Germany’s Oktoberfest Opens After 2-Year Hiatus

The beer is flowing at Munich’s world-famous Oktoberfest for the first time since 2019.

With three knocks of a hammer and the traditional cry of “O’zapft is” — “It’s tapped” — Mayor Dieter Reiter inserted the tap in the first keg at noon on Saturday, officially opening the festivities after a two-year break forced by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Oktoberfest has typically drawn about 6 million visitors every year to packed festival grounds in Bavaria’s capital. The event did not take place in 2020 and 2021 as authorities grappled with the unpredictable development of COVID-19 infections and restrictions.

Those worries were put aside this year. The city announced in late April that Oktoberfest would go ahead, and Reiter said Saturday that “it was a good decision.”

“I’m glad that we can finally celebrate together,” Bavarian governor Markus Soeder said at the opening ceremony. “There are many who say, ‘Can we, can we not? Is it appropriate now?’ I just want to say one thing: We have two or three difficult years behind us, no one knows exactly what this winter will be like, and we need joie de vivre and strength.”

Three hours before Reiter tapped the first keg, revelers rushed to secure seats in the huge beer tents as the gates to the festival opened.

They will need significantly deeper pockets than at the last Oktoberfest, with brewers and visitors facing pressure from inflation.

A 1-liter (2-pint) mug of beer costs between 12.60 and 13.80 euros (dollars) this year, which is an increase of about 15% compared with 2019, according to the festival’s official homepage.

This year’s Oktoberfest, the 187th edition of the event, runs through Oct. 3.

Soeder told the daily Muenchner Merkur newspaper in comments published earlier Saturday that the number of coronavirus infections would probably rise following the Oktoberfest but “at the same time, thankfully, we aren’t measuring an undue strain on hospitals anywhere.”

“That speaks for us being in new phase of corona,” he said, adding that authorities would try to protect vulnerable people but not prevent celebrations.

Munich’s Oktoberfest Back On After Pandemic Pause

Germany’s annual Oktoberfest festival is finally on again for this fall, following a two-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, the head of the famous Bavarian beer festival said Thursday.

“The Wiesn will take place,” Clemens Baumgaertner told reporters in Munich using the locals’ Bavarian colloquialism for the Oktoberfest which is referring to the big lawn, or Wiese, where the boozy celebrations are taking place.

He said said the popular beer festival in the Bavarian capital will be held without any pandemic restrictions from Sept. 17 to Oct. 3 — Germany’s national day.

“It will take place like we know it from 2019, and not in any other way,” Baumgaertner added.

The Oktoberfest, first held in 1810 in honor of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese, has been canceled dozens of times during its more than 200-year history due to wars and pandemics.

In the years before the coronavirus outbreak, around 6 million revelers visited the celebrations annually, many of them dressed in traditional Bavarian garb — the women in Dirndl dresses, the men in Lederhosen, or knee-length leather trousers.

Some 487 beer breweries, restaurants, fish and meat grills, wine vendors and others will be present and opening hours will be even longer than in the past, with the first beer tents opening at 9 a.m. in the morning and closing at 10:30 p.m. The last orders will be taken at 9:30 p.m.

A one-liter (two-pint) mug of beer will cost between 12.60 and 13.80 euros ($12.84-14.07) this year, which is an increase of about 15% compared with 2019, according to the official Oktoberfest homepage.

Typical Bavarian dishes sold at the Oktoberfest will include specialties such as the “slaughter plate” with blood and liver sausage and pork belly; pork roast with crunchy skin, bread dumplings and sauerkraut; slices of roasted ox or braised venison ragout with homemade spaetzle pasta.

WalletHub's 2016’s Best Cities To Celebrate Oktoberfest

Octoberfest Celebration In Philadelphia (VisitPhilly)

With German-Americans constituting the largest U.S. ethnic group and the world’s largest beer festival and traveling fun fair — known as Oktoberfest — soon to kick off, the personal-finance website WalletHub took a close look at 2016's Best Cities to Celebrate Oktoberfest along with fun and interesting facts about the event in its Oktoberfest By The Numbers infographic.

To determine the best cities for partaking in the epic German festival, WalletHub’s number crunchers compared the 100 largest cities across 20 key metrics, ranging from “percentage of German population” to “number of beer gardens per capita” to “average price for Oktoberfest festivals and parties ticket.”

Below are some highlights from each report.
 

