We’re sharing our experience at Oktoberfest for the very first time! We break down the tents, the outfits, the food, the giant beers, how to get into the event and how to survive it. Plus some nearby experiences in Munich to see more of Germany when you come for this epic event.

For this trip we booked the Neuschwanstein Castle Tour from Munich, stayed in this Munich Hotel, and purchased this eSIM from Airalo. We also brought our trusty collapsible water bottle, travel umbrella, and Liquid IV (use promo code TRAVELSQUADPODCAST for 20% off!) Special thanks to our partner Thrifty Traveler Premium! Get $10 off your first year subscription with promo code TS10

Explore more of Equope with our episodes on Greece, the Adriatic Coast, and Barcelona, Spain.

Oktoberfest Episode Transcript

0:35

Welcome to this week’s episode of the Travel Squad Podcast.

Today we’re diving into the trip we took in September to Oktoberfest and Munich, and you’re going to be able to use this info to plan your trip to.

0:56

Oktoberfest is known around the world and I’m so privileged to say that we got to experience this event for ourselves.

In fact, it’s actually the largest festival in the world and takes place every year in Munich, Germany, kicking off the festivities in the month of September.

1:12

And I was really, really excited about this trip because originally this trip was supposed to be a boys trip.

And what I mean by that is me and my friends from my hometown, plus our wives and significant others, we were all supposed to come.

And unfortunately one of my friends had to back out with his girlfriend due to kind of a little bit of a family emergency.

1:33

But our friends Garrett and Melissa ended up coming and they were honorary squatties with us on this trip.

So we still made it a couples trip, so to speak, but nevertheless really, really good time.

Had a blast out here at Oktoberfest in Munich.

It looks like you guys had a great time.

1:49

I wasn’t on this trip with you.

I’ve obviously heard of Oktoberfest.

It’s iconic and I’m so excited to hear what you guys thought about it.

I have seen some pictures and I did notice a particular lack of festive outfit.

That’s true on Jamal’s part.

2:05

Someone’s gonna have to.

Well, don’t just call out Jamal.

I mean, Garrett.

Melissa didn’t wear one either.

Brittany was wearing the traditional female version, which is called a dentral, which is the kind of like style dress.

But you’re right, lots of people are dressed up wearing their lederhosen, which is that traditional German outfit.

2:22

You know, those kind of leather overall shorts with kind of like a little Oxford style shirt, you know, that’s kind of checkered underneath.

I didn’t do that.

You know, I don’t have the bravado or confidence to really kind of rock that outfit.

And I I could have and a lot of people were wearing them.

2:38

But in fairness, I will say, you know, a lot of people also were not wearing them, right.

So it’s not like you stick out like a sore thumb if you’re not wearing it, but I would wager to say more than 50% of the people were dressed up.

So that’s, you know, kind of in fairness, but for the men out there, I just want to say Google lederhosen and kind of see the situation that they have and they have like two or three buttons and then it’s going to be a flap to pull down.

3:02

You have overall.

So if you’re going to be out here drinking, having to go to the bathroom is going to be really, really difficult in one of those things.

And I was also kind of thinking that in my mind and also like.

And they are straight leather, so we could get really, uh, sweaty down there.

Yeah, don’t want to do that.

3:18

So, you know, I I didn’t want to go with that.

But you know what?

Maybe when we go back to Oktoberfest again, I will wear the leader hose I.

Feel like it could be like an overall situation.

You just unhook and then pull it down and pull it out and.

No, I mean you just really got to look at the buttons.

It’s really cumbersome.

3:34

I mean, you want me to take off my overalls and then pull it down almost like it’s a little bit of a skirt or a dress to?

Pull out what it’s like to wear a romper as a woman.

Well, you know what?

Fashion over function, you ladies say, As a man, I don’t really want to do fashion over function, but nevertheless, you know, we had a really good time here at Oktoberfest.

3:53

We also of course being in Munich, explored a little bit of Munich and have some stuff to share with you on that.

So we’re going to get into all the tips and all the things you need to know about what is Oktoberfest, the tents, reservations, do you need them, etcetera.

But before we get into that, I kind of want to just give you guys a little general history of Oktoberfest.

4:12

And the first Oktoberfest was actually October 12th in the year 1810 and it wasn’t Oktoberfest then.

It was really a weeks long festivities celebrating the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig to his bride Teresa.

4:28

And I’m obviously pronouncing Teresa, you know the non German way, but I can’t pronounce it the the the German way to say Teresa right?

Are you sure that’s not Terese?

Terese, Terese, say.

You know, that’s how.

So I’m just going to go with Teresa.

It could be Terese, I don’t know.

4:43

But nevertheless, to his bride, right?

And it was such a big hit amongst the people and the royal family that it was agreed upon that they were going to have an annual celebration every year around that time, right?

Just kind of to honor the memory of that wedding and the event itself.

5:02

And over time, eventually it moved from October to September, right?

So you hear Oktoberfest, but it really starts in September, and the reason why they did this is because the evening temperatures in September are more temperate and mild than the cooler nights in October.

5:20

So it’s still called Oktoberfest, but it starts in September and the majority of the time that the event is going on is in the month of September.

And it just really became a popular world event in the 1960s, as just publication and media became a lot more prevalent.

5:38

And then photos were coming out of Germany of everybody at that point, of course, locals in their lederhosen, their dindrils just kind of celebrating having beer.

And so then it became kind of really a world event that people started to go to in the 1960s.

And do you think at that time in the 1800s, everyone was wearing those outfits?

5:58

I’m sure, because I’m sure that was the common outfit of the day.

I mean, that’s just like local attire.

I mean, you look at places in the Middle East and they still wear specific local attire, right?

You even go to the Netherlands.

I don’t want to say people are still wearing clogs, right?

But why are clogs so famous?

6:13

It’s because that was their traditional attire.

So yeah, I I think that has a lot to to do with it.

I’m sure everybody was really wearing the leader hose and end dentals because that was like the dress up clothes, but also the common every day at the same time.

So we’re going to dive into two different sections of tips.

6:31

The first section of tips we’re going to dive into are just general tips, and then we’re going to dive into Oktoberfest tips afterwards.

So tip #1 under the general tips is you need cash.

It is a heavy cash based country, pulled out probably €500 to start.

6:49

And this is true at Oktoberfest because all of the beer tents are cash only.

A lot of the food vendors are cash only, but also throughout Germany ’cause we did continue our trip outside of Munich, we also needed cash while we were outside too, so Germany itself is a cash heavy country.

7:09

And then even when you’re at Oktoberfest, some of the vendors outside and by the vendors, you know we’re talking food vendors, things like that.

Very few do accept credit card and if they do, they have a minimum euro purchase before you are able to use it.

Otherwise it’s cash.

7:25

So always, always have it, pick it and get it before because the ATMs that are at Oktoberfest are rigged to hit you with a really, really big fees.

So get it out of bank, change your money, pull from an ATM outside those places and you’ll be in good shape.

How big of fees are you talking?

I don’t know because I didn’t do it.

7:42

But everything I read online was like do not full cash at Oktoberfest unless you absolutely have to, because the fees are ridiculous and normal fees in Germany if you’re unable to find good ATMs. Because the trend going on throughout Europe is private ATMs, not even really from banks, since you’re really hard pressed to find ATMs from banks.

8:00

So there’s like the Euro Nats and all those ones and they already have like nasty fees of maybe like €10 or something like that.

So they use those ones there, but then have an additional markup because it is at Oktoberfest and they know people are going to be pulling.

So don’t do that.

8:16

Another tip we have for you guys is to research the best Metro pass for you.

There are so many different options.

They have metro passes for individuals, for group travelers.

So any more than two you probably do want the group pass, but you all have to be together.

They also have it layered out by different zones, so you have to kind of see where are you planning to travel within it.

8:37

We mostly stayed in Zone M, but Jamal is usually our transportation planner and he just looked at me and was like, I I can’t do this.

You need to look at this and see if you can understand it.

The the information they had for the Munich metro and transportation system was a lot more confusing than any other country that I’ve been to when I was just really trying to read and understand it.

8:58

So Brittany was able to really kind of figure it out and make it a little bit more easy or give a second eye for like consensus like, Oh yeah, I guess that kind of makes sense, right?

