Is it best to avoid Neuschwanstein Castle on Saturday / Sunday? Or does it not really matter, since it's already very touristy? (2nd week of July)
Posted by
Ottawa, Ontario,, Canada
521 posts
Hi Alyn,
I did it on the third Saturday of July last year. Everything is done via guided tour anyways, and they control the times and number of people in each group.
The one recommendation I would make regarding going on the weekend, is that you go early. If you are staying overnight in Fuessen or Hohenschwangau, just make sure you are there at a reasonable time. If you are making a day-trip in from Munich, then take one of the earlier trains.
I took a train in from Munich that departed around 07:00, and got to Fuessen at 09:15 before taking a bus to the castle area. It was just starting to get busy at this time - if you are willing to take the train that departs an hour earlier, that would be even better. Just to be safe, I had made a reservation online to see both castles, but it probably was not entirely necessary to justify the reservation fee.
The only one problem was coming back from the castles. I caught the 17:00 train back, but barely made it. The buses that came to take people from the castle area down to the train station were so overloaded, they probably had to leave about 40 people behind who would ultimately miss that train. The train itself was bursting at the seams to take back everyone that was on there.
So, my advice is that if you are staying near the castles, do not be scared to go on the weekend. But if you are travelling by train, try to get there and leave as early as you can. If you can get out of there by 16:00, you should have no difficulties at all.