Germany: Which Castles to TOUR and other Castle visiting tips

Hi Tiffany,

I'd have to say Burg Eltz is the best castle and the best castle setting we've seen. Marksburg was very good, just not as good as Burg Eltz.

Mary's Bridge is an excellent vantage point to see Neuschwanstein.

I may be in the minority, but I liked the interior and tour of Hohenschewangau better than Neuschwanstein.

Linderhof is better than both in my opinion.

You ask "which are the best to tour rather than admire from the outside, if we were to tour just 2 or so?"

Again, this is just my opinion, my list would be:

Burg Eltz

Linderhof

Marksburg

Hohenschwangau

Neuschwanstein

We didn't go to Rheinfels so I can't give an opinion on it.

Our recent pic's of some of these are at:

www.worldisround.com/home/pja1/index.html

Hope this helps.

Paul

Tiffany,
I have been to all the castles except Burg Eltz. I enjoyed touring all of them myself. While on the Rick Steve's tour we toured Rhinesfield castle ( I'm not sure on the spelling?) They are all different. The scenery from Neuschwanstein is beautiful. Be ready for alot of walking. I am glad all did the two in one day and I did Linderhoff just last year on another trip. Since you are staying in Bacharach I would see Rhinesfield castle because it is so close, and I would see at least Neuschwanstein. Have a great trip!

My suggestions:

• Rheinfels is a ruin but the most impressive one. You get quite a good idea of the size of this castle and how it used to operate.

• Marksburg has been restored beautifully very close to its former medivial glory inside and out. I'd certainly tour it.

• Neuschwanstein has one of the most beautiful settings I've ever come across. Definitely worth walking around and take in the views from that little bridge. And the most disappointing tour I've done. Nothing inside the castle is "authentic" as it has never been lived in. And it is most certainly not medivial as it was built hundreds of years later ...

I'll defend Neuschwanstein as worth a visit, simply because the interior is so enigmatic. It's not medieval, but then neither is Versailles, Peterhof, Chambord, Linderhof, Fontainebleu, etc. (sorry if I butchered the spelling of any of these). Rather, its an extreme example of Wagner-influenced German Romanticism. Do a little reading on King Ludwig and Wagner before you visit, and it will make your tour all the more interesting. I equate Neuschwanstein as similar to Graceland, as it highlights the excesses of its particular era. You have to wait in the same line to buy a ticket for Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein, and your ticket reserves you a tour at a certain time, so you may as well visit both.

The lines at Linderhof are usually significantly shorter than for the castles at Schwangau.

Neuschwanstein is not really a medival castle, but neither are most of them.

Rheinfels is an old castle, in ruins since 1800. Marksburg is a well preserved castle from the middle ages. I think a good example is Harberg castle, in Bavaria, between Donauwörth and Nördlingen, on the Romantic Road. Another good example is Burghausen castle, on the Salzach, east of Munich. Hohenzollernburg, in Hechingen, is about the same age as Neuschanstein, although built on a hill over a 10th century castle. Sigmaringen castle, in Sigmaringen, was started around 1000, but has been built on ever since.

Tiffany,

Try this website...hope it helps:
http://www.schloesser.bayern.de/englisch/palace/index.htm

There are many castles restored and open as hotels. One of the best we found was Castle Colmberg "Burg Colmberg". It sits about 15 minutes by car from Rothenberg, and it offers a huge restored castle with very nice rooms and restaurants. It sits atop a hill with very good views of the surrounding countryside and town. If you want to spend the night in a real castle then I would highly recommend it. The website is http://www.burg-colmberg.de/showpage.php?SiteID=1&lang=1 It used to have an English translation on the old website, but now the translation seems to have been lost with the updated website. No worries, you can still navigate through the pages to see the castle, the rooms and the prices.

We have also used this website to look for and book other castle hotels: http://www.online-reservations.de/ Have fun with your castles. But be warned. Do not choose castle hotels based solely on price. Cheapest rooms can sometimes mean out of the way places with nothing to do.

I like Rheinfels the best. You can wander at will through a great ruin that still has passageways, tunnels and towers.

I've been to Berg Eltz, I really liked it. I liked the hike to the castle as much as the castle.

I've been to Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. I liked them. Go early because it becomes a mass of tourists later in the morning. They are both crowded if you don't get in and out before the rush.

I liked Hohenschwangau because it's authentic.

Neuschwanstein is the ultimate example of a romantic recreation of the "golden" medieval days that later royals indulged in.

I've also been to the Ehrenberg ruins. I liked them. Be prepared - they are total ruins, not much left and a steep hike.

If you don't visit Burg Eltz (which really is out of the way for Rhine to Reutte), I'd visit Marksburg.

I found the Marksburg to be most interesting. It is the only Rhein castle never to be destroyed, and far easier to get to.

Also, a short trip (several hours) by train east from Munich, on the Austria border, is Burghausen.

Hello Tiffany. My first advice is to be at Bacharach 3 nights. Do not go to Rothenburg. I think Rothenburg is very over rated by Rick Steves in his book and video. You could have two whole days at the middle Rhine river. One day : ride on big boat on Rhine river from Bacharach to St. Goar, and walk up the road to the Rheinfels castle (ruins). And talk with German people at St. Goar and Bacharach. The second day go on a day trip from Bacharach to the castle Marksburg. (ride train to Koblenz, and ride in train or bus from Koblenz to Braubach). Marksburg is a much better castle than Burg Eltz. Reserve your tickets for Marksburg before you leave the U.S.A. At Marksburg an English speaking guide is not important. Ask for a map of each floor (English words). And, why do you need to travel in a rented car ? You can go to all the places in Germany that you want to go to, in trains. Germany has good comfortable trains. (I prefer 2nd Class train cars).

At Neuschwanstein, I think seeing it from the outside is the best part of it. My first reaction to your question is : if you will be that close to the Neuschwanstein castle, why not go in it ? (You can reserve a tour of Neuschwanstein, for a specific time, in advance, before you leave the U.S.A.). My philosophy of sightseeing in Europe is : go to the places that you desire to go to. A reason that some people feel satisfied from visiting a place in Europe is that they accomplished their goal of visiting a place that they had a strong desire to go to. If you do not have a strong desire to be in the interior of Neuschwanstein, I will not try to persuade you to go in Neuschwanstein. And, there is really not much to see inside of it : it does not have much furniture. The most astonishing thing in it is the mural picture of naked women on a wall.
Seeing good color photographs of the room interiors, and a video travelogue that includes the rooms in Neuschwanstein may be good enough for you.

... and, my guided tour in Neuschwanstein was not very enjoyable. Not all of the tour guides there are great. My tour guide there was a German young woman, talking in English. Her German accent was so strong, we could not understand half of her words. She talked fast, she had no enthusiasm, she just wanted to complete the tour, and go home. One of the tour guides in Neuschwanstein was a man from England. He is the high-strung (high anxiety) type of English man. I think people feel dissappointed if their tour guide at a site in Germany is a person from England.
And, a ticket for a tour in Neuschwanstein costs much more money now than it cost when I went there, in May of 2001. If you ride in a motor vehicle up the hill to Mary's Bridge, I recommend walk down toward the castle, to the parking lot at the hotel to ride in a carriage pulled by horses, to go down to the main road. I enjoyed that carriage ride. The road down from the castle curves through a forest. A very pleasant location.