But everything that you’re going to want to do in central Munich is within that one zone, right?

9:14

So if you’re staying within a certain zone, of course the fares are a lot cheaper.

But we knew we were going to be needing transportation from the airport to city center or city center ish, because that’s kind of where we were staying in our hotel was.

And you know, then it’s in different zones.

9:30

But what’s really nice is again, they do have that group pass.

So if you’re going two people, ’cause I doubt somebody’s traveling alone.

So as long as you have two people, I would get the group pass.

Again, you have to all travel together, but it’s just a lot more affordable.

It gives you the metro, it gives you the bus, it gives you the above ground train lines and things of that nature.

9:50

And I will say this, it’s almost like they’re on the honor system over there.

Nobody checks to make sure your past.

You don’t have to scan a past to actually get through a turnstile to use.

But rest assured, of course they do have people that will potentially maybe come and check.

But at Oktoberfest we did really didn’t see this at all.

10:06

So in all honesty, we could have gotten away without buying anything.

I don’t recommend doing that cause of course you don’t want bad karma coming back your way, but nobody really checked on anything.

And the group ticket is good for up to five people.

So you know, obviously if you’re traveling with just two people, it’s going to be a little bit more expensive if you split it per person, but five people, it makes it a lot more affordable.

10:26

We did a three day pass and we paid €64 total for a group of four.

Nice.

Yeah.

So if you have five people split it up over however many days, you’d dollar cost average that out.

Really, really inexpensive.

So you’re going to want to download the MVV app.

10:43

What the acronym stands for, I don’t know.

The M is probably Munich.

What the VV?

I don’t know, but basically that is Munich’s Metro and Transportation System acronym, name MVV.

And that app will tell you exactly what public transportation lines you need to take.

10:59

Put in where you’re going and it will hammer it all out for you, tell you your transfers where to get off, how far to walk this, that and the other.

So really really helpful.

And what I liked about it too is some apps like this will just tell you if you have to use the metro or whatnot.

You kind of have to figure out everything else.

11:15

But this literally told us, like if we were going to transfer from bus to underground and just laid it out on like how far it is to walk, you could actually follow the path where you needed to go to walk to.

So it just laid out every single step and made it really easy to follow.

How was the weather when you were there?

11:32

Great question.

We had a day that was really hot and sunny, and then we had a day where it was really cold and rainy.

So we got both types of weather.

So one tip for Germany in general is to pack layers and also just make sure you have an umbrella.

11:49

We did bring our umbrellas.

Garrett and Melissa did not, so we ended up we gave them one of ours and then Jamal and I shared one.

Yeah.

So definitely do bring that pack in layers because of course, we talked about earlier why they moved Oktoberfest from starting in October to September.

12:06

But just because the weather’s a little bit better, doesn’t mean you’re not on that straddle line between kind of like summer and fall.

And the weather is very temperamental in this Bavarian southern German region, which Munich is of course a part of.

So you’re gonna wanna have that.

And another really good tip just kind of in general.

12:24

I guess this one is more so an Oktoberfest tip given the circumstances, but a great tip, when traveling anyway is to stay hydrated.

Especially if you’re gonna be drinking at Oktoberfest, you wanna stay hydrated.

You’re already drinking all.

That.

Yeah, drink, Drink that.

Drink that.

Yeah.

But.

But The thing is, too, of course, alcohol will dehydrate you.

12:43

And one thing I didn’t mention when I was kind of talking about just the general history of the event of Oktoberfest is that, you know, one of the things to be a beer that is served at Oktoberfest is it has to be brewed in Munich and it has to follow Munich’s specific like beer purity laws.

12:59

What those are, you know, it’s really kind of like a relevant, but they have certain standards.

But when they brew it in that way, those beers are very, very strong.

So they taste like light beers, but rest assured you have one of them.

They’re already sitting at 7 to 8%, so they creep up on you and they serve it to you in liters.

13:17

OK, not even just like oh, pints like we’re used to or other parts of Europe.

No liters.

Liters of beer.

OK, so you want to stay hydrated?

Yeah, so I packed some Liquid IV with us because it’s one of our favorite travel products.

13:33

Keeps us hydrated while flying, traveling and drinking around Munich.

It’s full of electrolytes and hydrates you two times faster than water alone, so definitely have that here at Oktoberfest.

We use them while we’re flying, feeling jet lagged after a long hike or a long night out in a new city.

13:48

Super easy to carry and keep them stocked in our suitcases.

Carry ONS day pack, or for you ladies, even purses.

And recently Liquid IV came out with sugar free on top of their original flavors.

We love them.

A couple of our favourites are Tangerine with immune support which could come in handy after a day at Oktoberfest.

14:08

The sugar free Peach is good, the sugar free lemon lime is also really good and you squaddies can get 20% off of your Liquid IV purchase.

Just go to liquid-iv.com and use the promo code TRAVEL Squad podcast.

You’re definitely gonna need that kind of immune support ’cause even with that immune support that we got through the liquid IV and other stuff, didn’t feel it while we were at Oktoberfest, but at a later part of our trip in Germany definitely caught COVID.

14:33

Yeah, so we’ll touch upon that a little bit later.

And then we’re having a kind of a two-part of this episode.

When we went to the Bavarian Alps, tucked in the corner of Austria and Germany to Birkdesgarden, that’s where we started to all kind of really feel sick.

And we caught the VID while we were at October.

14:49

Confirmed or suspicious?

Well, we didn’t test ourselves, but Garrett and Melissa caught what we had and when they came back, they tested positive.

Oh yeah.

So we assume that we probably also had KOVAT, but we never tested ourselves.

But anyways, a few other general tips is data you’re gonna need to get around, use the apps, you know, to get to different restaurants and transportation.

15:14

And so we use T-Mobile.

They give us 5 free gigabytes while we travel.

That lasted me the whole week.

But our friends Garrett and Melissa, they do not have T-Mobile.

And one popular product that’s been coming up more and more is using an E SIM rather than getting a local SIM, ’cause then you don’t have to go in, take your phone in all of that.

15:32

So we use the Arilo app and for five gigs it was like $15.00 for them each.

Or they could buy like 10 gigs which was like 22.

We’ll link the link in show notes in our show notes so you can take a look at it ’cause they have it for different countries, different regions and all of that.

15:51

And price wise for those E Sims, it’s a really good value because if your phone service provider does not offer you like complimentary international data or anything like that, the amount they charge you per day when you travel is just like ridiculous.

It’s either like 10 to 15 bucks if not more.

16:08

So if you’re there several days that’s going to add up versus the flat cost of you know 1522 for a set amount of gigs, right.

So really good value that way.

We also did use Google Translate a lot, so we downloaded German in advance and then you could use it to like read over menus, even like you could scan over a picture or a menu and it’ll do the translation right on your phone screen, which was helpful.

16:34

So we did use it quite a bit.

And then also we ate a lot in the train stations while we were transiting and the food and train stations pretty good.

What kind of stuff did they have?

They have a lot of really good pastries, sandwiches, things of that nature, right?

Because, I mean, you know, we don’t think about this here in the US so much, but train travel in Europe is so common for everybody that a lots of people are at train stations and some of the train stations are train metro station like hybrids, right?

17:00

So everybody’s like roaming through their food selection, really good pastries, savory stuff just as well.

So do check those out when you’re actually there, you know, for a quick bite to eat if you need it.

And I don’t think it was terribly expensive for being in a place where you would just imagine a markup, right, Like if you’re in an airport, food’s going to be at a markup.

17:19

I didn’t really think like things were marked up in the the train stations food wise.

But going back to that Google Translate, I just kind of want to say this.

Of course if you don’t download it, you can use it when you have data, right?

But if you don’t have the data or if you get into an area of bad reception, that’s why it comes in clutch to download it.

17:38

Just like we always say, download, you know, offline Maps will download Google Translate, more specifically the language here German and it’s very helpful and Munich pretty much everybody knows English.

But you know, you may encounter that, or you may be in an area where yeah, the server knows English, but you’re maybe not in a really touristy area, so the menu is not really good for that, so.

17:59

We’ve just finished up the general tips.

Now we’re going to dive into the Oktoberfest specific tips.

And Oktoberfest runs from approximately mid to late September to the first Sunday in October, so definitely want to start booking your flights and accommodations well in advance for the best prices.

