Thinking about heading to Oktoberfest in Munich? The fest starts Sept. 22 (Sept. 22 now in 2019!), but winter and spring is the time to start planning, especially if you want table reservations in one of the famous beer tents at the Oktoberfest. Chris and I have been twice to the Munich celebration and highly recommend a visit, either with or without kids — there’s something for everyone at Oktoberfest! In 2017, I spent a huge amount of time trying to secure table reservations in the beer tents at the Oktoberfest. This year, I’d like to share what I learned about that process. I’ll warn you that it can be frustrating, but the payoff was us having a great time with 14 of our friends and family members for three days at Oktoberfest!

At the bottom of this post, you’ll also find links to the large tents at Oktoberfest and the most recent information I could find about when each accepts reservations.

I’ve written before about tent reservations at Oktoberfest (here and here) but as a refresher, there are 12 large tents, each of which hold thousands of people. There are reserved and unreserved sections at each tent, but during the evenings and especially during the weekends, it can be tough to find a spot and require a lot of patience and waiting in lines if you don’t have reservations. Spots in Oktoberfest tents can only be reserved by the table; the smallest I’ve seen in for 6, but most will have a minimum of 8 or 10. This is significant because while there isn’t technically a “charge” for the table reservation, you have to prepay a certain amount of food — usually equal to two beers and a meal — for each seat at the table a couple months before the Oktoberfest.

By the way, if you are questioning whether or not to bring your kids to Oktoberfest I’d suggest reading this post and this post. Idea of what to do other than the fest? Look here. If you are looking for a place to stay, by the way, we really enjoyed Citadines Arnulfpark Munich and it was very convenient to the Oktoberfest fairgrounds. While it is in more a “business-y” district, there is a tram right outside the hotel and the stop for the Oktoberfest grounds is only two stops away.

My table reservation checklist for Oktoberfest!

1. Decide whether you need table reservations. If you are only a couple of people or are a group of people who are happy to visit the tents in the morning or early afternoon, you can probably skip it. Have a big group or want to go to the tents in the late afternoon or evening? Get to work.
2. Decide when you are going. The 2018 Oktoberfest runs from Saturday, Sept. 22 to Sunday, Oct. 7. The 2019 Oktoberfest runs from Sept. 21 to Oct. 6. You need to decide what period of time you are prepared to be there so you know what days to ask for on your reservation requests. Props if you can be there mid-week, you’ll have a better chance of getting reservations.
3. Mark your calendar with application dates. Set up a reminder so that you know, for instance, on March 4 you should send your reservations request to Armbrustschutzenzelt.
4. Create a spreadsheet or word document. List every tent and keep track of EVERY communication you have from each, as they’ll start to blend together quickly. In several cases last year, despite the information printed on the website, I received emails telling me to try back again in a month or two after the date they had supposedly begun accepting reservations. Being better organized would have saved me some time and headaches.
5. Apply everywhere. For real. Don’t hesitate to make requests for the same day from different tents because you aren’t going to be able to get reservations everywhere you try, probably only a fraction of them. Last year I applied everywhere and ended up with four possible reservations, two of which I took. When you are offered a reservation they’ll be an initial “activation code” you’ll enter on their website to accept; I’d accept all of them because nothing is final until you pay up a few months before the fest.
6. Don’t ignore the smaller tents. There are several smaller tents at the Oktoberfest, and they can be good options as well for a fun evening. The only place I was able to get a reservation that went until the end of the night one of the days was the Heinz Wurst und Huehnerbraterei, a smaller tent, and we had a blast!

And now — the tents of Oktoberfest!

Pschorr-Brausol: Accepting reservations starting in January 2018; inquiries for lunch reservations can be sent directly to Mrs. Brandt-Witte at s.brandt@braeurosl.de. You need to fill out this form. Website: http://heidevolm.de/braeurosl/reservierungen/

Paulaner Festzelt (Winzerer Festhalle): This is the largest test at Oktoberfest! Updated information on when reservations open up is not available on the website, but last year it opened in mid-January. Check the website at http://www.winzerer-faehndl.com/reservierung.html for the online inquiry form.

Schutzen-Festzelt: Website says it will accept reservations via its online form starting Feb. 1, 2018. https://www.schuetzenfestzelt.com/reservierung-menues

Kufflers Weinzelt: Website says it will accept reservations via an online form starting in February.  http://www.weinzelt.com/de/reservierung/ This is one of the two tents we had reservations in last year!

Schottenhamel: Starts accepting reservations via an inquiry form on its website “starting from” February 2018. Check https://festhalle-schottenhamel.de/en/reservation/reservation

Armbrustschutzenzelt: Will start accepting reservations at 8 a.m. on March 4, but only by FAX or LETTER. For what its worth, I sent a letter last year and never heard anything back so I’d try fax if  I were you. You can find the number here: https://www.armbrustschuetzenzelt.de/reservierung/reservierungsanfrage/

Lowenbrau-Festhalle: Will start accepting reservations via e-mail in March 2018, but be aware they don’t take evening reservations. Send reservations to mail@loewenbraeuzelt.de.  Website: http://www.loewenbraeuzelt.de/reservierungen/

Ochsenbraterei: Accepting reservations in March 2018. You’ll need to send an e-mail with “your desired date (also several possible), number of persons, time as well as your name and address” to info@ochsenbraterei.de.   The website: http://www.ochsenbraterei.de/reservierungen/

Augustiner: Accepting reservations as of March 2018. Visit http://www.festhalle-augustiner.com/html/reservierungsanfrage_en.html

Marstall: Will start accepting reservations in March 2018 on this webpage: http://www.marstall-oktoberfest.de/reservierung.htm

Hacker-Festhalle: Will start accepting reservations “about March/April” 2018 on this page:  http://hacker-festzelt.de/reservierung/

Kafer’s Wiese’n-Shanke: Website says it will accept reservations via its online form starting in April. https://www.feinkost-kaefer.de/oktoberfest

Fischer-Vroni: Will start accepting reservations in May 2018. Check back on their website, http://www.fischer-vroni.de/reservation.htm

GOOD LUCK AND PROST!

