going to oktoberfest from Stuttgart

Hi All!

I'm not experienced to use DB network in Germany since I find mitfahren more useful before. However, this time people strongly advice me to not to go Oktoberfest in Munich by car, since there's a huge traffic problem during the festival time.

I had a look at the train tickets and found not so cheap. Yes, there are still some tickets for 29 euro for one way with ICE but I have 1-2 friends from Stuttgart and one from Mannheim who want to come with me... I don't think that we can buy more than one ticket from this price from Stuttgart to the same train. Second, ICE prices from Mannheim are 10-20 Euro more expensive...

So I had a look at the happy weekend tickets!!!

-Is it possible to combine 2 states buying one ticket for BW and one for Bavaria?
-If yes, can I use the options (IRE, RB, RE) which takes 3.20 hours? (just 1 hour more than ICE)

-I've also heard that there is no seat reservation! Thinking the number of people who joins to festival each year, is it possible to go all these 3 hours as standing in the train? Is it possible to travel without sitting actually?

-As I understand, without depending on the area of state, all happy weekend tickets are 37 Euro. So just to confirm, this means that we 5 people are able to go Munich from Mannheim and Stuttgart and come back with 74 Euro, isn't it? (think that the ticket will be bought in Mannheim and my friend travel on Stuttgart picking us)

Danke Viel Schön im Voraus!

-Is it possible to combine 2 states buying one ticket for BW and one for Bavaria?
-If yes, can I use the options (IRE, RB, RE) which takes 3.20 hours? (just 1 hour more than ICE)
- Is it possible to travel without sitting actually?

Yes to all of your questions.

As long as you can sqeeze yourself onto the train you can travel on it, no seats necessary. Seat reservation on IRE, RE and RB trains is impossible. But you shouldn't have a big problem if you travel during the time the majority of German people are at work, it only becomes a problem after 3 p.m. when it is commuting time.

Note that if you travel on a weekday you need to leave after 9 am.

As I understand, without depending on the area of state, all happy weekend tickets are 37 Euro. So just to confirm, this means that we 5 people are able to go Munich from Mannheim and Stuttgart and come back with 74 Euro, isn't it?

If you leave Saturday and come back on Sunday, yes it will be 74 EUR for up to 5 people. If you return on the same day (ticket is valid until 3 am the next day) it will be 37 EUR.

But you need to be careful:

(think that the ticket will be bought in Mannheim and my friend travel on Stuttgart picking us)

is against the rules. You need to carefully plan your trip so it will be difficult to check.

One more thing: If you are in Stuttgart already, why do you travel to Octoberfest in Munich? You could just as easily go to the Cannstadter Wasen in Stuttgart which offers the same as Octoberfest, is held at the same time and is far less overrun with tourists.

[ Edit: Edited on 27-Jul-2009, at 04:15 by t_maia ]

Hi t_maia!

thx for quick reply! Yes I know Canstatter Fest too! I will defenitely go there at the next weekend as well However, I haven't seen Munich yet and thought it may be much more fun during the oktoberfest

I was thinking that the ticket is current during all weekend and mixing with the länder tickets, thought that it's state limited. However, now it's clear!

I guess we will buy 2 tickets since we want to stay 2 days.

Why it's against the rules? Is there any section on the ticket to write our names? If she writes our names in Mannheim and if the controller can't see us during her journey to Stuttgart, would this be a problem?

If there's no name written on it, can't she say that she just bought the ticket for her ownself?

Greetz!

Why it's against the rules? Is there any section on the ticket to write our names? If she writes our names in Mannheim and if the controller can't see us during her journey to Stuttgart, would this be a problem?

If there's no name written on it, can't she say that she just bought the ticket for her ownself?

What you have to do is the following:

Your friend buys the Happy-Weekend-Ticket in Mannheim and writes her name on it. She travels to Stuttgart on it. She gets off the train and you meet in Stuttgart at the train station. You then take the next train from Stuttgart together.

You cannot get on a train where your friend is sitting in and then travel on.

I hope my explanation was clear enough.

Have you ever been to the Oktoberfest?

me? no... why?

I only ask because I was there two years ago and for me and my friends it was so extremely disappointing. The Antwerp Beer Festivals are so much better and more organised. If you are into just drinking lots of beer (99% lager), eating very little else but sausage and sauerkraut and listening to German oompah bands then you will be in the right place.
If you want to sample beers from around the world and I mean just that, beers from Central Africa, Siberia, Bolivia, Ireland, Iceland, New Zealand, The Philippines oh yes and over a thousand different ones from Belgium, then look no further. Also the beer is cheaper and so is the vast ranges of different foods. The music is brilliant too.
I'm not knocking the Oktoberfest. We had a fine time there and got very drunk too, but everywhere we went was pretty much exactly the same with very little variety of entertainment compared to what Antwerp offered.