- Munich
- (65)
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Germany
Oktoberfest is the single greatest display of drinking the world has ever seen. Over 16 days, 6 million people drink over 6 million litres of beer. What a party!
To help you get the most out of your experience, we've assembled a list of 5 inside tips to help you get the most out of your trip to Oktoberfest.
Why should you listen to us? We lived and worked in Germany for years, and have attended the festival many times. When it comes to Oktoberfest, we are experts.
Tip #1) Know what you're drinking
The following are the types of beers you'll find at Oktoberfest:
- Märzen / Oktoberfest: This beer is brewed solely for Oktoberfest and is the most common brew sold there.
- Bavarian Lager/Helles: If you walk into any traditional beer hall in Munich and simply order a beer, this is what you’ll get.
- Hefeweizen / Weißbier: The state of Bavaria is famous for this refreshing wheat beer. This beer is unfiltered, hence its cloudy appearance.
- Dunkelweizen: Same concept as the Hefeweizen, only brewed with the addition of some darker grains.
- Dunkel: Means “dark” in German. If you take a Helles and brew it with darker Munich malts, this is the result.
- Pilsner: Referred to as Pils in Germany, this style of beer originated in the former Czechoslovakia.
- Radler: A combination of Pilsner beer mixed with lemonade or lemon-lime soda.
Tip #2) Know what you're eating
The following are the types of food you'll find at Oktoberfest:
- Bratwurst:What you’ll find at the festival is usually a short and fat variety, or the long skinny version called the Thüringer. Whichever you get, it is traditionally served on a roll called a Brötchen with mustard.
- Rindswurst: Not as common as bratwurst, this sausage is made primarily from beef and most often served with ketchup rather than mustard.
- Hänchen / Hühner: Rotisserie chicken sold by the quarter, half, or whole.
- Shweinehaxen: Pig’s knuckle roasted and/or grilled, and often served with some form of potato and sauerkraut.
- Knödelei: Traditional Bavarian dumplings.
- Schnitzel: The classic Vienna style (Wiener) is made from a fried veal cutlet.
- Sauerkraut: Fermented cabbage that comes in many varieties and colors.
- Spätzle/ Knöpfle: Egg noodle pasta that usually accompanies entrées and is often topped with gravy.
Tip #3) Tip your waitress!
You get great service at Oktoberfest the same way you do anywhere – by tipping well. 10% is a pretty standard and even healthy tip in Europe. With beers costing just under 9 EUR each, giving the waitress 10 EUR and telling her Stimmt so (shtimpt-so) is just fine.
Tip #4) Leave the bags and wallet at home
A beer-soaked Oktoberfest table is no place to set a $500 designer bag. Sure they’re cute and really match your outfit, but ladies, leave the nice bags and purses at home. There’s just too likely a chance they’ll be ruined or stolen amongst the drunken masses. Take a purse small enough that you can keep it in your lap or over your shoulder without getting in the way.
Guys, invest in a money clip or small wallet that can fit into your front pocket. Bring only what you need - cash, emergency credit card, and directions back to your hotel. This deters pickpockets, and also minimizes the damage if your drunk ass loses it.
Tip #5) Visit the ATM/Money Machine before you get to the festival
They only take cash inside of the tents! While there are ATMs at the festival, they charge exorbitant fees and often have a huge line of people waiting to use them. Be smart and get your cash before you arrive at the festival, and carry an emergency credit card just in case.
Following these 5 inside tips will help you make the most of your Oktoberfest trip.
Prost!
Munich, Germany. Logistical information for Oktoberfest can be found at www.twizgo.com/oktoberfest
For more Oktoberfest tips and advice, visit www.twizgo.com
Munich is the place to be when you like sauna. Most public swimming pools have a 'sauna landschaft', which means: an extensive sauna for very moderate prices. The one I like most is Dantebad: very modern and clean, and a pleasant atmosphere. From 7.30 till 23.00; Monday is for ladies only.
U-Bahn: Westfriedhof
Brewery in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, owned by the state government. The Hof (court) comes from the brewery's history as a royal brewery in the Kingdom of Bavaria.
