Oktoberfest: Staying outside of Munich Center
 

How far out can one stay and still be able to reach the grounds easily? The few hotels that I am finding near the grounds have rates of 300 Euro per night. Would like something that is not so expensive. Any recommendations?

I've stayed at Garmisch-Partenkirchen during Oktoberfest and it's about a one hour commute by rail to a station a few blocks from the festival site - even the main Munich station is a fairly short walk from the grounds.
There are closer in places like those on Starnberger Sea that would save you about 200 euros a night or more on lodging and also are very nice resorts.

How well do you speak German?

I know of a nice place 1/2 hr by S-Bahn east of the Hbf. It doesn't look like they raise their rates (€69, 2BZ, ÜF) for Oktoberfest. I like to go there because no one speaks English and I get to practice my German.

However, I doubt that an email in English would get a response.

Larry's response reminds me that if staying out a ways investigate the bargain Bavaria pass good for trains all over Bavaria. Larry's an expert on German rail travel so if interested ask him about this pass, bought locally at stations.

Will investigate on those locations... thanks!

So Larry, tell me about this Bavaria train pass.

No German spoken here, so I will have to pass on that one suggestion.

last oct fest my friends and i stayed at the nh munich (there are a few nh's that come up when you search munich. we stayed at one that was nh dor...something)it was right across from the munich train station. it was 168 euros per night. very nice and clean...and a great location. just down from marien platz

The Bayern Ticket is a pass good for unlimited travel for up to 5 people on regional trains (RE, RB, and IRE, S-Bahn) in Bavaria, from 9 AM on weekdays or all day (from midnight) on weekends until 3 AM the following morning. It is also valid on all of the transport (U-Bahn, streetcars, buses) of the Munich metro (MVV). If purchased from one of the ticket machines in Bavaria, it will cost €27; if you use a ticket counter, it costs an additional €2. There is also a Bayern Ticket Single for €19 (from a machine, €21 at a counter). These are the new prices effective Jan 1, 2007.

So, with a Bayern Ticket, you can ride any regional trains into Munich, and then use any of the conveyances in town.

All of the German states have similar tickets. See www.tiny.cc/laenderticketsen. See also www.bayern-takt.de. Select Englisch Version and click on the red Bayern-Ticket box.

If you absolutely have to stay outside Munich you might also consider nearby Augsburg which is about 30 minutes by rail.

You might want to look at Rosenheim. It's 45 minutes by regional trains from the Munich Hbf. It's website is www.rosenheim.de. Click on "Tourismus", then follow the links that say "Unterkunftsverzeichnis". They have a listing in English of hotels. Wendelstein, Panorama, and Goldener Hirsch are very near the station.

Hotel Uhland, which is very close to the grounds, has double rooms for 185 euro during Oktoberfest; they still have availablity.

Or are you trying to find a room for all five of you for under 300 euro?

Augsburg is at least 45 minutes by region rail. The shortest time I found on the Bahn website was 36 minutes by IC, but that wouldn't be covered by the Bayern Ticket.

I didn't mention Augsburg because the city website doesn't give you a list of accommodations to pick from. They just ask you for the date and pick a hotel for you. But you might be able to find hotels in Augsburg from a guidebook. Or maybe someone here has a suggestion for an inexpensive hotel in Augsburg.

If Hotel Uhland is available, I can highly recommend it. And, it's about one block from the Oktoberfest grounds.

Hi

We were at Oktoberfest this past October and stayed at the Ibis Nord on Ungererstrasse. The hotel is part of Accor hotels and you can make reservations online - the rates were very good too. In addition the subway was 1/2 block away and we were down ar the festival in 10 minutes.

And no, we did even spent 150 a night. Great breakfast included too.

According to their website, www.hotel-uhland.de, they have single and double rooms available for everyday of Oktoberfest. Single €140, double €185.

We stayed at the K+K am harras during Oktoberfest 2004 for 90 Euro per night with breakfast included. The hotel is about one mile from the fest grounds and very nice with an underground stop right in front of the hotel. My husband booked it in May or June of that year. When we go back to Munich We will stay there again.

Oops I checked our Visa statement and our room was 109 Euro per night not 90 but still well worth it.

.

Looks like K+K has gotten a little more popular (and expensive) since 2004. I just checked their booking website (www.kkreservations.com), and for the 16 nights of Oktoberfest, 2 people in a double, they wanted €3490 total (€218 average). That was two nights at €180, 8 nights at €200, and 6 nights at €255. Breakfast was not included, but could be ordered at €15 per person per night.

