Actually, you see the castle from afar, it is not as if it is hiding (nor could it!) nor gradually emerging..... Despite wintertime, it is still magnificent and even more fairy tale-like with commanding views of the countryside around it.

The nicest way is to ride the wagon up and then walk down. We did it in January and everything was frozen, icicles everywhere. It was a winter wonderland!

We were there this summer and the tickets you purchase were timed so you have plenty of time to walk or ride up to the castle.

Was there last week in November. Marienbrucke was closed - traveled 90 min from Munich by car and missed the great picture of Neuschwanstein. The 40 min tour was not so great...

We went to both castles this past weekend. The hotel where we stayed was at the foot of Hohenschwangau. They got our tickets for us. We went to Hohenschwangau at 10:00 AM and Newschwanstein at 12:45. We had time in between to stop at a little souvenir shop. If you decide to take the horse carriage (which we did), make sure you allow enough time in case there is a line...maybe 30 or 40 minutes to ride the first part and walk the rest.

If was very snowy while we were there. It snowed nearly the whole weekend! (We arrived on Friday night and woke up to snow Saturday morning...it was still snowing when we left on Sunday morning.) Many people were walking to Neuschwanstein with no problems in that weather. In fact, it was absolutely beautiful with all of the snow. Just wear warm clothes!

I read that the castles get 25,000 visitors in the busy times (spring/summer) and the wait can be four or five hours. The winter weather may be a little harsh, but it's definitely the time to go...especially if you get lucky and have all of the beautiful snow that we had!

There is no need to wait in lines at Neuschwanstein any time of the year. You can order your timed tickets in advance on the internet.

Unless you are going in the high tourist season - July/August you shouldn't need to order tickets ahead of time. We went in June and the B&B where we stayed in Fussen said that if we went early in a.m (by 9am) there wasn't any need to order a ticket in advance.

We went in late June in the afternoon, and there were no problems and no lines to get tickets. ((b))

We were there at noon on July 5, and the ticket purchase lines were LOOONG. As I walked up and got my internet tickets without waiting, I thanked whoever suggested ordering that way.