The Joys of European Beer Travel
Back in January I sat down with All About Beer Podcast hosts Don Tse and Em Sauter to talk about beer travel with co-guest Chris O’Leary of Brew York. The timing was fitting: I had just arrived back in Oklahoma after a 24-hour journey from Vienna and an autumn’s worth of beer travel in Europe. Over the course of the hour, we talked about what makes beer travel special, and what kinds of experiences make beer travel worth the cost and effort. You can listen to that podcast here.
Whenever I get asked to appear on podcasts, but there’s always plenty that gets left out due to time constraints. More often than not, my prep notes just collect dust in folders strewn about. But in this case, those remainders give me the opportunity to do two things:
- Share some tips on planning your beer travels.
- Introduce you to my new side gig I started up last year, Beerscapes Beer Travel, which works with folks to create custom beer travel itineraries in Europe.
Before we get into those travel tips, it’s worth taking a moment to talk about why I love beer travel, and why you probably would as well. I’ll also outline three different modes of beer travel as a means of introducing Beerscapes Beer Travel.
Mittenwald, Upper Bavaria: colourful facades, violin-making, beer hiking
Why Beer Travel?
Beer travel is like any form of travel. It can be transformative if you let it. It’s as much about discovering great beer as it is about the unforgettable experiences. Beer travel also opens your eyes to new possibilities. If you head to somewhere like Europe, you’ll get a sense of what an established beer culture looks like, with its pubs, beer cafes, beer gardens, taverns, and local festivals. And you’ll meet some wonderful people along the way. I’ve met a host of fellow travelers and fascinating people from all walks of life — all over a beer.
When it comes to a particular form of beer travel — beer hiking — what I love best about this is how the entire experience brings you up close and personal with the culture of a region. You have to make the effort to be there. You see what kinds of local economies keep regions going, from farming to forestry to small-scale logging and milling operations. You smell the smells of haying season, or the heady aromas of Alpine meadows in bloom. You meet the butchers, bakers, and cheesemakers who have put the food on your table. And you meet the families that have run breweries or taverns for generations.
As for the places where people drink — the pubs of the United Kingdom, the beer cafes of Belgium and the Netherlands, the Wirtshäuser and beer gardens of Germany and Austria — each opens a window onto local culture. These were once the centers of town and village life, and many continue to serve as venues where locals mark life’s milestones.
Different Modes of Travel
Organized tours
The advantage of organized tours is clear. All you have to do is pay the fee and show up. The folks who run these tour companies typically enjoy long-term relationships with certain brewers and breweries, which means it’s easier to get behind-the-scenes access and meet the brewers themselves. The disadvantage is that you’re locked into an itinerary, even if the tour company builds in time to explore. And since main meals are often taken as a group, you’re somewhat isolated from the culture you’re visiting. Beyond that, the costs of an organized tour might be more than you can afford to pay. If you do go this route, seek out tour operators like Stu Stuart of Belgium Beer Me Tours or Ron Smith of Beer MBA Tours. They know their stuff.
Solo travel
The obvious advantage here is that you’re free to go where you want, when you want. You can decide on a whim where you want to eat. And you’re much more likely to meet locals. But solo travel does require a modicum of planning. At the very least, you’ll need a rough outline of your itinerary. You’ll have to make your own hotel bookings in advance. You’ll also have to figure out transportation. And you’ll have to make your own brewery tour arrangements. In the end, though, what you lose in behind-the-scenes access, you gain in freedom. You can also visit many smaller establishments that don’t cater to tour groups. It’s a fair bit cheaper as well.
Custom-Crafted Itineraries / Beerscapes Beer Travel
This is a hybrid between organized tours and solo travel. And it’s a niche I fill with Beerscapes Beer Travel. In a nutshell, I put together beer travel itineraries for those of you who’d like to travel independently, but who’d also like a roadmap (or train map or hiking trail) to follow.
As someone who worked as both a tour director and tour consultant for EF Educational Tours in the 1990s, I well understand the appeal of travel experiences offered by organized tours. But maybe you want more freedom to explore. That’s where I come in.
After learning more about what kind of travel experience you’re looking for (a whistle-stop trip or immersion in a particular region), I put together an itinerary that takes you to the kinds of breweries, taverns, taprooms, beer cafes, or beer gardens you’d like to visit. I also detail hiking routes, if that’s your thing. All itineraries come with info on key cities and regions, useful tips about train routes and public transportation, along with suggestions for hotels and B&Bs. The itinerary can be as general or detailed as you’d like. I also include day-trip options so that you can pick and choose based on how your solo travels are unfolding. Get in touch with me here if you’d like a quote!
