Stuttgart, Germany: Cannstatter Volksfest with the kids and without,Tubingen, Hohenzollern Castle, the Porshe Museum, & more

One of the most amazing things to happen to a military family is to run into other military friends on our travels. There are military bases throughout Europe and if our friends happen to breeze through southern Italy, they visit and stay with us.  If we happen upon their overseas base, we hang out and stay with them. It’s SO nice to see familiar faces.  We have quite a few friends living in and around Stuttgart, Germany and we wanted to make the most of the experience by seeing our friends and attending the annual beer festival with them, Cannstatter Volksfest. 

The carnival at Volksfest

Why did we choose Stuttgart's Volksfest over Munich’s Oktoberfest?
First of all, having friends in Stuttgart was a big perk. It made it so that we could bring the kids to Stuttgart to take part in a family trip, but we could have a trusted babysitter watch the kids while we partake in the adult portion of the festival.
 
Second of all, I truly do not have a desire to go to Munich’s Oktoberfest simply based on the reviews of a good amount of friends (more than a handful). The friends of mine that have gone to Munich, have had a wonderful time, but they tell me it’s full of tourists and extremely crowded. In some tents, you can barely move.  To me, that’s not nearly as fun as what I had heard about Stuttgart’s Volksfest. Volksfest translates to 'the people's fest' in German.  It’s mostly locals from nearby villages celebrating at the festival.  It’s known to be fun, but not nearly as crowded.
 
Having friends that travel often really helps us to narrow down locations and figure out the good and bad of the locations that we plan to visit. 
 
Our plan for this trip was to:

1. attend Volksfest one day with the kids
2. see the Porsche Museum
3. tour a German castle
4. shop in a cute German town
5. attend Volksfest with adults.

 
**Insider tip:  Many of Germany’s museums and castles have a family ticket at a discounted rate that includes some sort of audio or guided tour. It’s a great way to save money and get more out of the experience. I love that they promote family fun in this way! 

Cannstatter Volksfest is Kid Friendly
Believe it or not, these festivals are very family friendly, especially during the day.  They have a large carnival with countless rides for kids. There may be beer tents and beer gardens galore, but there are also just as many booths of great carnival food & desserts, and there’s live music. It’s so very lively and fun and the rides are VERY nice for a carnival. They’re much more of the caliber of rides of an actual amusement park in the U.S. and not the run-down, dingy looking rides found at fairs and carnivals. It’s truly impressive.
 
We bought our little boys some costumes online and spent our first day enjoying the fest with them. They rode the rides, ate giant bratwurst off the grill, and enjoyed desserts.  The boys walked through the whole of the carnival inspecting the desserts to decide which dessert they wanted the most.  It was a tough choice!!  After much deliberation, Roman picked a candy apple & Gabriel picked cotton candy. The whole experience at the carnival was EXPENSIVE!!! We are always trying to save money to travel as much as possible, well, we were really shocked to see that the rides varied from about €2/person/ride all the way up to around €6/person/ride depending on the ride (that converts to $2.20-$6.60/ride).  That adds up quick, my friends. 

** Insider Tip:  While we were there, they advertised that Wednesdays are half-off rides for kids, but we weren’t there on a Wednesday, so if you’re planning a trip there, plan to be there on a Wednesday if you’re with the kiddos. We spent around €120 (approximately $132) for rides, lunch, and a couple of beer steins for our day of Friday fun. You could spend a fraction of that on a Wednesday!
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The Porsche Museum
I have 3 boys, so seeing one of the German car museums was something that made the top of the list.  We had the choice of Mercedes-Benz or Porsche and the boys chose Porsche.  They had a family ticket for €20 for the whole family that we bought right at the entrance, as there was no line, and we all had audio equipment to listen to a commentary in English at each of the points along the museum. We learned how the Porsche began, the evolution of the company, and got to see their best models throughout history. It was very educational and fun for the whole family....it helps that Porsche cars are super sexy and they were exciting to learn about.  There were over 80 vehicles, the building looks very futuristic, and the exhibition area is over 5600 sq meters.  The boys also received interactive books that really helped engage their interest throughout the museum.
 
Inside the museum, we saw advertisements for children’s birthday parties, driving experiences, and a dealership.  We meandered to the dealership after the museum and the boys all drooled at the cars for sale. =)  Needless to say, they all fulfilled one of their dude fantasies by learning more about the amazing Porsche. The museum itself is very high quality, engaging, and something we all recommend.

Hohenzollern Castle
Germany is known for a great many things....bratwurst, beer, sports cars, mustard, pretzles, Reilsing, castles, etc.  Since we had fulfilled our dreams of Bratwurst, beer, and sports cars, it was time to see a German castle.  Hohenzollern castle is about an hour drive south of Stuttgart, in what used to be Prussia, and was built in the 19thcentury.  The family ticket was €28 and included a guided tour by a man very passionate and knowledgeable about the castle’s history.  No photography was allowed inside the castle and we had to omit our shoes and wear giant slippers....by not wearing our shoes and not taking photos, the castle is better preserved. I wish Italy had more rules like this to preserve their incredible history.
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The truth was that the castle was beautiful and we greatly enjoyed the tour.  Be aware that many German tours skip over World War 2 and this tour was no exception. The gentleman eloquently went through the entire history of the castle and skipped the history of WW2 entirely.  The elephant in the room, you may wonder?  We still had a great time.  It was worth the hour drive to experience the beauty, the view, and the history of the castle. The boys particularly loved the armory that was full of swords, armor, and other weapons from times past.  

