Wurstmarkt in Bad Durkheim

It's a huge event, the biggest wine fest. Very large crowds. Pretty sure you can get a beer there. I was there when it was just the sausage festival and smallish. I think you might enjoy some of the smaller wine fests more... there are lots of nice places to enjoy a beer...

Other ideas for you:

In Speyer: https://speyer.technik-museum.de/en/

Speyer is a great town with historical sights and a Biergarten or two:

https://www.domhof.de/

Ludwigsburg: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g198389-d522081-Reviews-Residenzschloss_Ludwigsburg-Ludwigsburg_Baden_Wurttemberg.html

Pirmasens: Westwallmuseum... https://www.westwall-museum.de/englisch/

Hassmersheim: Guttenberg Castle and Falconry show... https://burg-guttenberg.de/en

Zuffenhausen: Porsche Museum... https://www.porsche.com/international/aboutporsche/porschemuseum/

I've gone the last two years, mainly because I really like Bad Durkheim and it's only 20 minutes from where I live. I usually go early and have fest food as lunch, but it really gets crowded after4pm, especially Fridays and Saturdays. Sundays it's more like the place to hang out for families in the afternoon. Most of the booths won't open before 1100, even on the weekend. It is a big fest, not Munich Oktoberfest huge, but big. They fill the same space at Christmas with the market (and the side streets) but very few tourists think about the town as a holiday destination in December.

Can you spend a day there? It depends. To me the rides are not a big deal, and I usually spend just as much time walking around the town as I do at the fest. It's better when there's a group, and you can get a table and relax. Do get out and look around the town. They have a huge "saline" which is an ancient, and effective, way to control temperature and humidity in the vineyards. There's a nice old town just up from the fairgrounds, and several truly excellent places to eat. There's a casino, a couple nice gardens, and just about every town up and down the line is very much in the wine business. It's a lot like Napa (where I also have lived).

There's beer, there's always beer in Germany. And food will range from grilled salmon, to wurst (many kinds), candies, nuts, gingerbread, ice cream, potatoes multiple ways, and a lot of it will be stuff you never see in the States. The wines are local, this is one of the biggest wine regions in Europe, and you can get it by the glass or pitcher/bottle. They also drink the schorle, which is a local thing, a half liter of wine mixed with sparkling water (think wine cooler from the 80's). It's very nice on a hot day, but can sneak up on you, which is why I never stay past 8pm. Drinking starts around 11am.

If you stay in Mannheim it's a bit tricky to get there by train, but you need to change in Freinsheim, which is another, even smaller, town worth getting off and looking at. It's still got the entire wall from back around 1200, some of which is still lived in, and it's got some good places to eat also. You also change in Frankenthal, which as a good castle if you want to climb up there. (You'll also pass Castle Frankenstein on the train).

But I recommend you not stay in Mannheim, which is an industrial type city, and can have it's problems. Your son may be better served if you stay in Heidelberg, just a few minutes direct ride on the train, as that city has a very active university night life, and tourists. Or, if you want more of a quiet place, consider Neustadt (on the wineroad), which is a direct line to and from both Mannheim and Bad Durkheim.

This is an aerial of most of the fest:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/uTR9WS3.jpg[/img]

The wine garden:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/gRUKxLa.jpg[/img]

Prices from 2023. i didn't notice much difference last year:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/SPnq3y6.jpg[/img]

Russ mentioned Speyer, and since you have some interest in music you should consider a visit there to the Technical museum. They have a large collection of working mechanical music devices, some of them a big as a merry-go-round, and a huge collection of just about anything else mechanical, from cars, to weapons, to submarines, to spacecraft. Take a bunch of 1 euro coins to run the machines.

They also have a cathedral where the large majority of the Holy Roman emperors are entombed, a museum on Celtic burials (Celts settled here about 2000 years ago), a good history museum, and one of my favorite bakeries. The best beer gardens are on the river, behind the museum, but they can get crowded, as the river tour boats (Viking, etc) all stop there.

This weekend it's Bretzelfest in Speyer. It's a large fest also, and very much a beer and pretzels thing. (They spell it with a "B" in these parts.)

We went to the Bad Durkheim fest last year, it was fun, a better selection of food available than most fests. The event has more a State or county fair type atmosphere, with the food and the rides. The wine is really the focus now, or rather the Weinschorle, a half liter glass, half wine, half soda water. Very refreshing, and deceptive (each glass is a third a bottle of wine), worth a try, even if you do not like wine. Yes, beer and other beverages are available, but usually not in the wine huts.

KGC-
Right now I have a hotel reservation in Ludwigshafen for the guitar Fest. Would you still recommend Heidelberg over Ludwigshafen? How late do the trains run? There are some evening activities at the Fest.

Thanks,
Dan

Dan, don't try changing your hotel now. Ludwigshafen is okay, but locals will tell you that, like Mannheim, there are nicer places nearby. That being said, I do go into both on the weekends every now and then.

You can take the S2, S3, or S6 back and forth from Ludwigshafen to Mannheim. Trains run almost every 15 minutes until midnight, at least. It's basically the same city, with a major river running through it, but you also cross over from the Rhineland to Hessen. Do check where you want to get off at, because there are several stops in both places, other than the main bahnhof, and the various trains don't all stop at the same places.

The S3 and S4 also go straight to Speyer; it's a 15 minute ride. The S1, S2, and S3 all go to Heidelberg. The S1 and S2 will take you to Neustadt. If you take the RE4 you're only 45 minutes from Mainz, which is a much nicer big city with a lot to see and do.

I suggest you put the Deutsches Bahn app on your phone, and Citymapper is also helpful with getting around.