From Munich to King Ludwig's Castles

Zach,

I don't have any information to offer on the different tickets, but hopefully Lee or one of the others will be along shortly to provide that.

The 09:53 departure from Munich Hbf would be good, as it's direct to Füssen. When you arrive at the station, you'll have to take a short Bus ride to the location of the castles. I haven't checked the times for castle tours, but you should easily be able to take an earlier tour than 14:00. Note that there's somewhat of an uphill walk up to Neuschwanstein (or you can take the horse drawn wagon).

First, the Regio-Ticket Allgäu is not the exact same thing as the Bayern-Ticket.

"this is what the guidebook recommends"

What guidebook?

If you buy a Bayern-Ticket AND an Einzelfahrkarte (single trip ticket) for the inner zone for 2,70€/per, and leave on the 8:53 train from Munich Hbf, the Einzelfahrkarte will cover not only your travel to the Hbf by any means in Munich, but also the train to Pasing, from which the train leaves a 9 AM and the Bayern-Ticket is valid.

Thank you, Lee!

Would you mind elaborating please on what the Regio-Ticket Allgau is, and how it differs from Bayern-Ticket?

Also, any thoughts on how long I should give myself before I head back to Munich from Fussen, or should I not worry about booking that train in advance and just head back whenever I am done?

Zach,

There's a direct departure back to Munich at 18:06, arriving at 20:05. If you don't want to change trains, that would be the one to take. The schedule shows arrival on Tracks (Gleis) 27-36, which I believe are offset a bit from the main station. Standard fare is currently listed at €26.20 and advance fare at €20.00.

I'm also facing this same question, for my visit in late June. But I'm curious about something else - would it make any sense to rent a car in Munich and drive there for the day? In my case I have 2 adults, a teen, and 2 children, so I wondered if it would be cheaper than the train, and if there were any advantages, such as interesting towns in which to stop on the way.

Thanks for posting the question, Zach - I just happened to be looking into this same thing, at the same time!

Sorry, I should have read your question closer. There has always been Regio-Tickets, which were low priced ticket for round trips of less than 100 km in a Land. They are obviously nothing like the Bayern-Ticket. However, there are now some ticket like the Bayern-Ticket but for just portions of Bavaria. The Regio-Ticket Allgäu (Allgaeu) is like the Bayern-Ticket but for only the area southwest of Munich, over to the border with Baden-Württemburg (including a short distance in Ba-Wü), down to Lindau on the Bodensee, and down to Füssen, so it would work for you. The Regio-Ticket Allgäu cost 3€ less than the Bayern-Ticket for 1 - 5 people (20€ first person + 5€ extra for persons 2 - 5). Apparently regional buses are also included, so the pass will cover you for the bus from Füssen to Hohenschwangau. Note: unlike the Bayern-Ticket, the Regio-Ticket Allgäu does not cover the stretch from Memmingen to Hergatz through Baden-Württemburg.

Right now I can only find information about the Regio-Tickets on the German language side of the Bahn website. Here is a map showing the area for the several Regio-Tickets. Here is the page describing the Regio-Ticket Allgäu.

As far as I can tell, other Länder have not instituted Regio-Tickets Areas although most Länder have the 100 km RT Regio tickets.

"or should I not worry about booking that train in advance and just head back whenever I am done?" The trip is all on regional trains, so there's no advantage to booking in advanced. Reservations are also not sold (Lee, correct me if I'm wrong).

From another poster:

" and if there were any advantages, such as interesting towns in which to stop on the way." There's surpisingly little that's very interesting along the direct driving route from Munich. Just to get to Füssen, I wouldn't bother with a rental car. But if you wanted to take a more indirect way back through Austria and up through Garmisch-Partenkirchen, there's a lot more to see.

At the bottom of the page for the Regio-Ticket Allgäu is a link to Die Verkehrs-Verbünde im Überblick (the metro districts in overview) which shows the various Verkehrsverbünde in and around Bavaria. When the Bahn website says "Fares not available", it usually means that the travel is entirely within one of these Verkehrsverbünde. Knowing the name of the VV and the URL to it's website allows you to go the that website and find the fare.

Unfortunately this is part of a much larger map that shows all of the VV in Germany so the legend on the right does not directly correspond with the VV that are shown, and www. [VV name] . de does not always work. This VV map is (at least used to be) on the back of the map of rail lines in Germany (Übersichtskarte für den Personenvehkehr), which is available for a fee from ticket counters.

"... would it make any sense to rent a car in Munich and drive there for the day? In my case I have 2 adults, a teen, and 2 children, so I wondered if it would be cheaper than the train, and if there were any advantages, such as interesting towns in which to stop on the way."

I think a day trip there is usually a misuse of travel time. It takes nearly 5 hours just for the train and bus trips. Then the walk (40 minutes up, says the official site) to N'stein (which isn't a castle.) Now maybe you can shave off some transit time with a car, but you still have to spend time getting to some rental agency, picking it up, turning it in, etc. - and you're using up most of a day for a pricey 30-minute blitz-tour of a late 19th-century-private-home-slash-faux-castle.

If you're going to Füssen or Hohenschwangau, make it worth your time and money. I suggest staying overnight (or longer) and availing yourselves of some of the nice things to do in the area. N'stein has been Füssen's ticket to international tourism, but there's more...

Füssen town website