Long Day Trip from Munich

Thanks for all the input. Guess I'll have to re-think the timing. Maybe do it over two days.

It depends on what you want to do at Neuschwanstein. To just look around the area would take at least a couple hours, to take a tour is dependent on how busy they are. You buy tickets to the castles in a central place, that then assigns you a time for a tour, that could be within the next hour to several hours away. It would be easy to chew up 4-6 hours there.

If you take the train from Ga-Pa to Eibsee and the Seilbahn (cable car) from there, it will take ~45 min each way, or 1½ hrs RT. In the summer, the round trip costs 49,50€ ($61) for an adult, so I would think you don't want to spend that kind of money for a 5 minute stay at the top. If you take the 6:30 train from Munich Hbf (6:00 until Sept 3), you will get to Ga-Pa at 7:58 and have 17 min to walk to the Zugspitzbahn station next to the Garmisch-Partenkirchen DB station and buy your ticket. No problem unless a lot of people are going up too, and there is a long line (it's the first trip of the day to the top). So you might get to the top by 9:00. Assuming you spend 2 hrs at the top ($30/hr) and head down to catch the 11:30 train from Eibsee back to Ga-Pa, you'll be back at the Bahnhof just before noon. According to the Bahn website, you can leave on the train at 12:04, go to Reutte and take a bus to Füssen and another bus to Hohenschwangau and be at the bus stop in Hohenschwangau at 14:18. If you have a reservation for Neuschwanstein after 15:30 you should be able to pick up your ticket an hour before tour time at the kiosk in Hohenschwangau. Alternatively, there is a bus connection leaving the Bahnhof at 12:10, changing at Echelsbacher Brücke, and getting to Hohenschwangau at 14:44. That would work for a tour after 4 o'clock. According to the Hohenschwangau ticket center website, in September, you can purchase tickets to Neuschwanstein up until 15:00. So, you can do it, but it will be rushed, and you will have to keep close tabs on the time. By the time you get back to Munich you will have spent almost 8 hours in transit for 2 hours on the Zugspitze.

If you use a Bayern-Ticket (not valid before 9 AM workdays, valid all day on weekends), it will give you a 10% discount on the Zugspitzbahn, as well as cover your travel to Hohenschwangau (except for the Austrian portion of the bus from Reutte to Füssen) and cover your trip back to Munich. Using a Bayern-Ticket will also avoid having to buy tickets to Hohenschwangau when you get back to Garmisch.

This appears to be the tour we took. The ticket office was located in the Munich Hbf. As you walk toward the train the ticket office was on the extreme left. You can also book online. It was well worth the money. http://www.city-discovery.com/munich/tour.php?id=1507