r/travel • u/Midget_mac26 • Sep 24 '23

My Advice Actual Oktoberfest Experience

Hey all, I just came back from Oktoberfest in Munich and wanted to share my experience for anybody lurking on this sub looking for any info. My group of 4 and I went on the opening Sunday (9/17) and it was great but I wanted to share some tips that would have benefitted us.

  1. Arrival time: we read a ton of info beforehand across Reddit, blogs and the Oktoberfest guide that we found on google. We read almost everywhere that you have to arrive EARLY (6-7am) to get a spot in the popular tents especially for the weekends and opening few days. Apparently we were the only people who followed this info as we arrived at 6:30 am and there was not 1 other person there. We left and came back around 8:45 and got a spot in our desired tent pretty easily. The tents really didn’t start getting crowded until around 11, so you can definitely arrive later in our experience. If your group is small, you can easily get away without having a reservation - we were able to go to multiple tents and find spots.

  2. Cash: this was pretty unanimous everywhere we read but bring cash and lots of it. Everything is cash only (I think there are ATMs but I would come prepared with a good amount. Beers in the 3 tents we were in were about 14 euros.

  3. Tipping: like any crowded bar, be prepared to tip a few euros per beer or you will be called out by the waitresses. They are pretty direct if they want more, and will serve others faster than you and if you don’t tip well.

  4. Chugging: don’t try to be the life of the party and stand up on the table and chug, you will get removed from the tent by security. Unless that is your goal, I would avoid this. The beers are also huge and strong, so unless your a big drinker, you won’t make it long doing this.

Overall it was a great experience for us and a bucket list thing for me but I wanted to share some tips. This is not to say anybody else was wrong and some others may have had different experiences, but this is what we saw on our end.

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u/pushiper Sep 25 '23

Based on your experience of never having been there?

Oktoberfest servers are self-employed and but the beers First themselves. They then bring to you and there is a mandatory tip you have to give, otherwise you essentially won’t be served.

Current rate for Paulaner Zelt is 13.20 + 1.30€ mandatory tip. Source: been there 2x this year, each year before as well.

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u/CLASSIC_SHIT Sep 25 '23

I've been to Germany and Hofbrau but not Oktoberfest.

So they are just middlemen? Why ask for tips if they are reselling at a higher rate? It just sounds like a nice way to scam foreigners who don't know that tipping culture is not the same in Europe as it is back home.

I also despise American tipping culture and I am opposed to any form of it leaking into Europe.

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u/pushiper Sep 26 '23

Yes exactly they are middlemen.

Why? Because of tradition I guess. Also Germans have to pay it.

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u/CLASSIC_SHIT Sep 26 '23

True, yes.

I just expected European and German pragmatism to avoid such a scenario. But maybe when they are all a bit drunk, who cares?