Munich is an artist's haven with galleries, live music and markets, not to mention over-sized beer halls.

BBC: The classic Bavarian road trip

Plus, Munich is filled with huge, historic beer halls and gardens which you can visit outside of the fairgrounds.

FORBES: There's Still Time to Get to Oktoberfest!

Their haunts include smoky yakitori (grilled chicken skewers) stands crammed under the Yamanote Line tracks and raucous beer halls, like Beer Lion.

BBC: Seeing Tokyo along the Yamanote Line

During the festival, participating beer halls keep shorter hours than in Oktoberfest to account for the potency of the beer served in the one-liter ceramic steins.

CNN: Munich's other beer festival

Mark Spitz and Olga Korbut grabbed the headlines while the atmosphere around the Olympic village was so relaxed that off-duty athletes, returning from late nights in Bavarian beer halls, could often be found climbing into the complex over the low chain-link fence.

CNN: Olympic memories: Munich