Munich
www.talkmunich.com/forum/general-discussion/hofbrauhaus-munich/
Hotel Brunnenhof is one of many OK hotels south of Central station. It's clean and pleasant with very comfortable beds, varied breakfasts and free internet access. Their website makes booking easy. About 96 a night for a double.
www.brunnenhof.de
Schillerstr. 36
D- 80336 München
Tel. +49 (0)89 54510-0
The area just south of Central station (Hauptbahnhof) has many OK hotels, but few nice places to eat and drink. But go a bit west to the 'Westend', by St Paul's Church on the corner of St-Paul-Strasse and Schwanthaler-Strasse, and there's an excellent pub-restaurant with freshly cooked Bavarian food available late into the evening, along with draft beer and appropriate wines. Cheerfully kitsch in décor and friendly too.
It's called 'Gasthous Zur Festwiese', apparently, though the name isn't prominently displayed.
Schwanthalerstrasse 85, 80336 Munchen, Tel 089 5439050 -
by St Paul's Church on the corner of St-Paul-Strasse and Schwanthaler-Strasse
Check out the new high-speed links from Paris to south-west Germany, TGV Est Européen.
From Paris it's three hours to Mannheim (romantic Heidelberg round the corner) or Karlsruhe (Black Forest nearby). Or 4-ish to Frankurt or 6-ish to Munich.
Changing in Paris couldn't be easier (10 minutes by foot) - from the Eurostar terminal at Gare Du Nord, walk round the corner to the magnificently restored Gare De L'Est and hop on your TGV or ICE (= the German TGV) towards Germany.
A traditional bräuhaus, with a lively atmosphere at the weekend, and especially around Oktoberfest time. In the summer, there is a small beer garden too, and you can get traditional Bavarian food in the evening. Try the Hefe Weisen Dunkel (dark) beer for a change from the typical lager-style beers.
Kapuzinerplatz 5, not far from Goetheplatz underground station
www.eat-out.net/restaurant-muenchen/ph113319-paulaner-brauhaus
I just moved to Munich - what a wonderful city! Fantastic mixture of historic tradition and anarchic alternatives, accessibly modern and suprisingly friendly. From the moment you arrive in the well-designed (of course!) airport -they check your passport and you pick your luggage up straight at the gate - right the way through to literaly hundreds of independent bars and restaurants it's one the nicest cities in the world!
Best bars are in the Glockenbachviertel. For good restaurants try Schwabing and Liehl. Great beer gardens everywhere.
Public swimming pool complex at the Westbad tram stop. Just follow the scent of chlorine from the tram. Entrance was nine euro last time I visited.
Inside there's a water slide, a whirlpool, heated mineral bath, sauna and swimming lanes. Good place to take kids on a rainy holiday. Outside there are even more pools, plenty of grass to lay about and sometimes ducks come down to swim laps in the pools.
Address: Weinbergerstraße 11, Westend, Munich, 81241
Phone: +49 89 23617701
Nearest Station: Westbad: Tram 19, Bus 72
Neighbourhood: Westend
This gallery opened in 2002 and shows the visual arts and design of the 20th and 21st centuries. It was designed by Stephan Braunfel. It is spacious, full of natural light from a huge rotunda, and offers both a permanent collection and changing exhibitions. It is a pleasure to visit. The design work in particular is imaginatively displayed, on ramps, on huge open lifts that revolve in the air, or suspended at eye level from the high ceilings. Like the other nearby museums, it has a good cafe, and an attractive shop that sells both mementos of your visit and scholarly material. The entry fee was 9.50 euros but that covered all the shows offered in the gallery.
Museum District; tram 27 from Karlsplatz (Stachus) www.pinakothek-der-moderne.de
The Haus der Kunst is one of the few Third Reich buildings left intact in Munich, (the former air ministry also survives in Berlin). It housed the notorious so-called Degenerate Art exhibition in July 1937, where examples of new art were displayed in order to be ridiculed. By a nice irony the building is now used to show changing exhibitions of radical art of all kinds, including performance.
