Castle tours Germany, Austria

• Burg Eltz
• Marksburg

These medieval castles have stood as they are for many centuries and are close to each other, not far from the Rhine River city of Koblenz. Tour both! Airports nearby include Frankfurt and Cologne/Bonn.

And if you wish to STAY in a castle, Auf Schoenburg Castle in Oberwesel - just south of Koblenz - can help with that.
https://www.hotel-schoenburg.com/en

Wow, Thank you so very much, Just starting to plan. Mark

One of my favorite castles is Harburg in Bavaria. I'm pretty sure there is a part of the castle with overnight rooms, and I believe they even have a bridle suite. I'll try to find our more about it and get back to you. Harburg is between Donauwörth and Nördlingen, on the Romantic Road.

The website is in German, but you can get a translation by right-clicking on the page (at least in Chrome).

Two favorites in germany are
Hohenzollern - sits high up on a hill-
and Linderhoff palace (more a villa than a large castle)

I like Russ's suggestions. I've toured both. If you have to make a choice, I did like Burg Eltz a bit more.

I also really liked Hohenschwangau in Fussen. Its newer, maybe 1800s? Fully furnished, the family lived there, and the tour was excellent. We learned a lot about the Wittlesbach as well as the castle. (Neuschwanstein, is across the street. Walking up to it and viewing the outside is about all I'd recommend for that one. It is quite grand, but was never lived in and barely furnished)

The most leisurely way for castle-lovers to take a tour is on a Rhine River Cruise... a DAY-cruise that takes you past 40 castles in the 40 very scenic miles of river between Bingen and Koblenz:

https://www.k-d.com/en/product/nostalgia-route/

It's marketed as a round-trip cruise of 11 hours (uggh) from 9 am to 8 pm, but the sensible way is to cruise one-way, starting at the south end (Bingen, or Ruedesheim just across the river) and cruise north (downstream) which allows you to cover the 40 miles in just 3.5 hours. Once in Koblenz, use the train to return or to move on to wherever. Note that this cruise does not operate on Mondays.

If you want an even shorter cruise, I'd recommend Bingen/Ruedesheim > St. Goar (1.5 hours, covers the most intense scenery.) You can move on from St Goar by train to whatever destination you have in mind.

https://www.k-d.com/en/product/ruedesheim-loreley-tour/

In English, the word "Castle" is used very broadly. The Germans see two distinct types of building, and they use different words for them... Schloss (built in recent centuries for royalty - what we'd sometimes call a palace perhaps) and Burg (built in the Middle Ages for defense against invading hordes.)

https://seetheworld.travelforkids.com/visiting-germany-with-kids-castles-burg-or-schloss/

So some of the suggestions you are getting are for the Burg type (Marksburg, for example) while others are for the Schloss type (Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau, for example.)

Germany has Schlosses all over the place. Burgs are usually in ruins; those that remain intact (Eltz, Marksburg) are far fewer in number than Schlosses.

Thank you for all that replied. Mark

Russ, I do like the separate descriptors for castles used by the Germans. Its always been curious to me as to what constitutes a palace vs. castle, etc. The Germans often are more precise.

There are some great, non-bombed old castles near Frankfurt. In Kronberg there is a Staufen Castle and between Büdingen and Gelnhausen there is Burg Ronneburg.
Both have the furnishings from the time periods they were built. Ronneburg has many festivals, Christmas and Easter Markets, and falconry show.
https://www.burgkronberg.de/
https://burg-ronneburg.de/en/

On an actual guided tour or on my own exploring : in Germany: Neues Palais in Potsdam, Schloss Hohenzollern in Sigmaringen an der Donau,

Schloss Babelsberg in Babelsberg next to Potsdam, Schloss Paretz outside of Potsdam,

In Austria: Schloss Schoenbrunn (Vienna, ), Schloss Linz in Linz.