The post How to get TABLE RESERVATIONS at Oktoberfest first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post How to get TABLE RESERVATIONS at Oktoberfest appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

Where to stay, eat and play in Munich for Oktoberfest with kids

Hi guys! It’s been two weeks since we returned from Munich and Oktoberfest with the kids, so I want to wrap up this recap with some final housekeeping-type stuff with some of the practical details of our trip! If you are planning to go to Oktoberfest with kids, I hope this can help.

(For more details about attending the fest itself, check out this post: Oktoberfest with kids: Fest fun in the tents.)

And if I — ahem — had forgotten to mention it, I do strongly urge you to go! While it might seem like Oktoberfest is a grown-up celebration, it is truly family-friend. We saw lots of people at the Oktoberfest with kids, even school groups during the day.

Related: 20 things to know before you go to Germany. 

Where we stayed for our Oktoberfest with kids adventure: Citadines Arnulfpark Munchen

I’ve talked before about our stance on hotels vs. apartment rentals when it comes to travel. By and large, the decision between the two rests on how long we are going to be somewhere, prices and convenience. More recently we are seeing more “apart-hotels,” which have a nice way of splitting the difference: separate sleeping space for the kids, but some of the conveniences of a hotel. For shorter stays like Munich or Cefalu, we are really liking this model!

We stayed at the Citadines Arnulfpark Munich, which we selected back in December 2016. I found it as I was searching the Chase portal because the already-exorbitant prices of hotels and apartments for Oktoberfest season made me want to burn points instead of cash (I’ve since somewhat repented because I don’t think we got the best rate). This hotel won out because it was apartment-style and had room for the kids (occupancy limits in Europe can be strict), was quite close to the festival grounds, and was advertised as having childcare.

We ended up being quite pleased with the place and would definitely recommend it to other families. The room itself (“deluxe apartment”) was quite large and included a small kitchen with a microwave, stove and most importantly, a fridge. It also had security measures that, while a smidge annoying at times, made us feel pretty safe — the elevator was set up so that you had to use your room card to activate it, and could only go to the floor that had your room. Breakfast there was too pricy for us to be interested (though looked tasty), but there was a bakery about a block away where we got a bunch of excellent pastries or sandwiches each morning. Also, I cringe a little bit to write this but I’d also like to note that there is a Subway about two blocks away: this is noteworthy because we left the kids with a babysitter for two evenings and having a Subway nearby meant we could buy sandwiches and stick them in the fridge for the kids’ dinner. It isn’t in a particularly inspiring area, mostly other hotels and businesses around, but right outside the hotel was a tram stop that easily connected us with the rest of the city. The Thereseinweise, where Oktoberfest is held, was only two tram stops and a short walk from us.  Which leads us into my next point …

Public transportation for Oktoberfest with kids: Trains, trams and buses, oh my! 

Story time, kids. Chris and I were in Munich in 2010 as the second stop on our honeymoon, after Paris. We arrived at the airport and for whatever reason we were extremely tired and could not seem to figure out where the bus or train was to the city. We got pissed and decided to just jump in a cab.

Price tag: 80 euro. Whooops.

Looking back, that decision seems even crazier because Munich turns out to have excellent transit all arond the city and to the airport. You can follow the signs in the airport to catch the S-Bahn train into the city, and either the S1 or the S8 will get you there in less than an hour. If you are staying at Citadines or nearby, you’ll want to get off at Donnersbergerbrucke; it is a short walk from there.

When Chris went to pick up Brett at the airport on Monday, we bought a group all-day ticket for the entire S-bahn network (valid for up to five adults; two children between 6 and 14 years old count as one adult) to use to get them to and from the airport and anywhere else, which ended up costing just under 24 euro. Individual day tickets for the entire zone cost 12.80 euro, so if you are at least two people you might as well get the group ticket if you need the entire network (including airport). Otherwise, you can check to see which zones you’ll be staying in for cheaper tickets.

If you are going: I recommend the train, but there is also a bus that will take you into the city from the airport. I also priced out hiring a car (with car seats) to take us to the airport on Wednesday since it would be three adults and two kids; it came back at more than 100 euros. That’s a NOPE.

Within the city, transportation is quite easy because of the large number of options. In three days, we took trains, trams and buses to get around and found all of them easy to use, though if you are going on the tram or bus make sure you have coins to pay. (You can use a credit card to buy S-bahn tickets from a machine). I will say that having access to a smartphone helped. Since our data works all over Europe, we simply entered our destination into Google maps and clicked the public transit option. It would tell us exactly what train, train or bus would most easily get us where we wanted to, which saved us the trouble of puzzling over a map. If you can’t use your phone while there, I’d suggest looking it up beforehand on the hotel wifi beforehand and taking a screenshot.

Someone was worn out on the way back to the airport Wednesday! 

Food: Where we ate all the things during our Oktoberfest with kids adventure!

