HotelChatter

Sept-Oktoberfest
For starters, Oktoberfest doesn't run entirely in the month of October. Basically, it's the last half of September and the first half of October. For the exact dates of the festival in years to come, go to the Wikipedia page.

Field, Big Field
Another thing, Oktoberfest takes place in Theresienwiese, a huge field southwest of the city center. So if you are in town solely for Oktoberfest and only plan on staying a night, you wanna pick a hotel close to the field.

The Hotel Scene
Ignore the official Oktoberfest website regarding hotels. We found that to be totally and completely useless. A good although a tad tiresome way of finding hotels is just to go to a booking site like Expedia or Hotels.com and look to see what's near Theresienwiese. Most hotels like to publicize their location to Oktoberfest in their description so you can start there.

But don't expect too much. In our opinion, Munich is lacking on the hotel side of things. You can choose between old-school luxury places like Bayerischer Hof Munich and the Mandarin Oriental Munich or random hotels that don't seem to have much going for them in terms of either personality, design or amenities. The exception would be The Cortiina yet it was all booked up during the dates we wanted to visit. This town could really benefit from an Aloft!

SPG Members Might Be in Luck
Speaking of Starwood Hotels, we will say that if you are an SPG member with points to use (or if you are looking to earn more points), Starwood has a very healthy selection of hotels in Munich ranging from a Le Meridien to two Sheratons and two Four Points hotels.

Where Else We Would Stay
Our first choice before the life partner came in and regulated with his credit card points would have been the Hilton Munich Park which sits at the edge of the beautiful English Garden and the spacious rooms have wireless internet. There's also an Italian restaurant and a pool on-site.

Bottom Line
No matter where you end up in Munich for Oktoberfest you can expect two things: Jacked-up room rates and congestion near Theresienwiese. The solutions? Obviously, credit card rewards points and public transportation.

We'll bring you the full review of our time in Munich sometime next week. Sit tight!

[Photo: Wikipedia]