It’s been awhile since I’ve done a weekend recap, but here’s a brief guide to Munich, Germany and how to do Oktoberfest the right way. Eventualy I’ll post the video compilation, eventually…
1. Book your travel/accomodations EARLY. Oktoberfest brings in 1.1 BILLION EUROS to the local economy of Munich, and hotels know that they can charge a pretty steep premium during the three weeks of the festival. I booked my hotel in mid-july, and the pickings were slim but we managed to score a room in Hotel Meier (within walking distance of the tents and the main train and bus station) for about 210 US dollars between four girls.
2. Suck it up and buy a dirndl. Sure, they’re pricey, but I think they’re worth it. We got to Munich on a national holiday so all of the shops were closed, but there was one stand that I got a costume-y one at for about 40 euros. Other, more traditional dirndls, can be anywhere from 120-180 euros. Point is, even the cheapest dororthy-takes-Oktoberfest costume is better than wearing jeans and a flannel in the tents.
3. Get to the tents EARLY. Considering the fact that all of USD stormed the Hofbrauhaus (HB) tent during weekend three, it wasn’t crucial to stand in line at 5:30AM. We got to the Hakker-Pschorr tent at 7:45 on Saturday and we were golden-even snagged three tables. They do shut the tents relatively early in the morning though, so it’s better safe than sorry.
4. Don’t rely on Munich’s shitty wifi. If you’re meeting up with people, good luck. Not many restaurants have free wifi and the hotels that do, well. It’s spotty at best.
5. Whatever you do, don’t camp. Most of my friends who booked their trips two weeks before camped with Stoke Travel. Which is probably a really cool experience, if it wasn’t for Munich’s freezing temperatures during October. I don’t know about you, but I wanted a hot shower and a warm bed over a small cramped tent any day. But if worst comes to worst, you can always look for an airbnb near the city center.
So those are my five rules of thumb for planning/navigating Oktoberfest. Oh, andddddd……
There is a huge hill outside the tents on the fairgrounds. We were warned our freshman year “Beware of the hill, whatever you do, DON’T go on the hill.” And I’ll admit that I had no idea what that meant at the time….
“The Hill,” oh the infamous hill, is basically where every belligerent man in Munich decides to pee, and also where my best friend Ashley tried to run up the hill through the mud to find a sparsely covered bush and do the same. This happened in front of an audience of about 200 people, including a parade of German police, who applauded her once she was done. So if you want to be around a bunch of belliegerent, drunk German people passed out by 11AM, by all means. It’s great people watching. But I promise you, as a female, there is definitely a better bathroom alternative than the infamous hill.
In other aspects, being inside the tents at Oktoberfest was one of the happiest (second to Poland, third to Croatia) weekends of my life. Maybe it’s just something about paying ten euros a stein for beer that makes you so happy that you don’t even care that its the equivalent of three drinks at the Pennant. I don’t know. Maybe it’s because the alcohol percentage is higher than normal beers (and the highest in the HB tent, might I add) that you just want to sing your heart out after your second stein. I don’t know.
Never mind that you don’t understand a word of the German beer songs, or you don’t know any of the people who are standing on top of tables and chugging their steins in about two and a half seconds–you are going to applaud and cheer for them like they have been your best friend since you were in diapers.
Definitely make some time to walk around Munich and see the clock, but let’s be honest. If you’re a college student like me, you didn’t come to Munich for the historical sights. You came for the beer.
xx
LC
Hey I Started A Blog 