I’ve never been a particularly big fan of German food, but this trip might have changed my mind. We had some absolutely excellent meals in Munich, both in the city generally and at the Oktoberfest with kids specifically! The two best were:

Augustiner Keller. Count this as another point in favor of the Citadines Arnulfpark: it was only a 10-minute walk from this excellent beer garden! It is one of the largest in Munich, although I’m getting conflicting info on where exactly it ranks. We actually went twice, once for beers and appetizers on Sunday to tide us over before the fest and on Monday with Mike and Andrea’s crew and my parents and our siblings, 15 altogether. They take reservations online, which was very helpful with our big group!

Anyway, the beer was excellent and every single one of us loved our meal. I highly recommend the Pfefferschnitzel, a pork cutlet with an excellent pepper sauce, while my brother-in-law was obsessed with his weinerschnitzel with a berry sauce, and my sister loved the allgäuer käsespätzl, a cheese spatzl with fried onions. Dessert was good too!

Dessert was also the only picture I took that didn’t come out blurry as hell. 

Hofbrauhaus 

This one is probably the most tourist-y of the restaurants we could have gone to, but we didn’t care. We had an excellent night in the beer garden with some randoms in 2010 so we were nostalgic, plus Brett was eager to go there himself. We found a spot at the end of one of the long tables, and plopped down with another group. Once again, all of us loved our meal.

All of us except Fiona, who never ate a bite of hers. As soon as we arrived, she chugged some apple juice and lay down on the bench for a nice hour-long nap. I’m prepared to bet this was not the first nor will it be the last time someone falls asleep on the bench after drinks at Hofbrau.

Owen enjoyed his though. 

Hofbrau is right next to Marienplatz, so it was a nice stopoff for us after the Duesches Museum and before visiting there.

Oktoberfest tents

We spent a lot of time eating at the Oktoberfest grounds as well, and basically everything we had was excellent! Some favorites were duck and cheesy spatzl at the Lowenbrau tent, roasted chicken at Kuffler Weinzelt and these amazing chocolate-covered strawberries from a random food stand. Easily the best ones I’ve ever had.

We’d already gobbled up half of them before I managed to get a picture. 

Pretty sure this is the face of a guy who just wants me to stop taking pictures and let him eat. 

What we wore at Oktoberfest with kids: dirndl and lederhosen 

If you decide to go to Oktoberfest, I definitely encourage you to dress up! We didn’t in 2010 and while I can’t say we felt out of place then — plenty of people don’t dress up — I would say we certainly felt a lot more festive this time around! It is just fun. I ordered my dirndl and Chris’ lederhosen from dirndl.com and was very pleased with the quality of our items. Fiona’s dress came from Oktoberfest.de, while Owen’s lederhosen came from Etsy and we just grabbed a checkered shirt from H&M. We didn’t expect it to be so cold while we were there and didn’t have a plan for Owen’s legs, so we put a pair of Chris’ socks on him and pulled them up to his knees to keep his legs warm. We picked up their head gear on the way to the fest — plenty of shops were selling all kinds of apparel near the festival groups.

A cautionary note: if you are ordering online, be careful with the sizing. My sister and I both ordered dresses based on a conversion chart we saw of US to German sizing, and both of us found our dresses pretty tight.

The post Munich and Oktoberfest with kids: The details first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Munich and Oktoberfest with kids: The details appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

While we found Oktoberfest to be a fabulous time to head for Germany, Munich with kids is a good idea just about any time of year! We had a blast at the Englischer Garten, Deutches Museum, Marianplatz and more. Munich is always great, and Munich with kids is even better.

From my first few posts on our trip to Munich (here and here and here), it might look like we mostly just drank beer at the Oktoberfest. But! If you are planning a trip to Munich with kids, rest assured that there is plenty to do outside the festival.

And, OK, a lot more places to drink beer. What can I say? It is Germany.

We arrived in Munich Sunday afternoon and left Wednesday afternoon, so between Oktoberfest visits and hangovers we still had time to explore a bit more of the city. If you are going to the city with kids (or even without) consider hitting these spots!

Must-see Munich with kids: The Englischer Garten 

Anytime we travel with the kids, we always seek out a park to explore for some travel down-time. (See Luxembourg Gardens in Paris and Phoenix Park in Dublin). The Englischer Garten was fun, though I wish we’d had time to explore more than the tiny corner of it that we did!

The Chinesischer Turm (Chinese Tower). It was originally built in the 1700s, then rebuilt in the 1950s after its destruction during World War II.

So the Englischer Garten is one of the biggest urban parks in the world; it is almost 1.5 square miles. Incidentally we realized its scope as we were trying to figure out where to meet our friends Mike and Andrea — turns out you can’t just say “meet us at the park” when it is so huge!

The park has a ton to offer in its vast space, including two beer gardens, restaurants, huge green spaces, walking/biking trails, Greek temple, Japanese teahouse and even a stream where people surf! (Wish we’d seen that!). There is also apparently a place where people regularly sunbathe in the buff (don’t wish we’d seen that!). Go figure.

My parents and Fi. 

Owen and my sis horsing around. Munich with kids — big and little. Ha!

We meant to walk around the park and explore, but instead we (us, my parents, my sister and my brother-in-law) met our friends at the beer garden near the Chinesischer Turm. This particular beer garden is the second-largest in Munich, but we chose this spot mostly because it had park for the kids to play on.

Like most parks we come across in Europe, it seemed weirdly dangerous compared to the plastic parks we see in the United States. But we’re getting used to it, ha!

While the kids played (only plummeting to their doom once each!), the adults stuffed our faces. The food was tasty and relatively inexpensive, which was a nice surprise.

Andrea and one of her boys, Philip. 

