Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castle. tours

We did both last July without advanced purchase tickets. Only stood in line a few minutes, but had to wait an hour or so for our turn in the Hohen Castle tour. No trouble - we just broused the souvenirs. The tour was about 30 minutes, then we had an hour break before the Neusch Castle tour, which is standard because it takes a good 20-30 minutes to walk between the two. That tour was about 30-40 minutes and then you are free to walk on the path behind the castle to Mary's bridge for the coveted photo op. If you still have energy, I recommend to keep walking on the mountain path past the bridge up & up. After about 30 minutes you will find an even higher vantage point over both castles and the valley below. Reutte is only a 15 minute drive away. It sounds like you are really sweating the details here. I would suggest you relax. The whole "system" at the castles is a very well-oiled machine. Just show up, get your tickets and follow the hundreds of other people doing exactly the same thing. Don't step in the horse poop ;) Block out about 4 hours for the whole experience, then drive away from the castles either into Füssen for a nice meal, or into Schwangau and sit by the lake with a nice snack & chill out. You'll need the rest. It's touristy, but it's worth it.

Thanks I should expect the typical german efficiency1

Regarding Lawrences point on limited number of tours in English. We did one tour where there were only a few English speakers who were tagged onto the German tour. The guide was kind enough to give us a quick summary in Engls=ish at the end of each stop. Ask

A tip; they only do English speaking tours of Hohenschwangau if there are enough people for it (I believe something like min of 10 people, although I forget exact #). Day I was there, after Neuschwanstein, went to Hohenschwangau, but I was the only English speaking person, so took the tour in German (of which I know about 6 words; and that's being generous!). So pretty much looked around at all of the interesting things....but was clueless re: what guide was actually saying! Yes, was pretty comical. When done w/ tour of Neuschwanstein, walk beyond the castle to the foot bridge; I believe called "Mary's Bridge;" (very easy walk; signs lead you or you can ask any guide where it is) to get a spectacular view of the castle. Another fun thing to do is to go to the Tegelberg Luge, right in the area. I was traveling by train on that trip, so had taken bus from Fussen and then, if I recall, was easy to take a bus from the Neuschwanstein parking lot right to the gondola (the Tegelbergbahn). Beautiful views on way up, amazing views of Bavarian countryside, etc. And the luge down is great fun! Have a great trip. Enjoy.

Information about the tours themselves, duration, time to walk to castles, can be found at www.hohenschwangau.de. You can switch the site to display in English. That website also says that you have to pick up the tickets an hour before your first reserved tour.

So Randy was lucky I'm thinking. When we got there on the day of our reservation (which was just a couple weeks behind his), the line was HUGE. Perhaps it was the time of day - we had to be later b/c we were coming on the train from Munich to Fuessen and then riding the bus to the castles. I would advise making reservations so you can skip the big line. As for your times to reserve, I don't know b/c I've never driven there. However, if you are driving, you just leave your room whenever you want to. As for the castles, everyone kind of answered it. They automatically time it for you. They have English tours all day, but you have to specifically sign up for them - there aren't as many as there are German ones. If you reserve, just reserve for an English time slot (I'm pretty sure they have them listed on the website). Just make sure if you are taking the bus up the mountain to Neusch that you give yourself enough time. They can get full and if you wait to get on the last bus up before your time slot you might not make it on the bus and then you're SOL. Have fun - it was hectic, but it was really cool to see. :)

I went to both castles last March. I loved it!! My parents and I went to Hohenschwangau first (you have to) and loved it. We then took a horse carriage up to Neuschwanstein. We walked to Mary's Bridge and took pictures. loved it!