sleeping in it ;-)

Well, yeah, lots of little local stuff all around the country. But in the end, why bother trying to dig up a small-town festival when you can just head into a good brewpub on a Friday night and get a similar atmosphere (and, to be honest, probably much better beer)? Franken (Franconia) is especially good for superb beer --- check out some of the websites covering beers in Bamberg and surroundings. Do some pubhopping and start your own festival ;-)

Marc

Yeah, but with only one brewing company left in Kulmbach, this ain't so hot. Far better would be to go down to Forchheim for Annafest. Popular, but not nearly so absurd as Munich's Oktoberfest, and the quality of the beer on offer is superb, and there are at least seven breweries represented from around the region.

Even better, head to Berlin on the first weekend of August. The International Beerfest is quite impressive.

Annafest in Forchheim (about 20km south of Bamberg). It is the last week of July/first week of August time frame. 24 beer gardens ("bierkeller") on the side of a hill. Music, food and great beer.

Fred Waltman

Thanks, Marc. But I'm thinking about flying in for a mid-week break to one of the cities in Germany from UK. Given that I've been to Munich, which is the next best German city for beer drinkers... Berlin, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Bonn etc.??

Bruce

Frankfurt: not even close. Hamburg is only so-so. Both cities are dominated by a relatively small number of beers, and tend toward drinking lots of Pilsners. Frankfurt has a couple of brewpubs, and I think there's a brewpub in Hamburg too.

Duesseldorf, now, that's one of the beer-drinking go-to towns, and Cologne too; Bonn can be a nice little side trip, since there's a fine little brewpub down there, Brauhaus Boennsch. If you like real ale, you'll probably very much like Duesseldorf, especially places like Zum Uerige, Schumacher, and Im Fuechsen. If you haven't yet been to Cologne and Bonn to drink Koelsch, you're in for an interesting surprise.

Stuttgart? It's okay. A couple of brewpubs, beers from a couple of local breweries, a few beers here and there from the region.

Berlin can be a good place to go drinking; there are a *lot* of pubs, most of them serving the local beers, which are okay but tend to be mostly Pilsners. Still, I've been to places with a few good selections on tap.

Best city in Germany for beer-drinking? Munich is good, but not in Stelle Nummer Eins. That distinction belongs to Bamberg. If you haven't yet been there, go. Now. Pick up a copy of John Conen's "Bamberg and Franconia: Germany's Brewing Heartland" and give it a good read before you go. If you have trouble finding a copy, let me know and I've give you the author's contact information. He's a good guy, and the book is recommended. The first thing you'll learn about beer-drinking in Bamberg (and the region) is how much shockingly good value you can get for the money. You can find reasonably-priced rooms right above classic, old-fashioned brewery-taverns. In addition, Bamberg has a fine old town quarter that Munich can't match, if only because Munich's city centre, for all its quaintness, is actually a the result of a very good rebuilding effort. Bamberg has survived the 20th century relatively unscathed, and the views from some of the beer gardens in the hills are superb. So are the beers.

The mid-week flight to Bamberg is best accomplished by flying to Nuernberg, then going into town to the train station and catching a train to Bamberg. Alternatively, if you decide to pick up a hire car, it's an easy drive up the Autobahn, with a ridiculously huge number of stops on the way. As an example, you could decide to do a brief overnight stop in the town of Buttenheim, just off the Autobahn, and home to two breweries with their own restaurants; lodgings are also available. Or you can stop in the city of Forchheim, home to four fine little breweries, each with their own on-premises pubs; three of them are within a five-minute walk of each other.

Another question... Are there any fests DURING Oktoberfest, but (just) outside of Munich?

Well, I guess we've all got our favorites. Mine is the International Berlin Beer Festival

in the first week of August. I was there for the last one, and it was amazing and outstanding. Probably one of the few events in Germany where beers from all over the country are available in one place and in cask. Furthermore, there were no problems with crowding. Not incidentally for those interested, it's also a great place to pick up glasses for your collection!

m.

I was there too. Impressive festival. I met the organizer and attended a beer-tasting session (in a hot office bereft of air-conditioning) with Conrad Seidl. The beer was tasty and properly chilled, though. There was a *lot* of good beer at that festival. In sheer selection, it kicked major ass. Recommendation: give Oktoberfest a miss. This is the one to go to for real variety. And if you still feel the need to attend a country- fair type of beer festival, Annafest in Forchheim also beats Munich's overcrowded Oktoberfest, and the beer is both better and cheaper at Annafest.

Not that this will stop the punters from crowding into Oktoberfest from this weekend on for the next two weeks, of course.

Yeah, if you want to pay for 'em. I was happy to get my deposits back and move on to the next beer(s).