We pre-booked online tickets for Neuschwanstein castle for today. It is recommended to book online because tickets are sold out in months advance especially if you are visiting in peak season. Here is the official site to book tickets https://www.hohenschwangau.de/tickets-fuehrung/offizielle-tickets
We bought the Bayern ticket which can be used by up to 5 people after 9:00 am on a weekday. We took the 9:30 am train to Fussen. It took 2 hours and we got off at Fussen station. The train to Fussen was every hour, it is not required to book the train ticket in advance but better to check the train schedule at the DB Bahn website https://www.bahn.com/en
The bus stand was just outside the station and it was a short bus ride to the castle. The bus ticket was also included in the Bayern ticket.
We arrived at the town of Hohenschwangau. Our guided tour time for the castle was at 3:00 pm so we decided to visit the Hohenschwangau Castle first. It was a 10-15 minutes hike up to Hohenschwangau castle. King Ludwig II who built Neuschwanstein castle grew up here.
As we were walking towards the castle there were beautiful views of the lake and nearby area.
We didn’t go inside this castle but the outside scenery was great.
Magical views of Neuschwanstein castle in the distance from here.
The Hohenschwangau village views were great from up here.
We went for a quick lunch in town before hiking up to Neuschwanstein castle.
It takes 30-40 minutes to hike up the Neuschwanstein castle so have plenty of time to get there before your timed entry. You can also take the horse carriage for a fee if you don’t want to hike up. There is an option of shuttle buses too but they were not operating when we visited in winter.
There was a waiting area next to a viewing platform where you can wait until your tour time. It also had an information board displaying the current tour number and time.
We rested for a bit after our hike and waited for our tour time, enjoying the scenery.
The castle from the viewing platform. It was a little cloudy so feel like a fairy tale castle.
You can only enter 15 minutes before your ticket time. A guard was checking the ticket’s time and other documents. Once inside, there is a courtyard with automatic gates which only opens when your tour time came. You need to scan the QR code on your ticket.
There were a lot of stairs inside so be prepared. You are not allowed to take pictures inside except on the balcony. Here is the famous Mary bridge. It was closed for renovation until further notice so we can’t go there to take pictures of the castle.
There was a model of the whole castle in there.
Once we are done with our tour, we walked back to the bus stop to take us back to Fussen station.
The train back to Munich was uneventful and reached our hotel and went out for a quick dinner.
It was a long day but worth it. It was very easy to get there by train and bus.