We would like to visit the castle during our holiday in September and have heard some horror stories about queues and waiting times. Thinking it may be best to stay right near the castle so we can visit first thing in the morning as our young children won't cope with waiting around for hours. Can anyone recommend where to stay close by and also how is the best way to purchase tickets in order to avoid the queues? thank you
The issue is not the length of the ticket queue, which aren't terribly long even on busy days. Because the ticket assigns you to a specific entry time at the castles and there's a limit to how many people can enter at a time, you may have to wait awhile after you buy your tickets. Once you buy your tickets, to kill time, you have a meal, you can walk around the lake, or you can even take a hike up the mountain. There's at least one hotel in Schwangau (don't ask the name, I forget), several along the road between Schwangau and Füssen, and plenty in Füssen.
Füssen is only a couple of miles away and there are hotels in Schwangau and Hohenschwangau, some right near the ticket office. If you zoom in on Google maps, you can see the location of several. We stayed at the Schwangauer Hof which is less than a mile away. If you have a car, then it really doesn't matter where you stay, otherwise a taxi is not much. Some places with reviews are on Bavaria Ben's excellent site
www.bensbauernhof.com/accommodationsbavaria.html If you search this site or Neuschwanstein reservations, you will find several explanations of how to reserve in advance
Great, thank you.
We stayed in Reute at the Gasthof zum Schluxen. It's a really nice hotel but not inexpensive. We splurged because it was billed as a working farm and I thought my daughter would enjoy that. The farm part was a bit of a bust, there were some reindeer the kids could feed through the fence as well as a line of cages out back that the management got nervous about if the kids got at all close (I never even saw what was in them, maybe chickens or rabbits). The hotel is very comfortable and has a nice restaurant, the service was top-notch. If it sounds appealing go for the hotel, not the animals. We stayed the night before (with a car), arrived very early for our visit (near the front of the line), got our tickets and visited the castles and Marienbrucke, then headed toward Munich before lunch time. We were there in mid-October. By the time we left there was a line that looked like a Disneyland ride and lots of tour busses.
This Hohenschwangau web page (www.hohenschwangau.de/543.htm) has information about ordering tickets in advance. The tickets are to be picked up an hour before your tour time. If you come in on public transportation, you can be pretty sure of arriving on time. When I was there on Aug 31, 2009, the serpentine for Neuschwanstein tickets was a little less than half full, but moving along. There was only one person in line for reserved tickets pickup.
I've been to the castles twice: the first time I waited in line and waited for about 45 minutes then had to wait another hour for my first English tour. The second time we stayed at the Altstadt Zum Hechten in Fussen and loved it!! It was right in the town center and had a great restaurant. Also, you can buy vouchers for the castles that allows you to go to the will call window. This took us less than 5 minutes. We took an earlier bus to the castles and got our tickets with tours early. The hotel also has great rates. Happy travels!