18:17

Really well in advance.

I’m talking like literally a year in advance if you can.

Flights, you know, those kind of come and go in terms of cost, you know, figure that out how you want to in terms of when you’re going to book the flights.

But if you know you’re going to go, at least start looking into hotel rooms right away.

18:35

Every hotel in Munich during the time frame of Oktoberfest is ridiculously expensive.

A hotel that we stayed at wasn’t fancy by any means, nor necessarily was it trash.

Just your typical like average European, you know hotel, but such a big markup because Oktoberfest, do you want anything actually close to where they have the Oktoberfest grounds or anything like that substantially more expensive, you know, So I mean we were looking at maybe 200 a night for hotel that would normally probably go 75 to €100, so already double markup.

19:07

So if you are planning to go to Oktoberfest this year and you’re looking for a good flight deal, be sure to sign up for the Thrifty Traveler Premium subscription.

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You can find cash deals, points, and miles deals and they send you e-mail alerts so you can set it to your home airport that you’ve selected.

19:27

And they search over 200 airports in the US and Canada.

Yeah, I really love Thrifty Traveller.

We’ve talked about them before.

Be sure to check it out and see if you could get any good flight deals.

We see great flight deals on this all the time.

And again, a lot of the times they’re not even last minute bookings.

You could book them well in advance, so be sure to check them out.

19:45

We’ll link everything in the show notes, but you can use our promo code TS10 to get $10 off your first year subscription of Thrifty Traveller Premium and get all those flight deals directly to your e-mail.

Back on the Oktoberfest tips, the tents open at 10:00 AM and they usually close around 10:30 eleven on the weeknights, 1130 on weekends.

20:09

So when we say the tents, Oktoberfest is literally held at a giant fairground Plaza that they have in the city center of Munich and all of the breweries that participate in here have tents.

This is basically their beer garden.

And each tent is really themed differently.

20:25

Of course, if you go into one specific tent, they’re only serving one type of beer, right?

Because it’s their one beer from this one brewery.

So they open at 10:00 AM, close 10:30 on weeknights, again 11:30 on weekends.

I have a question.

Do you have to pay to get into Oktoberfest?

20:43

You do not that to enter the grounds is 100% completely free.

To enter the tents is 100% completely free.

The only thing that you are charged for is, do you want drink, do you want food or are you going to ride any of the rides?

Because like I said, it’s a fair.

So they also have like carnival rides and things like that.

20:59

They’re on top of it, which if you’re going to be really, really drinking, I wouldn’t ride the rides.

I mean, I see lots of videos of people just making a mess of themselves when they’re really wasted on those rides, or going through like crazy houses that are like obstacles and stuff like that and just falling over, ’cause they’re just like so sloshed.

21:16

So that would be crazy.

But really good question.

No, you don’t have to pay to get into Oktoberfest.

And one of our squatties, Ryan?

He asked.

Can you explain the prep for reserving the tent space?

Yeah, so really great question.

And I kind of did a lot of this right.

You hear things all the time.

You need reservations for Oktoberfest for the tents.

21:34

And this is true.

And this is also not true.

So in order to reserve the tents, the tents usually open for booking in early spring.

So what I mean by that is, hey, we’re here in the year 2024.

If you’re trying to go to Oktoberfest 2024, the month of March, April, you should really start looking online to make those reservations.

21:56

Problem with making the reservations is twofold.

One is that they give a lot of it priority to Munich residents, right, ’cause even though it’s a world event, they want to kind of keep it local, traditional, etcetera.

So a lot of the reservations get priority if you live in Munich.

22:14

Secondly, if you don’t live in Munich, then the majority of reservations of that are left over go to have you actually booked and reserved before and if you’re able to have booked and reserved before, you have priority to book and reserve again.

22:29

So if you’re a newcomer trying to get in, it’s very, very hard.

When I was trying to actually book reservations, by the time everything opened up, pretty much everything for the dates that we were going to be there were already sold out or not even available.

And the one tent that was actually available basically responded back to me saying, well, you’re only four people, you’re going to be there this time, you really don’t need it, right?

22:53

Because the tents also have minimums by that.

They either want 8 to 10 people to be on there, and that eight to 10 people they expect to have bought so much food or so much drink.

And so they expect you to spend that.

And even if you were, in our case, four people and willing to spend that minimum, some tents will do it, some won’t because they’ll basically say, well, here’s 4 open spots or six open spots that aren’t really occupied.

23:16

We need to fit people in, but don’t let that intimidate you because you don’t need tent reservations.

You can get in without them.

The problem is you just don’t have a guaranteed spot to sit O if you get there early enough in the day.

I would say when tents open from around 1:50, no issues whatsoever.

23:34

Finding a spot to sit and look kind of mark your territory.

You could be there all day if you wanted to.

So there are unreserved tables.

There are OK.

Munich Law and Oktoberfest rules dictate that a certain percentage of that tense capacity has to be left unreserved.

23:52

So there are unreserved.

Now, if you’re going on a weekend, let’s just say a Friday, let’s count Friday as part of weekend, and of course Saturday, Sunday lines to get into the tents start at 6:00 AM when they don’t even open at 6:00.

So you’re going to be hard pressed.

If you go on a weekend, you’re going to want that reservation.

24:08

But if you’re going on weekdays, get there when they open, mark your territory by mid afternoon.

You could probably hop to another tent, no problem.

But come the evening time, it’s going to be really hard to actually find a spot to sit.

They will close the doors if they’re at capacity.

24:24

If they’re not at capacity, they’ll have the doors open.

You could still come in roam around, but really hard to kind of squeeze into an open spot in the unreserved sections.

So on the weekends, there’s lines to get in starting at 6:00 AM.

On any other day, are there lines in the evenings to get in?

24:41

There are.

If you get there in the evening, probably like after work, even on weekdays, then there can be lines or they close again.

Like I said, the doors to the tent to tell people, hey, we’re at capacity, at which point people can choose.

Am I going to wait in line till they open and people leave this that other so?

24:57

Well, the vibe is inside of the tents, like that’s where your the live bands are.

That’s where like all of the actions going.

But a lot of these tents also have outdoor seating where you can still hear the music, but it’s a different, more mellow vibe.

So if you can’t find a table inside, you can always find one outside or go to one of the smaller tents that aren’t as popular as like some of these really big.

25:20

Halls.

Yeah, there’s like 8 to 10 big, big breweries and famous beers out there that have these tents.

There are smaller tents or open beer gardens that aren’t enclosed that you can actually get into that are a lot more easy should you find that the bigger ones are at capacity.

25:37

And you mentioned tents, but you also said doors and enclosed.

What does a tent look like?

Is it fabric wall or is it walls Walls?

They’re kind of like Tarped walls a little bit, right?

It’s just really a big erected structure that they have out there.

25:52

They’re tarps.

I mean, dude, that’s actually a really great question and you should Google Oktoberfest tents because each tent is different and the the ceiling that they have on there with just their multiple colors, different themes, different vibes, it’s really awesome.

26:07

But basically, yeah, it really is kind of like a tarp structure.

But then they do have kind of solid walls along the side.

Yeah, but even with that description, you can’t get to, you don’t get the image of, like, how big it is.

It can fit like 10,000 people.

Some of the tents can fit up to 10,000 people, so it’s huge.

26:27

But I also wanted to touch on.

We met a local and we had dinner and we shared a table with these three German men and they were telling us the tradition is to stay from opening to closing and during that time you should have about 8 liters of beer.

26:43

I don’t even know how that’s possible.

At most we had like 3 and like my God, we were already kind of well at.

A good level closing’s probably like 12 hours, right?

That’s true. 8 liters?

That’s 8 liters.

That’s so easy.

I mean, it’s doable, but I mean to definitely really can.

27:00

Until you have one of these beers, you don’t realize how hard they kick in.

Like you just could drink half of one of those and be like, oh, like I’m already feeling this eight throughout the day.

Even paste is definitely a lot.

But yeah, that is the tradition on that.

And I just want to say you can start booking those, like I said, in March and April or at least go to theoktoberfest.de.

27:23

So DES is the abbreviation for Deutschland, right.

And you know the traditional way to say Germany and that is their official website.

And from there you can look on the tents.