	Top 20 Cities for Celebrating Oktoberfest
	1	Cincinnati, OH		11	Scottsdale, AZ
	2	Pittsburgh, PA		12	St. Louis, MO
	3	Portland, OR		13	Columbus, OH
	4	Minneapolis, MN		14	St. Paul, MN
	5	Orlando, FL		15	Buffalo, NY
	6	Denver, CO		16	Colorado Springs, CO
	7	Tampa, FL		17	Milwaukee, WI
	8	Miami, FL		18	Cleveland, OH
	9	Madison, WI		19	Philadelphia, PA
	10	Boise, ID		20	New Orleans, LA

 
Oktoberfest Fun Facts:

• $5,000 – Estimated cost for an American to attend Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany
   
• 1.9 Million – Gallons of beer consumed during Oktoberfest 
   
• 750,000 – Number of sausages and whole roast chickens that are eaten
   
• $1.2 Billion – Oktoberfest’s annual economic impact on Munich

Top 10 Reasons To Visit Bavaria

High-tech and traditional, conservative and innovative, quaint and quirky – there’s much more to the Free State (as Bavaria is known) than the stereotypical Lederhosen and felt hat image.

World-class museums, thigh-slapping beer halls, speedy cars, Alpine vistas, dreamy castles, belly-filling food, top-notch beer…there are hundreds of reasons to visit Germany’s southeast corner – here we list the ten most compelling.

1. The Alps

Geography may have handed Germany’s south a mere sliver of the Alps, but the region certainly makes the most of its peaks, many of which are but a short train ride from central Munich. The ski resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen is the place to head for the best fun in the snow, as it sits under Germany’s highest mountain, the Zugspitze, the top of which can be reached by train.

Pin this imageThe Bavarian Alps in winter © canadastock / Shutterstock Images

Surrounded by Austria on three sides, the Berchtesgadener Land in Bavaria’s far southeast keeps all the region’s clichéd Alpine promises, providing dramatic mountain scenery, great hiking and Germany’s prettiest lake, theKönigssee.

2. The beer

Munich has often been called 'the city of art and beer’, and when you are done with the art by day, the evenings belong to the 1L steins of frothy brews in typical beer halls such as the Hofbräuhaus, the Augustiner Bräustuben and the Weisses Brauhaus. Of course the best time for disciples of the hop to make a pilgrimage to the Bavarian capital is during Oktoberfest (annually late September to the first weekend in October), during which around six million litres of beer are slurped. Outside Munich the beer is just as good, better in fact, according to drinkers in Franconia(Bavaria’s northern region), where countless village breweries pump out an astonishing variety of Landbier (small-scale regional beers) not available anywhere else.

3. The castles

Every Bavarian town and hilltop seems to host a medieval noble pile or two, but it’s to three 19th-century follies commissioned by Bavaria’s King Ludwig II that most outsiders flock. Rising out of Alpine forest near the town ofFüssen, Schloss Neuschwanstein is Germany’s most popular tourist attraction, its dreamy turrets and dramatic location having inspired Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle. Ludwig’s other two sugary creations are theHerrenchiemsee, a Versailles-inspired palace on an island in the Chiemsee, Bavaria’s biggest lake, and compactLinderhof in a remote Alpine location near Oberammergau.

Pin this imageSchloss Neuschwanstein, King Ludwig II's towering masterpiece © canadastock / Lonely Planet

4. The cars

Bavaria is home to some of the highest-octane names of the motoring world – BMW in Munich and Audi inIngolstadt. Munich’s space-age BMW Welt (BMW World) is a petrolhead’s dream come true, a huge free exhibition of the company’s latest models which can be sat in, fiddled with and admired from the driver’s seat. Next door is the excellent BMW Museum, and intriguing tours of the nearby factory can be easily arranged.

5. The traditions

From the world-famous Oktoberfest and Christmas markets to Oberammergau’s once-a-decade Passion Play and the glass-blowing traditions of the Bavarian Forest; from the beer-brewing monks of Andechs and folk-costumed bashes in Alpine taverns to Bayreuth’s Wagner obsession – Bavaria is a place where culture and traditions form an easily accessible link with a colourful, folksy past.

Pin this imageGolden glass and crystal Christmas ornaments on sale at Christkindlesmarkt, Nuremberg © AnkNet / Lonely Planet

6. The museums

You could devote many months to Bavaria’s exceptional museums, some of which rank as the best of their kind inEurope. It would be easy to while away a week ‘doing’ Munich’s art museums alone, including the world-class Pinakotheken (Alte Pinakothek, Neue Pinakothek and Pinakothek der Moderne). The Deutsches Museum is a highly enjoyable repository of the technical past, while Nuremberg boasts the Deutsche Bahn Museum, Germany’s top railway museum, and the Nationalmuseum, the country’s most comprehensive exhibition of Germanic culture. Of course, Bavaria witnessed one of the most sinister chapters in European history – the rise of the Nazis – and many places such as Berchtesgaden’s Dokumentation Obersalzberg and Nuremberg’s Reichsparteitagsgelände – where the largest Nazi rallies were held in the 1930s – relate that dark story.

