Travel Guide to Bavaria

Planning a trip to Germany and Austria? I’ve got you covered! First, get your inspiration fix in by looking at my posts here and here and check out what an itinerary may look like for your trip. Now it is time to plan the nitty-gritty details. This is always my least favorite part of planning a trip. I am more big picture, where do I want to go, what should I do. Alas, that information is useless if you are stuck in a foreign county with no clue how to get from Point A to Point B!

When to go

Depends what you want to do! You MUST go to Oktoberfest once in your lifetime, so I highly recommend going at the end of September. Yes, September, Oktoberfest actually ends the first weekend in October, so the majority of it is not even in October despite the naming. The festival lasts for two weeks. The weather can be hit or miss given it is fall. I had days of upper 60s and sunny, while other days it was chilly and cloudy.

If you want good weather for site seeing, summer is your best bet. Summer is my favorite season to travel around Europe because you can count on good weather wherever you go, which makes walking and being outside in my opinion way more enjoyable. That being said, of course this is high season making it the most expensive time to travel to Germany and Austria.

A main draw to go in the winter months is to see the Christmas markets! While I have never been, the pictures I have seen from fellow travel bloggers on Instagram look gorgeous and has definitely earned it a spot on my bucket list.

Germany and Austria really just otherwise follow the normal Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter pattern lol. For a more in-depth guide on the weather in Germany visit here.

How to get there

If you are flying from the States, I would do some extensive research on how get a cheap flight. A lot of it is just manual work, entering in destinations to see what the price is and then see how difficult it is to get to Germany or Austria from there. For instance, I wanted to fly into Munich during Oktoberfest from LAX. It was $960…so that was a no…but if you search around London was in the $500’s, there were some good flights to Amsterdam, and other airports in Germany. Getting a cheaper flight with a long layover can actually make for a fun mini-detour.

I ended up picking to fly into Stuttgart, which I honestly hadn’t even heard of before flying there. I just searched nearby airports to Munich, that one popped up and it was $200 cheaper than flying to Munich and only a 2 hour train ride away – easy, sold. If you are going over Oktoberfest, I would buy a flight as soon as you can. Some people think that buying later is cheaper, but I have never found this to be the case. It always seems to keep rising! I’d book at least 6 months in advance.

How to get around

There are several ways to get around Germany and Austria. You can rent a car, which makes for an ‘activity’ in itself because hey, no speed laws and fast highways!!

Otherwise, public transportation works great around Bavaria. One of the best ways to cover longer distances is the Bayern Pass. This pass allows you to do unlimited travel in the day at a fixed price. It is generally much cheaper than buying train tickets for specific routes, especially if you are not travelling alone. There is a caveat that you can’t take the early morning trains which is a little annoying, and it does seem to take you on the longer routes, but regardless it is a great value, making travel incredibly affordable.

If you don’t plan on using this pass, I would try to look up and purchase train tickets for your route in advance. I personally didn’t do this, so I can’t give recommendations on how much money you could save, but I will say, buying train tickets last minute at the train stations, there were ticket prices over 100 Euros for one-way 2 hour train rides. No thank you!

In bigger cities like Munich, you can get around by underground metro, trolleys, bus, foot, and even Uber (but that is slow and expensive). I highly suggest for all of your travel around Germany and Austria, to download the ‘DB Navigator’ app. You can put in your starting destination and where you would like to go, and it tells you ways to get there. This was a lifesaver! You can even by train tickets from the app directly and not have to try to keep track of a physical ticket.

If you are going on the route of Salzurg to Bertesgaden, I would follow this guide. It is super helpful in what information and what bus routes to take for this journey. Ended up saving a lot of money by buying the unlimited pass for the day.

Where to stay

For Munich, you should stay as close to Oktoberfest as possible, assuming you are there during Oktoberfest time. Trust me, even a 20 min walk home after a full day at the fest will seem like a maze. Most Airbnbs will advertise if they are in walking distance to the fest as that is a huge advantage! This is really key to booking early. I booked 6 months in advance and was able to get a Airbnb flat for under $250 a night, in walking distance to the fest. If you are not in walking distance, make sure you are close to a metro station, which again should be advertised as a selling point on the Airbnb host’s page. For reference, a 2 person flat at $250 per night, in walking distance to Oktoberfest, is a steal during this time.

Outside of Oktoberfest time, you can be more flexible in where you stay. I would just try to stay as close to the main restaurants and city as possible. You can do the ‘map’ view on Airbnb and see where the Airbnb is in relation to attractions. You can also do hotels, I would check both and see what is cheaper. I personally found Airbnb to be less overwhelming and cheaper for Munich.

For Salzburg, the city is pretty small. I found Airbnb to be less prevalent and in worse neighborhoods with some crime, at least according to many reviews. You can get much closer to the city center and in a desirable neighborhood by booking at a hotel. I personally stayed at the Star Inn, and found it satisfactory for a few nights stay. It is decent enough (especially since you are never in your hotel) and in a great location for the price. It was around $100 per night.