It will take you to each tents specific website for reservations, so start looking you know, around that time.

But that’s how you would go about making it oktoberfest.de for the official Oktoberfest website.

27:44

So tents are cash only, Beers cost about 14 to €15 per drink and you get a liter.

We’ve heard rumors in the past that, oh, they serve the beer warm.

That’s not true.

They are cold.

They are served cold.

Food is going to be more expensive in the tents than the outside vendors just because it’s inside.

28:02

But what we did see looked pretty good.

We did get a pretzel.

It was delicious.

Did it come with cheese?

No, but we got it with like, butter on the inside.

Yeah, they cut it in half and they slather it with butter in the inside.

Really good.

It was really good.

If you want water though, you get less than half a liter and it costs 5 to €6 for that.

28:22

So it’s usually, I mean they say it’s half a liter, It looked like more like a third to me because they want you to drink the beer.

But squad tip, you can bring an empty collapsible water bottle to hydrate beforehand.

You can’t bring it, water in with it, but when you leave the tent or go outside, you can fill that up, fill up the water, drink it, and then, like you know, go ahead and have it collapse back down again and not have it take up a lot of space, ’cause they will not let you walk in with full water bottles at all.

28:50

Yeah.

So in years past, actually you had to buy water anywhere on the Oktoberfest grounds.

I think this the last year that we went in 2023, if not the year before, was the first year that they made free water available on the outside.

So they have specific tap stations where you can fill the water.

29:06

But like Brittany was saying, they don’t let you in with that.

And each tent is really, really finicky.

When we tried to walk into one, they were like, oh, you have water.

And I said, oh, it’s empty.

And they’re like, oh, OK, go ahead.

And I have like stainless steel, you know, water bottle.

And then at another place they told me you can’t even come in with that, even when it was empty.

29:27

So that tip that Britney gave of the collapsible water bottle is really, really great because if you haven’t seen a collapsible water bottle, go to our Amazon website, check it out.

We have them.

We really, really love them.

As a matter of fact, you could just compress that down, stick it in your pocket.

29:42

No one’s going to know otherwise.

Then you actually leave your Oktoberfest tent.

Fill it in that free station.

Save yourself the five to €10 for the water bottle.

Or suppose at half liter that they’ll serve you in the the steins in the tents, and you’re going to be making out like a bandit out there.

And they serve the beer cold, but the water they do not serve cold.

30:00

What’s with other countries in their water situation?

Yeah, I don’t know, but we did touch upon this earlier.

You know, a lot of people do dress up at Oktoberfest.

There was a lot of articles that I read that you could find Drendels and lederhosen easily available for purchase.

30:17

We actually didn’t not find that to be a case.

We only saw them a few times when we were transiting through train stations and the outfits are pretty expensive.

You would need to spend 1 to €200 to get a complete outfit.

So I went ahead and ordered mine in advance, and I just brought mine with me.

30:35

And the drindles, They actually woman tie them specific ways to communicate things.

Like if you’re single, or if you know, ready to mingle a whole bunch of stuff.

It’s almost like in Hawaii when you put the flower behind one ear or the next, if you’re a girl, right?

And they have little subtle cues.

30:51

I did not know that I would have been paying attention to those German ladies a little bit more had I known that they were sending signals my way.

But yeah, I mean, for the men, the lederhosen, they’re made of leather.

We talked about it earlier.

So like I said, a lot of people are dressed up in them.

So if you’re thinking like, oh, I want to dress up, but I’m afraid people won’t be and I’ll look stupid because I’m in it, that’s absolutely not the case whatsoever.

31:14

But I also want to reiterate, yes, more than 50% of the people are probably wearing the traditional Oktoberfest in German local clothing.

But you won’t feel like an outcast if you’re not wearing anything either, because a good amount of people don’t wear it also.

You also can’t bring any backpacks into Oktoberfest into the tent areas.

31:32

You can wear a backpack on the grounds, but if you want to get into a tent, you can’t really bring that in.

And they also have along the grounds all of these gingerbread hearts that are decorated and most people are wearing them as necklaces, and they’re just more decorative and fun to give as like little gifts.

31:49

You don’t actually eat them unless we did see people who got really drunk.

And then you do eat them and they’re not good, but they’re just like more decorative, kind of like a fun thing that you that have little sayings on them.

Yeah.

So let’s talk about the tents because we’ve been alluding to them, talking about them a little bit.

32:08

And so we went into several tents, again, all without reservations.

And of course, on the weekend when we were there, we did experience difficulty getting in to the tents.

But of course we were also there on weekdays and really didn’t have trouble and got there in the morning also.

So I had a really good time.

32:25

But each tent has its own vibe and its own music, and people will start dancing on the table benches around 2:00 or 3:00, right?

You know, 10 in the morning when they open, people are just getting settled.

Then you get a few drinks in you.

When the band starts playing a little bit later, noon, 1:00, then people are standing on the benches and at some point people aren’t really sitting anymore.

32:45

Everybody’s vibing out and just standing.

And so our first experience going into a tent, and I’m really, really glad we did.

This was actually the day we landed.

We weren’t even planning on going to the Oktoberfest grounds, right?

We landed kind of midday, got to our hotel, We’re like, all right, let’s go out and just get some food.

33:03

And we went to this one place called Augustine or Keller, which is a really famous brewery.

I think it’s actually the oldest brewery in Munich, but they have a year round beer garden out there, right?

You’re just in a really nice area where you can get food, benches, etcetera.

It’s a whole vibe if you’re in Munich, even outside of Oktoberfest.

33:21

So we all got our beers and we’re like, well, are we going to go back to the hotel?

We got our second wind in US even though we had really been travelling.

So we’re like, well, we’re not too far from the grounds.

Let’s go.

By that time, it’s night, the lights are out.

You just get this really good vibe.

We walk into our first tent again in the evening.

33:39

No problem.

On a weekday, they were playing like sweet Caroline.

Sweet Caroline.

And they were playing some John Denver country roads and all sorts of stuff.

And let me tell you, nobody was sitting down.

Everybody, everybody was on their benches, standing, hugging, singing together with their pints in their hand, and it was so difficult for us to find a spot to sit.

34:02

So we were just kind of like roaming around feeling the vibe in there, and we got to one spot.

They really don’t serve you beer unless you’re sitting.

But we got really lucky with some waitress who actually had an extra beer that somebody didn’t purchase.

And so she asked Garrett, ’cause you just happened to see him, like, do you want this?

34:19

So he bought it and we took that one beard, that leader, and we were passing it around as we were walking through.

But what a vibe that was, and that was like our first experience in the tent.

And I won’t ever forget that experience.

Yeah, I mean, it was just the iconic Oktoberfest experience.

34:35

So I’m really glad we did go that night to just get that feel because you just like get so excited of what Oktoberfest is going to be like.

So we went to a few different tents that night and just kind of walk through to get the different vibes, but talk about some of the specific tents.

34:50

Jamal Yeah.

So in the morning, of course, that’s when we the next day is when we really went in and we got there when they opened.

So they’re like I said, there’s 8 to 10 really big tents that you can go into.

One of them is Hofbrauhaus, which again, all of these are really famous Munich beers and breweries, but this one is really known to be the party tent, right?

35:11

More foreigners come to this one than any of the other ones.

It’s the second largest Festival Hall and the only tent with an area directly in front of the music podium where you’re actually allowed to stand and dance.

Like right on the the podiums where they’re playing music.

35:27

And it offers space for approximately 10,000 visitors.

And this is one of the few big tents that actually has outside space.

So one night when we were there in the evening, we couldn’t get in, but we were able to sit on the outside no problem, kind of at the side entrance to it and hear the music and stuff.

35:45

So yeah, you’re missing out on the vibe if you sit outside, but this is a really good spot to go to if you can’t get inside because they have really lots of outdoor space.

So another town hall that we went to, and this was my favorite one.

I think it was called Hacker Porsche, but it’s also known as the heaven of the Bavarians because on the inside of the tent, on the ceiling, it has like a blue sky cloud roof.

36:06

And so you look up and it’s like looking up into the heavens.

So this hall accommodates up to like 7000 people, but they have in the middle of the tent a revolving stage and they’re playing a live band there.

So it’s just a really good vibe.

Our squatty Ryan asked which tent was our favorite.

