Trip to Germany

I hope this is the right forum for this post...

My Dad is interested in visiting Germany. His Grandparents immigrated from their, and he has become friendly with a distant cousin in Germany. He knows my interest in beer, so he has proposed a trip to Germany during Octoberfest.

If you spent 10-14 days in Germany, what beer related sites would you make sure to visit? Anybody been to Octoberfest? Advice?

I think a side trip to Belgium might be a good idea as well.

Thanks.

Bamberg and Franconia. Düsseldorf.

I can't comment on Oktoberfest.

If you are going to Octoberfest then you will be in Bavaria so you should sample as many of the local Weitzens as you can! While in Munich check out the Hoffbrauhaus.

Octoberfest is OK I guess, but you have to fight for a seat and there are a lot of drunk and feisty people around. I have been to Germany many times for business and I always had the most fun hanging out in the Biergartens if the weather permits or finding a small pub to hang out in. There are a ton of small local breweries in Germany so every town seems to have something different to try.

Spartan is on point, Bamberg is a must. 9xbreweries w/in the city limits alone.

I would also suggest Nurmberg, Reggensburg, Rottenburg, Salzburg
and if you've got time, you're three hours-ish from there to Prague.

I always wanted to see the city in upper bavaria pop's side is from. Not to mention,take my tuner with us & do a few hot laps around the nurburgring. Last I saw,it was like 10 marks per lap though. The 1st race I ever watched with "real race cars" was the German grand prix where Fangio won in '57.
Good beer,good food & some hot laps would be fun I think.

Cologne for kolsch is a must do too. Be sure to get a rail pass so you can cover lots of ground in a short amount of time. Pick 2 or 3 places to get a hotel near the train station. We would be up at 7, walk to the bakery for coffee and pastries. Then off to ride the train. From Hamburg, Cologne, Dusseldorf and Bremen are easy trips. etc Each town has pretty good public transportation making drinking and getting around safe. And most of the cool stuff is near the main train station in each city.

Depending on what you like to do, you can ride a bike out into the country from Bamberg and hit some small local breweries We recently did this and hit 4 breweries during a 12 mile ride. Out Nürnberg, you can take the train to Weißenohe and do the Fünf-Seidla-Steig. It's a 9 mile hike (one way) through 4 villages and visiting 5 breweries. Then you can either walk back or take a bus to the train station. It's a lot of fun if you like hiking.

Spartan1979 said:

Bamberg and Franconia. Düsseldorf.

I can't comment on Oktoberfest.

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This is pretty much my German beer experience, and I can second all of the recommendations. Franconia is one of the few places where real-deal farmhouse breweries still exist. There are guides that will tell you how to hike through the countryside and visit several of these breweries in one day. This link (randomly found) will give you an idea of what is in store. I can't think of a better beer tourism experience.

If you want something like Oktoberfest without the hoards of tourists, think about going to Erlangen for Bergkirchweih, which happens around Pentecost (50 days after Easter) every year. Easy day trip (20 minutes by train) from Bamberg.

Duesseldorf is on the other side of the country, but a night of drinking Alt is a must if possible. Cologne is a lovely place to spend a day, and close to Duesseldorf.

Thanks for all the great ideas. We will definitely research your ideas.

I talked to my dad today. We are already reconsidering Oktoberfest. Neither of us like crowds.

Thanks again.

In Germany I would recommend Munich for sure although most people don't realize that you can only get beers from the 6 breweries in the region. Lowen Brau, Hof Brau, Augustine, spatan etc. Food there is amazing to at the different beer halls and its pretty decently priced.

Oktoberfest is a blast, but busy. Munich is great anytime. Stay a night in Freising(most Munich airport hotels are here). Weihenstephener is in this town, worth visiting. Town also has a small town brewery. If history, dachua is a train away and is one of things you will never forget. You could head south to the badensea, cool lake on the border. Look for tadensee beer. Skip Frankfurt. If you like history, Nuremberg is interesting. The parade grounds are a site. Bremen is a cool town, tons of history, they were a city state. Berlin is one of my favorite cities. If you are here, head to KDV, a crazy 6 story store with awesome food and beer. I would say skip the romantic road towns, tourism towns and cheesy. If you make it to Belgium, Ghent, Antwerp, brudge are all cool places. Enjoy.

Prost

Honestly just go anywhere. Try to go to some small towns and try those beers. Most small towns with more than 10k people will have their own brewery. These will mostly be standard fair lagers, but they are still tasty. It's kind of crazy because their distribution areas are sometimes less than 100 sq km, but they are able to support 20-30 people's jobs.

Nuremberg (Nuernberg) or Bamberg is interesting because of the smoke beers (they are right next to each other).

Cologne for Kolsch (interesting facts: they will continue to refill your glass until you put a coaster on top of it. The glasses are about 0.2L. The waiters at least used to pride themselves on being rude)

Munich of course for Maerzen, Helles and Dunkel.

Dusseldorf for some Alts.

As someone else mentioned, you wouldn't be far from Prague or Pilsen, so maybe go check out the birthplace of pale beers.

Don't bother with octoberfest unless you like crowds. There is too many fest in Germany to come all the way here for octoberfest. I would do barvaria for sure, Dusseldorf is on my list (I love alt), hit up bamberg, come here in early sep late aug and enjoy good weather and beer gardens.

A lot of people rule out Oktoberfest... it IS crowded, but it's not necessary to spend a lot of time inside the tents. At age 43, you wouldn't catch me in a tent on Friday/Sat nights, but middle of the week, not so bad. You can always sit outside the tents and have a beer with many strangers. The outside is usually tamer and you can find seats. If you've never been, I'd consider it.

Bamberg only has 2 rauchbier breweries (unless there's a new one), those are Schlenkerla and Spezial. They are about 1km apart on foot, a 15mn walk. Personally I've never cared much for Special, but it's still worth a visit. The other 9-10 breweries in town mostly all serve the similar line up of beers (Helles, Weizen, Dunkel, etc). They're all very good.

MC