Neuschwanstein castle

The tour is 25-30 minutes to see the inside then out you go! You can hike and walk around the Castle, down to the lake, etc.

The 30-minute tour of this late 19th-century residential palace with a faux castle exterior (not a genuine castle) will eat up most of your day, one way or another, and put you in touch with lots of your fellow tourists. Here's a piece from Germany's "PBS" - Deutsche Welle - that may lend some insight into what a visit might be like.

http://www.dw.com/en/is-neuschwanstein-all-its-cracked-up-to-be/a-17887035

There might be better ways to spend your time and cash in Munich or on other outings. But IME this is the sort of advice most people just brush off.

I'm going to agree with Russ on this one. My wife and I were in Germany two weeks ago and made the trek all the way out to Fussen for this very reason and it ended up being our least favorite day and experience. Your time at Neuschwanstein will be filled with bus after bus of pushy, tourists who care little about you or personal space. You'll pick your tickets up at the ticket center (even when you reserve tickets, prepare to stand in line, just not for nearly as long as everyone else) and then scramble to get up the hill where you will find a number of tour groups (groups enter for their tour every five minutes) gathered, watching the video board with the next three tour group info. Once inside, you'll join a rather uninspired tour, moving from room to room when the group in front of you moves to the next room on the agenda. 25 minutes in will find you standing just outside where you can make the hike up to Mary's bridge or back down the hill. We met another couple towards the end of our tour holding a RS book who agreed with us, that the entire experience was a big waste of a day.

No matter what you decide to do, I hope you have a wonderful trip. We found Germany as a whole to be just incredible.
RF

We did a group tour with another company that had originally included a visit to the castle. About two weeks before we departed for Germany, we received an email that the castle was no longer a part of their tour. They cited the long lines, time wasted for the ride to the castle, etc., but long story short - we didn't see anything except the exterior.

We DID walk down to see the lake and some possible descendants of Mad Ludwig's swans. As far as seeing a castle, at this point I'd say you've seen one, you've seen them all. The swans were cool, but not worth an entire day's trip to that area.

BUT if it's important to you to see the castle, then I'd see about doing a tour that goes down there. It will save you time on standing in line, etc.

Have a wonderful trip! Munich was one of my favorite cities!

"As far as seeing a castle, at this point I'd say you've seen one, you've seen them all."

My wife feels the same. I've visited roughly 25 different European castles and palaces, but I still have 5 or 6 more definite must-sees on my bucket list. I never tire of them. (But then my castle/palace-filter travel partner makes sure I never see too many on a single trip, heh.)

I should have mentioned that as a substitute for Neuschwanstein "Palace" (as it's dubbed in German) you might consider a visit to Nymphenburg Palace. It's a fabulous place with several satellite palaces, swans, a carriage museum, a porcelain museum, a huge park, and lunch options too. It's that Mad King Ludwig's birthplace. And... the round-trip tram ride from Munich's main station takes less than 30 minutes. So you could spend 2-3 hours seeing this place and still have lots of time for much more sightseeing that day. See the following link for official Nymphenburg information.

I did enjoy my visit here. I thought it was different than other residential palaces I have visited. The guided tour was quick, but I liked seeing inside. I also enjoyed walking the grounds. I went on my own, not on a tour. I was staying in Fussen, so we were able to get there very early, and the lines to get a ticket weren't long at all. You can walk up to Neuschwanstein or take a carriage or it seems like one other option. We took a carriage up, and the line for that was big and a little pushy. We walked back down and that was fine. I did not tour Hohenschwangau. If you do this on your own, I would expect this to take most of your day.

Do it on your own. If you get to the ticket office at about 10:15, then perhaps 30 minutes in line to get your reserved ticket, 60 minutes to get up the hill. Then maybe some delay to get the English tour. 30 minutes for the inside tour. I liked taking the horse carriage down the hill ( half the cost of going up ). You could probably make a 2:00 pm train back. Trains run every hour.