36:24

This was our favorite tent.

We spent the most time here.

Yeah, I really love this one a lot.

So when I did my research, this is listed as one of the must ones to go into, especially just because of what the the ceiling of the tent really looks like.

Brittany gave that description before, but the beer was really good.

36:40

So it’s hacker HACKER.

And we can’t really know how to pronounce the last word here because our German is not proficient.

But it’s spelled PSCHOR and Beer’s good great vibes in this tent.

And this was the tent that we went into first thing in the morning when we arrived, and we spent a good amount of time there.

37:00

And I just want to give out a little squad tip too.

If you’re coming, bring a deck of cards, play some drinking games, do a few things.

We brought a deck of cards and we were playing drinking games, felt really nostalgic playing a little bit of King’s Cup at Oktoberfest and we had really good vibes doing.

That we also didn’t play drinking games, we played like rummy and things like that too.

37:19

But when we started sitting here, we had the table for ourselves and we got there right when it opened.

But then as the day started to get more and more crowded, people started to ask, can we share your table with you, which is very common, And then by two or three people are starting to stand up around you, so you got to get into the vibe there.

37:36

Yeah.

And then so eventually we left the hacker tent and we’re like, well, let’s tent hop a little bit, Let’s go out, get some food.

Because a lot of the food you can get inside, you can also get outside.

And like we said earlier, more expensive inside.

But we were like, OK, it’s not even a price issue.

We want to see a different tent.

So let’s just get out there.

37:52

So we went to Lowenbrau and this is another large tent and its logo and icon is like a really huge lion.

So we were in an area of the tent, not kind of in the center but off to the side.

So we were inside in a little bit more secluded area.

38:09

This is where we discovered and we were like, oh we really need water that they charge you an insane amount for only like half a liter and it comes out to you warm.

But this was another one with really good vibes and atmosphere.

But I will say, you know Hacker was our favorite that we were in one of the other tents that we really wanted to go into but we weren’t able to.

38:31

But red had really good vibes, really good, like colors strewn without the tent is the shoots intent.

And again it’s really hard to describe the visuals.

So I would recommend everybody just really Google Oktoberfest tents and you can really just see what it is that we’re talking about, the colors, the vibes, things of that nature, Really good time when we go back because I would love to go back.

38:55

Not specifically for Oktoberfest, but you know, be in Germany around that time, or in Europe I should say, and then go like one or two days just to go.

I do want to check out Schutzen.

I also really wanted to check out a tent called Kufflers.

It’s actually a wine tent, but we couldn’t find it and we were looking it up and it may not have been like in service last this last year, so maybe that’s why we couldn’t find it.

39:19

But I thought that was pretty cool.

Instead of serving beer, they serve wine.

Thought it was unique so I would have loved to go in, but we did see some of the smaller tents that we didn’t really pay attention to their names and just kind of went in.

But the bathrooms, if you are in a large tent, there is going to be a bathroom inside.

39:36

They have plenty of stalls and some of them require you to leave a tip, so like €50 cent piece or a euro cent piece.

But the smaller tents, or if some of them don’t have bathrooms or they’re outside, they might have the public bathrooms.

And they do force you to like leave a tip for sure.

39:55

So like the larger ones, it’s like tips.

Here’s a tip jar, but the smaller areas or the public bathrooms.

They will not let you like leave the bathroom unless you put a tip in.

Yeah.

And some of them range even up to €2.00 versus like one, right, But it’s.

Not really a tip, but a fee.

40:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But of course they call it a tip.

But I mean, it really is a fee.

But you know, I was really shocked at the bathroom situation in the tents and shocked in a good way, right?

I would think to myself, people are here, people are drinking.

This is going to be like a mess.

And you know, if you’re actually having to pay an attendant when you’re in there, they’re actually doing some work.

40:31

So beyond them just giving you your hand towel to help you dry off and pump you your soap, they’re cleaning them.

They were actually quite clean.

I was really impressed with that.

But, you know, I’m not saying that everything’s going to be shiny and sparkly in there, But, you know, it was more clean than I really expected.

40:48

And I didn’t feel like, like, so grossed out having to go to the bathroom.

And at one point I even used one of the public ones outside, ’cause we weren’t in a tent.

And even then, like, I was just like, OK, like, I’m feeling really good, you know, ’cause in a place where people are drinking, I hate to say it, you can expect piss on the floor, like on the seat.

41:05

Like, I really didn’t come across that.

And if anybody’s worried, you know, that that that could be a saving grace for you.

It really made me feel a lot better about the situation.

Kind of.

That’s really promising that that’ll be the deciding factor for a lot of people, I’m sure.

What about lines?

The bathroom.

41:21

Lines for the bathroom on the outside are a lot larger because more people are outside than inside, right?

And there are so few places and the bathrooms are a lot smaller, whereas in the tents, yes, there’s lines but.

I didn’t have any lines in the tents we went in.

41:36

Yeah, but.

As a woman.

But when we saw some lines, like for example when we were roaming around in the evening when it’s a lot more bumping than when we were there during the day, there’s a little bit of a line, but it seems like it moved fast because the bathrooms in the big tents, there are lots of stalls.

41:51

So it’s like high capacity.

But the outside ones, there’s a little bit more of a line.

But I would say you can make your way through in like 5-10 minutes at the very very most.

And I was worried because I think of like the festivals in the US where there’s porta potties and like they were disgusting and.

42:07

Really long.

Yeah, and I was like, really worried.

But that was not my experience at all.

The bathrooms were really clean.

Well, kept no lines.

I didn’t feel disgusted at all.

That’s fabulous.

How late did you all stay when you showed up at 10:00 AM?

Well, we had to take a midday nap after beer #2, so we probably left, I don’t know, I’d say probably like 3:00.

42:30

And then we ended up coming back out that night.

But Melissa did not come back out with us because she just crashed hard.

Oh my.

God, yeah.

So we ended up going back out.

We ended up going to Augustine or Keller again to go get dinner and I think we even roamed back to Oktoberfest that evening to just kind of roam around, get a few of the snacks and foods and things of that nature, so.

42:50

Speaking of that, you mentioned the buttery pretzel.

What else did you eat there?

Yeah, we’re going to dive into that in just a minute.

But there are rides at Oktoberfest, and so there are roller coasters.

They’re swings.

There’s a haunted house, Jamal mentioned.

43:07

There are like obstacles.

Yeah, the crazy house like obstacles, things like that, so.

And a Ferris wheel.

Yeah, So you can have a good time doing that.

And I just want to say here before we kind of get into the food too, Kim, ’cause I do want to really address that.

You know, we’ve gotten a lot of questions asking, you know, how much time do you need on Oktoberfest?

43:27

And I would honestly say two days, right?

I mean, unless you’re really a heavy drinker, you probably will get tired of it, like real fast.

Because it’s heavy beer.

And by that I mean heavy in terms of like high alcohol content.

They’re not really too heavy to drink, I don’t think.

43:43

But how much time can you really spend?

Just like in the tents, unless you’re there, like with a giant group of people.

It’s a whole vibe experience, You know, if you’re going plus maybe longer, but honestly, you don’t need any more than two days.

Before we dive into the Oktoberfest food, we did want to mention that we have several travel itineraries for you squatties because we’ve had so many requests for them when we do episodes like this.

44:06

Yeah, we have several international trip itineraries.

Our most popular one is Japan, but we also have Banff in Spain and we have ones in the US like Utah’s Mighty 5 Kawaii and the US Virgin Islands.

Each of these itineraries is a 20 to 30 page PDF guide.

44:22

That’s an instant download that tells you where to fly into, the exact route to take, where to stay, park entrance prices and fees, where to eat, distance between attractions and things to see and do.

Even the hikes we recommend should it be in a National Park or nature setting, and the time to allot for each one and so much more.

44:42

We’ll link all of this in the show notes, so you can go over to travelsquadpodcast.com and download yours for yourself.

So now we’ll dive into the food.

Food is the is a very important part of Oktoberfest.

So think of Germany, think of Schnitzel, and that’s, you know, the pounded veal or pork, pounded thin, crusted, fried, served with fries and like a potato salad.

45:04

What about chicken?

You talking about chicken Schnitzel, didn’t really see that it’s more really going to be veal or pork.

