Romantic Road/Neuschwanstein help
 

I am going to be in Munich for 2.5 days in mid-September. I am interested in visiting Neuschwanstein Castle as well as going on a Romantic Road excursion. Does anyone know if it is possible to visit both in one day? I will not have a car so it will be hard to explore on my own.

If I had to choose between Neuschwanstein and the Romantic Road, which one should I choose?

Thanks!

The romantic truck road connects a few (more or less) interesting places. Neuschwanstein is a rather big source of income for the state and can be found on this site:

http://www.neuschwanstein.com/englisch/palace/index.htm

If I really had to chose between those two, I'd visit Rothenburg.

You can't "do" the Romantic Road as a day excursion. It is a long route connecting a number of interesting towns. My family spent 5 days touring it by car and that was only the tip of the iceberg. Given that you will be without a car, your best bet is to choose one town to visit and spend the day there.

If you want to see one of the world's most famous castles, built by a man of questionable sanity for use as his personal pleasure palace, then go to Neuschwanstein. To me it is a bit overrated.

If you want to see a beautiful, intact medieval German town and have an authentic German meal, then go to Rothenburg as logos suggested.

Been to Neuschwanstein and Rothenburg many times. Do the castle. I find it interesting. They also have a second castle there, Hohenzollern, also built by Ludwig's family that is more livable. You can easily tour both of them.

Rothenburg? Get there some day. Take the Nightwatchman's tour. If time only for one...do the castle.

You can visit Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles in the same day. We loved them. (I suppose that Traveldawg wanted to say Hohenschwangau, not Hohenzollern). If I remember well, you can buy a combined ticket for both.
Another beuatiful castle is not far from Munich, it is Herrenchiemsee, on Chiemsee Lake. It has a copy of Mirror Hall in Versailles

If you are doing a day-trip from Munich I would choose the castles, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. I love Rothenburg, but I think you would be too rushed. You can easily do both castles in one day. Neuschwanstein is quite grand but larglely empty on the inside, whereas Hohenschwangau is more modest but completely furnished. It was Ludwig's boyhood home.

You can either ride the carriage up most of the hill to Neuschwanstein and walk the remainder or ride the shuttle up to Marienbrucke (the bridge with the fabulous view of the castle) and hike down a ways. To save time and energy I would advise against walking all the way.

Where do you catch the shuttle to Marienbruke? How do you get from one castle to the other? Any hotel recomendations?

The Answers to your question are:

1.)Just past the ticket booth, you can't miss the bus stop, then you walk 10 mins or so down to the Marienbridge.

2.)You walk.

OP

While Rothenburg is a nice medieval walled city, it simply doesn't compare in wow factor. It's adorable, quaint and charming.

The castles have a "wow" factor that gets to just about anyone, along with a mystery about the young king. Not to mention, it makes fabulous pics to show to your friends and family. You can get an authentic German meal at some of the resturants as the base of the castle.

I think the castles are a more relaxing trip with such a short time.

Munich to Rothenburg is over 3 hours each way. a 7:34 train or an 8:34 train will get you there a bit before 11 or 12, respectively. There's a 20:07 train from R'burg to get you back to Munich just after 23:30. You'd have 8 or 9 hours there, which is plenty, but it's a long day. I'd stay over in R'burg if possible and catch the Nightwatchman's tour that evening.

Getting to Füssen is 2+ hours - then there's a short bus ride to get to the castles. Rothenburg is very different from Neuschwanstein, of course, but I would recommend the Rothenburg experience over the castle tour without hesitation. You'll spend maybe 45 minutes on the N'stein tour, which I took twice in English and once in German. It was conducted in nearly unintelligible English both times and turned out to be relatively dull even in German. (I wouldn't have gone through repeatedly if I hadn't been with others going for he first time.) On all three occasions, I felt like a tourist cow being yanked through the milk house.

The bus/tram stop is very near the Hotel Lisl. You will definitely see it. You would visit one of the castles (whichever you choose first) and come back down to the village then go up to the second castle. As I mentioned before, you can ride (either carriage or tram) most of the way up to and down from Neuschwanstein. As far as I know, the only way up to Hohenschwangau is to walk up the hill (a much shorter hill) and then back down.

I spent one night at the Hotel Müller in the village at the base of the castles. It was quite charming and very convenient.

I liked both Rothenburg and Neuschwanstein - but as a day trip from Munich, I'd choose the Ludwig castles, and I'd tour both N and H. They definitely have the wow factor. The setting is magnificent. Our tour of H was terrific - the guide was great. Our tour of N wasn't as good, not terrible, just not as good. You definitely are on a schedule with that castle. It was still worth it IMO.

Thanks so much to all of you. Your comments helped a lot. We are looking forward to a wonderful vacation.

Thank you for all your advice!

If you've been to Herrenchiemsee you'll soon see why it makes Neuschwanstein's interior seem about as dull as dirt but there's no doubt the EXTERIOR has that tremendous wow factor.