We made it to Oktoberfest...and Survived!
We were so excited to be in Munich for Oktoberfest. When we planned to travel for a year, the first thing we booked was our Munich Airbnb so that we could attend Oktoberfest. How could we not go!
We read that it can be quite crazy and expensive, so we planned to be in Munich a few days before the start of Oktoberfest, and only attend Oktoberfest for the opening Saturday. We figured this would give us time to see Munich and get a taste for the world’s largest Volksfest (beer festival). The timing of our trip definitely had pros and cons. We’ve learned a lot about how to make the most out of Oktoberfest, so we thought we’d share some tidbits for other newbie Oktoberfest attendees!
Preparing for Oktoberfest: Taste some beer!
Our first few days in Munich were great and we used them as an opportunity to prepare ourselves for the craziness of Oktoberfest. In the two days leading up to Oktoberfest, we got to know Munich by visiting a handful of popular beer gardens. It was an awesome way to get into the Oktoberfest spirit, meet some locals and fellow tourists, taste delicious German beer, and walk around to see the many sights in Munich. We visited four beer halls/gardens, and they were all unique and worth visiting:
Hofbräuhaus
We started with Hofbräuhaus. It’s considered to be most popular tavern in the world, so how could we not go there first! It is also perfectly located near Marienplatz which makes it super easy for tourists to find.
The building was originally built in 1589 as the Hofbräuhaus brewery, and today the beer hall does a great job with sharing the history of the building for those who are interested. If you visit, grab an English menu and you can read all about the five main areas of the building. You can also sit in each of them to enjoy your beer. We walked through most of them, but stayed outside in the garden to enjoy our beers.
We are big fans of Bavarian cuisine, and the food here was super delicious! We enjoyed our time in the garden with a meal and a 1L beer before planning our next stop. We were one of the first tables in the garden when we arrived close to 11am, but when we left around 1:30pm, the garden was packed with people looking for the classic beer garden experience. It is probably the most touristy beer garden, so make sure you visit early if you want to get a table.
Augustiner Bräustuben
Next on our beer hall crawl was Augustiner. Augustiner is considered Munich’s oldest independent brewery, and dates back to 1328. This beer hall has many rooms like the Hofbräuhaus, but they are a bit smaller which gives it a more intimate and cozy feeling. We really loved the décor inside, there were hops draped around the lights and along the windows – it almost looked like holiday garland.
Augustiner is still privately owned and is one of the only major Munich beers that is not owned by a large international beer conglomerate.
Here we enjoyed our beer and snack in the beer hall, listening to the music and watching the busy kitchen. They were turning out tons of roasted chicken - it looked delicious!
Hirschgarten
For our next stop we wanted to sit outside and enjoy the nice autumn air. We decided to go to Hirschgarten – the largest beer garden in the world! It can seat over 8000 people - which seemed crazy to us - so we had to check it out.
We wished we had something like this at home! It was basically a huge picnic area in a lovely park, with concession stands set up where you can buy beer, food, and snacks. You grab an empty glass from a tray, give it a rinse, and then head to the beer stand of your choice for a 1L fill. It was awesome!
Some people bring their own food and enjoy a lovely picnic while having a 1L beer and taking in the views. We sat right next to a deer habitat, where we watched the deer run around and try to get food from people. It was quite fun! If we lived in Munich we would definitely frequent this place often.
Augustiner Keller
For the last beer hall on our crawl we headed back to an Augustiner hall, but this time to a garden. The Agustiner Keller beer gardens always seemed to be quite popular when we did a quick Google search for must visit beer gardens, so we wanted to pop in for a visit. We really enjoyed the Augustiner beer, and the food was very good. The garden was lively, especially since it was a Friday afternoon and the day before Oktoberfest kicked off. Everyone was very friendly and getting in the festive spirit. We sat at a beer hall style table, and enjoyed ourselves while making new friends at the table.
They have a hall and beer garden at this location, and it was close to city center and major train lines, which made it a huge plus.
