Hi all, Has anyone reserved a tour for the King's Castles? Can you tell me a little about it? We would like to see both castles and want to make a reservation. About how long is each tour? Do you have to go straight to the 2nd castle after the 1st castle, or can you go at your leisure and maybe stop for lunch in between? I ask because we are thinking of making a reservation at 11am for a small group, but I also need to consider lunch time. Thank you for your help! Jen
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
I don't know the answers to all your questions, but I'll attempt a few. Each castle takes under an hour to visit. You have an assigned entry time for each castle. There's probably enough time for lunch in between.
Posted by
Knoxville, TN, USA
7209 posts
Don't know what you mean by a "tour" but you can (and should) reserve your timed tickets at the official Hohenschwangau visitor's website. Doing this prevents you from standing in the mindless ticket line. When your specific ticket time is called a guide will take your group through the castles. There is no need to hire a private company to take you on a tour of these places. It's super simple and tour companies will charge you much more than if you had just done it yourself.
Posted by
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
206 posts
We visited the castles summer 2009. I'm not positive about the options for tickets times, but here's how it worked for us. We bought the combined castle ticket, so we had a first time for Hohenschwangau, and two hours later a time for Neuschwanstein. In the RS 2009 Germany book, it says that for the combined ticket, 2 hours is the minimum time available in between tours (when you buy the combined ticket). You start your first tour at the first time, and then after the tour, you make your way to the second castle. I estimate that we had about 30 minutes extra in between, the RS book says 45 minutes extra. So I think there would be time for a quick lunch from the wurst cart (I think there are some on the way up to Neuschwanstein), but not time for a sit down lunch.....I think you could request a longer time in between the two tours, or buy separate tickets for each (which may cost a little more than the combined ticket) to try to increase the time in between the tours.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19099 posts
Just about all the information you need to know, including booking times in advance, is at www.hohenschwangau.de/ticketcenter0.0.html (in English). If you want information about getting to Hohenschwangau by train and bus, or finding the ticket center once you get there, read this, www.germantravel-info.com/fuessen.htm. There is a picture of the lines for the castle tickets on Sept. 1 of last year.
Posted by
OP
Long Beach, CA, USA
32 posts
Thanks everyone! This is very helpful!