Getting to Munich: Oktoberfest travel

Munich: it sounds so far away, but in fact, the Bavarian capital is only 570 miles away from London: by way of comparison, that’s about as far away as Berlin in Germany or Bordeaux in France. As Germany’s third-largest city and an important economic centre (think BMW…), Munich has great transport connections, too, including Germany’s second largest airport.

All of which means that getting to Munich is actually pretty easy – although around the Oktoberfest, of course, things get pretty busy and, however you’re intending to travel, it’s best to plan ahead.

Air

Air travel is, in terms of time spent travelling and choice, the best option for getting to Munich. There are direct flights to Munich airport from London Heathrow (BA and Lufthansa), from Manchester (BA, Lufthansa, and Air Berlin), and from Birmingham (Lufthansa), as well as from Edinburgh (Easyjet) and Standsted (EasyJet and Air Berlin). There are also a range of indirect connections via Amsterdam (Schiphol, KLM), Paris (Charles de Gaulle, AirFrance), Brussels, and Zurich. Direct flights take around 90 minutes.

Flights sell quickly, though, especially around Oktoberfest time, so be quick off the mark with the bookings (i.e. three months in advance at the very least). If you miss the reasonably-priced flights, it soon becomes worthwhile considering other options, such as flying into Nuremberg or Salzburg and taking the train. When flying into Munich, by the way, you’ll need to take the local train (S-Bahn) into the city centre – the airport is quite a way out, so add around an hour to your journey time.

Train

Speaking of trains, rail is an increasingly viable alternative. There are daily connections from London to Munich, starting on the Eurostar, changing in Brussels and then Frankfurt: although the total journey time is around 9 hours, Deutsche Bahn is offering some very competitive through-ticket prices for early bookers (sales three months in advance) on its UK website www.deutschebahn.co.uk.

Another option is to take an afternoon Eurostar connection to Paris Gare du Nord and then transfer to the Munich night train from the neighbouring Gare de l’Est. This can be quite pricey, but is a great way to travel – especially since it gets you into Munich in good time for a full day in the tents. Whichever connection you use, a major advantage of the train if you’re travelling with Bavarian costume is the lack of luggage weight restrictions.

Driving

Despite rises in petrol prices, if you’re going with friends, driving can be a good-value alternative. Once again, weight restrictions don’t apply, and if you use the EuroTunnel shuttle, you should be able to make it from Southern England to Munich in a solid day’s driving: anywhere between ten and twelve hours of Oktoberfest travel time is realistic.