REAL LIFE CINDERELLA CASTLE: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NEUSCHWANSTEIN CASTLE
If you had the opportunity to explore a fairy tale in real life, would you? When the creator of fairytales himself Walt Disney visited this area of Bavaria in Germany he instantly fell in love with the castle of Neuschwanstein, enough to inspire his upcoming classic Sleeping Beauty.
Ever since we saw this incredible castle set amongst one of the most beautiful backdrops we just had to add it to our German bucket list. Here is the complete guide for visiting Neuschwanstein Castle.
Visiting Neuschwanstein Castle
Munich is the closest major German city to the castle so unless you plan to stay a few nights in the surrounding town of Hohenschwangau (and not hiring a car) we suggest you jump on the earliest possible train out.
The train station you will arrive at is Fuessen Station, which takes about 2 hours from Munich. There you can wait for a bus to get to the town of Hohenschwangau, however when we arrived the bus was an hour wait so we instead opted to catch a 6 minute taxi ride, which was honestly quite reasonable.
When you arrive in the town of Hohenschwangau you will need to head to the ticket office at the Ticketcenter Hohenschwangau, if you plan to go inside the castle YOU MUST buy your tickets before heading up or you will have to walk the 30-40 min hike down and up again to get inside.
Pick up a map or follow the tourists up the road (take in the views before the forrest swallows you up) before arriving at Cinderella's Neuschwanstein Castle.
When is the best time to go?
This question has two answers and it all depends on your personal preference. We explored Bavaria just days (literally days) before a blanket of snow covered the castle. Head in winter you will have snow and wet weather to deal with but your view will be way more magical with the white backdrop.
Of course no matter what, summer will always be the busiest period to explore Europe so if you can travel in the period after but still before winter you will find less crowds with manageable weather.
How much is it to visit?
Once again this question has two answers, free or 12 euros.
What will free get you? Well free is always for me so not spending a dime will allow you to go right up to the castle and even into the courtyard and also access to the bridge to get that postcard shot.
However, if you would like to go inside and tour the castle that will set you back 12 euros for a guided tour for half an hour that takes you through the castle with highlights being the throne room and kings room.
How to get the perfect shot?
The perfect shot was not available to us during our visit due to construction of the Marienbrücke (Mary's Bridge), which is the bridge over the Pollät gorge. This 10 minute walk from the castle will get you that postcard shot you have dreamed of.
Can you use a Drone at Neuschwanstein Castle?: During the time of our visit to Bavaria we could not find anywhere online that strictly banned drone photography or video. We had seen several videos and photographs on the web of the castle shot from a drone and thought we would give it a try.
We managed to get our drone into the air (and away from any sort of crowds) to some sort of success, however once we filmed for about 2-3 minutes I had a very angry groundskeeper (gardening or utilities) screaming at me in German to take the drone down. You can see the footage for yourself below to see what we managed to get. I wouldn't be surprised with the high adoption rate of drones your chances are getting slimmer as the years go on.
Our Experience
As always we filmed our lives on our daily travel vlog YouTube channel, so why not check out our day visiting Neuschwanstein castle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNW2VT1XbYU
What's your favourite Disney inspired location?
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