We basically ran out of time to explore the park more because we had dinner reservations at the Augustiner Keller, but I’d highly recommend a visit there if you are headed to Munich. I’d recommend leaving a good chunk of time for it since it is so big, plus getting there took us about half an hour on the tram and bus from our hotel in Arnulfpark. Worth it!

Must-see Munich with kids: Deutsches Museum

Wednesday morning dawned cold and rainy, a perfect day for a visit to a museum. We decided to go to the Deutsches Museum specifically because it had a children’s section (Kinderreich) that I thought the kids might enjoy. Although this is section proved  smaller than I expected, the kids really enjoyed this place.

Learning about pulleys. 

It certainly wasn’t The Children’s Musuem of Indianapolis, or even WonderLab in Bloomington, Indiana, but we spent at least 45 minutes here so I’d say it is safe to say the kids enjoyed themselves. A solid choice on an iffy-weather day in Munich with kids.

From there we moved on to the rest of the museum, which was had quite a few exhibits that seemed interesting to us, including historic aviation, marine navigation, oceanography and astronomy. A decent portion of the signage at exhibits was available in English, which was helpful. I will say the building itself seemed a bit dark and austere to me, but perhaps it just wasn’t my style. Overall, it was interesting though.

Flying a plane! 

We all live in a … 

We were a little bummed that we couldn’t get into the astronomy area because we just missed the beginning of a show, but overall it was a good experience. Our little museum buff Owen was furious when we decided to head for the Hofbrauhaus for some lunch becuase he wanted to see everything. It certainly wouldn’t rank among my favorite museums in the world, but it was a great option for a rainy day in Munich with kids and priced pretty reasonably: 11 euro for adults, free for kids younger than 6. There is also a “family ticket” available, which would be a good deal for those with older kids — 23 euro total for two adults and their minor children.

Must-see Munich with kids: Marienplatz 

This square is the most iconic in Munich, and we headed here Wednesday after the museum. From the center of the square you can see the New Town Hall (the one that looks old), the Old Town Hall (the one that looks newer) and The Column of St. Mary. We didn’t go inside anywhere — being short on time — but it a pretty view.

Walking into the square, which was helpfully only about five minutes from the Hofbrauhaus. 

The Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall) was completed in the late 1800s and its primary function is to house the city government, though there is also a restaurant in the basement of the the building.

That green part in the middle of the facade? That’s the famous glockenspiel! At 11 a.m., noon and 5 p.m. it chimes and begins a 12-minute “dance” that reenacts two stories from 16th century Bavaria. Sadly we didn’t get to see the performance this time around, but I’m told it is cute! At the end, the golden rooster at the top chirps three times. If we go to Munich with kids again, I will be making sure we see this.

The Mariensäule (Marian Column) is what gives the Marienplatz its name. It was built in 1638 to celebrate the end of the Thirty Years’ War, one of the deadliest religious wars in European history. It is topped by a golden statue of the Virgin Mary, venerated as the protector of Bavarian, and at the corner of each of the sides is a cherub fighting a mythical creature. It is supposed to symbolize the city overcoming obstacles.

Photo courtesy of my brother-in-law, Brett. 

The Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) looks newer to me than the New Town Hall, but it actually dates back to the late 1300s.

Day trips from Munich with kids

If you are headed to Munich with kids, consider leaving time for a day trip outside the city in gorgeous Bavaria! Between our tent reservations and spending time with family and friends, we didn’t have time available to leave the city this time around. However, Munich is an excellent jumping off point for several destinations, perhaps the most popular of which is Neuschwanstein Castle, near Fussen, Germany. Chris and I took a tour there in 2010 and loved it.

For more up-to-date information about visiting Neuschwanstein with kids, check out fellow blogger Mark’s post about how to get from Munich to Neuschwanstein. It’s got a lot of great information we’ll be using when we next visit!

Other options include Salzburg, Austria, which my aunt and uncle took the opportunity to see on a day trip from Munich while we were there. Don’t miss a Sound of Music tour OR the Augstiner beer gardens there! We also had friends stay in the Bavarian ski resort of Garmish, about an hour from Munich. Aside from being beautiful in its own right, the town is also an excellent jumping off point for visiting Germany’s Romantic Road.

If you are considering a trip to Germany with kids, I also highly recommend you check out my bloggy friend Erin’s posts about Germany with kids. Actually, even if you aren’t going, you should check out her post just for the amazing photos.

Happy traveling!

Enjoy this post? Remember, sharing is caring! 

The post Munich with kids: Beyond Oktoberfest first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Munich with kids: Beyond Oktoberfest appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

Dancing on benches. Roasted meats and sausages. Liter after liter of beer.

Yeah, we had a great time at Oktoberfest! (Without the kids this time).  

I mean, how could we NOT? 

So, this trip was the culmination of years of discussion — we’ve been talking with my parents since we returned from our first trip in 2010 — and at least 11 months of planning. I’ve talked before about the infuriating process of trying to get table reservations anywhere for our group, so I won’t rehash that much here except to note that we ultimately went with two: Sunday evening in the Heinz Wurst und Huehnerbraterei and Tuesday afternoon/evening at Kufflers Weinzelt. We’d had the option for a third at Schottenhamel (large tent) for Monday, but we opted against it.

First, our cast of characters from Sunday:

The “Chicago Crowd”

Tom and Kathy, my parents: Oktoberfest was actually toward the tail end of a more than one-month long trip my parents had been on to celebrate my dad kind-of retiring. They’d been in Ireland, Wales, England, Scotland and France before getting to Munich. They are the ultimate party-parents — we went on a trip with them to Spain in 2011 and they basically tried to kill us with the bar hopping. And we were only in our mid-20s then!