7. The shopping

Traditional Bavarian folk costume makes for a truly unique souvenir. Central Munich’s Loden-Frey sells the real deal, but those on a budget should head for Holareidulijö which sells second hand outfits. Nymphenburg porcelain is another popular take-home item, best sourced at the Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg factory shops. Glassware from the Bavarian Forest area, Nuremberg gingerbread and new and antique beer steins are other mementoes to take home from a Bavaria trip. More unusual shopping experiences are provided by Käthe Wohlfahrt shops, where you can source your Christmas decorations all year round, a surreal experience in July when the mercury is pushing 30ºC.

Pin this imageIntricate porcelain can be bought at Nymphenburg Porcelain factory shops © Michael Zegers / Getty Images

8. The lakes

Between Munich and the Alps, many picturesque foothill lakes reflect quaint villages and onion-domed churches in their glassy waters. Easily accessible by S-Bahn from Munich, the Fünf-seen-land is an area of five lakes including the pretty Lake Starnberg, a popular, gentle retreat for stressed out city folk and the place King Ludwig II mysteriously drowned in 1886. Southeast of Munich, the Chiemsee is a great place to mess around in boats, but top marks among the region’s lakes must go to the Königssee, Germany’s most stunningly beautiful body of water, which is cupped by alpine slopes. Take an electric boat along its length.

9. The food

Bavarian cuisine may not enjoy worldwide renown, but the region’s meat-heavy menus are the perfect accompaniment to the unsurpassed beer. Eating out is not all about soaking up the beer, however. Munich has a thriving culinary scene, with vegetarian, vegan, Asian and Michelin-starred gourmet restaurants, and boasts more Italian eateries than most cities in Italy. Out in the sticks things are more traditional, though there’s still a lot of variety, especially where tourists congregate in numbers.

10. The romance

Running along the western edge of Bavaria, the Romantic Road is Germany’s most popular tourist route, extending for 350km from Würzburg in the north to Füssen in the south.

Pin this imageThe impossibly quaint Rothenburg ob der Tauber © CALLE MONTES / Getty Images

It’s a ribbon of quaintness punctuated by perfectly preserved walled towns such as Rothenburg ob der Tauber,Dinkelsbühl and Nördlingen. The route is travelled by millions of visitors over the summer; go in winter when a blanket of snow adds some authentic romance to these special places.

by Marc Di Duca , www.lonelyplanet.com

Germany For First-Timers

Germany is a combination of cutting-edge cool and timeless tradition, wrapped up in a package of spectacular landscapes, vibrant metropolises and idyllic half-timbered villages, architectural masterpieces and fairy-tale palaces.

The world’s fourth-largest economy is also a powerhouse when it comes to spirit-lifting culture, with an extraordinary wealth of museums, a thriving art scene, renowned orchestras and high-octane nightlife. And in a country that’s given the world the Hanseatic League and the Reformation – among many other key moments in history – it’s no surprise that you'll find fascinating vestiges of the past around many a bend in the road. If you're visiting Germany for the first time, here are the highlights you shouldn't miss.

Berlin

More than a generation after reunification, the German capital has become increasingly grown-up, but it hasn't surrendered its indie spirit and contagious energy. Berlin spoils visitors with classic and quirky diversions. There’s haute cuisine in an ex-brewery, all-night parties in power stations, world-class art in a WWII bunker and the chance to chill in a river barge-turned-swimming pool.

Pin this imageBrandenburg Gate at sunset © RICOWde / Lonely Planet

Buildings marking milestones in history – the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie among them – rub shoulders with 175 museums, including such top acts as the Pergamonmuseum, with its monumental antiquities, and the Hamburger Bahnhof, which boasts bold contemporary art. Sweeping views unfold from the TV Tower and the Reichstag Dome, while down below, tourist boats glide past the Nikolaiviertel, the site of Berlin’s medieval beginnings.

Related articles:

Top 10 free things to do in MunichQuirky sleeps: Germany's top 10 unusual hotelsFrom Munich to Bremen: the world of German beer

Munich

The Bavarian capital is always happy to oblige when it comes to delivering on the clichés that visitors to Germany expect. Yes, Munich is indeed a city of bosoms in Dirndls and beer halls with oompah bands. But beneath the cutesy veneer lies a sophisticated, proud and wealthy town.

Pin this imageThe Monopterus monument in Munich's Englischer Garten © clearlens / Shutterstock Images

Art lovers can feast on fabulous canvases from the Middle Ages to today in the trio of Pinakothek museums (Alte Pinakothek, Neue Pinakothek and Pinakothek der Moderne) or in the exquisite Lenbachhaus. Munich’s arc of masterful architecture spans from the medieval Frauenkirche to the futuristic BMW Museum. Cafe culture thrives in such boho-chic quarters as the Glockenviertel and the Gärtnerviertel, which also teem with trendy indie boutiques. One of Europe’s most beautiful city parks, the vast Englischer Garten, with its beer gardens and surfing wave, also invites a sightseeing break.

