Berchtesgaden and Neuschwanstein

Posted by lizthemadhatter (Minneapolis) on 08/10/17 12:15 AM

Hi Everyone!

Hubs and I are on the Alpine My Way Tour beginning September 25th in Salzburg (coming in two days early) and will be in Fussen on September 30th and October 1st. I have several questions regarding reserving tours ahead of time for these two places, as was suggested on the itinerary I received.

1) Berchtesgarden: I found a Viator tour for $65.00 per person, which received mostly very good/excellent reviews. Has anyone out there taken this tour and would you recommend it? Any other tours you'd recommend? Hubs is a professor and a history buff, and very much wants to see this. I am not crazy about this idea, but was also not crazy about visiting Dachau on our 2015 Tour. Am I glad I saw it? Yes. I found it very painful, but also very moving. I think the most important thing about travel is moving out of your comfort zone.

2) Neuschwanstein: Hmm. I found a Viator "Skip the Line" tour for $46.00 per person which received iffy reviews and when looking further into it I found that the castle is 10 minutes from Fussen by taxi - 10 Euros? And tickets for Neuschwanstein are $13.00? This makes no sense to me at all. What exactly does "Skip the Line" mean? It seems to me when I looked at the Neuschwanstein ticket site you can reserve in advance, pick up your tickets at least an hour before your tour and you're good to go - as long as you can get up the hill. Hubs is going with me as a compromise for Berchtesgaden. I want to see the castle, inside and out - I grew up a classically trained pianist who has studied the old masters, including Wagner, before I became an orchestral rock composer. I've seen a lot of posts on this forum saying that the tour isn't worth it, but it's important to me. Thoughts and suggestions?

Many thanks as always.

Liz

Posted by Barbara

Brooklyn, NY

08/10/17 12:32 AM

3844 posts

Buy the tickets on line. They are timed. If it is something you have always wanted to see, go and have a good time. We thoroughly enjoyed the castle and Füssen too.

Posted by Astorienne

NYC

08/10/17 01:44 AM

380 posts

Tours aren't worth it. Do the research and go for yourself.

Posted by Gone

not here anymore

08/10/17 10:31 AM

631 posts

Berchtesgaden:

what exactly does hubs want to see? There is the town, pretty but not historic. Kehlstein (Eagles Nest, where the tour goes) is way higher and has the views if the weather is good. The building is actually a small restaurant. Viator say they include a skip the line tour, which in this case would be more accurately described as a later in the day tour because the official one is quite early. But they also say "Learn all about the Hitler’s former retreat as you explore". That's the questionable part, although given to Hitler as a gift it was not part of his HQ and he rarely visited. It was used by US forces after the war and a few traces of their presence can be seen. There is a public tour but it's quite early and difficult to reach in time from Salzburg city . For comparison the official tour costs €29 including the shuttle bus ride, and the return ride on the regular public bus https://salzburg-verkehr.at/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/840-2017-30.pdf from Salzburg city to the shuttle bus stop at Obersalzburg (change bus in Berchtesgaden to http://www.rvo-bus.de/oberbayernbus/view/mdb/kursbuch/mdb_248702_838_17.pdf) is €13.60 = total around $50 but the 8:15 bus from Salzburg only gives a few minutes connection for the shuttle, I suppose you could get the 6:35 and have breakfast in Berchtesgaden. Without the tour the Kehlstein is open all day during the season https://www.kehlsteinhaus.de/ and the shuttle bus runs http://www.rvo-bus.de/oberbayernbus/view/freizeittipps/ausflugsbusse/eagles-nest.shtml

Hitlers real HQ, the Berghof and neighbouring tea room were destroyed at the end of the war.

For a real professor and history buff (and probably not at all for you!!) there is a historical document archive at the Obersalzburg bus stop which costs a mere €3 and can be reached easily using the public bus http://www.obersalzberg.de/obersalzberg-home.html?&L=1 The obvious compromise here would be to leave him to it and you go to the Kehstein for coffee, cake and views for a couple of hours (note when you take the shuttle bus they usually require you to specify which service you will come down on)