I will be picking up my rental car on June 22 at 8am near the train station in Munich. We have a whole day to explore the surrounding area, and are looking for the best possible itinerary. Here is what I was thinking so far.

8am pick up car and drive to Linderhof.
Leave 2-3 hours for exploring palace and grounds.
Drive on to Neuschwanstein via Reutte and Fussen. We would like to have lunch around noon in one of these two towns. Which one do you think based on time constraints?
Then in the afternoon tour Neuschwanstein.
After the castle we will head back to Munich and stop at the Weisskirche.
We would like to be back in Munich in time for dinner around 7pm.
How does this sound to you guys? We are not dead set on visiting hohenschwangau due to time issues. What do you think? Better to visit it and skip the church?
Also, is it better to do the trip this way or in reverse? I will plan ahead to get reservations at Neuschwanstein (are they need at Linderhof?)
Comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

We did a similar trip in Ocotber 2006. The drive from Munich may take longer than you think. Posibly 2 hours.

Linderhof, however is a small castle and only takes about 1 hour to see it all (including grounds).I don't think you need reservations.

The church at Kloster Ettal (near Linderhof) is more onate than Weiskirche and is larger. Both unfortunately are very touristy.

Neuschwanstein will be crowded and you should get reservations online for a tour. You must be on time for the tour or you will lose your money. This means that you must be in the castle courtyard with your ticket when the tour starts, not at the bottom of the hill. Make sure you allow plenty of time to get up to the castle by the bus or jitney. From where the bus stops at the top of the hill, it is still a good walk up and down hils to the castle.

Both castles are ablolutely worth the trip. I think the tour took about 1 hour. After the tour , walk over to the Marienbrucke for a great view of the castle.

I have never been to Reutte but we went by there on our way to Neuschwanstein and it's further than it looks on the map.

The drive from Linderhof to Neuschwanstein is beautiful. You take a right turn out of Linderhof and go south. You end up at the Plansee which is a really beautifu lake. You go along the shore and the road takes you toward Fussen. It is well marked.

If I had a choice between Hohenschwangau and the Weisskirche, I would choose Hohenschwangau just because Ludwig was such a crazy guy and seeing where he was brought up would be interesting. We chose to see the Weisskirche, and I gotta say, it wasn't the greatest. The restaurant next to the church was good, however.

We stopped at Andechs Monastery ( Kloster Andechs) for beers and good food on the way south from Munich. Some of the best beer in Germany. It was on a Sunday and they had an OOmpah band and the whole deal going. The church there is also very ornate. Google it to get directions.

Have fun.

We sort of went out of our way to see the Weisskirche and when we got there we kind of both looked at each other and said, "so?" It was OK, but just another pretty church -- I wasn't sure what the fuss was about. I'd much rather opt for Hohenschwangau, which I found intriquing.

At Linderhof, be sure to take the time to walk out and see the grotto.

in some ways we liked the mother's smaller place better than neu....

Hi J,

Have you checked travel times and routes at www.viamichelin.com?

If you can, I'd recommend getting to Neuschwanstein as early as possible when is far less crowded. Seems to make a big difference in terms of level of enjoyment. We were there for the 1st English tour of the day and had really enjoyed it.

thanks a lot for the replies guys.

From what I have read so far, seems like the best bet may be to head from munich to Neuschwanstein first, so as to beat the crowds, and have the best chance of making our reservation time. We may go ahead and book both the castles and scrap the church. That would be fine with me. Then we can see how we are time wise, and use the afternoon to grab a bite to eat and head over to Linderhof (which hopefully wont be as crowded). From viamichelin, it looks like its gonna take about 2hrs to get to the castles. Do you prefer to take the autobahn to Landsberg and go south, or is there a better route? From Fussen to Linderhof is looks like about an hour. Maybe if he have leftover time we could stop by ettal or oberamerggau. Its gonna be a long day, but I really cant wait. Less than two months now!

Thanks for all the input.

Another vote for seeing Hohenschwangau castle rather than the Weiskirche. As others have said, it is interesting to see where Ludwig grew up. We stopped at the Weiskirche on our way to Oberamergau. It was interesting, but I wouldn't choose it instead of the other castle. But then I will take a tour of a castle, palace, historic house, etc. over a church any day - LOL.

well this is sort of off the title of the thread, but i dont really want to make a new one...

For our time in munich, i am trying to put together a rough itinerary. Hopefully, some of it to be spent visiting various beer halls! We have three nights to spend there, with our train from Berlin arriving at 2pm on June 24th. One of the days will be spent going to the castles and such. But with the other day and a half what is a good plan. Things we really want to see...
Dachau
Alte Pinakothek
Enjoy cafes and dinner around the old town
Residenz or Nymphenburg... Does anyone have a preference?

Thanks a lot. I appreciate your comments.

Wieskirche only takes a few minutes to see and i thought it was spectacular. It is only a few miles off the main road. I would play it by ear and if youare making good time, i would see it

Hi,
I agree with bigtyke above,
we thought the Wieskirche was absolutely stunning inside! Reutte... we didn't think it was worth going to.
Deciding between Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau, Linderhof, Wieskirche and all the other suggestions...Andechs, Ettal, etc., no matter what you decide, I don't think you can go wrong.

Paul

If from Linderhof you'll drive thru northern Austria along the Plansee to Reutte and then Fuessen, there is a pleasant restaurant on the right side of the road overlooking a little cove. I can't remember the name of the place, but it's at the western end of the lake--elevated somewhat above the road with a large terrace.

We did basically the same drive--stopped at a couple of towns along the way to Linderhof. Spent a couple of hours at Linderhof. Had lunch at the above mentioned restaurant (it might have been a hotel/restaurant).

Drove into Hohenschwangau where we checked into our pension. We had made internet reservations to see the two castles the next morning, so we walked over to the ticket center to pick up our tickets. The ticket person asked if we would like to see Neuschwanstein right away that afternoon--so we'd have more time to explore the area the next day. It worked well for us