Ahh Oktoberfest – quite possibly my best weekend away last year. I’ve had a couple of questions about how much I spent during my time there so here’s a bit of an outline to help you budget – of course everyone (and their beer consumption) will be slightly different!
Getting to Munich
I spent about £150 on travel to and from London, although that involved flying into Zurich and then three trains to get to Munich. The bonus from this was a quick stop in picturesque Schaffhausen. This year I’m flying direct and spending about £220 return – well worth it in my book, as I will have time to look around Munich as well – and buy that all important dirndl!
Accommodation
If only you could sleep here…
We booked accommodation through Air BnB and it was about £75 per person for three nights. That was a really nice apartment, but one big room shared with seven others, and located about 15 minutes by underground from the Oktoberfest grounds. Again, I have learnt from experience and this year booked an apartment a lot closer, for a similar price. I’m a huge Air BnB fan – I haven’t (touch wood) had a bad experience yet, and with groups it’s usually very friendly on the wallet!
If you want to head there without the hassle of booking arrangements, there’s also loads of tour companies who will provide accommodation packages, usually either camping or at a hostel – check out Travel Talk, First Festival, Busabout or Fanatics for starters.
Costs at Oktoberfest
It’s early, but we’re still stoked to be in our dirndls!
As I highlighted in my Tips for Oktoberfest, I would highly recommend you dress up for Oktoberfest – it is so much fun! Dirndls and lederhosen in Munich were priced from around €15 for the more ‘costumey’ outfits to over €100 for those that involved leather lederhosen or separate pieces for the dirndls.
Day to day costs will depend largely on how many rides you take and how many beers you drink! Pricing is quite standardised, which is awesome, and steins this year will set you back between €9.10 and €9.50.
Food was pretty reasonable and very filling, always good at a beer festival. The bretzels which featured fairly heavily in my diet over the weekend were around €3 and the bigger meals like pork knuckle or bratwurst around €8 to 10. You can also bring your own food into the grounds, which is handy when you’re waiting outside for them to open. You can’t take food into the beer halls themselves though – just enjoy the delicious smells of roast chicken and bretzel!
Finally, the rides and other fairground activities were also great value – I only went on the Ferris Wheel (about €3) and the Olympic Rings Rollercoaster (about €6) but this year I hope to try a lot more.
Have you been to Oktoberfest? What did you think?
