This is one of the greatest events you could ever go to, as long as you are okay with a lot of people. It is one of the biggest events I have ever been to in my life. It was unlike anything else you will ever see. We were only there for 1 day, so I can’t give the best advice, but I’ll talk a little of our experience.
If you love food, beer and rides then you have a ton of options. I highly suggest going on the weekdays. We were able to go for a little Thursday night and then all of Friday. The night time gets a lot busier, from people going after work or from out of town. We were able to get a hotel that was only a 15 minute train ride that brought us right to the entrance. So, I highly suggest looking for hotels with the train station near or connected.
Don’t worry about what you wear either. I highly suggest wearing something lighter under a jacket if it is cold out. The beer tents get quite hot in them, so if you plan to stay, drink and have fun then it is nice to have a t-shirt to wear. All of the locals wear lederhosen and dirndls, but you won’t look out of place if you don’t have one. That was one of our biggest worries, but a local told us that it looks wose if you buy a cheap knock off compared to what they wear.
Do your research on what beer tents you want to go to. Each one has it’s own type of atmosphere, so find the one that sounds fitting to you. Each beer tent serves that breweries lager, so also take that into consideration. Thursday night we got there too late to get into one, but the beer gardens outside were open. We were able to get food a beer very quickly and the servers are wonderful and super helpful. We were in Löwenbräu tent the first night and Schottenhamel tent all day Friday. Afterwards, we found out Schottenhamel is very popular with students, so it has a much younger crowd and is a party tent.
Once inside the tents, there are tables for reservations and non-reservations. Obviously, you will need to find the non-reservation tables. They are pretty easy to find, but you can always ask someone to help you. I highly suggest getting there early. The grounds open at 9 am, but the beer tents don’t open until 10:30-11 am. On Friday, we got to the grounds around 10 am, and we got breakfast and coffee at a couple of the stands around the grounds. Then, we picked a tent that looked a little more empty and went inside. There were plenty of non-reservation tables open, so we just picked one. We were able to get lunch and have a beer before it started getting a little rowdy. You are able to order all night long, but it gets very crazy after 4 which makes it more difficult. There is a lot of singing, dancing and drinking!
All of the tents offer food as well, which is to die for. The food is so amazing and I am afraid I will never taste anything like it again. Just like the beer, every tent serves their own take on Oktoberfest food, so they will have slight differences. If you don’t want to eat inside the tents, there is plenty of food outside and around the grounds. We found an amazing dessert shop and ate their multiple times, which shows how adventurous we were. But all around there is plenty of options to find what you like.
If you aren’t into beer, there is a wine tent and stands that sell liquor as well. Literally, you can find whatever you may want here, you just may have to walk 15-20 minutes to find it. There is a huge amusement part of the grounds to keep kids and adults entertained for hours. The best part of the whole experience, it’s free to get into. The only thing that Shaun and I would do differently is we would want to go with a bigger group of people and to go for longer than a day.
From Your Life Tutor
-Sam
Tutors of Life 