Help - How to do Oktoberfest?
 

Just found out four of us have "free" Saturday September 25th in Munich and would like to do Oktoberfest. We are staying at Wetterstein hotel Friday and Saturday nights. Are there any special arrangements we need to make? Are there preferred locations? Is taxi recommended d transportation mode? Any other suggestions? Thanks for your help.

Ajolder - I can't help you with that, but for those fodorites who are in easy driving distance to Jessup Maryland, there is a place there called "Blob's Park." It is as close to a Munich Beer hall that you will find in the US and they always have one heck of an Oktoberfest. Blob's Park started as a German Social Club I think about 70 years ago and has morphed into a beer hall/restaurant with authentic music and dancing.

Take underground line 1 from Wettersteinplatz direction Olympia Einkaufszentrum. At Sendlinger Tor change to line 3 or 6 southbound exit at Goetheplatz and follow the crowds.

DO NOT go to Theresienwiese station.

Hi Ajolder ,
Head to the grounds in the morning. Check out the empty tents and decide where you want to go. Don't worry if you can't get reservations in any of the tents. You will still have a great time. The tables in the tents are reserved from late afternoon on, but the band starts playing at noon so just go then and sit where you want.

The tables will have a paper on them that states when the reservation time begins for that particular table. Sit there until that time if you wish. Have lunch, sing along, have a beer and then if you want you can come back later in the evening, see if there is anywhere to sit at the unreserved tables and join in the fun once again.

Just a note. When we went last year there was very high security due to a terrorist threat that weekend. We each had a small day pack and were actually turned away from a couple tents because of it. I don't know if this is normal procedure every year or just because of the heightened security. The entrance was swarming with police with machine guns and there was a very high police presence inside the grounds.

Oktoberfest is something you should do at least once in your life. Oh, and you should probably ride the rides BEFORE you do your drinking. Just a friendly reminder.

Here's the website http://www.oktoberfest.de/en/

Have fun,
Michele :)

I just got back on Wed. And like Michele said, you can get in to the fairgrounds with no problem. The outside beer gardens of the tents are usually unreserved. You may have to walk around a bit to find a place for 4. There was at least one walk up stand (a large one) over in the ride area, that you could line up (I use that term very lightly) and get a beer. You paid 3 Euro for a deposit on the glass, but then just turned in the glass and the token they gave you and you would get your money back.

There is a lot to look at, and I would highly suggest the ferris wheel to get a perspective of how big the place is and how many people are there.

How much did a ride on that ferris wheel cost THIS year?

We stayed in an apt. on Lindwurmstraße, a few minutes from the park, just 10 days ago. One could easily walk to the grounds from
Sendling Tor ( if you don't wish to change lines for one stop).
We had dinner in the are, the waiter told us that the tents fill up by noon and the rest of the establishments get the overflow.

There was a nightmarish amount of people in the subway today. Coming home from work, I have to pass through Theresienwiese station. Try to avoid wearing those silly fake lederhosen and dirndls. Bavarians and Münchners don't wear them and they look silly on Prussians and others alike.

Whenever a train arrived, they let security block the platform at the center, so half of the people are forced to use the rear exit.

Dukey1, I want to say it was about 6 Euro, but my friends paid for me, so I am not really sure.

And logos999, you are right about the fake wear. There were two couples walking together with both of the girls wearing onepiece zip up velour dirndls and the guys had velour lederhosen that had to be pinned up on the side. It looked very silly, but they were having a good time.

An insider tip: push up bras