Me, my mom and my Miss Linnie (see below). 

Steve and Julie, family friends: Another super-fun set who have been friends with my parents forever. Julie actually came to my bachelorette party back in the day to help make sure no one got lost or kidnapped. They joined my parents’ itinerary starting in Scotland.

Ralph and Marisue, family friends: My parents’ friends from college! Naturally, also super fun and adventurous — Marisue and my sister even rode the huge five-loop roller coaster at Oktoberfest after a bunch of beers. They joined my parents in Paris.

“Miss Linnie” and Keith, my aunt and uncle: I could not tell you why she is “Miss Linnie” instead of Aunt Linnie, but she just is! This ended up being fairly confusing for my husband early in our relationship because he didn’t realize she was my dad’s sister, haha. Miss Linnie is my godmother and Fiona’s too! Some of my very favorite people. This was their first time to Europe and they met up in Munich before going with the rest of the Chicago crowd (except my sister) to Tuscany.

Torie, my sister: My younger sister is 26 and awesome. Easily my favorite sister of all! She joined the group in Paris.

My mom and sister. Pretty ladies! 

Everyone also ended up staying at the same hotel as us, the Citadines Arnulfpark Munchen, which made going to the fest as a group easy. (Except for that time we accidentally left Steve and Julie behind).

Sunday we had reservations at the Heinz Wurst und Huehnerbraterei, one of the small tents at Oktoberfest. As a recap, there are 12 major tents that hold something like 4,000 to 6,000 people at the fest, then several of these smaller ones. The Heinz holds, I believe, less than 500 people.

Above, outside of the Heinz. Below, a look at the tent on the inside — this was right we arrived when things were still quiet. It definitely got busy and fun! Both photos courtesy on my Miss Linnie because I only brought a camera phone. 

When I was searching out table reservations, I had been really trying to get us an evening reservation at one of the big tents. Unfortunately, despite starting the process in literally January,  the only place I had any luck getting a night reservation was here. I was a little concerned that it wouldn’t really have the ambiance of the biger tents, but I really didn’t need to be worried. We had a great time and I don’t remember feeling like I was missing anything (though that could be the three liters of beer talking).

One reason? WELL. When I made these reservations, I was under the impression that the 59 euro per seat we were pre-paying was specifically for two liters of beer each and a meal. Once we arrived there was some considerable confusion because our waiter (who didn’t have much English) seemed to be telling us we could have whatever we wanted. Not wanting to get charged a million euro at end, we repeatedly double-checked this. Sure enough, what we had paid for was indeed all you can drink and all you can eat. From 5 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. So if the night seems a little hazy … well, that’s why. But, I do know that we drank, we ate, we talked to people, we danced — on benches and on the ground — and we laughed a lot. And harassed the band to play ‘Don’t Stop Believing,” which they didn’t seem to know. Only downer there.

First course. Later, I had weiner schnitzl and at some point there was a dessert tray …? 

Suffice it to say that none of us — with the exception of my sister and my husband, because the world is deeply unfair — were in great shape the next day. Most of us weren’t even in shape to leave the hotel until at least noon that day, though my aunt and uncle somehow managed to drag themselves out of bed and go to Salzburg on a tour. They are some serious troopers.

So, Sunday night was our small-tent experience but on Tuesday we had table reservations at the Kufflers Weinzelt, one of the 12 big tents. Again, the “wine tent” — don’t worry, they did serve beer! — wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I selected it because a) they at least had avilability in the early evening from 4 to 8 p.m., and b) they were offering enormous tables. This was important because during the planning phase we had gotten more and more people to commit to coming, and by then our group had swollen to 16 — plus my brother, who stopped by as well.

Our additional characters:

Brett, my brother-in-law — Brett decided to join us on this trip last spring, which was super exciting for us all! He arrived that Monday, then came back to Sicily with us as well after.

Mike and Andrea, our friends — We’ve known Mike and Andrea’s family since we were all living in Bloomington, as Chris and Mike used to work at the same place. They moved to Naples about a year before we moved to Sigonella. We spent time together this past Thanksgiving, when we talked them into coming to Oktoberfest. They drove from Naples!

Annie and Doug, our friends — Our friends from Sicily! We’d just met this spring, but when they announced they were also planning to be at the Oktoberfest at the same time as us we knew we had to meet up. It worked out perfectly!

Us and Annie and Doug, photo courtesy of Annie! 

Mike, my brother — My brother recently moved to China with his girlfriend, but made a snap decision to come to Oktoberfest about a week beforehand since he also had friends who were going to be here. He spent some time with us Tuesday during the day, then popped by in the evening Tuesday before he had to head to the airport. Also his fest accommodation experience is probably worth a guest post all its own! What say you, Mike?

Some hilarity ensued again when we found out — once again — that the vouchers we had prepurchased (65 euro per seat) weren’t specifically for a certain meal and two drinks, but basically acted as cash to settle the bill at the end after we ordered whatever we wanted. We ended up ordering appetizers for both tables, all the beer and wine we wanted and dinner for everyone, and the bill magically worked out to be almost exactly equal to the 1,040 in vouchers we had, with some left over for the tip. And, once agan, the meal was excellent; most of us got either chicken or duck and they were both delicious. German food hasn’t usually been my favorite, but we didn’t have a bad meal the whole time we were there!

Our “table for 16” turned out to be a smidge cramped, as they basically gave us two booths across from each other that would fit eight people each. It didn’t turn out to be a big issue though, as we basically only sat during dinner and then we were all up talking and dancing.

Photos courtesy of Annie. Again, didn’t bring my big camera because I didn’t want to lose it. 

