Staying near Neuschwanstein Castle

Hi Jean. Just look at mapquest for your driving routes, and for a town near the castles, and check booking.com. I don't know what you consider expensive, but I checked for Schwangau and found several well rated places (don't know your dates) for around $100 / night for 2 people. Enjoy your trip!

Hi Jean,

We stayed twice at the Hotel zum Hechten in Fuessen.
About 40 minutes away in Austria is the scenic "Zugspitze Arena" area.
I've seen the town/area of Pfronten recommended before.
http://www.zugspitzarena.com/en/region/villages
http://www2.pfronten.de/index.shtml?pfen_homepage
Paul

There are several places to stay right in Hohenschwangau, the village below the castles, but they all seem on the pricey side. However, a little farther away, in villages like Schwangau and Horn, you might be able to find more reasonable places. Hint: you are more likely to find economical places if you eschew the 3rd pary booking websites and look on the Füssen website.

Pfronten is a cute little town (actually a collection or 13 (?) villages that have grown together) about a half hour drive from Füssen, with a lot of accommodations, so competition keeps the price down. If you want a nice place at a reasonable rate, I would recommend you stay here.

Maybe drive up A7 to A3 to the Frankfurt Airport and make a stop at Rothenburg ob der Tauber? Looks to be about a five and a half hour drive from Schwangau-Horn to the Frankfurt Airport. Rothenburg ob der Tauber is roughly half way.

We stayed here in Schwangau-Horn after seeing it in a German travel show that featured the food there. You can see Schloss Neuschwanstein from some of the balconies in the front of the hotel.
http://www.helmerhof.de/
http://www.helmerhof.de/en/home.html

Hi mchpp, thanks for this info; when I get our air set I'll book here. I'm originally flying into Munich prior to our tour from Frankfurt as we wanted to visit the castle. What is the best picturesque route from Munich to Fussen?
Jean

Good question. Driving gives you many choices. Maybe by Starnberger See, Oberammergau, Garmicsh-Partenkirchen/Mittenwald and all the touristic sites along the way? If you have a Navi then think about taking the secondary roads..

Well, we have a short time frame to get from Munich to Fussen, see the castle and get to Frankfurt for our tour; that's travelling East to go NorthWest. Maybe go up A7 to A3 as suggested by you earlier and stop at Rothenburg ob der Taube. This route looks like it takes us on the edge of the Bavarian area which is supposed to be nice...
Thanks again,
Jean

"We will have a car to drive from Munich Airport to the castle then on to Frankfurt & would like to stay one night near the castle.
1. Do you recommend driving this area and if so which route to Frankfurt would you drive?"

No. Your time is short. Neuschwanstein is not anyway a real castle. It's a palace built in the late 19th century. And for you it's at the wrong end of Germany. I recommend instead that you take a little detour along the "Castle Road" (which has both castles and palaces) on your way to Frankfurt:

http://www.burgenstrasse.de/uk/Castles-and-Palaces.html

Munich to Füssen drive can be as short as 2 hours without Stau. The other ways I suggested was If you had time to dally.

A7 to A3 with a stop in Rothenburg ob der Taube to Frankfurt is valid.

We always stay in Horn Schwangau. It's a beautiful area with pastures, extensive paved bike patsh, Crystal Therm spa/pool, and a view to the castles. We've stayed at both Hotel Rubezahl and Hotel Helmerhof. LOVE this area.

My wife and I stayed at Gastenaus Elisabeth in Schwangau. From the window of our room we could see the Castle and what a sight in the evening when it is lit up. Lovely room, large bathroom with shower (no tub), breakfast included, private parking. $92. per night. Our stay was May 23 or there about. Use Booking.com

Booking.com is an OK site to book accomodations, but you might score a better deal reserving directly with them
Tel: (0 83 62) 89 16
Fax: (0 83 62) 81 94 67
email: [email protected]

And for you it's at the wrong end of Germany.

Not if you are flying into Munich. And as long as you are arriving there, see something there. Don't head back to Frankfurt to see what you could have seen flying into Frankfurt.

There is nothing wrong with Neuschwanstein. It's not a medieval castle, but as long as you're not going there expecting that it is, what's the problem? It's a beautiful building and an icon of Germany. Enjoy it for what it is. The Eiffel Tower was built about the same time, and has no more significance than that it's a tower, but thousands of people go there to see it. Neuschwanstein has more similarities to a real castle, such as the Marksburg, than do a lot of so called authentic castles.

but you might score a better deal reserving directly with them

I've found by comparing deals I got by searching the town website vs a booking website that the prices are often the same (I think the booking websites try to make sure that happens). Very rarely have I found that the price from the hotel is more than the booking site, but usually not by much. When the booking sites are a lot less, it is usually a hotel with a very expensive advertised "rack" rate. More often I've found the hotel itself to be less, even for similar rooms. Sometimes the properties only offer their most expensive rooms (for example deluxe or with balcony) on the booking website, and there are less expensive rooms available if you book directly. Occasionally, I find multi-day packages with halb Pension or admissions to attractions that save money and are not shown on any booking website. But for the most part, I just find more places available on the town websites than on the booking website. For Füssen, for example, Booking.com offers 81 places within Füssen whereas the town website shows 183 places. For Füssen, there were too many places to do the kind of detailed analysis I often do for towns. These analyses always show that the additional places on the town website that are not on the booking websites are smaller, less expensive properties. I believe these places offer great bargains but operate on a shoestring and can't afford to pay the 15% commission that the booking websites demand.

Thank you all for your suggestions & views; just love Rick Steve's Forums...
Jean

Hi,

The castle was fabulous just make sure you take the path or a walk to the little bridge on the opposite side you will enter as the view and pictures are amazing on the walk and on the bridge behind the castle.

We drove the area and had no problems. There is a cute town close by I do not recall the name but you cannot go wrong. We did both castles the same day.........they are close to each other and we even took a horse and carriage up to the one which was nice.

Any thoughts on driving from Neuschwastein to Lucerne Switzerland for two days? Worth the trip. Not a bad drive at all.

If you have a chance or are going to be close by try to stop in Baden Baden (spa town) and/or Rothenburg ob der Tauber (medieval town) LOVED IT

Just got back and we stayed in Schwangau at a delightful place called the Hotel Guglhupf. It would have been hard to be much closer!
http://www.hotelguglhupf.de/
Susan