Alps End of Summer

[phatty]

I'm heading to Munich for work at the end of September again and am looking for suggestions on where to spend the weekend. Previously I went to Garmisch - Partenkirchen and last year to Innsbruck. I generally try to stay within a few hours drive from Munich. Mostly looking for interesting history and good alpine hiking/via ferrata. Will be there Friday to Monday morning.

Was looking at Salzburg as an option. Maybe stretch it to the Dolomites. Any great towns to hit? Mags have never steered me wrong.

[Svengali]

On Saturday, September 17th, the Schottenhamel tent is the place to be, if you want to catch the official opening ceremonies. At noon, the Mayor of Munich will have the honor of tapping the first keg of Oktoberfest beer. Once the barrel has been tapped, all visitors will then be allowed to quench their thirst. It pays to arrive early in order to experience the festivities up close and personal and it's quite common for visitors to come around 9 am to secure good seats. The festival will last until October 3rd.

[phatty]

Yeah, we go to Oktoberfest as part of my trip to Munich.

[Tippster]

Pro-tip: Augustiner tent. Best beer, lowest squid percentage (ie drunk Americans, Scandinavians, and Aussies.)

For a trip out of town maybe go check out the Eagle's Nest in Berchtesgaden or check out the Achensee area of Austria. Both close to Munich. Keep in mind the border into Germany is once again closed so it will take you a while to get back if you head into Austria.

[phatty]

Pro-tip: Augustiner tent. Best beer, lowest squid percentage (ie drunk Americans, Scandinavians, and Aussies.)

For a trip out of town maybe go check out the Eagle's Nest in Berchtesgaden or check out the Achensee area of Austria. Both close to Munich. Keep in mind the border into Germany is once again closed so it will take you a while to get back if you head into Austria.

I was wondering what the border situation was like right now. I was able to get through no problem last year but figured that would be different now.

[Tippster]

I was wondering what the border situation was like right now. I was able to get through no problem last year but figured that would be different now.

One of my best friends lives in Munich and skis every weekend in Austria or Italy. He said driving back takes about 1.5-2hrs longer now.

[abraham]

One of my best friends lives in Munich and skis every weekend in Austria or Italy. He said driving back takes about 1.5-2hrs longer now.

Holy shit. Last fall I did a business meeting just outside Munich, drove to Graz and had another meeting in the afternoon. Long day, but pretty much dealing with truck traffic and that's it.

[GoldMember]

One of my best friends lives in Munich and skis every weekend in Austria or Italy. He said driving back takes about 1.5-2hrs longer now.

I was just in Italy then Switzerland, no issues at all. When last in Italy/Austria/Germany in 2012, there wasn't any kind of border check...what the hell happened? I thought EU pretty much guaranteed virtually no border issues.

[phatty]

I was just in Italy then Switzerland, no issues at all. When last in Italy/Austria/Germany in 2012, there wasn't any kind of border check...what the hell happened? I thought EU pretty much guaranteed virtually no border issues.

It's Syrian refugees. Austria is not as open as Germany and is not allowing refugees. Slows down border crossing for everyone.

[klar]

I was wondering what the border situation was like right now. I was able to get through no problem last year but figured that would be different now.

It is not as bad as Tip is making it sound. For you, the relevant border crossings would probably be Kufstein/Kiefersfelden on the Inntal Autobahn (A12) and Walserberg near Salzburg on the A1. At these crossings, there may or may not be a thing where the police block one lane and stand there watching cars slowly go by. Depending on how much general traffic there is (holidays, weekends, a shit ton of people from munich leaving austrian ski areas in the evening, rushhour etc), this causes traffic jams. I have rolled through without delays more often than not recently, gone around a couple of times on major holiday travel days.

Controls at crossings that are not on the autobahn are rare, with a couple of exceptions on obvious routes people take to avoid the Walserberg traffic where they check occasionally. All of this is the german police checking on people coming into germany. they don't actually check passports or anything like that (presumably unless they think you look like a refugee) , so really what you are dealing with is more traffic than usual. you will not have issues going into austria from germany. you may have controls coming into austria from places that are not germany, italy, liechtenstein or switzerland, i.e. the eastern borders.

The border situation is annoying at times but will probably not affect your trip, unless you manage to drive into a traffic jam on one of the two autobahn locations mentioned above (I would try to avoid the autobahn in holiday traffic anyway), or something big changes. Both Achensee and Berchtesgaden (also has a lake) are nice, as Tip said. Achensee-Munich is an example of a crossing where I have never seen nor heard of anyone having to deal with border controls. Both Achensee and the Berchtesgaden area have nice hiking, Berchtesgaden has more history, mainly of the Nazi kind. You could do nice 1 or 2 or 3 day hiking loops around Berchtesgaden/Könisgsee, starting at Hitler's holiday home.

edit to add: Salzburg is pretty in a sound of music and mozart memorabilia kind of way, it can get crowded and the old town is really rather touristy. hiking and general outdoor stuff is easy to get to and plentiful. If you are going in that direction you could maybe also look at the hallstatt & dachstein area. dachstein has several long via ferrata opportunities hat would definitely have an alpine feel. The dolomites are really, really beautiful and have a bit of a different kind of scenery that what it sounds like you've seen. worth a trip but maybe better with more time?