There was a fun band, and they even played Don’t Stop Believing! WOOO!

We had some good laughs when one of the crowd produced this stuff after seeing some Germans in action using it. It is some kind of mint powder that you snort, and the goal is to wake you up. A bunch of the girls walking around selling magnets and cookies were also selling vials of this, so obviously a bunch of us had to try it (while the rest looked on disapprovingly).

It did wake me up, but only because it was like snorting toothpaste and stung like hell. Still, I’d say it was worth the laugh. Some of us, ahem, got more carried away than others. You guys know who you are!

Anyway, we hit 8 p.m. and the end of our reservation before we even knew it. I would have liked to stay longer, but honestly four hours was probably about the perfect amount of time since we were all pretty well recovered by the next day. That was extra important for the Chicago crowd, who had an early flight to Florence scheduled for Wednesday.

Overall, I was thrilled with our two Oktoberfest tent experiences. Booking was a pain in the ass, but with a big group I would absolutely say it was worth the effort! We’re already talking about going back one of these day — after all, we’ve already got the clothes!

Photo courtesy of my brother-in-law, Brett 

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Going to Oktoberfest with kids: our experience a Munich babysitting agency.

For our visit to Oktoberfest, we arranged to use a Munich babysitting agency so that we could enjoy some kid-free time. It worked out great and I’m happy to update that more than nine months later, the kids are still talking about Veni, our Munich babysitter. 

As I mentioned in my last post, we had a great time with the kids at Oktoberfest!

That said, we also had a great time at Oktoberfest without the kids. How? By using a babysitting agency for the first time.

I know that using a babysiting service isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and I understand why. However, for us using a Munich babysitting agency was an overwhelmingly positive experience and one I would feel comfortable trying again if the occasion called for it.

One of the reasons that we picked our hotel was because it allegedly had childcare available for a fee. This turned out to be just a referral to the Agentur Mary Poppins Munich, a Munich babysitting agency that matches people with pre-screened babysitters, full-time nannies, elder care providers, etc. I got in contact with them early in the summer to see if they could connect us with a Munich babysitter for the two times we had reservations at the beer tents, letting them know my criteria along the way (main ones: at least 20 years old, experienced in childcare, spoke at least some English). From there, they set me up with contact information with one of the sitters working with them who met our requirements and we e-mailed back and forth with her to get everything squared away. The fee for connecting us with the babysitter was 50 euro, then we paid her an hourly rate.

So, our babysitter was Veni — a 20-something physical therapy student in Munich who has worked for Mary Poppins for a while, including during last year’s Oktoberfest for other families at our hotel. She described herself as speaking “some” English, but her English turned out to be almost flawless! I was worried that the kids would freak out about us leaving Sunday night, so I brought a bribe (a carton of Hatchimals) for her to give them as we were leaving. Turned out, that was completely unnecessary because they were basically in love with our Munich babysitter the second she walked in the door.

She took them to the park, colored with them, taught them new games and — best of all — got them to sleep before we got home. Victory! We heard about Veni endlessly for the next two days.

Photo credit: Veni, who was nice enough to send me these gorgeous pictures she took! 

Veni also helped us out massively on Tuesday afternoon/evening by watching our friends’ three children, Philip, Henry and Sadie, too. Mike and Andrea had planned to bring their regular babysitter with them to Munich, but something came up about a week beforehand and they were scrambling to find someone to watch the kids so they could keep our reservations. They considering using a Munich babysitting agency as well, but with Oktoberfest being so close we worried about whether there would be time to find someone. I asked Veni if she could manage all five kids (for some extra cash, obviously) and she was nice enough to step in and help out. And was brave enough to take the whole crowd to the nearby park AND on public transit!

I think they had a blast, don’t you?

Final thoughts on using a Munich babysitting agency

Using a Munich babysitting agency worked great for us! I’d feel comfortable recommending it as an excellent option to anyone. While we love traveling with the kids, it is always nice to have a bit of adult time.

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Can you take kids to Oktoberfest in Munich?

Yes!

Should you take kids to Oktoberfest in Munich?

Yes! (At least, during the day. At night you might want to invest in a babysitting service as we did).

We’re just returned from taking our two kids to Oktoberfest in Munich, where we met up with a bunch of friends and family members for the celebration. It was everything I hoped it would be (if a little colder than I imagined) over the last 10 months or so of planning this trip. And we were delighted to confirm that Oktoberfest with kids can be just as fun as Oktoberfest as solo adults!

(For more nitty-gritty details about where to stay, what to eat and what to do if you take kids to Oktoberfest, check out this post).

I’ve written once before about what went into getting reservations for the tents, but as those times were when we went sans kiddos I’ll save that for another post. Instead, I want to talk about taking these little cuties with us to the festival! Cliff notes’ version: Oktoberfest with kids is great!

Now, you could be forgiven if it seems like taking kids to Oktoberfest — probably one of the best-known beer fests in the world — isn’t the best idea. But you (and I, before I did the research) would be wrong! Oktoberfest is a big family event for locals and a large chunk of it is set up especially for children. We even spotted what looked like school groups there, on what I’m guessing were school field trips.

Kids’ activities at Oktoberfest. Yes, there’s plenty to do if you take kids to Oktoberfest!

So most people know about the beer tents at Oktoberfest — there are 12 large ones that seat as many as 6,000 people, plus several smaller ones as well. What I didn’t remember from our last trip in 2010, however, was that the majority of the grounds were covered with games and rides for everyone from the littlest kids to adults (just ask my sister and our friend Marisue, who rode the roller coaster Tuesday after 4 hours in a beer tent!). And of course, all kinds of food stalls selling all manner of things — most of which are delicious and terrible for you. If you take kids to Oktoberfest with you, what more could they want?!