I’m sure you can find it at some locations.

It’s just not really prevalent and I would say the reason why is probably because they actually roast the chickens and have rotisserie chickens out there for you.

45:21

It’s called hindel.

I think that’s the German way to say chicken or maybe the preparation of the chicken.

But because they have a whole nother dish of just like 1/4 or 1/2 of a rotisserie chicken for you to snag, they don’t really put it in the the Schnitzel.

And I think Schnitzel really is more traditionally like veal, but veal is a lot less common to come across then pork, right?

45:43

So pork is really kind of overtaken the the the Schnitzel.

We also tried currywurst, which is a Bratwurst, so think of like the sausage.

But then they put I know this sounds weird, but they put this warm Curry ketchup on top and it’s actually really good.

45:58

And it served with fries and it sounded really weird, but we tried it and it was delicious.

Super, super good.

I really loved it.

And of course, keeping with the sausage theme, you have of course the Bratwurst.

There was this one spot that we got twice.

Not in the same day, you know, because we’re not too crazy about another time when we were on there, we got, as they were calling them, half meter wieners.

46:20

We were like, how can we go wrong with the half meter?

Yeah, apparently.

You wanted the full meter.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Here, size matters, right?

We went with the half meter and literally they gave you this tiny little bun and then the excess Wiener is sticking out like on each side of it.

But be beyond just the comical aspect of it, it was really good sausage.

46:40

If Jeremy knows how to do something other than make cars that you know, they know how to make sausage and and beer of course.

I mean that goes without saying.

That’s why I didn’t say it.

But really good point, right?

Really good sausage.

We loved it and we ended up getting the handle.

46:56

Also that we mentioned quarter chicken, half chicken, that was really good.

After coming out of the tent, we just ordered one, kind of just like picked it apart and it was absolutely delicious.

On a different occasion, we tried the pork knuckle.

What?

Yeah, this was really good this.

Was fire a knuckle?

47:13

No, it’s just the meteor part of the pig leg and they outside of it, they make it really crispy.

So the skins crispy.

But then they have this moist, tender, delicious center, and you can either get it just like plain on a stick, or you can get it in a sandwich form.

47:28

Think of this almost like pork belly, right?

You know when you have the pork belly and they fry it up and it’s really crispy on the outside and then the inside it’s like kind of really soft, really juicy and kind of fatty in a good way with kind of like the the meat liquids coming out.

This is kind of how the the pork knuckle was and it was so good.

47:47

When I say the meat fluids, I’m talking just the juiciness, Kim, not anything like uncooked A.

Weird way to say it.

Maybe that wasn’t the best description, but point being, the pork knuckle was really, really good.

We loved those a lot.

And then you have to have a sweet tooth out Oktoberfest too.

48:03

So some of our favorite things was they had these roasted nuts when you can get them chocolate covered.

Some were covered with chocolate and then coconut eggnog flavored ones, cinnamon and sugar.

They had a lot of different nut toppings and these were really delicious.

We got them a few times.

Well, not even just nut toppings, Nut options that were topped differently, right?

48:22

They had cashews, they had almonds, peanuts, pecans, all types of nuts with different types of flavorings and coatings on top, whether it be sweet, savory, just those different flavors.

So we really love those a lot.

Of course, we touched upon this earlier, the pretzels.

Pretzels are everywhere.

48:38

You could either get them plain or slab with butter, you know, crepes.

I don’t even really know how to pronounce this one, so I apologize on it, but we really wanted to try this one.

It’s called the Damp fundo.

Or how do you say it, Brittany?

I don’t know.

That would be our best guess.

48:53

But it’s a soft bread and it’s served with a warm vanilla sauce around it and it’s really good.

I love that the desserts were not overly sweet, if you like.

In the US at the fair, everything’s like fried, deep fried, super, super sweet.

We had good sweet options without it being like overly sugar loaded.

49:11

Yeah, it wasn’t overkill, it was just the right amount.

That all sounds really good.

I mean the nuts, the half meter Wiener.

Yeah, I went back.

I went seconds on that half meter Wiener.

Went full meter.

Yeah, we went full meter, although I don’t remember if it was the 1st or the 2nd time, but they broke the Wiener.

49:27

It was the first time they broke my Wiener.

They picked it up and then so they had to double stack Brittanys Weiner in the bun versus having to hang out the side.

Ed.

Situation.

A little bit, a little bit.

But I mean, that was kind of really Oktoberfest, what you can expect really fun experience, how to go about, you know, making the reservations if you’re going to be able to get them.

49:48

Just the whole process.

But of course, we’re in Munich.

We wanted to do things that were in Munich.

So beyond Oktoberfest, what else did we do, Brittany?

Before you get into that, I don’t know, like anything about Germany.

So what kind of a city would you say Munich is?

50:05

Like big skyscrapers natural.

Like what would I see there?

Well, so there were areas where there are skyscrapers, but it’s not going to be like a really prominent area where there’s tons of skyscrapers like congregated in an area.

50:22

Yeah, it’s really kind of spread out and buildings are tall, but not as tall as, you know, like central downtown areas.

And a lot of the architecture in there is still a little bit more traditional, right.

When you just kind of think of maybe German architecture or European architecture, you’re really gonna see that there.

50:42

So it is definitely a modern city, but I mean don’t compare it to like a San Francisco or New York in terms of like what the buildings look like.

It’s nothing gonna be like that.

So the first thing that we did when we got into Munich, and we kind of mentioned this already, was we went to Augustine or Keller, which is the oldest brewery in Munich.

50:59

They have the beer garden outside.

We had beer there, we had currywurst with fries, We tried sauerkraut and then they had this potato ball that was pretty intriguing And they had these like stands where it was almost cafeteria style that you would go up and get your food.

But then they also had restaurants within that area too.

51:17

So we went back another night and we went to a restaurant and tried Schnitzel and we had the best Schnitzel while we were there.

I need to take a little step back.

You can’t just say potato ball and not explain what that is.

I don’t even know what it is.

It was like a fluffy.

51:32

It was like a potato dumpling type style ball.

A little bit.

Almost like a matzo ball, but not really mashed.

Potato that they fry I.

I It was so tough to tell because let me tell you something about German food.

It’s all really heavy.

So then it comes out like with a sauce on it.

51:48

So you’re really trying to figure out what all these textures are.

And I I really don’t know to be honest.

But yeah, I would basically say it was a potato ball that was kind of like mashed together, of course, as a ball, maybe fried, maybe kind of like cooked on a skillet in its pieces.

52:04

So it kind of like had a hard exterior, a little bit, maybe softer on the inside, covered like in a gravy with everything else that, you know, went with it.

But yeah, I guess that’s kind of a good tip.

German food is really heavy in terms of like sauces filling you up, maybe it’s fried, breaded, etcetera.

52:20

So after a while, you just kind of got to be cautious of what you’re eating.

When we wanted something a little bit lighter, believe it or not, we went to go get EUR and like sandwiches out and about just to get like veggies because I’m like oh I need some veggies in a in a sandwich.

But Augustine or Keller was great because the beer garden vibes there are awesome.

52:39

Just benches on the outside if you’re there in the evening, lights strewn and and then again you could either choose sit down restaurant style with a menu or kind of cafeteria style, getting all sorts of good food.

We went back here several times and absolutely loved.

It and it’s not super crowded during Oktoberfest because everyone’s at the festival, so like here you could spread out.

52:58

There were still people there and was still a good vibe, but you’re not like overly crowded at this point in time.

We also went to Old Munich.

We went to the Saint Peter’s Church in Old Munich.

They have an Ultra Peter where you can climb at 306 steps up on the tower and has a really good views of Munich.

53:14

It’s about €5 a person.

So we did do that.

Yeah, that was really cool.

And in old Munich area, this is where you’re going to find more of those traditional old style of like European buildings that you would imagine like if you were in Europe, right.

But this one kind of has that Bavarian German flare style to it a little bit.

53:30

So we really enjoyed this and it’s all kind of congregated in one area within music.

We went to the Victor Lean market and again, forgive our pronunciation on the German, but this is by Miriam Plotts, which is a Plaza area and metro subway line in Old Munich.

53:47

And it’s a local market filled with food stalls, vendors.

It has a beer garden and it’s open Monday through Saturdays from 8:00 AM to 6:00.

