Munich Oktoberfest in September? Who knew?
 

Well, I booked a flight JFK - Moscow, stay a few days, then Moscow to Munich. Planning on staying a few days there and getting a car and eventually land in Switzerland.

Problem is, I booked Munich for arrival on September 16 with departure on 20th. Just found out that Oktoberfest begins on September 20th (Sunday) with people coming into Munich starting on Sat. That means that all the hotels' rates are insanely high.

I've finally found two hotels that are more than we ever spend but probably considered "reasonable". Carathotel on Lindwurmstr. 13; and Hotel Schlicker on Karl Mayer OHG. Both same price with same amenities. Average hotels.
http://www.carat-hotel-muenchen.de/en/welcome.php
http://www.hotel-schlicker.de/english/

Question 1 - Which would you say is the better choice as to location (actually might prefer to stay away from the Oktoberfest area due to noise), but yet want easy access to the center and railroad?

Question 2 - We will be getting a car on Sunday 20th (start of Oktoberfest) to drive out of Munich. Will it be nuts to rent it in the city and drive out, and would it be better to go back to the airport and pick it up there?

We will be heading south to Innsbruck.

Why don't you just stay in another city rather than in Munich? If you don't want to go to Oktoberfest, then pick someplace else. There is no way that I would pay high prices in a city if I didn't have to. Especially for 4 days!

Right. Just pick up the car as soon as you arrive at the airport and head for Switzerland early. Or go via Austria

Hmmm, never thought about that! Although I did think of only staying 3 nights. I also thought of staying in a town outside of Munchen, but close to it, but those hotels are expensive too and much fewer in number. I wanted to visit Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwanau and thought to do it as a day trip.

Also wanted to see some German villages.

I believe RS tour groups do the castles as a day trip from Reutte, just on the Austrian side of the border. Austrian villages are quite attractive too. You could take the train to Innsbruck and pick up a car there.

Many of the smaller villages have festivals also and that would be fun.

Sine we are flying into Munich and have never ben there, possibly spend two days there (actually 1 1/2 days) and then head out? Again, would it be nuts to hire a car from the city vs. the airport?

You need to get outside of the fest-zone that sucks in all the hotel rooms, so travel.

Oxford May Balls are in June :-)

Hi Diane-

Have you considered staying around the Munich airport for 2 nights (Freising?) then picking up the car at the airport and be on your way... You can take the S-bahn (30-45 minutes) or a regional express (30 Min) into Munich for a day trip. I know for a fact that there are reasonably priced hotels in Freising (under 200 €) on your dates.
But if you have never been to the Oktoberfest and would like to cross the experience off of your bucket list, go on and stay 4 nights at the Carat hotel. The 'Fest starts at noon on Saturday the 19th and is only a few blocks from this hotel. Then pick up your car on the 20th and be on your way. You will have a better selection of cars if you go to the trouble of returning to the airport to pick up the car. Car rental rates should be the same whether picking up at the airport or train station...

Have a great trip!!!

((B))

Have you considered going straight to the Bavarian Alps - Garmisch, Mittenwald, Füssen, Oberammergau area - and make your base there, and avoid Munich altogether?

Staying at the airport might be a good idea but you probably need to think about whether -- independent of hotel costs -- you will enjoy visiting Munich during Oktoberfest. Maybe you think it will be fun to be swept up in the events (so long as you can get some sleep). But many people would find that some of the things that they had looked forward to enjoying were made completely unpleasant by the Oktoberfest crowds and behavior of many.

If you had been looking forward to visiting a specific art museum, you probably will have the place all to yourselves, and only need to wade through some crowds to get there. But if you were thinking of a more generalized look-see at the heart of Munich, hitting up the typical tourist sights of the Marienplatz, the outdoor market, the gardens or something like the BMW museum, you might find it is just a madhouse.

Thinking now of just staying three nights. That would be Wed -Thurs-Fri and leave on Saturday. (Thought Okotoberfest started on Sunday, not Sat.) <u>Sandralist and others: </u> And no, we don't have any urge to be in the middle of Oktoberfest.

The Hotel Schlicker just got in touch with me and said the have a double room for those three nights on the courtside which is the quiet side. Very close to Marienpltz, so convenient, but I would be worried about the noise. However, if the room is truly a "quiet" room, then I see no problem.

Travelforbeer - We can't imagine flying into Munch and not seeing something of the city, and I have thought about staying in Freising as well. Have to go back to a map and look again for the 10th time!

Calendar for 2015: http://www.oktoberfest.de/en/article...dar+2015/4162/

What is it you want to see in Munich?

Don't really know yet.

If you don't know what you want to see, and it will be expensive and likely full of partyers, why spend time there?

"Also wanted to see some German villages..."

But you don't know what to see in Munich...

So yeah, why Munich at all????

