Don't know WHY it never ocurred to me that a trip to Austria in the fall, using Munich as one end of the open-jaw, would involve us in Oktoberfest! Until a few hours AFTER I booked the flight.

Just needed to vent a bit, the only real concern is booking a hotel for the last few days of our trip. Any advice, other than try anything, and do it yesterday?

~Liz

I depart from Munich during Oktoberfest also. I haven't made reservations yet, but the hotel where I have stayed for a ga-zillion years, always comes up with a room for me.

We ended up staying in Augsburg rather than Munich when we arrived during Oktoberfest..mainly because we didn't like the hotel selection amongst those which DID have rooms.

I think there is still time to book but just don't start getting angry about the prices...

We went to Oktoberfest in 2006. After researching and contacting a whole bunch of hotels and getting nowhere (and getting more and more stressed!), I finally gave up and used Expedia with great success. We had no problems with our reservation, the hotel was nice and in a great location - close enought to the grounds to walk but in a relatively quiet area. Of, course, you may wish to try to be even further away from the grounds if you are not interested at all in partaking in Oktoberfest!

Kings Hotel First Class, Dachauer Str. 13
Munich 80335 www.kinghotelfirstclass.com.

Hi Liz,
We are also going to Oktoberfest, intentionally! Munich was way above our budget so we are staying in Augsburg and training in each day. Even doing it this way it is way cheaper than anything we could find in Munch for Oktoberfest time. The Ibis Augsburg was 236 euro total for four nights. The Bayern ticket is 28 euro/day for both of us so the total for four nights and three days riding the train is 320 euros total.
Good luck with your search,
Michele

It's worth trying bids on Priceline, because people have gotten surprising deals that way. It's like the hotels forgot to put higher prices in for Oktoberfest.

Of course you don't have to visit Munich if you aren't interested. Salzburg is a 90-minute train trip away, for example. (I'm a bit reluctant to suggest booking a location that depends on train access to the airport, though, as I had a several hour delay when I went from Munich to Salzburg by train.)

Stay in an area serviced by the S-Bahn. Or you can do like we did and stay in Garmisch and take the train into Munich. I've been in the Munich area during three Oktoberfests and outside the city we didn't notice any difference. I think your involvement/inconvenience will be minor compared to the poor folks who live near the fest area. We enjoy staying in Walschee in Austria. Good luck and have a great trip!

If you just figured it out and you just booked today, you should be able to cancel without a penalty. I know we've been able to do that with Northwest, and I've always assumed it's some kind of universal requirement that airlines give a 24 hour grace period like a "Hoover law" named after the vacuum when they used to sell door to door.

If I'm wrong, or if it's been more than 24 hours since you booked, I like norrisken's advice. When we went to Octoberfest we stayed in Garmisch and had no problem booking same day in and out trains, so I assume you can also stay in Garmisch and get to the airport easily from there. I know the Munich airport is reachable without going into the city (like CDG terminal 2) from some locations. Check the train schedules and see which cities (not sure if Garmisch is one) go direct to the airport and you'll never have to fool with Munich the town or Octoberfest.

Thanks for all the thoughts!

I spent a few hours yesterday checking a number of leads, nothing encouraging, but did send an email to:

HOTEL JEDERMANN (Hotel Everyman, gotta love that...)
http://www.hotel-jedermann.de

This morning I had a email that they have a room available, reasonable location and price!

Big sigh of relief!

~Liz