So a lot of the times when we did this, it wasn’t like, oh, we spent a full day kind of like going around Munich.

If we were at Oktoberfest or doing other stuff, we would go to Oktoberfest, take a break, come out, explore, go back to the hotel, go back to Oktoberfest.

54:07

So it kind of sprinkled all this stuff in here a little bit like that.

While we were at the Augustine or Keller beer Garden, Garrett had mentioned that Melissa had seen that there is actually a concentration camp outside of the city.

So we did go and visit there.

It is free and it’s called Dachau.

54:24

It’s one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest running one.

It opened in 1933.

Yeah, this was a really sad and humbling experience.

You know, when I was originally planning things of what we’re going to do outside of Oktoberfest in Germany, in Munich area, this didn’t really come up.

54:43

Otherwise I would have put it on but and again it brought, got brought to our attention by Melissa and Gary and we’re like, well, we have some free time.

I mean we’re not trying to spend all day let’s go.

And as sad as it is, of course, it’s really interesting to go in there, see it just kind of experience the history.

55:02

And yeah, you know, when we went it was a rainy day too and it just kind of put a vibe in there that was eerie that I won’t really forget.

So I mean, we’re talking about a really fun time on this trip, and some people might say that this is a downer, but it’s really part of their history and it interesting to see.

55:20

So when you go there, do they have like placards to read or what are you looking?

At a ton of placards and you’re walking through the old building so you can see some of the things that they confiscated from people when they first arrived.

And you can see like who was in charge.

55:36

There was pictures of officers, commanders, you go in, you can see the bunks that they lived in, the shower area that they did so a lot of reading material, They did human experiments on people.

They did euthanasia for people who are mentally ill or old or disabled.

55:52

And this concentration camp was only meant to hold a certain number of people and they put like 6 times that number there.

So then obviously food rations decrease.

They were talking a lot about how much food they they got at the start of it, and then people who had survived for longer times.

56:07

They were getting like an eighth of what they previously had gotten when they first moved in.

A lot of reading stuff as you make your way through, right?

Because it’s the old buildings and they have the information as you go through to each room.

Like this is where they would register people.

This is where blah, blah, blah, et cetera.

56:23

But what was really interesting to read more specifically about this camp Dachau, it wasn’t an extermination camp, right?

They didn’t purposefully bring people here to execute them.

They talked about how they shipped them elsewhere to do that.

But when this camp actually opened, it was really more so for Germans and political prisoners who didn’t believe in the ideology as things were starting to change in Germany.

56:48

So they actually talked about how they treated people in there who were Germans at the start of it, which was actually relatively well.

And then when they started bringing in other people into the camps that were non Germans or of different ethnicities or races and things of that nature, that’s when they talk about how they kind of made that change.

57:08

You see an exhibit talking about one of the wardens of there and how they got rid of him because he was being too nice to people, something they brought in somebody else.

So really, really interesting and humbling experience.

You can easily catch a train to a bus.

Again, use the MVV app and you’ll figure out how to get there really easy and not too far from central Munich to get to Dachau.

57:28

And we we did that and definitely worth a visit.

We also wanted to go to the Englisher Garden, which is like Munich Central Garden.

We unfortunately did not make it here, but it does look pretty cool.

There’s actually an area where you can like surf on a surfboard there, which is good people watching.

57:45

I’ve seen some videos of it, but one thing that we did from Munich that I would highly recommend is we did a day tour to the new Schwenstein Castle.

This is the famous castle that inspired like Disney’s castle.

58:01

Yeah, Walt Disney got inspired for Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland based off of this one.

This is like Germany’s most famous castle, and if you don’t know it by name, I guarantee you know it by looks.

It’s tucked in the foothills of the Alps and just really this lush green environment when we were getting out there.

58:21

Beautiful looking castle, But one thing I didn’t realize until we got there, and again, we booked this through Viator.

It was a day trip.

Go check out our website.

We’ll be sure to link it in our show notes also for you guys just as well.

But this castle was built by King Ludwig in 1869 and he was known as the Mad King.

58:42

They thought he was like really crazy, eccentric, etcetera.

And there’s a history to him and kind of the castle itself, which if you go, they’ll get into that.

And you know, I feel like I would be doing it a disservice to really tell the story because it wouldn’t be as nuanced.

58:57

But basically he was a mad king.

He was building it, and at some point eventually people turned on him and he got murdered.

So the outside is finished, the inside is not.

So the outside looks just so beautiful, but only what two or three living levels of the castle were completed, and that’s actually what they walk you through.

59:17

But the throne room that was completed that we saw, absolutely beautiful.

So that was one thing that took me by surprise.

I was really expecting this castle that you see so beautiful on the outside, so iconic of Germany and just the castles that they have there not even completed on the inside.

So the inside kind of left a little bit to be desired, except for the few areas that they take you to that were done up.

59:37

But Even so, it wasn’t, you know, I don’t think as grand, but still really worth an experience out here.

Yeah, and when you go to the castle, they actually drop you down at the village beneath it, and you can get to the castle by three ways.

You could either walk up, it’s all uphill.

59:52

So would be an easy day.

We decided to forgo the easy day this day, not do that.

You could also do a horse and carriage or take a bus, which is what we did and then we did walk down as part of our easy day.

I’m looking at a picture of it on Google in the winter when all the trees around it are covered in snow.

1:00:10

That is so magical.

It is, isn’t it?

Right?

And then I’m sure that image that you’re showing also with the snow shows the lake that’s out there, right?

It’s on the hill looking over a lake.

So it’s really this awesome architecture style and vibe.

And even though we’re talking about the inside not being complete again, we mentioned the year that he started building this, which was going to be 1869.

1:00:32

Pretty modern times for kind of like Monarchies back in the the day, right?

And with that modern entity comes new things in the castle.

This was the first castle, even though it was never completed, that had running water, a flushing toilet.

So we were actually able to go into the King’s bedroom and then they show an area where they have the toilet and like this is the first flushing toilet like ever in a castle like.

1:00:53

The original toilet.

That they didn’t go into specifics.

I don’t know if it’s the original, but nobody’s using it to this day, so I don’t know why they would maybe have changed it, but really interesting, really modern.

And then up at the top where the castle is, there’s also suspension bridge that you can walk across and get really great views looking at the castle.

1:01:12

And then in the castle when you’re walking around 1 area you can go out onto the balcony and get a great overview of the lake.

So lots to see and do up there.

It was definitely worth the day trip.

I want to say we paid about like $75.00 for the transportation, the guides and then we paid a little extra to do the guided tour of the castle.

1:01:32

That’s a really good .1 thing that we did not mention that Bernie just kind of highlighted upon everything that you look at on Viator or Viator.

However, you say, I think it’s Viator, but I say Viator because I’m so used to it that way.

But everything that gives you a tour to this castle just is your transportation to there.

1:01:52

It does not include your entrance to the castle.

So that’s something that you need to buy either when you’re there or depending on the Tour Company you choose.

When you’re checking in, they’ll say, hey, do you want to go in?

And then you can pay the additional €17.00 there, bypass the line to get in, do the guided tour.

So the price that you see for the tour listed on Viator does not include the entrance to the castle, but it’s very nominal and if you’re going to go, you should do that.

1:02:15

About how long did you say it is from where you were staying in Munich?

It was about a two hour drive out there, wasn’t it?

Wow.

I want to say yeah, it was probably about that.

We did stop on the way there to use the restroom, and then when we got there, we stopped at the village below hand to have lunch before we went up.

1:02:32

But then on the ride back because everyone’s tired from the long day.

Like, it definitely takes up your day.

They were selling beers and drinks for the ride back, so.

In the car.

In the bus.

And I was about to say that that was actually something that was really, really fun.

So again, we’ll link in our show notes, go to our website.

1:02:48

Also we’ll link the exact tour that we did and Tour Company.

But yeah, on the way back they were just like who wants beers?

And they were selling it at relatively inexpensive prices or even if you didn’t want beer soda.

So we definitely had a few beverages on the bus on the way back.

So it made it a little bit more easy of a ride.

1:03:04

So that’s pretty much the bulk of Oktoberfest Munich.

But we did get a question of the week.

We have Erica from Texas that chimed in.

She was asking is Oktoberfest worth the hype?