Suggestion: Book in Augsburg, a handsome city on the Romantic Road. Right now you can get into the Hotel Augsburg Langemarck ("very good" on booking.com) on 9/16 for 3 nights for less than €90/night. There are other options too but Oktoberfesters know about Augsburg and that may not last for long.

Visit Munich for a day and small Romantic Road villages Nördlingen, Harburg, and Donauwörth by train from Augsburg. The train gets you to the heart of Munich in about 40 minutes. It's cheap to do on a Bayern Ticket day pass. The same day pass gets you to the other Romantic Road towns too.

Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau: From Augsburg, the train trip to Füssen takes about 1 hr 40 mins. - about 20 minutes less than it does from Munich.

Well we do have 9 months to figure out exactly what we want to see. But, again, flying into Munich and not spending some time there seems silly to me. I still have a lot to figure out, as you can see! Perhaps a day trip to Salzburg. Think we can go to the Neusch castle when we leave Munich as it's south and that's the direction we're going.

I know there's still a lot to think about. But we got this great airfare for our three flights - JFK to Moscow; Moscow to Munich; Zurich back to JFK for <u>$697/pp</u>. So we acted quickly. Have been to Moscow before and loved it.

No, it seems to silly to spend time somewhere just because your flight lands there when there are plenty of other options. I don't stay in Gatwick just because I land there. When you booked the flight you didn't know about Oktoberfest, now that you do it makes sense to move to Plan B. Flexibility is one of the keys to a good trip.

Well, Dianedancer said she has time to decide.

We also ended up in Munich during Oktoberfest a few years ago without planning to. Yes hotel was epensive, but we enjoyed the city, and even enjoyed a daytime visit to the Oktoberfest grounds. Really glad we did it!

We are also planning a trip to Germany in September and when planning our dates, did not realize that the last week of our trip coincided with Oktoberfest. Now we are wondering if we should change our dates (though this particular time fits well for our time off work). Can anyone tell us if Oktoberfest will be affecting the entire country in addition to Munich, including increased prices for hotels and general business everywhere in the country? We were contemplating flying into Munich around Sept 10-12, spending a little time there, then moving west from there - plan was to stay in Germany until approx. Sept.26.
Would appreciate any comments, thanks!

Oktoberfest is a Munich thing and does not affect any other parts of the country beyond Munich and its surroundings. There is no need to change your dates, just plan your itinerary accordingly as you are already contemplating.

I have stayed at the Schlicker several times and would book it immediately. The location is my favorite - they have a back door practically at the Victualienmarkt. It is also very convenient to transportation and, as. Someone said, Marienplatz. Enjoy!

raz1024 asks, "Can anyone tell us if Oktoberfest will be affecting the entire country in addition to Munich, including increased prices for hotels and general business everywhere in the country?"

Oktoberfest is Munich. But there are certainly OTHER events that could impact prices and availability of rooms. In the Middle Rhine Valley there are wine festivals every weekend in September and hotels fill early in these small towns. The Canstatter Volksfest near Stuttgart is hugely popular and happens around the same dates as Oktoberfest. Trade fairs routinely impact major cities like Frankfurt. September is definitely a month you'd want to book ahead.

Hi Dianedancer,

We've flown into/out of Munich airport a total of 9 times and have spent 2 nights in Munich. That was enough for us, as we do not care for larger cities in general. We've also flown into/out of Zurich and never stayed in the city. We have flown into Munich during Octoberfest a couple of times, and never even knew it was going on, as we avoided Munich all together. The airport is a good distance from the city, like landing at JFK and going to Manhattan. Either skip the stay in Munich or if you want to get a car for other area's after your Munich stay, simply train to Garmisch and pick up a car there. You are then close to Innsbruck (1 hour) and close to Neuschwanstein/Fuessen (1 hour). Outside of the Munich area, you'll never even know Oktoberfest is going on.

Paul

I agree with the above re Munich. You can EASILY be in the city and not know that Oktoberfest is happening. When we first arrived years ago we actually had to ASK people where the Fest grounds were located and the Marienplatz wasn't any noisier than I have seen it on other occasions.

I would fly in, take the S-Bahn to the main rail station and take a train out and rent a car somewhere else and BTW do you really need a car?

Dukey and PJA1- We fly into Munich and will be staying there for 2-3 days. We do like big cities (we live in one). But we also like villages and mountains. it sounds like a good idea to take a train to Garmisch and get a car there. We fly out of Zurich so we figure we'll drive for 2-3 days to Berner Oberland and stay there for 3 days and then fly home. I'm sure we could take a train to BO but I think we'd like to be able to stop where we want along the way. It does mean, however, that we would be picking a car up in Germany and dropping it off in Switzerland - Interlaken to be exact.

CarolJean - We booked Schlicker. On their website there were no rooms available. But I emailed them and asked them to advise us if any open up. They emailed back right away to say that there <i>was</i> one available. Lesson learned to contact directly!