Oktoberfest: 24 Hours in Munich, Germany
Talk about an adventure! A true bucketlist weekend. 5pm Friday flight out of Charlotte and I was off to the final weekend of Oktoberfest.
Saturday morning at 7am, we landed in Munich for the 24 hours of fun to begin. We checked in and headed out for a quick coffee and breakfast. Then, off to Oktoberfest! We were wasting no time. The 3 week, 420,000 square foot festival was open and the kegs had been tapped.
Before arriving to the Oktoberfest gates, I wanted to guarantee the full experience. So, a dirndl was a must. Along the path to the main gates at Theresienwiese, there are multiple shops with tons of adorable dirndl options. Try them all on, have yourself a little fashion show.
The metro in Munich is fantastic and easily accessible. We stayed in Munich City Center, just a short walk away from Bavaria Park / Theresienwiese. The key here is to book ahead if you are looking for Beer Tent reservations and/or a specific hotel. As for me, the booking happened day-of sooo the options were limited. Although, the adventure was still seamless and extraordinary.
The uncertainty is always worth it in the end.
With no set plans but no lack of giddy excitement, we arrived to the festival around 11am. No tickets need to be purchased to enter the gates and the beer tents start serving at 9am. If you do not have reservations and are looking to grab a seat within a tent, be prepared to arrive to Oktoberfest closer to 7am to begin queuing.
Pick a tent, stay all day, or (the way we did it), walk around and take in all in!
Winzerer Fahndl, Hofbrau Festhalle, Schottenhamel, Lowenbrau-Festhalle, Fischer Vroni, Schutzen-Festzelt, Augustiner-Festhalle, Weinzelt, Pschorr-Braurosl, and so many more. The options are endless!
When it was time for lunch, the tents began to fill up even faster than before. Time to leave the park and explore Munich!
We took the metro in to the city for a traditional German dining experience at Hofbräuhaus.
This also allowed for time to walk through Munich and enjoy the city itself, outside of Oktoberfest.
After lunch and some time to walk throughout Munich, we headed back to Oktoberfest for the evening parties. The tents fill up past capacity and lines begin to form. Somehow, we ended up gaining access to the Paulaner tent for the night. The music and the party is never ending! The mixture of traditional German Schlager and global hits is perfection. About every 30 minutes, there is even a specific cheers song called Ein Prosit.
Get ready to sing your heart out and dance on the tables.
Oktoberfest is a must add to your BucketList.
5am flight to London the next morning to catch my flight back to Dallas. A whirlwind of a weekend but wow, worth it!
No set plans, so much uncertainty, and also so much joy. Even if you only have one day, take the flight. There is too much fun out there to let the fear of being tired keep you at home. Guten tag!
Where to next weekend?!