1:03:23

Is it crowded?

Is it just drinking and beer and eating or is there more to do?

Well, Britney is looking to me to answer first.

I’m really curious to hear her answer, ’cause I don’t want to say she didn’t want to go.

But usually, you know, when we talk about this, Britney drinks, we know this.

But like, this type of vibe of Oktoberfest really isn’t Britney’s thing.

1:03:40

So was somebody who wasn’t like, Oh yeah, like party vibe type situation.

I want to hear your response first, Britney.

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

I will say that like I was, I wouldn’t say I was dreading it, but I’m just, I’m not a festival person, you know, like that’s just not my vibe.

1:04:00

But I feel like when we walked in the first night, everyone singing and dancing and although people are getting drunk, it’s like an organized drunk in a way.

So it’s not just like completely, just like everyone’s obliterated.

So I did enjoy it.

I thought it was like fun vibes.

1:04:16

It was crowded in the tents at night, but during the day it’s not so crowded.

So I feel like if you split up your day and you don’t want the crowds, you can get a little piece in the morning and then check it out at night.

And if that’s not your vibe, you can just leave, you know?

Yeah, I feel like if you spent all day there again, if you’re not going with a big group of people and the goal is like, hey, we’re just going to spend the day in the tent, have a good time, then yeah, maybe it could be overhyped.

1:04:38

But if you go in and say to yourself, like I’m at a world event, I’m at the largest festival in the world, like this is almost as big as the World Cup, so to speak, of where the world comes together on something, I would say even more so than the Olympics.

People come here to just experience the culture vibe and maybe it’s a little bit more commercialized now because of course lots of tourists come, but it still keeps a little bit of its authenticity.

1:05:01

You have fun, delicious food, it’s local food, it’s authentic, The beer is authentic.

It’s not just like they let anybody in, it’s specific to the region.

So I definitely don’t want to say that it is not worth the hype.

I mean, it depends on what you want to get out of it, right?

1:05:17

But at the same time, I think you will not be disappointed.

It is crowded.

Just know that going into it.

But if you go in there and be like, yeah, let’s have a casual few drinks, let’s eat some good food, let’s experience a festival that people will come all over the world for to enjoy, and I’m a part of it, you’re going to have a great time.

1:05:34

And it does sound like there is more than just beer and food.

There’s rides, there’s live music, there’s people watching.

Yes, lots of people watching so there is plenty of to do just exploring the grounds.

You could spend like an hour or two just roaming to see what there is.

1:05:50

I guess two questions for you.

One is, did you see a lot of people from a lot of different places in the world?

I would say we didn’t see a ton of people from all over, but there’s a lot of people from throughout Germany.

1:06:05

So people were saying like they were from different parts of Germany.

So lots of, I mean, I guess locals in the sense of the country do come there, but otherwise you do see more Americans.

Well, with that I will say like when we’re in the airport leaving Germany, we saw lots of people with Canadian passports in their hands.

1:06:24

So Canadians.

I even heard a few Aussie accents as well.

Of course there were British people there.

So when we say kind of like all over the world, I don’t want to say like the western part of the world where it’s a little bit more Anglos accent of type people, but that’s kind of really more the vibes that you got.

1:06:39

I heard a lot of people speaking French just as well.

So I don’t know if they were French Canadians or actually just from France right next door, right.

So lots of people do come, I would say a lot more of Europe.

But you’re not really seeing, like, I don’t wanna say, different ethnicities, cause of course you are, but it’s not like as common as you would be like, oh, well, they’re definitely from this part of the the world or Asia or something like that.

1:07:01

But a good mix of people for sure.

But it’s tough to tell because lots of people speak English.

And so if you don’t know German, which I’m sure a lot of people, unless you’re from Germany or the surrounding countries that are close to it, everybody’s gonna speak in English, ’cause everybody knows English.

So difficult to tell, but a good mix of people.

1:07:18

Interesting.

A lot of Americans, I mean, there’s a lot of German heritage here in America, so I guess that kind of makes sense.

Second question for you, because it is a festival for drinking.

Did you see any?

Well, you said you did see some drunk people, but like, what was some of the crazy stuff that you saw?

1:07:36

Really great question.

Funny you mentioned that because of course you see drunk people moving around.

I don’t know if I really saw anything that I thought was just absolutely too crazy.

But of course, Instagram, the algorithm, it knows where I am.

And I started getting this one feed from this one guy and I forgot what his handle is called.

1:07:55

But he’s like, what I saw day one, Oktoberfest, right?

And then he just shows all this crazy, like debauchery of different things.

And then I kept seeing that over and over.

Day 2, day three, day four.

And I’m just like, why am I not seeing this?

I saw more stuff in the videos of what was going on that year than I really saw in person.

1:08:14

So crazy things can happen.

Some of his videos showed people puking on the rides, going through those kind of obstacle course houses where they have like a conveyor belt area.

And people clearly can’t stand on that as like sliding them up.

We saw videos of people peeing in the tents, but what we really did see are like people coming out drunk of a tent, their friends needing to, like be their weights, you know, And they’re kind of, like carrying them out.

1:08:38

And they’re like, oh man, I love you so much, man, this is such a great time.

You know, like, that’s the kind of drunk feel that we saw mostly.

I feel like it does get a little slippery because people are spilling their beer.

So it’s easy to, like, slip and fall in one of the tents because it’s just beer on the ground.

1:08:55

But do you think that if you had stayed later, you would have saw more of that because you guys went a little on the earlier side, right?

Quite possibly.

But again, a lot of the videos that I saw of that one guy who just was blowing up my feed because of the algorithm, a lot of those shots seem to be during the day.

1:09:12

So I I mean, I really don’t know.

So of course it’s going to happen there, you’re going to see drunk people.

But like, I saw more crazy stuff on the video than I saw in person, I.

We did see people get kicked out of tents, like you can’t chug your beer in the tents like you’re not not allowed to.

Chug your beer.

No, it’s like a rule.

1:09:29

Very weird rule.

Yeah, probably because they’re so large.

I don’t know.

So they will kick you out if you do start chugging and people start cheering you on.

Or if like, people start to get too rowdy, they’ll kick you out too.

So we did see a few things like that where people got kicked.

1:09:44

Out.

I mean, it has this reputation.

And so it’s good to know that, you know, Instagram versus reality.

It’s maybe not as debaucherous as it’s made out.

Yeah, and it’s one thing I didn’t mention too when we were talking about Oktoberfest.

And I know we’re kind of been on questions of the week for a while and most of them are coming from you, which they’re all really good questions because it brought up this point.

1:10:03

Is it like in 2004, 2005?

I remember I didn’t know this when we were there, but I remember like like reading this online after the fact.

They have what’s called quiet Oktoberfest, which they don’t allow music to start playing in the tents until like a certain time.

And then up until a certain time they can only play it at a certain decibel.

1:10:21

So it doesn’t get like too rowdy.

So they keep it so that, like in the evening, that’s kind of where maybe it’s a little bit more raucous.

And of course, if people are there longer, maybe they’ve had more drinks.

So like, if you’re there kind of like midday, so to speak, I don’t think you’re going to see like too much crazy stuff like all around.

1:10:38

Like, yes, you’ll see it, but don’t think you’re going to walk in there and it’s going to be this big wild thing in terms of like, oh, everybody around me is just like, trashed.

I didn’t really feel that way when I was there.

And then they have provisions in place that kind of really make it as such in terms of like how loud they can play the music and this, that and the other so.

1:10:54

I mean, and we didn’t see any families in the beer halls, of course, but on the ground, people are walking around with their families like their small children are in strollers, like it’s a family event too.

So people are going to the fair to try fair food, go to ride some other rides, check out the grounds, and do all of that other stuff.

1:11:13

Cool.

It sounds like a really good time.

I want to get back there and go to Oktoberfest again.

Again, not specifically to go, I’m going for Oktoberfest, but do something in Europe and while I’m there, have it be during Oktoberfest times.

Go to Munich for like a day and just kind of get another vibe in because it was really fun.

1:11:29

I loved it a lot.

Well squatties, thank you so much for tuning into our Munich and Oktoberfest episode this week.

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1:11:50

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We’re going to continue on this trip to a different part of Germany, and we have some more amazing adventures and tips in store for you.