Romantic Rhine Valley

Few rivers have captured the imagination of artists and travellers so passionately as the Rhine, especially the Unesco-protected Middle Rhine section linking Bingen and Koblenz.

Pin this imageQuaint Bacharach sits on the banks of the Rhine River © JeniFoto / Shutterstock Images

Also known as the Romantic Rhine Valley, it’s a landscape of magical beauty where legend-shrouded castles lord over villages full of half-timbered buildings, embraced by steeply terraced vineyards that yield some of Germany’s most fabled Rieslings. Like a fine wine, this region needs to be savoured in sips, not gulps. It can be explored by car, train, bicycle, on foot and – most romantically – by boat. Each village has its merits, of course, but highlights include Braubach with the mighty Marksburg Castle; the wine village of Bacharach; and Kaub with Burg Pfalzgrafenstein, a boat-shaped former toll castle right in the river.

Romantic Road

Germany’s most popular holiday route is the Romantic Road, a scenic ribbon of cultural, natural and historical riches. It meanders for 400km from Würzburg – famous for its wine and Unesco-listed baroque Residenz palace – to Füssen, where the Alpine foothills cradle King Ludwig II’s mock-medieval fantasy palace of Neuschwanstein(which reportedly inspired Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle).

Pin this imageNeuschwanstein: the castle of fairy princesses' dreams © Rudy Balasko / Lonely Planet

A highlight along the way is the half-timbered gem of Rothenburg ob der Tauber which has intriguing crime and Christmas museums and is still sheltered by its medieval ramparts. The same is true of Dinkelsbühl andNördlingen, which are similarly quaint but less overrun. The latter has the additional distinction of being situated within a massive crater gouged by a meteor some 15 million years ago.

Bavarian Alps

The Bavarian Alps fan out from south of Munich and east to the Austrian border, and are an intoxicating pastorale of muscular mountains, clattering brooks, forests of towering evergreens and meadows smothered in wildflowers.

Pin this imageClimbers reach the summit of Zugspitze, Germany's highest peak © Mildax / Shutterstock Images

Royal groupies get to compare Ludwig II’s flamboyant Neuschwanstein to his frilly Linderhof pad and the Versailles-style Herrenchiemsee. Rising from an Alpine meadow, the sumptuous Wieskirche represents the pinnacle of rococo exuberance. Peak baggers are drawn to Garmisch-Partenkirchen for its famous ski slopes and breathtaking cogwheel-train ride to the top of the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain. Meanwhile, Berchtesgaden draws history buffs and dark tourism fans with the Eagle’s Nest, Hitler’s mountaintop retreat, and the Dokumentation Obersalzberg, an exhibit about Berchtesgaden’s stint as the Nazi party’s southern headquarters.

Black Forest

Steeped in timeless mystique, the Black Forest is a sylvan slice of Germany where patches of woods are indeed so dark and thick that one might expect to stumble upon the witch’s house in the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale.

Pin this imageHikers in the magical Black Forest © Juergen Wackenhut / Shutterstock Images

Unfolding east of the Rhine between the Swiss border and elegant Baden-Baden, with its glorious thermal baths and casino, the region is a gourmet paradise with no fewer than 26 Michelin-starred restaurants. It’s also the birthplace of the black forest cake, a creamy, kirsch-drenched confection; Cafe Schäfer in Triberg has some of the best.Triberg also happens to be Germany’s cuckoo clock capital, with countless souvenir shops and the world’s two largest cuckoo clocks, each of them the size of a house. From here, it’s just a short hop to Freiburg, a charismatic university town with a grand minster and lively, cafe-rimmed plazas.

Make it Happen

Frankfurt and Munich are the most popular airports, but there are dozens of others, many of them served by budget airlines such as easyJet and Germanwings. Germany has an excellent train network that links most towns, large and small. Check schedules and buy tickets on the Deutsche Bahn website (bahn.de). Travelling around by car buys flexibility and makes it easier to get off the beaten track, especially in rural areas. All major international rental agencies have offices in the main cities. The cheapest way to get around is by long-distance bus. Check which operator goes where, when and for how much on the Busradar website (busradar.com).

It’s perfectly possible to travel in Germany without speaking a word of German, but it helps to master a few simple phrases. People are more likely to speak English in big cities, in the western part of the country and in tourist hotspots. Peak season is July and August but some holiday weekends in May and June can be busy too. Check the Public Holidays website (publicholidays.de) for dates, and book ahead during busy times. Bring an umbrella, a coat and closed shoes – rain is a possibility any time of year.

By Andrea Schulte-Peevers