As we drove into the Fussen area the Castles appear on the great mountain side. It seems almost unreal as they looked pirched on the edge of the mountian. My family really enjoyed seeing the history of the castles. The best part for us was coming over to the castles the night before we took the tour when the castles tours were closed. We had a rental car so we had the freedom to do this. We were not sure how far we would get, but ended up getting all the way up to the main parking lot. You will pass a lower parking lot, contiue around the bend in the road and drive back towards the lake. The area was empty and we were able to take it all in without all the crowds. We did bump into a group of three people on the path around the lake and shared a nice conversation with them. The views of the castles and the mountians should not be missed. We were there at sunset and it was beautiful. I would say that this was one of our hightlighs of the trip.

My husband and I visited Neuschwanstein Castle on our honeymoon in spring 2007.

The castle is like a fairytale.. high upon a hill, looking over rolling green mountains. It really is an amazing sight and experience. I highly recommend reading about this castles short history before you visit. Its inhabitant was in interesting man who had many quirks, but an obvious love for beauty. You may also want to read about individual rooms in the castle (such as the Grotto). This will really help you understand King Ludwig, as well help you get the most out of the castle tour because the tour is lacking in many areas.

My husband and I took a horse-drawn carriage up the hill (how romantic!). The road up to the castle is quite long and steep, so the carriage is ideal for those who would have trouble walking. Make sure to give the horses a pat on the neck as a thank you, because they work really hard! We explored the area around the outside of the castle, and found many great photo opportunities.

The castle tour is a bit like Disney World or another amusement park, where you get your ticket and wait for your number to be called in an overcrowded area. When your number is called, a tour guide herds you through the castle like farm animals, stopping in every other room, to tell you about the room you just walked through and the room your in, skipping over tons of interesting things (including any information about the Grotto!).

Its unfortunate that the castle tour was over commercialized and crowded, but I'm still glad I went. The castle was amazing and something that I'll remember forever.

Went to Neuschwanstein Castle in March 2008. The place was as beautiful as shown on the postcards and Internet.

I drove there from Munich taking around 1 hr and 40 minutes. There was not much traffic jam as I drove on the Autobahn most of the way. I decided to drive there because I read on websites that taking a train and bus will take much longer time and during the winter the castle closed early.

Leaving Munich at 9:30am, I arrived in Hohenschwangau around 11am. The place is a little town catering for all the tourists that are visiting the castles. The car park cost 4.5 Euros for each vehicle and I quickly walked to the ticketing center to buy entry tickets for the castle (Neuschwanstein). My scheduled entry time was 1:30pm, with nothing earlier. I didn't pre-book the tickets because I wasn't sure my arrival time at the castle. I had a quick lunch in the mean time. There are lots of restaurants and few snack bars close by. The public toilets at base of the mountain cost 0.3 Euro, but there are also restroom up the mountain near the castle that was free.

There are three ways to get to the castle from the ticketing office: bus, horse carriage and walking. The bus doesn't run during snow or rain conditions and the horse carriage cost around 5 Euros. I had a pleasant walk up to the castle and it took less than 30 minutes. The horse carriage looks a lot of fun too, however they do squeeze many people onto a single carriage and there was a long queue.

Once on top, the view is spectacular. The castle was very beautiful and so are the near by lakes. I couldn't take a photo of the castle in a single frame because it was too large. I guess the near by bridge would be a good place to take photo because it was further away from the castle and on the same altitude. It was also closed when I was there.

Inside the castle there are lots of wooden structures and furnishings than the usual gold and silver decorations. I expected to see more rooms in the castle but the whole third floor was never completed.

All in all a well worth while visit if you enjoy castles and historical sites.

--David --Sydney

We just returned from visiting Neuschwanstein Easter break. We waited until late in the week to go, as the weather was too snowy early on. Plan your trip for a day that you will be able to see the castle from afar! It is definitely worth it. We took the train from Munich using the Bavaria Ticket, a great deal. It is about 2 hrs to Fussen. The bus stop is directly across from the train station and the schedule is posted. There were buses waiting , and the "BT" is valid for the bus as well. So it took 2.5 hrs to get to Hohenschwangau. I opted to not get tickets ahead of time, as I wasn't sure about timing of the trip. There was NO line at the ticket counter except for our group coming off the bus.(If you are traveling in high season, I would definitely buy the tickets in advance as I hear the ticket line alone can be a 2h wait. I would buy a time 3hr after leaving Munich.) We bought the combination tickets for both Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein, which we highly recommend. We had approx an hour before the tour at Hohenschwangau, so fed our kids wurst at one of the stands. (Btw, regarding bathrooms....easiest is to get your kids to go on the train before disembarking. The train station bathroom is turnstile with 1/2 Euro cost. However, both castles have nicer facilities with optional donations.) When hiking to Hohenschwangau, go up the road passing by the lake & come down the stairway. We were given a 2 hr interval between the 2 tours, which I questioned. It turned out to not be too bad - we ended up waiting only about 20 min for our 2nd tour. We are pretty fit, so the hike up the road to Neuschwanstein took us only 20 min instead of the 40 min. Use this time to cut off and hike to Marienbrucke - when you get up to the castle veer right past the castle. There is a path which was actually blocked off because of the snow on the ground. We climbed around the gate, after asking those returning who told us it was fine. There was a little snow covering on the very first part of the path and then it was clear. It takes about 15 min to get to Marienbrucke and is most definitely worth it! Gorgeous views of the castle, weather permitting. The tour of Neuschwanstein is good but a little disappointing. You do feel rushed; they only stop every 3-4 rooms, so you don't get much time to look around. I understand the rush in peak season, but it would be nice to have a slower tour in the off-season. Overall the tours last about 30 min +/- 5. I had hoped to hike back down the hill via the Pollards Gorge path, but this was closed and more ominous. Definitely would look for this, tho, in the late spring/summer months when the snow has melted. We did have to wait 40 min for the bus back to Fussen; you might consider looking at the posted bus schedule to time your departure. We just read our books and it was okay. Lastly (sorry this is so long, but hope it does help), we decided to wait another hour and eat in Fussen before catching the train back to Munich. We headed back out of the train station to our right; there is an Italian restaurant about a block up on the left on the corner which we saw from the bus. While we had to wait about 20 min for our food; the pastas and salad were excellent and obviously cooked to order. However, they don't accept credit cards. So, in summary, I was very happy I didn't book a bus tour. It is expensive and long (10.5 hours); the cost does NOT include admissions to the castle. You do go to Linderhof but not Hohenschwangau.