We had a big day ahead of us so we decided to call it a day and get ready for the big Oktoberfest kick off the next morning.
Preparing for Oktoberfest: Have a plan
We found making a plan for Oktoberfest opening day to be really challenging. There isn’t a ton of information online, and when we did find information it contradicted other information we had read, or was 50 pages long. We wanted the quick and dirty on Oktoberfest, especially for the first day of festivities. Here were a few helpful tips we found that made our day a successful one:
Download the Oktoberfest.de app. It was surprisingly a great tool! It is a newer app, and has only been around for two Oktoberfest seasons now, but the information on the app is great. The best parts are the tent details. Here you will find a map of the grounds, where the tents are located, and interesting information about each of the tents.
Dress up! Most tents have 95%-100% of people dressed in traditional lederhosen and dirndl. Unfortunately we chose not to dress up due to our limited luggage situation, but we loved the outfits and really wished we could have participated!
Figure out what tent you want to go to. Using the app, we could look up each tent and see which one we wanted to go to. They give a great write up on each tent so you can find one that is most aligned to what you want to do.
Pick an entrance to the grounds. There are many entrances to the Oktoberfest grounds, so we highly suggest that you look at a map and find the entrance closest to the tent of your choice. When we got to the grounds, thousands of people were in line at the first entrance, but if you walked down to the other entrances, there were way less people in line. Finding a line closest to your tent, with the least amount of people is key.
Get there EARLY! Early, early, early. We had read that day one is crazy busy, but at the same time we heard that you could walk up at 10am without issues. So we planned to be waiting in line for 7:30am. The grounds on day one open at 9:00am, but when we got there at 7:30, there were probably close to 10,000 people there already. Fortunately we walked to an entrance that wasn’t as busy as some of the others, but there were easily 1,000 people ahead of us. If you want a seat in a tent, you likely need to be there closer to 5:30am. Keep in mind this is likely only the case for day one. If you visit during the week, we have heard it is not nearly as busy. However, we were at Oktoberfest for day one, which made it a bit unique.
Bring refreshments and a snack. On opening day the grounds open at 9:00, but beer isn’t poured until noon. While you are waiting in line, make sure you have snacks and refreshments (maybe even beer!) so that you aren’t too hungry or thirsty when you get in. Just know that no food or beverages are allowed inside the tents, so you will need to finish your snacks or throw them away.
Be patient. While you are waiting in line, lots of people will budge in. Many friends come early and hold a spot for their other friends - that’s just the way it goes. Also, when the gates open, some people sprint through the grounds beelining it to the tents. It becomes quite crazy and chaotic!
Have fun! The day is full of highs and lows, but remember that you are at Oktoberfest! Make new friends, meet some locals, get to know new traditions, and enjoy yourself.
Enjoying Oktoberfest
We consider our experience at Oktoberfest to be quite successful! Here is how our day went:
We waited in line at Entrance 13 starting around 7:30am. We were completely shocked by how many people were in line already! There were thousands of people everywhere. We were expecting lines, but not quite that long. We headed to Entrance 13, because it looked like the closest one to the Schottenhamel tent. This is the tent where the mayor taps the first keg and officially rings in the start of Oktoberfest, and we thought it would be awesome to see it.
At 9:00am on the dot the line started moving and people starting running! It was pure craziness. As soon as we got into the grounds people were running all over the place trying to get into tents. We didn’t run, and honestly felt a bit overwhelmed in the situation. We made it to the Schottenhamel tent, got inside, and started looking for unreserved seating. Although there were unreserved spots, it looked like they were being held for people and parties. It was quite confusing! We made a few laps around, but then thought we would be better off heading to another tent to see if we had any luck finding a table.
We walked into a nearby tent called Schützen-Festzelt. We actually thought it was the Lowënbräu tent at first, but it was so crazy and chaotic we hand no idea where we were really! Inside was the same situation. The unreserved sections were completely packed. By now we were feeling a bit overwhelmed and weren’t really too sure what to do. We even contemplated leaving! But we walked out to the beer garden, and it was nice and calm. There were tons of seats available, so we sat down at a table and caught our breath.