Hohenzollern Castle

Tubingen, Germany
One of my friends that lives in Stuttgart recommended that we visit a town called Tubingen. Tubingen was SOOOOO cute!!  It was a university town full of cute, picture perfect German buildings, shops, restaurants, a 15thcentury city hall, and a late-Gothic church. This town was everything adorable about Germany in one little town and was my personal favorite thing to tour.....I could almost feel that I was in the pages of Hansel & Gretel.  I bought homemade eggnog for Christmas-time, they had every type of Schnapps available for purchase, as well as shops for trinkets, souvenirs, & decor.  Being a university town, the restaurants were reasonably priced, diverse, and excellent. 

Charming Tubingen

​Adult time at Cannstatter Volksfest
Our friends that live in Stuttgart bought a table for all of us and we paid them back when we arrived for the festival. Tickets run around €50/person for a seat at an assigned table with 1/2 a chicken, and 3 liters of beer for each person. It’s truly great value.  THOSE BEERS ARE ENORMOUS!!!
 
You really should dress in Dirndl (for women) and Lederhosen (for men), even if it’s a costume and cheap. No one cares what you’re wearing, but nearly everyone is dressed up.  It just adds to  enjoying this German cultural experience. I bought mine on Amazon (believe it or not, the brand is straight from a smaller vendor dirndl.com and of excellent quality) for about $100 and $125 for my husband's because his is genuine suede.  There are costume versions of the Dirndle and Lederhosen that look great, as well though, so don't feel like you have to break the bank to look fab.  Another option is to buy them at the festival. They have an area at the festival with vendors, but we came with ours already purchased.  The festival is also a great place to buy accessories. They have necklaces, purses, scarves, shoes, socks, all the things.

This is very important information:  If you are a woman and go to one of these festivals, while married, it is important to tie your apron to the right side of your waist.  If you are single, tie it on the left.  This signals your marital status to others at the festival.
 
We left our friend’s house with our kids in the capable hands of a hired sitter, after a filling breakfast, and jumped on the train to the fest. Our table reservation wasn’t until 11:00 am, so I was wondering why on earth we left their house at 8:30 am. It’s not that far to the fest??  Well, I found out very quickly when the train ran late, then people packed in so deep that we were smooshed up against the glass for half of our train ride in. No personal space, everyone in full Dirndl & Lederhosen, and people were already drinking (it was 9:00 am by this time).  Once we got off the train, all the other trains and buses were letting off and people were streaming in from every direction. We barely made it to the tent at 11:00 am.  

**Insider tip:  You can only buy advanced tickets if you buy seats at a whole table (10 seats), but there is plenty of room for same day ticket purchases for around the same price/person.  If you do buy same day tickets, buy them at the beginning of a session.  For example, our table reservation was from 11:00 am – 16:00 pm. The tent wasn’t even half full at 11:00 am, so you have a better chance early in the session.  The area near the stage seems to be the rowdiest. Use the Volksfest website to purchase tickets in advance.
 
**Insider survival tip: If the beer is too much and too strong, you can order a non-alcoholic beer or a Radler, which is a 50/50 mixture of sparkling lemonade and beer. 
 
Regardless of what you drink, drink slow, eat, and enjoy every moment! There’s live music, constant toasts, dancing, jumping, laughter, and all while standing on long wooden benches. Tell the people around you when you’re getting down from the bench to go to the bathroom so that they don’t all fall over when the weight distribution changes! Germans are fun!!  We laughed, danced, learned German songs, sang American songs, met new people, let loose and had a blast.  
 
The table was only ours from 11:00 am – 16:00 pm.  After this, everyone leaves the tents and parties in the carnival area, which is also full of beer gardens. I can’t imagine how they get on carnival rides after, but it happens. We left around 15:30 to jump on the train back to our friend’s house. It’s very crowded to leave when everyone else does, so keep this in mind. 
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 Overall, this is a once in a lifetime experience I highly recommend.  We checked all of the boxes on our German bucket list and absolutely adored our time in the country. It has been one year since this Stuttgart trip and we’ve already been back to Germany, as a family, twice. From mountains to cities, festivals to castles, I highly recommend a trip to this beautiful country.  Its rolling hills certainly remind me of my home in Pennsylvania. I may be enjoying every moment of my time in Europe, but my country is never far from my heart.

Next post:  Wroclaw, Poland: Dwarves, Perogies, Gross Rosen Concentration Camp, Aquapark, Polish Independence Day, & more.

German Currywurst

Gabriel after the fest

The black eagle - a symbol of Prussia

Weisswurst & a pretzel