Hotels near Marienplatz and the Rathaus-Glockenspiel

Marienplatz is the busiest square in Munich in an ordinary week, and during Oktoberfest it becomes the staging ground for the whole festival. This is where groups in Tracht meet before heading to the Theresienwiese and where they come back through afterwards. Going is still right; the hour just matters more here than anywhere else on this list.

The Rathaus-Glockenspiel in the tower of the Neues Rathaus chimes at 11:00 and 12:00 every day of the year, adds a 17:00 performance from March to October, and runs a separate evening show at 21:00 with the night watchman and the angel figures. It has 43 bells, is solar-powered, and works through six music cylinders that rotate across the year. The city does not publish an official duration, though performances commonly run somewhere around 12 to 15 minutes. It stays silent all day on Good Friday. Watching costs nothing.

The 17:00 chime is the one to skip during the Wiesn, since it lands squarely inside the Oktoberfest window with the square at its fullest. Take the 11:00 chime on a weekday morning instead, or the 21:00 evening show, which muenchen.de notes is quieter and less widely known.

Pro Tip: Be in the square by 10:50 for the 11:00 weekday chime; by 10:58 in late September the clear sightlines to the tower have gone. If an evening is all you have, take 21:00 over 17:00 every single time during the festival.