Help on Castles
 

I started on the web to make reservations for May 4 for Ludwig's castles, they ask if we want Hohenschwangau Castle, Newschwanstein Castle or both, what is the recommendation? Should we tour both castles or does it get boring. Is the audio tour good?

We're leaving on April 28 for Germany, we're getting really excited.

Hi there. There are lots of posts on here about this if you do a quick search. :)

I would visit both, Ludwig's New. castle is hardly finished inside where as the Hohens. castle is. Since you have taken the trouble to get there ... there is a road or a trail to take to get a picture of New. castle from above. If you have a vehicle .. you may want to check that out as well.

Tour both of them while you are there. Neuschwanstein was just barely finished before Ludwig was kicked out than died an untimely death. Hohenschwangau was Ludwig's boyhood home and it really gives you an opportunity to see what living in a castle was really like. We have had emglish guides when we have see both castles so the audio tour is not something we are familiar with.

As Miss Maple pointed out, when you go up the hill to Neuschwanstein be sure to go on up to Marienbruck above the castle for the best photo op.

We did both castles and didn't find it at all boring. We wished the tours were longer, actually.

We visited Hohenschwangau, Neuschwanstein, and Linderhof this last summer at the beginning of July...never made reservations...just went there and bought a ticket. We thought they were all worth visiting...

Everywhere I read it says to make a reservation, so, if we just show up we won't have a problem of waiting in long lines.

If we do make a reservation is it better to make it for 8:30am or does it matter on the time.

wouldn´t the time depend on how early you wanted to get up?

No, the time wouldn't depend on how early we wanted to go. I would prefer going around 10:00 am and not when they first open at 8:30am but I've read to get there when they first open to avoid long lines.

sorry. i assumed with a reservation, the lines would not be a factor. maybe i am wrong.

With a reservation the lines are not a problem. You just go to the reservations line, buy your tickets and are ready to go. The tickets are for whatever time you specified when you made the reservations, so if you get there early, you just hang out until your tour starts. We had reservations for 10:30 or 11 am in July, so we got there early just to make sure - around 9 or 9:30. We had our tickets in 5 minutes - it took longer to walk from the parking lot than to get the tickets - LOL. We wandered around and then made our way to Hohenschwangau castle. After the tour, we walked to Neuschwanstein for our next tour - there is plenty of time between tours for even my slow self to make the walk - LOL.

I strongly encourage yout o visit both Hohenschwangau and Newschwanstein. Both are very different and equally interesting. Happy traveling!