A group of us spent about a week in Munich during Oktoberfest in 2009 and I could have stayed longer, but that always is the case on vacation. We also did other than Oktoberfest things. Dachau, Deutsches Museum, Bike Tour(which was free). My wife and I would like to go back for 4-5 days when our daughter is older.
You can rent Lederhosen and Dirndls if you don’t want to buy them. I didn’t rent or buy, but when we go back I will buy one….Lederhosen that is….I don’t have the moobs for a Dirndl.
I went to some of the beer tents (Hippodrom, One of Paulaners, Lowenbrau, Hoffbrau, don’t remember all of them) and the wine tent. The wine tent was more reserved and the beer tents were more rowdy. Reservations can be tough and ours were made by my friends German friend and it was for the wine tent. We didn’t drink in all the tents because if you are not seated you may not get served and we didn’t wait to get a seat. All tents we went to were a great time. In 2010 they were going to ban smoking in the tents and I’m not sure if that happened.
We actually had better times in some of the bars. The ones I remember were the Hofbrau house, the Rathskeller and this yodel bar
http://www.jodlerwirt-muenchen.net/. The yodel bar was packed, but we happened to get a table upstairs, which was great. If you go, try to get upstairs. It seemed like more of a local crowd. They were really friendly and probably the best time we had there.
Hope this helps. Cant say Im not jealous. mmmm so much Meat and beer. Have a great time.