oktoberfest
 

I am trying to plan a fist time trip to oktoberfest and don't know where to begin. How can you get tickets to the beer gardens and how do you know where all to go? Are there other beer festivals in other cities or is Munich pretty much it? What other cities should we visit near by?

By all reports and from experience Munich is the place to be really.

You don't need tickets to get into the beer tents. Just follow the noise! You can't miss it.

There are many beer gardens in Germany, but really there's nothing like the Oktoberfest in scale. The Hofbrau Haus is sort of similar, but much, much smaller, and with far fewer drunks.

Pretty well all towns throughout Bavaria will have their own version of the Oktoberfest. I went to one in a small village near Würzburg in 1984 and ended up getting laid, so the excitement doesn't start and end in Munich.

Be aware that this festival kicks off in late September. And to get yourself fit for lifting the two-kilo steins of beer, you need to get down to the gym for a few sessions beforehand.

The Oktoberfest marks the END of the season. Most of the Feste take place from Spring (May) to early Summer. Far nicer than Oktoberfest is Frühlingsfest at the same place in spring. No tourists, only 1/3 to 1/4 of the size, but pretty much the same. Did you know Oktoberfest is located where the executions were held in former days, including witch burnings. Now think again about the origins of it ;-)

The Oktoberfest is all in one area called Theresienweise (it has its own station on the underground, u-bahn).

The main atmosphere and beer drinking is done in tents, very large tents with a band and thousands of people.

You can visit the beer gardens in Munich but you would be unaware that the Oktoberfest was on, except for them perhaps serving festbier.

To get into the tents you don't need tickets but on weekends the tents usually close after 1 to 2 hours due too many people. People who do have tickets and booked seats might not want you joining them, at least to begin with.

Tickets are booked months in advance and are sold out very quickly, my company books around 500 seats for each day for their employees.

The Hofbraü tent is considered the liviest and is probably not the best idea if you are of a nervous disposition!!

My other piece of advice is that if your female, plan your toilet trips well advance as the queues can be long, for the man it's not such a problem although I wouldn't recommend wearing sandals!

Geordie

My only advice (from personal experience) if you haven't already booked a hotel room, do so <b>immediately</b>

&quot;Vom 16. September bis 3. Oktober 2006 findet das gr&ouml;&szlig;te Volksfest der Welt wieder auf der Theresienwiese statt.&quot;

To end speculation about the dates for the Oktoberfest this year this is what the official website says:

The greatest folk festival in the world takes place again this year on the Theresienwiese from 16th September to the 3rd October.

Harzer

Just a PS to my post.

I don't mean to infer that Munich is the ONLY place to be. Rather, all in all, its THE place to be but if you don;t get there and go soemwhere else instead, you'll never know and you'll still love it

First time we planned to be in Munich during the beginning of Oktoberfest we didn't realize our planned arrival date coincided with the opening. I couldn't figure out why all the hotel rooms were gone six months out. We ended up staying four nights in Augsburg and taking day trips. Augsburg was a nice alternative; since that time I've been more proactive in getting accommodations.