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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