steeler546

2 of us will be in Munich May 12-17th. Is there a need to reserve tours, to either Salzburg or castle Neuschwanstein? Also preliminary searching for tours I seem to be finding only 2 companies-could this be correct? Any suggestions for good tours would be appreciated too! Danke.

Larryincolorado

You can do either Neuschwanstein castle or Salzburg on your own. You do not need a tour company.

With a €27 Bayern-Ticket, you (both) can travel from Munich to either Füssen or Salzburg. Either trip takes 2 hours by regional train.

At Füssen you take the bus (also included in the Bayern-Ticket) to Hohenschwangau. Just around the corner from the bus stop is the ticket kiosk. You can buy your ticket when you get there or pick it up if you have already made reservations. That will include a guided tour of the castle.

For Salzburg, do a little research to find where things are. Don't fall for the Sound of Music tour scams. Most of what they show you was not really in the movie. You can walk from the train station to the old town. On the way you will pass the Maribelle palace with the elf garden, the do-re-mi steps, and the pegasus statue.

DAX

I put our friends on the tour bus that departed right in front of the main train station in Munich. They were very happy with the tour and I saw their pictures from the 10-12 hour tour covering Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, & Oberammergau. The tour cost 49 euro and they didn't have any trouble getting on without reservation in August. I personally would recommend taking the train to Salzburg over touring the Bavarian castles.

steeler546

Thanks for the above info. If we decided to go to Rothenburg ob der Tauber and stay overnight (so that we may see the night watchman's tour), would it be doable to take a train from there to Fussen and still have time to see Neuschwanstein? Or would there be too many train stops that would make it a long trip? Like all tourists we're trying to see as much as possible! I don't drive a manual transmission and I think my 20 yr old son is too young to drive a rental car, so I believe we need to do the train!

Jake1

Public transportation to places like Rothenburg and Fuessen is not the most convenient or time-effective way to travel. If you don't mind driving (and there are automatic transmission rental cars, though they are more expensive), driving is pretty easy outside the big cities.

But public transportation will also work, especially if you don't like to drive in the first place.

I don't know that I'd travel all the way to Rothenburg (especially by train) just for the night watchman's tour. You'd be on the train 2-1/2 to 3 hours with 2 or 3 changes from Munich. Rothenburg to Fuessen would be about 5 hours with 3 to 5 train changes.

Larryincolorado

Steeler,

going from Rothenburg to Neuschwanstein by train in a single day, and seeing the castle, would be a little rushed, but you could do it. I would.

The first train out of Rothenburg after 9 AM is at 9:06. You'd have 3 train changes and get to Füssen at 13:59. The bus would get you to Hohenschwangau at 14:18. The ticket kiosk is right there near the bus stop. If you can reserve ahead an English tour at www.hohenschwangau.de for after 3:30 (15:30), you would have no problem picking up your tickets and getting up to the castle.

You could do all of this, train and bus, with a €27 Bayern-Ticket. If you wanted to go back to Munich that night, that would be covered by the Bayern-Ticket, too. Via Michelin estimates that much for fuel alone for a compact car, let alone the cost of rental.

Last Oct. I traveled from Munich to Oberammergau, then up the Romantic Road to Würzburg. I wanted to get a good look at everything so I took a week. The best car quote I got, plus Michelin's quote for fuel was $350. I did it all by public transportation for $132. With what I saved by not renting a car, I paid for over two days of my trip (food & accom).

Jake1

What we saved in time and gained in flexibility by using a car enabled us to make a lot of stops at interesting places that we would never have seen using public transportation.

There are advantages and disadvantages to every mode of transportation.

iwannagonow

I would bet my last Aecht Shlenkerla smoked beer that Steeler isn't the kind of guy who is looking for an autobahn thrill ride and all the accompanying stress of self navigation in a foreign land. You can waste a heck of a lot of time getting lost and finding parking too.

I would take Dax's advice if I were you on the tour to the castles. One day and you are done. Good deal.

Next day or the day after, take Larrys advice and hop the train down to Salzburg. Walk around, eat Mozart chocolate and sing the hills are alive. If you really feel ambitious use the same train pass and hop over to Berchtesgaden for an alpine high. Gorgeous place. Cheap, comfy and very efficient use of time.

