Advance Tickets for Neuschwanstein

During that time of year, reserving a ticket probably won't save you much time. In case nobody else explained the procedures for visiting, I'll do that here... You buy your tickets for the castles in the valley. The line at the ticket booth is usually not the rate-limiting step, because the tickets assign you a time to visit the castles. Depending on how many people visit on that particular day, you may get in on the next tour, or you may have to wait around for an hour or two.

Because you also want to visit the Zugspitze, and weather in the Alps is always capricious, I would err on the side of flexibility and not purchase advanced tickets.

There are two lines at the ticket kiosk in Hohenschwangau, one for reserved tickets and one for walkup purchase of Neuschwanstein tickets. I was there just before Labor Day, and there was no wait to pickup reserved tickets. There was a serpentine line for Neuschwanstein tickets, but it lead to multiple counters and was moving along. It was just before noon, and they were booking Neuschwanstein for about an hour later.

See my webpage for more info on Fuessen and the castles.

I was just at Neuschwantein last weeke and made advanced ticket reservations. It doesn't cost anything to make a reservation, but here's what happened:

Our reservation was for 11:40am and we arrived at the ticket line at 9:30am with no line to buy. We said we wanted to by the tickets and we got a better time in of 10:40. The ticket agent said that our reservation will automatically be cancelled.

If we used our reservation tickets, there was an fee (not sure of exact cost, around 8euros). If you do not arrive for your reservation time, you lose it. However, it was packed around 11:30 and there was a long time to buy.

My suggestion, make reservations, show up early and see what your 2 options are. (You can find the website by Google) I recommend touring both Neuschwantein and Hohenschwangau.

To heck with Google. The website for Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau tickets and reservations is www.hohenschwangau.de. You can get English by clicking the British flag.

Everyone,

Thank you for all your help. Lee, thank you for taking the time to include the photos. It's great to see exactly where to go and what landmarks to look for.

I think we are going to wait until we arrive to get our tickets. We are staying about an hour away, so we probably won't get there until the afternoon anyway. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we will get two beautiful, autumn days for our visit to the area.

Thanks, again.

Dave

We just returned from Germany and Austria after 3 weeks in September.The tickets are available close to the castles,there is no need to purchase ahead of time.I would not go to Neuschwanstein again because it is a steep walk up and coming back down,the tour is about 20 minutes long and you get to see five finished rooms.I would go to Hohenschwangau only.It is just like going to Disneyland,crowded with a lot of cars and tour buses.Happy Trails