We decided to take the kids to the fest on Tuesday, which was a “family day” where prices were allegedly discounted. They probably were, but by the end we felt we’d spent so much money it was hard to tell. Oh well! Accompanying us were my brother-in-law, Brett, my sister, Torie, and my aunt and uncle, Miss Linnie and Keith. One of my brothers, Mike, made a last minute decision to come to Munich (from Shaghai!) and he also spent some time with us.

We had decided months ago to dress up for the occasion, and I’d ordered our outfits mostly from German companies (Owen’s was the exception — Etsy). The only thing we hadn’t really thought about was what to do if the weather was colder than expected, as indeed it was. We ended up popping a pair of Chris’ socks on Owen to serve as legwarmers of sorts, as it ended up being only in the upper 50s. This photo was taken in the hotel, Citadines Arnulfpark Munich.

Both kids acquired their headgear from a pop-up shop we passed on the way to the festival. 

The group, minus my sister who was checking her oversized purse. No rucksacks or large purses allowed in the fest for security reasons. My parents and the family friends (Steve and Julie, Ralph and Marisue) were on a walking tour of Munich that morning. 

So our kids haven’t ever really been to a festival-type place or theme park at an age when they could really go on rides or play games. We had so much fun … with a few isolated incidents.

First thing Owen spotted was a target shooting game, which to my very great surprise he was old enough to play. My brother Mike, a former Marine, was his tutor in the beginning.

But he ended up being startlingly good at it. Hit 9 targets out of 12! This would be remembered as his absolute favorite thing this trip.

Fiona also got to play a couple of games, though admittedly she wasn’t so much old enough for them. But of course she wants to do everything Owen does.

We did have one miscalculation on our part: my sister asked Owen if he wanted to go into the haunted house ride with her. We should have just said no because we know he historically hasn’t liked scary things, but he was so insistent that he wanted to go that we said OK. He sobbed through the whole thing, which even my sister said was pretty freaky. Whoops.

Rides at Oktoberfest with kids!

We rebounded with a bunch of rides though!

The ferris wheel was awesome, the fanciest one I’ve ever been on and the six adults and two kids all fit on there easily. We had a great view of the entire fest from up there. Fiona did seem to get a little nervous about the height, but while I’m personally not usually the biggest fan of heights I wasn’t all that nervous with this one because each carriage was closed in. It was sort of like a little log cabin on a wheel, with open windows on the side.

The others also had a ride in some bumper cars, though Fiona had to be lifted out halfway through (it was only us in there so no problem).

For older kids and adults, there were rides that were considerably larger as well. And some water rides, which we skipped for obvious reasons. Brrrrr.

In the beer tents at Oktoberfest with kids — it’s fine, seriously.

The temperature seemed to drop quite a bit in the time we were there, so after a few hours (and some of the best chocolate-covered strawberries we’ve ever had, later determined to be Fiona’s favorite part of the entire trip) we decided to head over to one of the beer tents for some lunch. Kids are absolutely allowed in the beer tents, which are honestly pretty low-key during the day. After 8 p.m., children younger than 6 must leave. We went to the Lowenbrau tent and had duck, kasespatzle (cheesy noodles with fried onions on top) and fries for the kids. It was all yum.

Unfortunately, it was here that we learned that Fiona was way more tired than we’d realized. She climbed under the table to, I had assumed, look around. Instead, she just laid down her head and fell asleep pretty much instantly. Whoops. She wasn’t in a good position, so I had to drag her out and she didn’t take it well. It was just as well we needed to get back to our hotel to meet the babysitter (more on that later) because she was pissed.

I swear I’m not actually as heartless as this pictures makes me look. But she gets a little bit funny when she’s mad because you can offer her literally anything and she’ll just scream no. If I had to take a guess, I’m betting that at the moment Brett snapped this I had just offered her a unicorn and was told “unicorns are the WORST.” I ended up taking her outside to get a sparkling apple juice, which cooled her fury. 

SO — despite the rocky ending and chilly weather, we had an excellent time and the kids were very excited. I wouldn’t hesitate to take them there again if the opportunity came up, especially since the older they get the more they’ll be able to do.

TOP TIPS IF YOU PLAN TO TAKE KIDS TO OKTOBERFEST

1. I’d suggest going early, and going on a weekday. The fest opens at 10 and we arrived a little after 11. It was very quiet, which meant we didn’t wait for any of the rides or games and easily found a table in the beer tent at lunch.
2. Remember that you can’t bring a large purse or backpack for security reasons. According to my friend Andrea, you do get a bigger bag if you also have a stroller; however, keep in mind that strollers aren’t allowed on Saturday or after 6 p.m. because of the crowds.
3. Try for one of the family days to reduce the cost of the games and rides.
4. Have fun!

The bottom line: If you want to go to Munich for Oktoberfest, don’t let the kids stop you. There is plenty to do for everyone if you take kids to Oktoberfest — and besides, hiring a Munich babysitter is always an option as well!

Enjoy this post? Sharing is caring! Also, please consider keeping up with our adventures via my Facebook page, Babies with Backpacks, to ensure you always get our latest updates!

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With about two-and-a-half months to go until Oktoberfest in Munich, Chris and I took our most important step yet in planning our trip yesterday …

We ordered my dirndl and his lederhosen!

Ok, possibly I should have said *one* of the most important.

At any rate, with things coming together rapidly for this year’s Oktoberfest it seems like a good time to look back at the most arduous part of planning the trip, getting table reservations.