We hired a private guide from Garmisch Partenkirchen for the day. He got our tickets, managed our time to make the most of the day, told us the whole history of King Ludwig (he was the BEST story teller) which made everything we saw more interesting, and managed to clear out the best picture taking spots so we didn't have any tourists in our shots (and took our photos so we could both be in them). Grabbed us a table for lunch (he knew the good places, and the ones to avoid), and ate with us (he knew all the workers so we got great service). After he brought us to an Alpine coaster in Oberammergau (and bought our tickets for that) where we took a ski lift up, had a beer, then to the coaster down. It was the best day of our trip thanks to him. We felt like we spent a day with a friend...money very well spent.

Thank you all for the advice, I have a lot to think about now! If I decide I am not very interested in touring the interior of the castle, is it possible/worth it for me to still go up to the castle base and observe the views? Is there a ticket that excludes the interior tour? Also, is it worth to visit Fussen and just take in the views of the castle and the surroundings/hike around the area by the lake?

Ticket is for the interior tour. You can walk around some of the exterior without any ticket.

We debated over this for our upcoming trip in July. We decided to plan a trip. We're taking the earlier train (8:53 - combining Bayern tix with MVV tix) and touring the castle around 12:30. If the weather is nice, we will walk over to Tegelberg and ride the luge, etc. as well. If the weather is truly awful, we can always skip the whole thing and do something in Munich instead. That's the beauty of the Bayern ticket.

Personally I would pass altogether on that trip. Once you finally arrive there the tour is a guided one. Very limited and staged in that you are not free to roam around the place.

I did a comprehensive tour of King Ludwig's castles last year, and Neuschwanstein was my second-to-least favorite. However, I don't think I could have been deterred from visiting, so here's my advice if you do decide to go:

Definitely visit Hohenschwangau while you're there. It's directly across from Neuschwanstein. The guides were far more engaged, there were far less tourists, and there was actually some real history here.

Perhaps take a walk around the lake. I did, and it was one of my favorite experiences in Bavaria. It's beautiful, and you may not pass another soul while you're out there.

Then, if you have the time and interest, ditch the castle area and head back down into Fussen proper. I absolutely loved walking around this old town.

So many people on forums are down on group daytrips, whether a bus/train to distant sights or tours around town....I've done four with Evan Evans out of London (the best was Windsor Castle/Bath/Stonehenge), two bus day trips from Edinburgh, and last summer I did five in a week with Radius in Munich (city tour, beer tour, and 3 bus trips: Dachau, Nuremburg and Neuschwanstein Castle). People think all they do for the money is get you there. Well, while the transport makes the day convenient and less stressful (maybe even get some shut eye on the ride...and especially if compared to renting a car or figuring out train schedules) but what you are really paying for is the tour guide's expertise....and, usually, sense of humor. These companies are a great way to see -- and learn about -- where you go. Yes, as others said, it's a fairly long day of travel for the 30-or-so minute tour the castle offers. But I enjoyed the day. Try it.

When we lived in Munich I took several guests to Neuschwanstein and here is the combination that seemed to work best:

Rent a car for the trip that morning and return it that evening. This goes against most logic for Munich and Bavaria but I found it was the best way to get the most out of the day as you can hit several spots on the way there or back to get more out of your trip. These extra side trip are not as easily done with public transport or a tour bus.

Start early in the morning, pack a picnic lunch, and drive via your favorite Alpine route (I liked going via Kochelsee, Walchensee, Garmish-Partenkirchen) to Schloss Linderhof for a brunch break. Continue on which ever route you choose to Füssen arriving noonish-2pm, picnic lunch and tour the castles. Done with tour by 4pm and head back to Munich via Wieskirche for another brotzeit snack break.

Yes this is a long day but after a lot of trial and error with taking family members and friends to Füssen this seemed to be the most popular. Just going to the castles and back left a lot of people feeling a little disappointed.

DJ

Hi DJ: Would you do this route? Munich to Fussen to see castle (is there somewhere to stop & get a good photo of it)? Also, if it's not worth touring inside the castle, it is worth the walk around? then drive to Zugspitze - Garmisch-Partenkirchen and back to Munich the way you drove down to Fussen?
Thanks,
Jean