For Stuttgart, I did an Airbnb one night and I did a hotel another night. Both were perfectly satisfactory and both around $100 per night. For whatever reason, the two different dates I stayed in Stuttgart, for one Airbnb was a way better deal, and the other night, a hotel was a better deal. Always check all your options! It can be time consuming, but it is the best way to find a deal in an ideal location! I stayed here for hotel in Stuttgart.

What to eat

Get ready for some traditional Bavarian food consisting of lots of meat, dumplings, and gravy! Food in Germany feels like it is Thanksgiving every night, I love it. I complied this list based off various travel blogs and what the most common / popular places were, so you don’t have to do all the research! Also, there are TONS of street food at the festivals all around Bavaria around the time of Oktoberfest, so I would fully take advantage of that, if you can. It is very cheap, fun atmosphere, and outdoors.

As far as the restaurants, I would make sure you are a tad on the early side, have a reservation, or have a back-up plan to your restaurant of choice. It seemed like there was always super long waits at places that we ate at. One way around this, is to be OK sitting at a community table. Sometimes, you may even have the community table to yourself. So even if the restaurant says they are full, make sure you ask about community seating! Also, a lot of the food options, that I list below, are beer halls, which also makes it a great place to drink, obviously!

Stuttgart

Food options: Weinhaus Stetter, Triple B Burgers, Carl’s Brauhaus, Weinstube Froehlich, Schonbuch Brauhaus

Drinks: Mata Hari, Biddy Early’s, Swarz-Weiss-Bar, Schocken

Salzburg

Food options: Augustiner Brau, Barenwirt, Gasthaus Zwettlers

Drinks: Watzmann, Murphy’s Irish Pub, Sternbrau Lounge

Munich

Food options: Viktualientmarkt, Hofbrau, Koniglicher Hirschgarten, Schneider Brauhaus

Drinks: Zephyr bar, Kilians Irish Pub

What to wear

For Oktoberfest, you should wear a traditional lederhosen (for guys) or drindl (for girls)!!! Buy a nice one, at least 100 Euros, or you will look out of place. NO costumes from Amazon, you really must wear the traditional outfit. You can buy the outfit pretty much anywhere around Bavaria, and especially Munich. I personally bought mine at an authentic German store in LA before my trip, but unless you happen to live in LA, I would wait to get the outfit until you arrive in Munich.

I will say, it was pretty 50/50 on people wearing the traditional Bavarian outfit and just wearing normal clothes. It is kind of crazy, but Germans just wear their outfits to work, grocery shopping, etc. like it is just another normal outfit. Pretty cool! So, whether you wear the outfit or normal clothes, you will fit in. But if you are going ALL THE WAY to Munich for a once in a life time Oktoberfest trip, do it right! Wear the outfit!

Outside of Oktoberfest, it just really depends on the season. For fall, I just wore jeans, sweaters, scarfs, etc. Just normal outfits! I don’t think I need to explain what to wear in Europe otherwise haha.

How much to budget

If you are going during Oktoberfest, I won’t sugar coat it. It is not a ‘budget’ destination. Rooms skyrocket, flight prices increase, and influx of tourists rush to Munich. To give some perspective, around SIX MILLION people are in Munich during the two week Oktoberfest period. Munich’s population is only about 1.5 million!!! 6 million people is more than the whole population of Denmark, packed into one city! Although, I actually thought the city did a pretty good job of being spread out and not feeling too crowded.

Anyways, my point is that prices go up a lot during Oktoberfest. I would aim to stay in Munich 3 nights max to save money. You are looking at around $300/night during this time. Outside of Munich, Bavaria is very cheap for 3 star hotels or Airbnb. You can easily get by on $100 per night in the surrounding area. To be honest, outside of flight and hotel, Bavaria is actually pretty cheap. Even at Oktoberfest, in US dollars beers average out to 5 or 6 dollars. Most fairs in the US charge $15 for just one beer, so really a great deal. Food is also relatively inexpensive. Even though food and drink is cheap at Oktoberfest, sheer amount of time at the fest and doing rides start to add up. Which I highly suggest not cheap-ing out on this part.

Budget for week long trip per person, assuming you are on a trip of 2 and can split lodging costs (during Oktoberfest):

Hotels in Munich (3 nights) – $450

Hotels outside of Munich (4 nights): $200

Getting around: $100

Tours and activities (e.g. Neuschwanstein Castle): $100

Oktoberfest (2 days): $250 (yes over $100 per day…5 liters of beer, some carnival rides, meals, and snacks later, you will see why)

Food outside of Oktoberfest: $300 ($40ish/day – I really think food is pretty cheap. Eat breakfast at the hotel or a bakery for a few euro, have a light lunch for less than 10 euro, often times street food, and a more sit down dinner for around 20 euro)

Drinks outside of Oktoberfest: $200 (this totally depends on you! Beer is very cheap and when you are in the beer capital of the world, well you do indulge 😉 )

Flights: $800 (totally depends where you are coming from. I recognize LAX is pretty cheap compared to a lot of the West Coast. But then again, East Coast is even much cheaper. I would still expect to front a pretty chunk of change for the flight)

In total, I think you should budget around $2,000 to $2,500 for this trip. Take out Oktoberfest, you can save a couple hundred dollars on the fest costs and on higher rates on hotels.