I’m going to start off by telling you straight up that there is one big thing you need to make this happen, and it is this:

PERSERVERENCE 

But I’ll come back to that in a second. To recap, we are going to Oktoberfest in Munich this year! We’ll be meeting up with my parents, my sister, my brother-in-law, my aunt and uncle, some of our friends and some of my parents’ friends. All told, the group is about 16 (not counting the children).

You probably already know something about Oktoberfest, but a little quick backstory: the first Oktoberfest was a celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig in October 1810. The commoners were invited to come celebrate the royal couple, and the festivities included horse races and stuff. I guess it was so much fun they decided to continue doing it every year, minus a few years when it was canceled because of problems like cholera, Napoleon and World Wars I & II. Eventually they decided to move the festival to take place almost entirely in September (better weather!) though it always ends a few days into October. I guess so the name continues to make sense?! Anyway, these days more than 6 million people attend every year.

Pics are from our 2010 trip

So the Oktoberfest grounds include about a dozen large beer “tents” that hold thousands of people, plus another 20 or so small tents that hold a few hundred people. To get a liter of beer or food in the tents, you need to be sitting down at a table (usually a long wooden table with benches). In our experience, finding a spot to sit is pretty much a nonissue in the mornings and early afternoon during the week. However, by midafternoon it gets difficult and in the evenings? Even worse. Chris and I had a hard time finding places to sit for just the two of us in the late afternoon when we were there in 2010, so we knew trying to find a table for a party of 16 on the day of the event was going to be damn near impossible unless we were content to go only in the morning. Enter table reservations.

“Tents” but on an epic scale.

So you can reserve a spot in one of the tents ahead of time, but there are a couple of catches:

1. You have to book an entire table — the smallest I’ve seen is a table for six, while the largest are for 20. Making the reservation is technically free, but you have to pay up front for two beers and a meal at the tent for each seat — and we’re talking about 40 to 65 euro per seat.
2. The process is infuriating.

For all you hear about German efficiency, Oktoberfest seems to be a bit of an exception. Each tent has different owners, and thus each has a different process for applying for a spot in the tents. Each has different dates on which they’ll start accepting reservations as well.

So, if you are going to try to get table reservations at Oktoberfest and are hoping for afternoon or evening reservations, you need to START EARLY! 

I’ve literally been working on applying for table reservations since early January of this year, and ended up getting four reservations (two of which we kept). Part of the problem was that for a lot of tents I kind of got the run-around; at Ochsenbraterei, for example, I was told variously over the phone and email that I needed to make my request again in March, then May, then June. And then it was full after all. And sometimes I got no answer at all.

I used this link as my central hub for the Oktoberfest websites. From there, the only thing to do was to go to each tent’s individual website and puzzle out how to apply. Some have an online reservation form, while others — I kid you not — require requests to be made in writing. (I did actually try this, but never did get a response.) One only offered evening reservations to people who were staying at a specific hotel. Most never seemed to have any evening availability at all and one was fully booked (returning customers get priority) before I made a single request.

The end result of my efforts was that I was able to get a table for 12 in the evening (5 p.m. to close) at one of the small tents one night, a table for 16 from 4 to 8 p.m. another day, plus two reservations that we’ve decided not to keep — both midafternoon during the week.

Planning to reserve a table yourself? A word to the wise. 

1. Start early. While most of my reservations didn’t come from requests I made in January, it is wise to get started early enough to have an idea of when reservations will open. Set an alarm to remind yourself to apply THAT DAY.
2. Stay organized. I wish I’d done a better job with this, because it got frustrating. At a minimum, open a Word document and keep a running list of what you find out from each tent re: when they start accepting reservations, what contacts you’ve already made, and any updates you’ve received along the way. You’ll thank yourself later.
3. Apply everywhere. I literally applied to every single large tent and many of the small tent (some more than once on accident — see above). So few of the requests I made actually panned out that I’m glad I made requests at all of them. You don’t have to pay for the table until June or July, generally, so there’s no harm in accepting what you are offered in principle while you wait to see what your options are. That’s how we came to select two of the four reservations I was able to secure.
4. Be flexible. Originally I only wanted to apply for evening reservations at the tents, but pretty soon I realized just how difficult getting a table at night would be and I shifted gears. We ultimately decided that late afternoon would also be a good option for us and as a result we were a lot more successful. Not being too rigid will make it more likely that you get a reservation somewhere.
5. Don’t buy from third parties. There are people selling Oktoberfest tables at inflated rates online, but going this route is a bad idea. As every website says explicitly, doing this is NOT ALLOWED and if you get busted then they won’t necessarily honor your reservation. Which is bad news considering that the already expensive tables come at an inflated price when you are buying from a scalper. You don’t want your trip hanging on you not getting caught for doing something wrong.
6. Learn German. Ok, just kidding here. But man, translating a million documents and trying to puzzle out the garbled answers from Google Translate got tricky!

Question: This seems like a lot of work. How do I know I even really need table reservations? 

Answer: It depends on what you are looking for and the size of your group. If it is just you and another person, you can probably find a spot to sit with enough perservence even in the afternoon/evening. If you are a patient person, you can wait in lines to get into the portion of the tents that is unreserved. If you are content to go in the morning and early afternoon (nothing wrong with that! that’s mostly what we did in 2010), then I wouldn’t bother with getting lunch reservations at all. Otherwise, I’d suggest trying to get reservations for at least one of the days you are planning to be there to avoid frustration. 

PROST!

I believe this was taken around 10 a.m. — you can see how many open seats there are! No comment about liters of beer at 10 a.m., please … 

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