Tips and Practical Advice For Beer Travelers
Flights, Hotels, and Local Transportation
Flights: Start looking at flight prices early so you have a baseline. Use a site like Google Flights to play around with different itinerary possibilities, including arrival and departure cities. Sometimes it’s cheaper to fly into a place a bit further out from where you’ll spend most of your time and then getting the train to where you need to be. Book with the airlines themselves. This may cost a bit more, but it’s well worth it in case anything goes south along the way. And while this may sound counterintuitive in terms of cost, test out “open jaws” itinerary possibilities. For example, in the spring of 2022 I got a flight into Munich and out of Paris for much cheaper than a return flight to either of these cities would have been.
Hotels: Use your favourite site to start checking prices for various towns and cities well before your departure. I also consult the websites of local tourist offices, especially for B&Bs. Once you have a sense of where you’d like to stay and when, call the hotel or B&B directly (or see what their posted rates are on their websites). They all have to pay fees to consolidation sites like Booking.com or Kayak, so they’re often more than happy to offer you a cheaper rate. Of note: In some small towns and villages, your only option is to pick up the phone and call.
Transportation: If you plan on spending plenty of time in a particular country, look into the various rail pass options or discount cards (like the DB card in Germany or the Vorteilscard in Austria). In Germany, one of the most economical ways to get around is with the day passes that each Bundesland (federal state) offers, especially if you aren’t in a hurry. For example, the Bayern Ticket gives individuals or groups of up to five people unlimited travel on any form of local transportation from 9:00 a.m. on weekdays, and all day on weekends. The Bayern Ticket is also valid on Munich’s subways, trams, and buses.
Advance Planning
How much advance planning you do depends on your level of comfort with uncertainty. Personally, I don’t plan too tightly, with lots of wiggle room. Even so, I do plenty of preliminary research so I can keep my options open.
Books on a particular region (yes, books!) are the best place to start. So, too, are reputable blogs and websites, including Jack Anderton’s European Pub Guide, Breandán Kearney’s Belgian Smaak, or Rich Carbonara’s Beerwanderers, to name but a few. Eoghan Walsh writes a wonderful newsletter about Brussels, and I don’t know what I’d do without Boak & Bailey’s writings on pubs. You could do much worse than to consult Jeff Alworth’s Beervana blog and his Beer Bible, or books by authors like Stephen Beaumont, Tim Webb, Joe Stange, Stan Hieronymus, and others. If you can read German, there’s a wealth of beer books out there for you as well. And if not? My blog won’t steer you wrong.
If I’m planning hikes in a given region, I’ll look at local websites for the Black Forest, the Allgäu, Franconian Switzerland, or the Bavarian Woods. These often include tips for breweries or taverns in the region as well. (Most of these sites are in German.) If I’m just heading off to a region in search of beer spots I haven’t yet visited, I’ll confirm that the places are open on the days I plan to be in town. And if they’re not, there’s always something interesting around the next bend.
One last word of advice: Avoid the listicles and AI-generated junk clogging up the internet. These are as good as useless. Search out beer writers who know what they’re talking about. The folks I mentioned above are a great start.
Returning Home with Beer
Nothing beats prolonging the memories of your trip in liquid form. If you’re planning on bringing a few bottles or cans home, don’t book the cheapest flight ticket. You’ll need that checked bag. Alternatively, if you pack light (never a bad idea), just spring for a checked bag for the return portion of your journey.
For packing, I bring a sheet of bubble wrap that I pre-cut into pieces large enough to roll up a bottle, some elastic bands, and padded and leak-proof “wine jackets.” You can find these online. To date, I’ve never had a bottle break (knock on wood).
Final Words on the Way Out the Door
- If you’re traveling alone, don’t be shy. The locals want to hear your story, too.
- Leave time for other things that a city or region offers. The beer’s important, but it’s not just about the beer. Go to a museum, visit a church, drink wine if you’re in a wine region.
- Be flexible. You won’t be able to visit each and every one of your dream breweries or beer spots.
- Last but not least, be open to letting the day or night carry you where it will.
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Wishing you all a happy year of beer travels, even if that means going to a brewery or taproom in the next town over.
Related Posts
On Tap: Beer Travel and Beer Culture in the Year Ahead
Beer Travel Adventures by the Bucket
The Wirtshaus: Beer, Taverns, and Everyday Life
All images by Franz D. Hofer
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© 2025 Franz D. Hofer and A Tempest in a Tankard. All rights reserved.