After just 3 quick days in lovely Stuttgart, Germany, we hopped an early morning train to Munich. If you’re following along in your calendar, late September in Bavaria can only mean one thing: Oktoberfest! They tapped the kegs without us, but I did my best to help empty them. There’s so much to see and do in the area that we spent 5 nights in this city, tied for the most of any city on our entire trip. Read on for my Travel Hack Recap: Europe, Part 8 – Munich below!
Full disclosure: I’m not sure how many parts this trip will be split into. Ninety days of continuous travel was a huge undertaking on our part! Documenting the details has been daunting enough for me to procrastinate nearly 6 months to start doing so. But I’ll do my best to share the highlights and travel hacks along the way!
Travel Hack Recaps of Europe so far:
- Europe, Part 1 – Baltic Sea Cruise
- Europe, Part 2 – Baltic Sea Cruise (Part II)
- Europe, Part 3 – London
- Europe, Part 4 – Edinburgh & Dublin
- Europe, Part 5 – Paris
- Europe, Part 6 – Brussels & Amsterdam
- Europe, Part 7 – Stuttgart
Where We Went
The first thing to note related to our activities through most of this European extravaganza is that we pre-booked a lot of tickets weeks, if not months ahead of time. Given the precarious nature of COVID-19 throughout the world at the time, most attractions were open but requiring advance booking for a specific time slot.
This had its pros and cons: a designated time slot meant guaranteed admission and minimal time waiting in lines, as well as reduced crowds; however, our flexibility was greatly reduced by being locked in to nonrefundable tickets with a particular entrance time. All in all, I’d say the pros outweighed the cons, but note that your experience may be different than ours depending on the restrictions in place.
Day 1 (Day 39 of the trip) – Stuttgart, Germany to Munich, Germany
We woke up early and hoofed it to the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof for a 7:15am train. Once aboard, we were surrounded by Germans and foreigners alike clad in lederhosen and dirndls. Feeling underdressed but undeterred, we disembarked about 2 hours later at Munich Hauptbahnhof. Our home for the next two nights was just across the street: Aloft Munich. We saved a boatload of cash booking these nights with points, as you can imagine central Munich during Oktoberfest is in high demand. Not only that, but the hotel was conveniently located within walking distance of the festival grounds.
Oktoberfest
Following the jovial crowd, we walked less than a mile and arrived at the gates of the Theresienwiese, site of Oktoberfest since 1810, around 11am. Important note: you do not need to arrive at Oktoberfest this early. The festzelte are massive and you likely won’t have trouble finding a seat for several hours after that. Arriving this early may lead to your demise later on (speaking from experience).
We entered a few of the gigantic beer halls and marveled at the festive decorations. This was Cannstatter Volksfest on steroids. And as I stated in my Stuttgart post, I was in heaven…the Heaven of Bavaria, perhaps.
As you can imagine, the rest of the day was quite a blur. We left the Hacker-Pschorr tent and entered another (couldn’t tell you which one). The night wore on and the crowds got bigger. At our table with cozy seating for 10, we met groups from all over the area: southwest Germany, Austria, Switzerland. I did my best to practice my German with them, which I was complimented on (likely thanks to the beer), and they were excited to practice their English with us.
At some point, the live band switched over to a DJ and the crowd became younger. We sang at the top of our lungs, a mixture of German and American hits (who doesn’t love “Sweet Caroline”?). Caught up in the conversation and overall atmosphere, I made the ill-fated decision for one too many beers and Mrs. FIby35 guided my drunk ass back to the hotel.
Day 2 (Day 40) – Munich, Germany
Our second day in Munich was intentionally light, as my hangover lasted well into the afternoon. Mrs. FIby35 enjoyed a morning walk around town and I joined her later on for a trip to Nymphenburg Palace. The former summer residence of Bavarian rulers, Nymphenburg Palace was built in the 17th century. The grounds were expansive and well-manicured, though a rainy day kept us inside the palace for the audio guided tour (~$8 admission each).
After the relatively brief palace tour, we returned back near our hotel, had dinner at a traditional Bavarian restaurant and called it a night. The rest of our days in the area were packed with activities.
Day 3 (Day 41) – Munich, Germany
Sandemans Walking Tour
As we had done in several cities to this point, we joined a free walking tour of Munich on day 3. Braving the rain, we passed by the important landmarks of central Munich: Marienplatz, the Royal Residenz, St. Peter’s Church, and the home of Hofbrauhaus brewery. We returned to Hofbrauhaus after the tour for lunch and entertainment by a traditional German polka band.
We wandered the soggy streets of Munich for a while before switching hotels. Since our central Munich activities were complete, we moved to the Moxy Munich Ostbahnhof at a cheaper rate. We stocked up on stacks at the nearby market and went to bed. Two consecutive days of trips outside the city awaited us.
Day 4 (Day 42) – Day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle
Since it was near the top of our sightseeing list, we prebooked tickets for Neuschwanstein Castle months in advance (~$18 each). Through some research, we learned of an awesome transportation hack to get where we needed to go at a discount: the Bayern-Ticket.
The Bayern-Ticket
If you’re traveling around Bavaria, this may be the single greatest cost-saver you’ll find. For just 29 Euros at the time of writing, you get unlimited use of Deutsche Bahn local and regional transit services for an entire day. It even stretches outside of Bavaria, as we purchased it again for the next day to travel to Salzburg, Austria.
But wait, there’s more! Additional travelers don’t cost another 29 Euros each – you can add up to 5 travelers for just 10 Euros each, and up to 3 children between the age of 6 and 14 travel for free. This can be a huge money saver for families or larger groups. The main exclusion is that you can’t use the high speed ICE trains, but there are still plenty of other options available.
