With Munich’s Oktoberfest ending recently, I was curious to find out about other places around the world that would be worth visiting in the future to see their take on the festival.
I had been actually reading into the best places to go for Oktoberfest around the U.S. initially. Kim and I were hoping to visit an American Oktoberfest this year. However, between the festival dates and not finding decent pricing (with either miles or cash) to get us to one of the cities, it just wasn’t meant to be.
While we won’t be attending one of the big Oktoberfest’s around the world this year, I have quite a few ideas of places that I’d love to check out in the future.
I read a bunch of articles with lists of best Oktoberfests around the world. Many of them had similar locations listed. For the purpose of this post, I’ll be including USA Today’s Top 10.
Here is the list of USA Today’s 10Best: Oompah! Oktoberfest Parties Around the World:
- Munich, Germany
- Blumenau, Brazil
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Denver, Colorado
- Canberra, Australia
- Hong Kong
- Kitchener- Waterloo, Ontario
- Tulsa, Oklahoma
- La Crosse, Wisconsin
- Big Bear Lake, California
This list surprised me a bit. It was interesting to see 5 cities from the U.S. in the top 10 and no other cities from Germany included besides Munich. I would’ve expected to see other events going on around Germany.
Have you experienced Oktoberfest around the world? If so, where did you go and what was it like?
Find out more about each of the Oktoberfests from USA Today’s 10Best here.
Tyler- That does make sense but I know that there are some smaller Oktoberfests (Berlin and Hannover). Would like to hear about some of the other festivals you’ve been to in Germany!
Gene- Thanks for the recs! We really like Erdinger beer. Didn’t know that they hosted a festival. We were thinking of checking out Bear Mountain’s event. Glad to hear it is worthwhile.
Points With A Crew- I’ve heard that Cincinnati has one of the best US Oktoberfests and would love to check it out at some point. I can’t see a beer event being much fun unless you are drinking! 🙂
Not surprised to see my hometown of Cincinnati on there – we have a really big Oktoberfest celebration here. I’ve been once or twice but because I don’t drink, it’s not particularly exciting for me 🙂
A few favorites:
– Cannstatter Volksfest in Stuttgart (major festival like the Wiesn but not quite as crowded, more of a local feel, fewer tourists)
– Erdinger Herbsfest (small festival, late August/early September so fantastic weather and excellent beer)
– Lantana Oktoberfest (in Lake Worth, FL hosted by the American German Club of the Palm Beaches)
– Oktoberfest at Bear Mountain, NY
The reason you don’t see any others from Germany is none of the other festivals are called Oktoberfest. In Germany there is the original and that is it. However, they do have some other amazing parties my favorite being the wurstmarkt in Bad Durkheim which is the largest wine festival in the world.