in need of some serious help

[blackwintermetal]

alright, i've got a ton of questions for you english speakers out there.

me and a few friends are working on a trip to woa this year.
we were planning on renting a car and camping, but we're all 19, and it seems the lowest age to rent a car in germany is 23, so that's out.

what, then, can we do?
how can we get info on hotels and such right in the wacken area?
the closest thing we can find is hotels in hamburg, but that would seem to be a pain, going back and forth everyday.

what about the camping deal? i saw you can camp next to your car....can you still camp if you dont have a car? and if you can, what could we do with our belongings during the day?

our biggest problem is figuring out what to do once we get to hamburg.
should we get a hotel in hamburg?
how can we find a hotel closer, within walking distance or one that offers shuttle bussing (we live in america)

any information about it all would be greatly appreciated.

help some true metal warriors out!

 

[Kate McGee]

First of all: you can use the search function of this forum as there have been many threads like this before.


Okay, getting to Hamburg should be no problem. Get a nice flight and try to relax for the last time before you touch German ground...

The easiest way would be flying to Hamburg and then taking a train to Itzehoe (close to Wacken). At the Itzehoe train station there will be special shuttle buses to the festival in Wacken (and after the festival, back to Itzehoe). Perhaps you could also take a taxi...no idea... Wacken is very small, I doubt that there are any real hotels there...and if there are, I doubt that you'd still get a room there in March/April.

I would not recommend getting a hotel in Hamburg...that's terribly complicated and - believe me - after a festival day from 10 a.m. to 3 a.m. you won't be able to do much more than walk to your tent on the campground and fall asleep. Apart from this: you'd need about one hour from a Hamburg hotel to Wacken every day - so you might be in the hotel at 4 a.m. if you stay in Wacken until the last band of the day is over - and you'd have to leave Hamburg around 9 a.m. again if you don't want to miss any bands. When are you going to sleep?

Camping in Wacken really is the best option. Of course you can still camp if you have no car. There's a special area on the campground for people without cars. And you'd really miss a lot of fun and nice people from all over the world if you decided not to camp there. (Apart from this...camping is free...saves you a lot of money, compared to paying a hotel room...)

Regarding your belongings, that's always a problem for people without a car. Last year they had lockers at Wacken for the first time where you could leave the real important stuff for a certain fee. I think that's worth it. You should leave the vital things (money, passports, expensive things stuff you REALLY REALLY need) in those lockers if they offer that service again...and I guess it's OK to leave clothes etc inside the tent. Normally people don't steal anything on the campground. And some of your camping neighbors will always be on the campground...so a potential thief will, in most cases, not even dare to touch your tent. Actually I have never really heard of something being stolen...

Hmm....one thing I can recommend to you as well: Try to get to Wacken as early as the Wednesday, if possible. You'd miss a hell of a party on Wednesday, and it's much better to get used to that small town a bit already. You can also go to one of the supermarkets in Wacken and buy food etc. on Wednesday without being in danger of missing a band, relaxedly exchange your tickets for the wristbands already, explore the town as well as the food and drinks they sell at the festival, gaze at the stages (still under construction then) over the fence, meet nice people in the camp, go to the Wacken swimming pool (included in the ticket price...I think that's also possible on Wednesday)...whatever
Or just stay near your tent and wait until the jet lag is over (I have heard that a certain amount of beer helps ) (Remember that in Germany you are allowed to buy alcohol in public as soon as you're 18... )


Hope to have helped you a bit

 

[blackwintermetal]

fantastic! thanks for the information, clears alot of things up. for someone reason, like half of the site still shows up in german for me, which is why i was having trouble finding things.

can you give me a little info on the trains? i've no idea how they work/run/get paid for.

the ABC page says camping starting on wed, aug 4th, when that wed is actually the third, this is just a typo, right? the ticket page has it listed as wed the 3rd.

was i right when i found out about the car renting age being 23?
can we rent cars anywhere as 19 year olds? haha

i'm also very excited about the beer, haha. i've been wanting to try some german beer since i found that delicious beverage. how much does food and beer cost there? would we be able to like, buy a small charcoal grill there or something, or should we bring one?

