Ocktoberfest Accommodations-Help!
 

We just decided this past weekend to go to Munich for Ocktoberfest. We arrive 9/19 (2 days before the festival starts) and depart on 9/24. <BR><BR>We decided to go on somewhat of a whim and now I'm worried about accommodations. I don't have any ideas yet. but am hoping you all will have a couple suggestions. I used this board last year for researching info on a trip to Italy but it doesn't seem like there is as much to choose from in the Munich area and we are going at a very competitive time. <BR><BR>Any suggestions would be immensely appreciated. So far our only requirement is that it is less than $200. Would perfer smaller hotel. We don't care about being right down town or might consider breaking our time up between downtown and somewhere out in the countryside. <BR><BR>Please-please help. anything would be helpful. Danka!

We stayed at Hotel Daniel in Munich last year : www.Hotel-Daniel.de<BR>It is a small hotel just around the corner from Marienplatz. Good location and the price is right !<BR>

Had a similar problem two years ago when we decided belatedly to detour to Oktoberfest. I tried everything to find a place in Munich with no luck. I hope you have better success. We finally decided to look outside of Munich proper and in our case found lodging in Augsburg which was only a 20-25 min train ride from Munich and a short subway from the festival. It's at least an alternative which we found very nice and even gave us a chance to explore a real nice neighboring city.<BR>Oh by the way, watch out for that great beer--it goes down easier, faster and is stronger than anything stateside! I still don't want to admit to how many liters I managed to drown myself in! Have fun--Paul

Have made it to 3 Oktoberfests; once, was in the same sort of bind, in fact even more last-minute, and we ended up staying in a family's house on the outskirts of the city. This system may still exist - apparently local people make themselves available to take-in visitors for the Oktoberfest; there is a list of addresses usually with the tourist board/office, I believe. Who would ever want to open their house up to potentially inebriated foreigners? you'll ask, but it was incredible - like staying at home, plus we got a real breakfast every morning (our hosts spared the Weizenbier, which you'll have to get downtown along with some Weisswurstl before you hit the festival for another day. This is tradition: even if you're sloshed, you've got to have the Weizenbier and Weisswurstl... it's Pflicht). <BR><BR>Forget the cost of this housing option, but believe it was significantly below that of a hotel room. <BR><BR>Anyway, if the hospitality of Muencheners is still like it was in the past, you won't be dissapointed!

I am going to the Octoberfest on the first few days of October. We didn't want to stay in the city for obvious reasons...price, tourists, too crowded and busy. We decided to get outside of Munich and take the train into town each morning. Augsburg would be a great choice. Someone in an earlier message said it is 20-25 minutes from Munich.<BR><BR>We decided to go a bit further out and stay on the Tegernsee. Take a look at the internet. There are alot of choices in Tegernsee or Scliersee or in a few of the other towns that sit on these lakes.<BR><BR>This will be my 7th Fest. Can't wait. Have fun. Keep in mind that there is also the Stuttgarter beer fest which is just as good as the Octoberfest with many less people than in Munich. The Stuttgart fest runs about the same time as the Octoberfest. It opens on Saturday September 21st and runs for a couple of weeks. Yiou may want to check out both. Draw your own decision about which is better. We will be at both.

Tegernsee and Schliersee would be a pain without a car, and if you're driving someone can't drink! Augsburg is a bit far away IMO for commuting to the fest, especially if you plan on going back late. Your best bet would be somewhere on Munich's s-bahn lines, like Erding, Freising, Starnberg, Tutzing, Poing, etc. Some of them run all night and some stop around 1am with maybe a train around 2:30am then resume at 5:30 or so.

<BR>Look outside the city. <BR><BR>I booked my hotel in April and had a hard time finding anything affordable then. My travel agent was only able to find me hotels $200+ at that time so I did a little research on my own; and was able to find one at $150 and close to Theresenwise.<BR><BR>Use the Munich website for hotel listings and just e-mail everyone about your dates and requests.<BR><BR>2 years ago my husband had to go to Munich for work during Oktoberfest, they booked about a month before and the only place open was a suite at the Kapinski 4-Seasons (it was $400) Good Luck finding something.

The travel time between Munich and Augsburg is actually between 35 and 45 minutes from Munich Hbf., depending on whether you're on the high-speed (ICE) or regional trains.<BR><BR>South of Augsburg and closer to Munich, but requiring slightly more train time, are the attractive towns of Landsberg (50 min.) on the Lech River and Utting (1 hr.) on Ammersee Lake. See www.utting.de/gastronomie/index.html<BR>for hotel accommodations in Utting.

http://oktoberfest.sat1.de/en/<BR><BR>TRY ABOVE WEBSITE FOR HELP IF YOU STILL NEED ACCOMODATIONS

This year may be a bit different housing wise during Octoberfest. Normally at this late date, the rooms are gone. However I just returned last week from Munich, and tourism (and room occupancy) are way down. Not quite the numbers of Americans. While you may find a room, I'm with the others on this post - stay out further. Most of the hotels around the central area are over streets that will get very noisy late into the evening. I would stay at Herrsching on the Ammersee. It's at the end of one of the S lines and has frequent trains in and out of town. It's also located near Andechs - where the best German Beer is made.

I believe the only 4-star that Priceline uses in Munich is the Marriott, so if you bid on a 4-star, that's what you'll get. Go to www.biddingfortravel.com (non-commercial site) and scroll way down to European hotels and check it out. Maybe there's an outside chance you'd get a room there for considerably less than $200. The moderators at Bidding for Travel will help you construct a bid if you request it.