visit Neuschwanstein & Hohenschwangau from Munich or Salzburg???
 

We'll arrive Munich, stay one night and go to Salzburg. Which city is closer to these 2 castles? Actually, I plan to take train from Munich to Salzburg. Are there any options to visit castles in morning (by bus, private guide??) and arrive Salzburg in evening? Thanks for advices.

I haven't been to Munich or Salzburg yet, but will be visiting them in May and am also going to the castles. From the info I have gathered so far, they are easier to get to from Munich, because there is no direct train route from Salzburg (you have to go through Munich and on to Fussen). NOt sure about buses, maybe there's a way to do that, but as far as trains go, it's simpler to go from Munich.

Hi Amanda, thanks and hope you having a great May trip. I also read about Bayarn (spell?) Ticket that is sold in Munich and can use with train to Salzburg. But don't really know much about it, have to do more search.

Here's the website for information about the Bayern (Bavaria) Ticket, which is part of the Lander ticket program that the German rail offers....

I cut & pasted the websit in to the post, but it came up with two "smileys" in the address. So, if you go to

www.bahn.de

Click on "Int Guests" at the top,
Click on "How to Purchase Your Ticket" under Planning Your Journey, then
Click on Lander Tickets on the right hand side.

The Lander tickets are only valid on certain trains (no ICE or EC trains) and can be used from 9:00 am until 3:00 am the next morning (Sat & Sun 0 am to 3 am next morning). The cost is EUR24-26 and is good for up to five people travelling together.

Enjoy your travels. Someday we'll get to Germany too...... Peace. :)>-

Robyn

After a few trips to Europe we started renting cars to get around. You have a lot more flexibility and we found travel times (unless taking a high speed train with no stops) were about the same. We drove all around this area and it was awesome. Also in Germany/Austria you can rent a Mercedes very cheaply. If you haven't booked the train consider driving...this is a lovely drive.

The Herrenchiemsee castle is between Munich and Salzburg, and it would be very easy to stop and visit when enroute by train (stop in town of Prien).

Although the vast majority of non-European tourists visit Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, and Hohenschwangau castles, the palace at Herrenchiemsee is the largest of the four and one of the most popular destinations for Europeans and Germans in particular. It is also the most elaborately decorated inside...very much a "miniature Versailles" which was Ludwig's intention.

Prien is on the rail route from Munich to Salzburg and the visit would involve the short walk from the station at Prien to the nearby feery dock at Stock (there is also a narrow-guage rail link between the two). The ferry takes about 20 minutes.

This would be a very worthwhile trip but takes some planning; you would NOT need a CAR. But again, it is not the "usual" day outing you generally here about on this board.

You could do what we did: Leave in the AM for Fuessen (8:51 and 10:51 trains, as I recall-took around 2 hours), tramp around Hohenschwangau for a bit--maybe even tour one of the castles. Then take an afternoon train to Salzburg. The only downside: the trip to salzburg retraces steps through Munich, so, you're talking 4 more hours on the train. You and up to 4 others could do the entire trip on a Bayern Landerkarte for around 24 Euro if you want to travel second class, on trains with no food/beverage service.

If you're not tied to Neuschwanstein/Hohenschwangau, perhaps Intrepid's suggestion of Herrenchiemsee might be best. Less train time and you still could purchase the Landerkarte.

Neuschwanstein is west of Munich.
Salzburg is south and east, which means it is in the opposite direction. Herrenchiemsee is between Munich and Salzburg and the station you need is on the way. So you would not be making a major route deviation to get there.

Neuschwanstein is one of those places that to my eye looks better from the outside, particularly from up the mountain, than it does on the inside. I will admit that some of the doors that took years to carve are mindboggling in their intricacy, design and detail.
The interior of the castle was never finished, so you do not tour all of the floors. Also, there is considerable step climbing involved. I never paid much attention to that problem until I lost some of the use of one leg!!

I am not sure how you could do Neuschwanstein and get to Salzburg by evening unless you rented a car and left Munich early in the morning and got to the parking area for Neuschwanstein before the tour bus mobs packed in.

Then you are contrained by when an English language tour leaves, unless you are like my friend who could have joined in the German, Italian, or English tours with equal ease.

I was jealous; I could not take my pick, while she could. In fact, a lot of the people in the English tour were non native speakers. They took the first tour where the language was one they could understand.

(And to further highlight our linguistic inability, we toured the Festspielhaus in Salzburg. The guide started the tour by speaking German and then repeating it in English. After a few minutes the German speakers told her there was no need to speak in German. Just say it in English. They had no problem with her English!!)

If you had a car, you could then get it back to Munich by mid afternoon and hop a train to Salzburg. They run frequently and the trip takes from 90 minutes to 125 minutes depending on whether or not you get a local or an express. (A slow one costs 3.5€ less and takes 37 minutes longer. Some of the intermediate trains stop at Trauenstein.) The local trains stop always at Prien am Chiemsee,which is a good stop for the palace/castle while the Ec trains and IC trains do not stop there. You need an RB or RE type of train for Prien am Chiemsee.

The Bayern card you ask about includes Bavaria as well as Salzburg and Kufstein, also a border town. It may surprise you, but the DB (German rail system) goes to Salzburg. In fact, there is a separate ticket window in the station for train tickets to Germany because the DB is the type of train you take.

The Bayern card is cheaper for trips within Bavaria, but it does not apply to all trains, which means you don't buy a Bayern card and ride the express trains.

We rode on a local to Salzburg, and it took 30 minutes longer, but we had time, so no problem. In fact the train went slower and we got to sight see some out the window.

The big advantage of the Bayern card is that you can go all over Bavaria at a cheaper price.

But if you want to go west, and then east and be there by a certain time, I personally don't think it is realistic to figure on the train and bus to Neuschwanstein. You could do Herrenchiemsee easily because it is on the way so to speak.

Good luck.

I second everything BoB Brown states. Take a look at http://bahn.de, the German Railroad schedule and you see that Fuessen/Neuschwanstein is really out of the way, and that there is no way to get to Salzburg, except again through Muenchen. (Enter Muenchen Hbf - Fuessen, and then 3 hours later, Fuessen - Salzburg, and print out "detail")

I also agree that Neuschwanstein is more a place that looks good from the outside (especially, if you walk around it) than spending the time listening to a tour guide. Besides, Neuschwanstein is a new castle, as castles go. It was built in the late 19th century.

Herrenchiemsee is a great place to see. The boat ride is fun, and again, you need not go inside the palace, unless you want to. Its exterior is very impressive, as are its gardens.

To get from Prien Station (a major RR stop between Salzburg and Muenchen) to the boat landings, you can take an old steam train. Just cross under the Prien station railroad tracks, away from the station building, and you see the station of the Chiemseebahn.

Thanks for all advices.