This pre-Oktoberfest is set in the charming city of Rosenheim - where there are relatively few…read moretourists - offering a more authentic cultural festival experience. Lots of rides and attractions - fantastic Bavarian food, and multiple options for seating in festival beer tents. We sat in a more upscale timber "tent" with a great band playing an eclectic mix of traditional Bavarian music and rock anthems. We ate, drank and danced all night. Would highly recommend. This pre-Oktoberfest is set in the charming city of Rosenheim - where there are relatively few tourists - offering a more authentic cultural festival experience. Lots of rides and attractions - fantastic Bavarian food, and multiple options for seating in festival beer tents. We sat in a more upscale timber "tent" with a great band playing an eclectic mix of traditional Bavarian music and rock anthems. We ate, drank and danced all night. Would highly recommend.

This is your classic Bavarian beer fest. Authentic and locally-based, with rides and amusements,…read moreBavarian food and music, real Bavarians wearing their Dirndls and Lederhosen -- and of course - lots of beer! While Oktoberfest is an over-commercialized 'Disney World' experience, Herbstfest still remains the real deal.

Frauenwörth Abbey is one of the oldest in Bavaria, founded around 782. Since then it has been run…read moreby nuns following the Benedictine order. The "second founder", Irmengard, (d. 866) was the great-granddaughter of Charlemagne and is suitably revered at the Abbey. The modern abbey includes a conference centre but is not open to the public. The Church is open, however, and worth a visit. Dating from the 10th Century but largely rebuilt in the 11th and 12th Centuries, and with later Baroque altarpieces, it is an atmospheric place, with beautiful marble tombstones (mostly of the Abbesses) and some mediaeval wall paintings. The interior has both Gothic and Romanesque elements, the best of the latter being the capitals and footings of the pillars of the main North doorway, which include carvings of fantastical animal and human heads. Standing separate is the bell-tower, visible from across the lake, painted white and topped with a distinctive onion dome.