As for Rothenburg, you could also take a long one day tour from Munich, or stay overnight and come back the next day. Its all about your priorities( personally I would rather Berchtesgaden hands down than Rothenburg). The train again makes sense because lets face it, the out of the way places are probably not what you want to see on this trip. To many major sites to see on this trip. Have a ball.

november_moon

"I would bet my last Aecht Shlenkerla smoked beer..."

Ahhhhhh....mmmmmmm....

Oh, was there something else in that post? I got distracted

I've got a picture on my desk of my husband drinking an Aecht Shlenkerla smoked beer in Nuremberg.

Jake1

Driving from Munich to Hohenschwangau is not an exercise in terror. Driving is easy; not a lot of traffic; parking is a piece of cake in Hohenschwangau. Because it's mostly rural, you even have to work hard at it to get lost.

Haven't been to Salzburg so can't comment on driving there.

Jake1

I better add: Of course, if you are a naturally nervous or high strung person, then driving anywhere might well be an ordeal to you. Certainly in that case public transport is the way to go, unless you're so nervous and high strung that you obsess about getting to the station on time for your train or bus. Don't know what you could do if you couldn't handle either driving or public transport. Group tour, I guess.

steeler546

Thanks for all the info, I'd already sort of given up on Rothenburg, was just trying to squeeze it in if possible. It did seem like a long trip for the time we have (is there ever enough time when travelling????). I think taking the train is part of the European charm, so I think we'll do the tour of the castles as mentioned in the earlier post (does DAX remember the company?) and the train, maybe car (not to Salzburg as suggested.

And after following my team in many post-season games, I wouldn't be stressed about driving in an unfamiliar place. But why assume that a Steeler fan is a man???

iwannagonow

Mr/Ms/Neutral Steeler,

My apologies, I think. I still don't know if you are a man, a woman, or possibly a hormonally challenged neutral.

However, I do think it is a mistake to compare driving in a foreign country to driving to away games like Jacksonville where your team consistently gets crunched. Haha!

Seriously, take the train for 30 euros and save your energy for touring Salzburg or wherever.

November Moon....I can go one better. I have a picture on my desk of my wife drinking an Aecht Shlenkerla in the brewery in Bamberg. Now thats living large!!

Jake1

Mmmmmmm, Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier! Love the Urbock in cool weather seasons. Wish I could get the Maerzen variety here year round.

iwannagonow

Jake1,

I recently bought 3 bottles of Maerzen at a beer distributor here in Florida were I live. Cost 4 dollars a bottle. This was going to be a real treat.

The beer was so stale I couldn't enjoy it at all. Completely died between Bamberg and here. I was so dissapointed. Be thankful you have access to any kind of fresh Rauchbeir. It is so dang good.

Larryincolorado

“..if you are a naturally nervous … person…”

Excuse me! Earlier in my life, for five years, I was licensed to drive on a race track, and I did, and I drove fast enough to qualify for the national championships for four of those years. Having been there and done that, I can tell you that I don’t have to exercise some Walter Middy fantasies by driving the German roads and Autobahn. After my racing experience, driving anywhere is a bore. Period.

For me, the real pleasure of going to Europe is being able to escape from my car, relax on a train and let somebody get me there, and to save a lot of money in the process. Besides, I don’t have to share the highway with Americans who can only fantasize that they are me.

Larryincolorado

Oh, and, 'wannagonow,
just how many Superbowls has Jacksonville won? Or even been in? The closest Jacksonville has been was when it was played there in 2005.

logos999

Wow, larry this is soooo ultra cool. You actually know people fantasizing about being you.

Larryincolorado

Don't you already know? That's why American want to drive over there, because they think there are no speed limits and they can pretend to be racing drivers. They don't know how much training (Fahrschule) you Germans have to have to actually drive over there. Over here, about all you have to do is prove you can parallel park.

logos999

Well, yeah, I had 18 hours of Fahrschule and it did cost about a thousand marks. And I can drive stick shift. (The driving instructor said you must be "mentally retarded", if you can't handle it. (...Those were the days). And I can parallel park.
I must be a genious