We mapped out our routing to the castle near the town of Hohenschwangau. As you can imagine, this is a well-worn tourist path. From our hotel we walked to Munich Ostbahnhof, where we took a series of trains to Munich Pasing station and on to the town of Füssen about 2 hours away. Because we left ourselves plenty of time, we meandered Füssen for a bit and grabbed a quick breakfast at a cafe. After returning to the train station, we took Bus #73 the 5 minutes or so towards Neuschwanstein Castles and Schwangau. Since we already had our tickets to the castle printed, we left the bus stop in Hohenschwangau and began the steep walk uphill towards the castle.
Neuschwanstein Castle
Like our other days in Munich, the weather was quite foggy and damp at the castle but we trudged on. There were options for horse-drawn carriages up the hill, but we opted to hike the paved road ourselves. Though we didn’t get the breathtaking, Cinderella-style views you’ll see if you Google images of Neuschwanstein, it was still pretty cool.
Our prebooked ticket was for entry at a specific time, which was well-coordinated in the courtyard of the castle. First, we hiked a short ways to the Marienbrücke, a suspension bridge overlooking a huge gorge. If you’re afraid of heights or the uneasy feeling of the bridge moving beneath you, you can skip this part and stay in the queue for the castle.
Construction on Neuschwanstein Castle started in 1869, but the mysterious and untimely death of King Ludwig II resulted in the castle never actually being completed. Even now, broad swaths of the castle’s interior are plain and unfinished. Its location, perched atop a mountain with cliffs all around, doesn’t lend itself to much wandering around the grounds as in other royal residences we had toured, so the overall experience at the castle itself is minimal. I’m sure the views from the balcony on a clear day are magical, but I don’t think I would need to visit the castle again.
Once our tour ended, we retraced our steps back down the mountain to the Schwangau bus station, back to Füssen train station, and returned to Munich. Despite the popularity of the site, this was one of the more complex travel days of our entire trip. Big shout-out to Google Maps and the Deutsche Bahn Bayern-Ticket for simplifying our instructions and lowering the cost.
Day 5 (Day 43) – Day trip to Salzburg, Austria
The following day we dipped our toes into Austria, taking the train to Salzburg on the edge of the Alps. Again using the Deutsche Bahn Bayern-Ticket, we rode the hour and a half from Munich Ostbahnhof to Salzburg and immediately set out for some Austrian-style coffee and cake. We were in luck, as Café Mozart had piping hot coffee, Sachertorte, and a cozy atmosphere.
Sufficiently caffeinated, we followed the Rick Steves audio guide through the streets of Salzburg’s Altstadt (“Old Town”). Though the architecture is a bit stark and bland, we appreciated the overall refinement of the town compared to the chaos of Oktoberfest and Neuschwanstein Castle the previous few days. Having passed by the touristy landmarks (Mozart’s birthplace, Salzburg Cathedral, Mirabellgarten) we stopped at a local pub and then boarded the train to return to Munich.
Day 6 (Day 44) – Munich, Germany to Berlin, Germany
With a late afternoon train, we slept in and restocked on snacks for the 4-hour ride to Berlin. We had plenty more sightseeing on the docket for the capital city of Germany.
How Much We Spent (and Saved)
Let’s take a look at the Travel Hack Recap spending breakdown for our 5 nights in Munich. I should note that during our entire 3 months in Europe, the US dollar was extremely strong. The exchange rate with the Euro was at or near 1:1 for much of our trip, so everything was at a bit of a discount compared to historical exchange rates.
Spending in Munich (and Salzburg):
| Category | Budget | Actual | Notes |
| Flights | $0.00 | $0.00 | |
| Accommodations | $0.00 | $0.00 | 80,000 Marriott points (2 nights at Aloft Munich); 60,000 Marriott points (3 nights at Moxy Munich Ostbahnhof) |
| Food/Drink | $410.00 | $337.16 | All the beers at Oktoberfest |
| Entertainment & Misc | $93.00 | $71.39 | Neuschwanstein Castle, Nymphenburg Palace, walking tour guide tip |
| Transportation | $204.00 | $130.50 | Stuttgart-Munich train; 2 Bayern-Tickets to/around Neuschwanstein and Salzburg; U-Bahn trips within Munich |
| TOTAL | $707.00 | $539.05 |
Not too bad for Munich, as we saved money on transportation with the Bayern-Tickets. Huge savings by using points to book our hotels as well.
Total savings from travel hacking:
- 2 nights at the Aloft Munich would have been $1,156.
- 3 nights at the Moxy Munich Ostbahnhof would have been $1,055.
Even excluding the savings of walking or taking public transit instead of Uber/Taxi/Rental car, we saved over $2,200 by travel hacking this leg of our trip to Europe in Munich!
Conclusion
As I said in my post on Stuttgart, I really do miss Germany. Munich had a much different feel than the more straight-laced Stuttgart, though the experiences at Cannstatter Volksfest and Oktoberfest were highlights of my life thus far. Apparently all it takes is a stein or two of beer and I’m willing to spout my broken German to anyone who will listen. The scenery outside the city of Munich was also beautiful as we neared the Alps, and visiting Neuschwanstein Castle was a bucket list item for us.
On the financial side, we continued to spend less than expected. I cannot overstate the importance of travel hacking to be able to see the world for a more reasonable price. Five nights in Munich during Oktoberfest for free! Those memories at that price can’t be beat.
Up next: Berlin, Germany. Los geht’s! (“Let’s go!”)
Attending Oktoberfest was an experience of a lifetime for me – do you have any similar experiences you’ve done or are still on your list? Comment below!