again, thanks so much for the info.
this is our first time planning a vacation on our own, haha. what a place to pick, eh?



thanks

 

[Kate McGee]

fantastic! thanks for the information, clears alot of things up. for someone reason, like half of the site still shows up in german for me, which is why i was having trouble finding things.

can you give me a little info on the trains? i've no idea how they work/run/get paid for.

my friend wants to know about bathroom facilities and such on the campground.

was i right when i found out about the car renting age being 23?
can we rent cars anywhere as 19 year olds? haha

i'm also very excited about the beer, haha. i've been wanting to try some german beer since i found that delicious beverage. how much does food and beer cost there? would we be able to like, buy a small charcoal grill there or something, or should we bring one?

again, thanks so much for the info.
this is our first time planning a vacation on our own, haha. what a place to pick, eh?

ah, one more thing. can we set up camp anytime on the 3rd, or should we plan our flight arrival for a specific time that day? and whats the last day to camp? i thought i remember seeing the 8th.

thanks

They are just re-structuring the whole website...I hope they'll get ready with a good English version soon...

I can't tell you much about those trains as I've always come to Wacken by car and thus I never had to rely on those trains. I guess there are other forum users that will be able to answer that question...
Same with the car rental. I simply bring my own car.

Bathroom facilities...I'll just copy you something from http://old.wacken.com/info/info_festivalabc_eng.htm...

Showers [14] We have 4 large shower camps with cleaned toilets. This year’s W:O:A: shower towel and W:O:A: bath sheet will be handed out at the showers (EUR 2.50 per shower) and at the merchandise stall. There is a service station with info point and supermarket at the shower camp.

^^of course these towels cost extra money...but they look good.
Regarding the shower itself...there are many complaints about the water being icy cold or very hot or that people suddenly have to pay more for a shower or things like that...I have never been to a Wacken shower myself...so others will have to tell you about that.

Toilets [14] Always a sensitive subject, but then a festival is no children’s birthday party. We aim to improve things every year, so please bear with us. Clean toilets can be found in the shower camps (EUR0.50) and on the festival grounds, and there are SANI mobile toilets free of charge in all areas. Special Lady Toilets (also free of charge) are located on the festival area!

those mobile toilets are anything from good and quite clean to devastating - depends on when you happen to go there - but the flushed toilets in the shower camps (0,50 euro) and also on the festival area are really OK.
For the non-flush toilets...better bring some toilet paper.

and here's one about the...
Shuttle Service Our shuttle service will take you from Itzehoe station and back via Helion records. Please consult the Shuttle Bus Plan which may be downloaded from our Downloadsection. At irregular intervals, there will also be a service to and from Hamburg airport for a fee of EUR 3.00 per tour. Find out exact times at the Info Point.

so that's all I found about the shuttle buses.


Charcoal grill: You ought to get one in Wacken in one of the supermarkets or on the festival site itself (there's a small festival supermarket as well). The supermarkets really prepare quite well for the festival every year and they actually have anything you need. You can also buy meat there...I really recommend the turkey steaks...

The prices on the festival area...ehm...*tries to remember* what was it? I think 2,50 euro for 0,4 litres of beer or something like that. Non-alcoholic beverages aren't much cheaper.
What I can recommend to you is the honey mead and the "Wikingerblut" (mead with cherry juice - very refreshing). Costs 3 euro for a glass of 0,3 litres. Very very tasty, usually well cooled, but dangerous when combined with direct sunlight on your brain.

If you buy beer in the supermarket you'll have to pay about 60 cent per 0,5 l bottle plus a certain deposit (I think 8 cent or something like that). That's for the returnable bottles. There's also non-returnable bottles and, sometimes, cans, but for ecological reasons there's a high deposit on them. And remember that the shops are closed on Sunday (and at night of course), so if you want to have your deposit back you'd better bring the bottles back on Saturday.


