Oktoberfest 2022 was one for the books! We had such a fun group of friends that came together from Madrid and Chicago for the long weekend!
For our first day at Oktoberfest we had reservations at the Armbrustschützenzelt tent from 10-4. It was so nice having a reservation as there are some seats that are first come first serve, but that seemed a bit stressful. This is one of the larger tents and fits about 5,200 people inside!
After we got kicked out of our table when our reservation time was up we lucky and snagged a no reservations table at the center. This tent is known as the shooter tent hence all the hunting decor and also known to be more locals and a bit older. Although, I disagree and attest that is got quite rowdy after 4 with everyone dancing and singing on the tables which was very fun!
We left and wandered a bit around the grounds before heading home. The Oktoberfest grounds has around 40 tents both large and small surrounding by tons of carnival rides, food stands, and souvenir shops.
We paced ourselves well on Friday, but Saturday was still a bit rough for some of us 😉 We were glad we had reservations at Huhnerbraterei Poschner which is a smaller tent. This felt a lot like getting dressed up and going out to a nice dinner vs the more party vibe the day before! We ate tons of chicken, spatzle, schnitzel, and strudel!
We wandered in the rain a bit, got some souvenirs and headed back into the city center to see the famous surfer on the river and the town hall.
Fun fact, this trip starting out back in January when I booked a hotel “just in case” Oktoberfest happened this year (it was canceled in 2020 and 2021) and if I wanted to go even though I didn’t have concrete plans. Hotels book up many months in advance so if you are consider going book now and you can always cancel for free on Booking.com!
Oktoberfest tips:
I feel like this trip for sure had a learning curve! So here are my tips if you want to visit.
1) Book hotels way in advance! Hotels can get up to €500 in city center so plan in advance as the slightly further out and reasonably priced hotels sell out months in advance!
2) Get table reservations if you are a bigger group. If you are 2 people you can likely squeeze into another table, but for us it was a must to guarantee getting a spot in a table. Reservations for tables go on sale around April and you have to pay, although they come with food and drink vouchers. There are tons of websites that explain how to book them and a couple Facebook groups where you can swap tickets.
3) Dress up! It is so fun to wear dirndls and lederhosen. About 80% of people were dressed up so you would stand out without it! We got ours online before although they also sell tons in munich. It can vastly range in price from more Halloween costume ones for around $30 to real authentic ones for $300.
4) Probably obvious, but pace yourself drinking and don’t forget to eat! I had radler beer after my first regular one as it is 3% vs traditional Oktoberfest beer at 6% which was best for me :). Otherwise, the pitchers are 1 liter each so about 3 regular beers. We saw a couple people getting medical help from drinking too much so don’t be them!
5) Bring cash! Everything at Oktoberfest is cash based so make sure you take some out ahead of time and take more than you think. A liter of beer was about €13 and a water was €5 for reference.
On a different note, after a weekend of drinking and fun on Sunday we took the day to go outside of Munich to Dachau concentration camp. It was the oldest concentration camp that was open for 12 years and the blueprint for camps across Europe. Not the most fun day hearing about such terrible things, but good to do to never forgot in our recent world history and let it never happen again. I recommend for anyone visiting Munich.
❤️Melanie
Smiles from Miles Away 