My girlfriend has never been to Germany so we of course included Neusw in our itinerary. Will be going to other castles in the area as well as the Loire Valley. I know it's touristy etc., etc. But I thought it was worth it when I went several years ago. Question is: is it still worth it with the outside covered in scaffolding for the rest of 2012?

Hi worldwidewinetours,
We went to Neuschwanstein in 2009 and scaffolding was on the side you could view from the bridge. Kind of disappointing after hiking all the way up there, but oh well, what ya gonna do. Sure it didn't make for ideal photos but it was still great to visit the castle.

The buildings in Europe are old. That is why we love to visit them. If you stopped traveling because something might have scaffolding on it you would never travel again. There is constantly repairs being done on these beautiful old structures.

Go and enjoy it. It is still beautiful. Buy a postcard that shows the castle without the scaffolding and look at that for your memories. It is a beautiful area. We really enjoyed getting a little snack and sitting on the benches in front of the lake and just taking in the gorgeous views.

IMO it's still worth seeing because the scaffolding on the outside does not affect your enjoyment of seeing the inside and hearing about the mad King Ludwig. So what if it's touristy--that just means a lot of people want to see it and there is nothing wrong with that. Besides, when will you be back in that part of the world? Just do it and enjoy.

We were there in May and went up to Mariensbrucke and got some wonderful photos from the back. Certainly it was a disappointment to see so much scaffolding from the front but I'm glad we went because it was probably a one time visit. We found the interior worth the price of admission Deborah

It was a huge disappointment to us withoutn the scaffolding...overated.

I'm with Happy.

Having been there I don't recommend it as a must-see. It might be worth a "look in" if it was on the way to someplace more interesting, but it's at the end of a leg and not worth the effort IMO. There are so many other Alps locations far more deserving of the time it takes to get to and visit NS.

As some other say, it is not really a "castle", or never functioned as a historical castle did to provide defence. It is but a fantasy residence imagined up by a bit of lunatic.

I have been there about 15 times or more. I still go by myself just to see the surrounding area. If you go to Hohenschwangau Castle, you can get good photos of Neuschwanstein. I love going to the Marienbruecke for the view of the country side as well as the castle.

From mary's bridge, one tower in the back and the left diagonal side is covered. The rest is basically scaffolding free. When i went a month ago, the scaffolding really wasn't much of an issue and I enjoyed myself.

If you like the place overall and the area, go. If you are looking for more interesting interiors some of the other Ludwig builds are more interesting and much better decorated IMO.