When you’re hammered, dirndl’d, a little emotional and a whole lotta lost, this is your guide for finding Oktoberfest.
You’re in Munich looking for Oktoberfest and you’ve overindulged on the old confidence juice. You’ve forgotten that you’re in a foreign land, a new city, somewhere completely unfamiliar, and your SIM card doesn’t work, which is concerning because you rely on Google Maps to get from your bed to the bathroom at home. You don’t speak German so you can’t confidently ask for directions, and even if you had the address, all the streets look the same to you.
You’re up schiesser creek without a paddle.
But don’t worry, we’ll get you there with our foolproof guide on how to find Oktoberfest.
Follow the lederhosens
So here’s what we know. We know that you should be in Munich. If you’re not in Munich then you’ve cooked this even harder than we ever could have thought and you need to have a long, hard look at yourself. So seeing as though you’re in Munich, during Oktoberfest, and practically everybody bar the worst tourists dress traditionally for the ‘Fest, surely all the people wearing lederhosen (three-quarter leather pants with a kinda bib) or dirndls (traditional dress that emphasises the… oh you’ll see) will be heading towards the festival itself. Brilliant! Foolproof! But, with more than seven million visitors every year, there’s as much chance that people will be walking away from the beer halls as there is a chance they are walking towards them, so you could be following people in the wrong direction.
Follow the signs to Oktoberfest
If you think you might be in central Munich the good news is that Oktoberfest isn’t far, and that you can walk there from pretty much any part of Munich city. Munich is flat, and the Theresienwiese fairgrounds, where Oktoberfest is held, are well signposted and about a one kilometre walk from the central train station, or Hauptbahnhof. But we’re writing this with the assumption that you’re stein-eyed and pretty much hopeless, so how will you know that you’re in central Munich? Well, do you see a huge castle thing with a giant cuckoo clock on top of it? That’s the Rathaus, the city’s town hall, and you’re in Marienplatz. It’s an easy walk from there. Are you surrounded by naked old dudes in a city park? Then you’re in the English Gardens, and it’s an easy walk from there, too (keep an eye out for river surfers – true story). If you’re by the Nymphenberg Palace then you’re not really near Oktoberfest at all, and it might be better for you to jump on the metro.
Taking public transport to Oktoberfest
From the Stoketoberfest campsite taking public transport to Oktoberfest is easy: take the 164 bus five stops to Untermenzing; jump on the S2 train headed to Erding and get off at Hackerbrücke; walk across the bridge to Oktoberfest (don’t get lost at this point, or you’ll have to follow the advice above). If you’re somewhere else in the city, though, you’re going to have to negotiate the public transport to one of the following stops:
- Hackebrücke (S-Bahn lines S1-S8)
- Hauptbahnhof (the main train station listed above, you can stumble from there)
- Theresienwiese (the train station of Oktoberfest itself, often very busy, accessed from U-Bahn lines U4 and U5)
- Schwanthalerhöle (if you miss the stop at Theresienwiese)
- Goetheplatz (on U-Bahn lines U3 or U6)
Got it? Look to be fair, if you’re lost in Munich and can’t find Oktoberfest, the world’s biggest and best beer drinking festival, then you’re probably not going to remember these metro instructions, in which case.
Get a taxi to Oktoberfest
This one’s easy, jump in a cab, book an Uber, whatever, and tell them “Oktoberfest”. They’ll know where to go. It’ll be expensive, depending on where you are, really, but you’ll be assured of arriving at the beer halls.
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