Travelling to Munich for the Starkbierfest

Getting to Munich for the Oktoberfest can be something of a nightmare. Literally the world and it’s wife are en route to the Bavarian capital for the late-September festivities, and those who did not already know they were coming in May when the flights are released may find themselves in some difficulty.

With the Starkbierfest, however you’ll find that there is no comparable surge in passengers bound to Munich: after all, it’s a local festival for local people, so you won’t find UK-Munich flights any busier than they would be otherwise. So if you’ve only just decided to go, don’t despair: you won’t have to start hitchhiking just yet.

Air

Air travel is, in terms of time spent travelling and choice, the best option for travelling 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.

If there aren’t any reasonably-priced flights left, it might be 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) travelling to Munich on its UK website.

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 the morning, giving you a full day before the evening fun of the Starkbierfest kicks off. 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 is realistic.