Bavarian home base

there are many little villages along the way from Munich to neuschwanstein, esp. when you're very close to the castle you should find plenty. farmers in these villages rent cheap rooms with breakfast. there is a pretty big lake nearby, or you can bike or hike around the castle. it's under half an hour to fussen and you can day trip to munich.

Reserve your tickets online for the castle. Also, considering the age of your children, ride up and walk down: take the horsedrawn carriage up the hill to Neuschwanstein. The queue for the carriage can be long but I think worth it and you still have a short walk after exiting the carriage.
My kids enjoyed walking on the walls of Rothenburg and in Munich playing minigolf and running around in Olympic Park.

"We'll have a car, since the farmhouse will probably be outside any walkable distance to a train. " Don't count your distances before you find the Bauernhof. Remember, there are usually buses in the area that fan out from the train stations. For instance, if you stay at Gutshof zum Schluxen (www.schluxen.com, a farm accommodation in Reutte recommended by Rick), it's a quarter of a mile walk from the Pinswang Gemaindeamt bus stop, which is between the Vils and Reutte bahnhofs, 10-25 min by hourly bus. It's probably worth your trouble to try to find a Bauernhof close to public transportation. You can save a bundle if you avoid having to rent a car. If it were I, I would look for a Bauernhof near the town of Pfronten (www.pfronten.de). Pfronten is in the same valley with Reutte, just to the west, over the border in Germany. During the day, there is more than one bus an hour from Pfronten to Füssen, which is about ½ hr away. You can go to Munich via the Ausserfernbahn, a train line run by German Rail that goes through the Tirol to Garmisch-Partenkirchen and on to Munich. Look at the Pfronten website under Übernachten (overnight) and then Gastgeberverzeichnis (host list). I counted 9 Bauernhof. One was a horse farm, one said they had cows and sheep. Most are on or near the bus line that goes through town from the Steinach Bahnhof to the Ried Bahnhof.

We're actually looking for apartments in farmhouses, and I'm only finding one on the Pfronten website, and it only has one apartment. I'm hoping for something with at least 2, so there'll be other kids there for my guys to play with. I'll keep looking. We actually get a great deal on the car through my husband's work, including insurance, so it doesn't cost that much. We're figuring out a train/car combo so we only have the car for the short trips in Bavaria and not the longer hauls around Germany.

All nine Bauernhöfe listed in the Gastgeberverzeichnis have "apartments", only the Germans call them Ferienwohnungen (vacation apartments or sometimes FEWO). Ferienwohungen generally have a living area, sleeping areas, and a kitchen nook, and rent for longer periods than rooms, but not by the month. One Bauernhof shows only one Ferinwohnung; another one has one FEWO and some double rooms. All of the rest have multiple FEWO. The real question is how close to the bus line they are. Why does one Bauernhof choose to call one of their Wohnungen an "appartement"? Not sure, but they indicate that the "appartement" has a combination living-sleeping area, not a separate bedroom. Maybe that's why. As for your boys playing with the other kids, you must understand that Ferienwohnungen are the traditional accommodations for German families. The other kids are not likely to speak English.

In any resort area in Germany, there is an additional "kurtax" added to your daily room rate. This tax goes to pay for things like the tourist information office, the reservation service, and the website. You'll find these in Mittenwald, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, or Füssen. For the bulk of Pfronten, it's €2 for adults (17 and up), €1,20 for children 6-16, younger than 6th birthday, free (€1,50/1,00 for outlying areas). With payment of the kurtax, you get free use of the town bus and of the RVA bus for the Süd-Allgäu (that goes from Pfronten to Füssen, Hohenschwangau, and to the Tegelberg. If you want to take a day trip to Munich, via Garmisch-Partenkirchen, use a €29 Bayern-Ticket. It will cover the RT train for all of you, plus all of your local transport (S-/U-Bahn, trams, and buses) in Munich. For travel to Mittenwald as well as most of the lake district in Oberbayern, for €10,50 per day per adult (your own children under 15 are free), you can get a Werdenfels ticket, which covers this area. In this area, I would particularly recommend a bus trip from GaP or Mittenwald to Kochelsee via Walchensee.