Strange, this is the email I just got from hotel Uhland....

Dear Mrs. B********

Thank you for your e-mail. We regret to inform you, that we have no accomodation available.

At any other time we will be happy to help you.

********

Thanks for all the suggestions, I am off to look for availability on these suggestions!

And Larry, that is a great tip on that train tickets ... thanks so much.

Hmm, at the bottom of their homepage they have a link to "Freie Zimmer Oktoberfest", and it shows that there are rooms available every day. Apparently, like some of the rest of us, they are not real good at keeping their website up-to-date.

Incidently, Frei (here the -e ending is added because rooms "is" plural) means free, as in available, not our translation of free, which in German is kostenlos (costless). Understanding that distinction may come in handy if you ever see "frei" on a pay toilet.

Actually, I'm not surprised they are all booked up---it's a nice and very popular place. The website showing free rooms every day of Oktoberfest didn't seem possible.

We stayed at an Econtel in Munich last summer. It was clean and comfortable. The train station was about a five minute walk, and the ride into the center took 20-25 minutes. (The hotel desk sold tickets.) The hotel's rates were very reasonable as well.

Well I got some responses... looks like my options are:

Hotel Royal Munich

Hotel Mark

Acanthus Hotel

All these about 220E for the triple room and 190E for the double room.

Anyone has any feedback on any of these hotels?

Still haven't heard from the hotel in Stamberger See. But I think I will rather pay the difference and be closer to the ground.

At least I got a great deal on an apartment in Florence....

I can very HIGHLY recommend the Acanthus and it is close to public transport, too.

Check out the reviews on TripAdvisor, too.

We stayed at the Kempinski at the airport, I think it was a 30 or so minute ride into town. I don't know if they may still be really pricey out there, but the hotel is fantastic.

The S-bahn takes 41 to 44 minutes, depending on which S-bahn, to go from the airport STATION (not the hotel) to the Hauptbahnhof. That's about the same time as from Rosenheim and longer than from Starnberg.

We stayed at Hotel Würmtaler in Grafelfing. It's a five minute walk to the S-Bahn station and it takes about 15 mn to get to the city.
The price at the time (last year after Oktoberfest) was €100 for a double room.

So far, the Acanthus is closer than any of these others.

Well, I have a reply back to the nh hotel. Trip advisor gives it good reviews and they quoted me E620 for the triple room (the one we are paying for) and E550 for the double, for all three days.

I am just waiting for confirmation.

We stayed at the Hotel Frey in Ismaning. It is a 15 min ride on the S-Bahn to the center of Munich. It was a beautiful hotel and the area is peaceful and pretty. There is also another hotel around the block that has a great beer garden.

I don't remember it being 45 minutes, that seems long - but it was well worth the ride, whatever it was (and I rarely would say that about a hotel).

>15 min ride on the S-Bahn
25 min, and the area looks like somewhere on Mars ;-)

Why stay in the burbs when you've got availability right IN town?

Ah, logos The Ismaning Hater. Haha. It was an excellent place for last minute accommodations. I would definitely rather stay in Munich, but we had no choice at all. I really did think the hotel was beautiful. I had a nice walk in that big park and it was nice to be in a park that didn’t have people living in it! We almost didn’t survive our whirlwind tour of Munich!

Good, you liked the beergarden and the Isar. ;-). Did you walk down to the iron bridge?
>We almost didn’t survive
What happened?

Oktoberfest happened. Hofbrauhaus happened. All good things, but very painfully exhausted! I think the long walk to the s-bahn from Oktoberfest with everyone marching across the bridge singing in German was my favorite part.

sounds like you have made up your mind but just in case -

We stayed at the Kings Hotel First Class on Dachauer street this past Oktoberfest. It was about a 15 minute walk to the festival. We paid around 150E per night for 2 nights. Booked it on Expedia because we were having NO luck with contating hotels individually. We booked in February for September and Expedia seemed to have several choices at that time.

We had the same response from the Hotel Uhland - and they had a 3 night minimum (or something like that that prevented us from being able to stay there).

Our friends stayed at the Hotel Mark 3 years ago. Good location but they found the hotel to be only ok. They said their room was VERY smoky which made the morning after quite nauseating! Their room did not have a private bathroom, which also made the morning after rather uncomfortable!

I'm jumping on this thread because we're hoping to book our Oktoberfest hotel sometime this week. Great suggestions here! :)

Karameli, where did you end up staying? When are you going?