By now it was about 9:20. Beer isn’t served until noon on day one, so we ordered a coffee and had some pretzels. We were feeling much better in the beer gardens, and the weather was actually pretty good which was awesome. After sitting for a short while two guys from South Korea joined us, and the four of us chatted while we patiently waited for beer. Finally, around 11:30 the kick off parade made its way to our beer tent, and we got a front row seat to see the band, wagons, and the parade making its way to all of the tents. It was such a cool experience, and really got us in the spirit. We were so close to our first Oktoberfest beers!
Just before noon a German couple joined us at our table as well, and it was great to chat with them and learn more about Oktoberfest traditions. They told us we picked a great tent, and that it was a popular one with the locals, so we were happy we ended up there in our confusion!
Our beer finally came around 1:00pm. Our tent is considered a medium sized tent, holding close to 5,500 people and it takes quite a long time to get everyone beer, especially when the tent is full and everyone wants a glass!
Another great thing about the Oktoberfest app is it shows you which tents are closed due to maximum capacity. We checked the Oktoberfest app around 2:00pm, and our tent was the first to fill up and close its doors. We could see that they shut the doors and were turning people away. It didn’t take long for a long line to form, and we couldn’t believe it was already so packed! Other tents were closing as well, so we decided that we were committed to this tent and likely not moving until we decided to leave the grounds.
The numbers at Oktoberfest are crazy. Our tent is considered a medium tent, with room for 5,500 people. The larger tents can fit between 9,000-12,000 people in them! There are 15 medium/large tents, and most of them end up closing their doors on the weekend because they max out their capacity. We found it so hard to believe until we were on the grounds and saw the sheer volume of people ourselves. The app is really helpful as it gives you at least an idea of which tents are still open.
Since we decided to stay at our table, we kept ordering beers and food. People at our table kept coming and going, so we made quite a few friends throughout the night! Our Korean buddies and two sisters from Bavaria stayed the longest, and the 6 of us had a great time together. Our German couple even came back towards the end of the night before leaving the tent.
Shout out to Taeryong Kim for the group picture!
We stayed later than we expected, heading out around 9:30pm. After 14 hours on the grounds, we were very ready to head home. All in all we had a really awesome time, enjoyed meeting new friends, got a taste for Bavarian traditions, and had plenty of delicious beer and food.
Reflecting on Oktoberfest: What we would have done differently
Now that we have experienced our first Oktoberfest, there are a couple of things we would have done differently.
Attend on a weekday. Opening weekend, and all weekends really, are always very busy. If we want back again we would definitely go during the week. From what we understand there are barely any people during the day on weekdays, and there are no issues getting into tents if you are early enough (around 11am).
Bring friends. We had fun just the two of us and we met a bunch of people, but it would be more fun if we were with other people at our table. As you look around you see everyone with a big group of friends, and we both wished we were there with another couple or a larger group of friends.
Wear lederhosen and a dirndl. As mentioned above, almost everyone is dressed up. We love the way traditional Bavarian clothing looks, and next time we would 100% be ready to go in outfits.
Expect long lines when you need to go to the washroom. There is no good way to prepare for this, but it was surprising the first time we needed to go to the bathroom. The lines are crazy long! We joked we needed to line up before we thought we needed to pee.
Make a reservation. Since there are only two of us, we couldn’t make a reservation in the tent. However, if we were staying at a hotel or hostel, they may have had reservations already organized. We would look into this more if we really wanted to attend on a weekend next time. Although this is something that you have to look into way in advance, as reservations are taken starting February.
We are so thrilled to check Oktoberfest off our list. It was something we both have wanted to do, and are still so surprised we actually made it there! It was a crazy fun experience, and now that both of us know what to expect, we hope we can make it back for another visit sometime down the road.