The time to arrive: You CAN arrive even on the Tuesday or Monday...but they will charge an extra fee for this and the OFFICIAL opening of the campground is on the Wednesday at 8 a.m. as far as I remember. That's when I would recommend you to be there. Wednesday morning if possible, or afternoon, if necessary (well...depends on when your flight arrives in Hamburg and so on). Just try to spend as much time in Wacken as possible. and well...on Wednesday or Thursday (or Friday ) you can put up your tents whenever you want.
Normally you have to leave the campground on the Sunday. (No idea about the dates, I'm too lazy to look that up now. )



edit: the food! I forgot about the food prices! can anybody tell that guy how much food does cost on the festival site? I can't remember...

well...food is relatively expensive but it's OK (I have no idea what prices you are used to pay for fast food in the US)...and if you buy some meat for your own charcoal grill etc. in the supermarket you'll save a lot of money.

 

[Sodomy&Lust]

I thought I'd find here in this thread words like suicide attempt, depression or senseless life, but not, it's not so serious

 

[Zombi]

I thought I'd find here in this thread words like suicide attempt, depression or senseless life, but not, it's not so serious

i was hoping for gender confusion

 

[blackwintermetal]

i was hoping for gender confusion

haha, not quite. i can assure you i am of the male variety.

to kate:
you pretty much sealed the deal for us going, and answered all of our question that we were iffy on. thanks again.

as to the honey mead....we were actually discussing this amongst each other and wondering whether we could get it or not, hah.

 

[Quark]

Railinfo:
Wacken has no station.
There are 4 main stations in Hamburg (HH). HH Harburg, HH Dammtor, HH Altona and HH Hauptbahnhof. (central station of Hamburg)

From the HH Altona, there is a direct local train 20 minutes aprox. to Itzehoe, sometimes with one change in Pinneberg. Once in a while, there is an IC-train from HH Hbf-station, to Itzehoe. For IC-trains you pay a supplement. The IC-trains don't call on HH Altona, as it is a dead end station.

The station in Itzehoe is closed on Sundays. If you have to buy a ticket, you have to use a vending machine.

More info on the site of the Deutsche Bahn (German Railways)

If I'm not misstaken, I paid about €8,50 from HH to Itzehoe without supplement.

 

[blackwintermetal]

alright

long story short, can we arrive in hamburg from our flight, and go up to the station and buy a ticket to Itzehoe?

and you said the station in Itzehoe is closed on sundays? if we wanted to catch a flight home sunday, what would you suggest doing, as far as getting back to hamburg goes?

 

[Carpathian_Wolf]

alright

long story short, can we arrive in hamburg from our flight, and go up to the station and buy a ticket to Itzehoe?

and you said the station in Itzehoe is closed on sundays? if we wanted to catch a flight home sunday, what would you suggest doing, as far as getting back to hamburg goes?

If you have to buy a ticket, you have to use a vending machine[

Quark means the ticket offices are closed on sunday, but there still will be trains running from Itzehoe to Hamburg which means you can still get back to the airport easily

And yes you can. You can land in Hamburg airport and then take transportation down to Hamburg Central which should take you near to the train station, go in and buy your ticket to Itzehow and then sorted!

 

[WarriorPrincess]

There shouldn't be a problem in renting a car in Germany under 23...
I rented a car with 9 seats last year and also drove it to wacken....
Well maybe the age for renting is 21, if you can find somebody of that age....

 

[Kate McGee]

hey.....it works



anyone who can say anything about the food prices? then my task in this thread will be done

 

[blackwintermetal]

it brings a tear to my eye knowing how helpful true metal warriors are to each other.

ps kate mcgee likes smilies

 

[Kate McGee]

it brings a tear to my eye knowing how helpful true metal warriors are to each other.

ps kate mcgee likes smilies

hehe

yes she does
I'm glad that the use of smilies is not limited in this forum...

 

[LEX]

It is very hard to rent a vehicle if your under 21 any place. It's possible, but you'll have to have a major credit card and expect to pay double the decent rates. I wouldn't recommend it.
Camping rules! It's free with your ticket and you'll save lot's of money on a room you'll barely use. I'd camp then get a nice place in Hamburg (or wherever)after for a comfy day or two recovery afterwards
The food is priced ok. Last year I ate a lot of fries and garlic cheese bread and crepes they were running $2ish. Bowles of pasta were about $3 other stuff like Kabobs, sandwiches, half chicken (YUmm) etc. were in the $4-$7 range plus the market had close to normal grocery store prices it seemed.


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