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Time required for Neuschwanstein

Posted by (Indiana, US) on

Hi all,
I have booked my tickets for the 12pm tour at Neuschwanstein Castle on Dec 10th. I will be taking the Flixbus at 8:20am from Munich Central Bus Station (reaches at 10 am) and then the shuttle up to the castle. My plan is to cover Marienbrücke first (assuming it is open) and then walk towards the castle (reach the entrance at 11:30 am). I don't intend to cover hohenschwangau. So I had a few questions:

  • How long would I need to explore Neuschwanstein area completely? Is this something I can do between 10 am and 11:30 am? Or do I need to spend additional time after the tour? I don't want to rush things, so I am okay staying back after the tour, but just wanted to plan my trip out accordingly. I know the tour itself is for 30 minutes, not sure how much longer it would take to explore the rest of the area

  • I read that the queue is pretty long for entering the castle and you have to wait quite a bit for the 12pm tour since it is one of the few tours offered in English. Is that the case even after you have your tickets booked?

  • I haven't booked my trip back on the same day to Munich yet. The Flixbus returns back at 5pm, but that's quite late. When I looked at Google Maps, everything shows 3h+ using public transportation. I was thinking of leaving around 1-1:30pm, if that looks reasonable. Any suggestions on alternative routes to get back faster? (not driving)

    • Edit: I would have a D-ticket. Would the public transportation on the way back be covered under this? I know the Flixbus isn't but I wasn't sure of the other buses

Thanks!

Posted by
8166 posts

You can take the many options using the train back from Fussen to Munich your D-Ticket covers that
https://int.bahn.de/en

I visited about a week ago but just the outside including the famous view from the bridge of Neuschwanstein.

I got there at 10 am and departed at about 1:30.

Posted by
526 posts

Since you will have already done The hike up to Marienbrücke, you’ve seen the most interesting thing outside of the tour itself. Maybe hike/ride down and take the bus to Höhenschwangau. IMO, that’s a more interesting place anyway. You do get a discount buying together.

I don’t remember the queue being overly long; especially if u have a timed ticket

Posted by
61 posts

My wife and I spent the day at Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau back in September, if I remember correctly, it was September 19. We had the D Ticket too and boarded the bus at Fussen next to the train depot. The bus driver looked at our ticket and said we were fine, come aboard. Although you'll be there in December with snow probably, we had a nice weather day. From where we were dropped off, it was about a 15-minute walk to Neuschwanstein. We took the tour. BTW, I don't understand why folks say the tour is not worth the time or money, to us it was great, about 45 minutes or so, and the guide was great and very informative. We also went across the bridge to get some pictures, that was about a 10-minute walk for us, kinda uphill/downhill but not too bad. We also went to the Hohenschwangau as well.
If you are not taking going over to the Hohenschwangau, and just hanging out around Neuschwanstein and Marienbrucke I would think an hour and a half would be fine, really depends on the weather too.

Back in September there was quite a few folks awaiting to tour Neuschwanstein, but we noticed with the reader board they have, things went very smooth and fairly quick. Just get there about 20 minutes to a half hour before your allotted time. And yes, you have to stand and wait for your group number to tour even if you purchased your ticket ahead of time.

I'm not sure on the bus schedules as we took the train arriving in Fussen, stayed the night and used the next day for the castles.

The return trip from the castles back down to the town of Fussen was wild! When the bus arrived people just ran for the bus, and crammed on, it was a nightmare, and several of the older folks that couldn't walk good where literally pushed to the side. We did happen to get on but had to stand for the 10- or 15-minute trip back to Fussen. You probably wont have that experience. But it was actually dangerous I thought for the people to run and cram the bus. I thought pretty disgusting.

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