Prinzregentenstrasse, adjacent to the Bayrische National Museum and the Schack-Galerie. Tram 17 from the city centre.
A decision to restore the city of Munich was taken after wartime bombing and so, unlike Frankfurt, for example, which is almost brand new, or Berlin, which is an extraordinary mix of old and new, Munich has regained the main elements of its prewar appearance. The result restores a city whose inhabitants, including its rulers, were in love with Italy and Ancient Greece. Koenigsplatz is one good place to see the epic scale of this phenomenon, where two major classical museums face one another across a vast grassy square, separated by a monumental gate, again in a classical style. What might have been grandiose is saved by the presence, in good weather, of children playing, and students from the nearby university sitting around, chatting, and generally enjoying the sunshine.
U2 to Koenigsplatz from Hauptbahnhof.
The Stadtische Galerie in the Lenbachhaus is set in an Italianate villa and shows both changing exhibitions and a permanent collection of paintings and sculpture from the first half of the Twentieth century. There is an unrivalled collection of the work of Kandinsky, Gabriele Munther and Franz Marc. The building has an intimate, friendly atmosphere and, very important, a good cafeteria.
Luisenstrasse 33. U2 to Konigsplatz from Hauptbahnhof (central station). Five minute walk to Lenbachhaus.
The U6 U-bahn to Universitat takes you to Geschwester Scholl-platz, named after Sophie and Hans Scholl, the students who were murdered by the Nazis for challenging the regime. The buildings in this area, and the nearby Englischer Garten, will be familiar to admirers of "Heimat 2." This is where Edgar Reitz set his series about student life in the 1960's. The area just to the north contains many beautiful Art Nouveau villas.
U6 to Universitat. Short walk to Englischer Garten.
The Alte, the Neue and the Pinakothek der Moderne are wonderful galleries showing painting, sculpture and, in the last case, design as well, all in close walking distance of each other, just to the north-west of the city centre. They have work ranging in time from the Renaissance to the present day, all presented in distinguished buildings which are welcoming and, especially in the case of the modern gallery, fun to visit.
Barer Strasse. U2 line to Theresienstrasse, or Tram 27 to Pinakotheken.
"Prager Frühling" is the German for "Prague Spring". The name refers to the period in early 1968 when the Czechoslovak Communist Party leader Alexander Dubcek tried to liberalise the country's communist regime by introducing free speech and freedom of assembly. The Prague Spring ended when Warsaw Pact troops invaded on the night of the 20-21 August 1968. But enough of the history lessons. Prager Frühling is currently one of the hippest joints in Munich. There are live bands most nights. And when there are no bands, there are live DJ's or special parties.
Prager Frühling
Leopoldstrasse 27
80802 München
Giselastrasse tube
www.prager-fruehling.info
The Stadtmuseum cafe is worth a look - modern and minimalist, with tables in the leafy courtyard in the summer. It has a huge selection of international papers and magazines, because journalists from the Süddeutsche Zeitung often come here for lunch. The cakes are among the best in Munich and there's a decent selection of wines by the glass.
Serves a daily changing menu of light modern European food, e.g. excellent fresh cheeses, alongside some Bavarian staples.
The "filmmuseum", consisting of an inexpensive rep cinema and restoration/research department is located in the basement. There are retrospectives year round, along with the Munich film and documentary festivals.
St.-Jakobs-Platz 1
80331 München
Mitfahren is carpooling par excellence! Check out www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de and hook yourself up with very normal people travelling long distances who want to split the cost of the journey.
It's eco and wallet friendly, wíth a Munich-Berlin trip coming in at around 30€.
As this system is very established in Germany, you will almost always find someone going to your destination when you need to go. Keep it in mind!
I strongly recommend to all of you this Olympic complex built for the 1972 Munich Games. Its gorgeous architecture and magnificent landscape will give you an unforgettable visit. It is worth a visit!
Olympia Zentrum is the nearest tube station
Coolest club in Munich on Thursday, on the weekends the crowd is a bit young and it is too packed.
Thalkirchnerstreet just next to the tube station sendlinger tor.
www.ersteliga.com
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