Neuschwanstein Castle

Neuschwanstein Castle is one of the most famous castles in the world, located in the Bavarian Alps of Germany.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Neuschwanstein Castle (aka Schloss Neuschwanstein) is really something to see in person. It is located in southern Germany near two other castles, all of which are awesome, just outside of Fussen, Germany. It is another of the castles built by Mad Kind Ludwig. After seeing two of the places this guy built and learning his history he was definitely crazy. Be sure to mention to your kids that they will be visiting castles built by a crazy guy, because this seems to make them much more interested!

Neuschwanstein Castle is one of the most famous castles in the world and it is the one Walt Disney used as his inspiration for Cinderella’s castle at Disney World. In fact, one of my kids even mentioned that it reminded them of Cinderella’s castle and they didn’t know this fun fact.

*Neuschwanstein also happens to be Germany’s number 1 tourist attraction, so book your reservations in advance. This will save you from standing in line for an hour just to be told they are out of tours for the day.

It is a long uphill hike to get up to the castle, but for a fee (less than 2 euros) you can take the bus most of the way up. The only problem with this is that they put as many people as they can onto these buses. I hated it, so we walked down. You also have the option of taking a horse drawn carriage up to the castle, but it was raining and the horses smelled awful. I had planned for us to take the carriage, but the kids were not having it with the bad smell.

While you are there, be sure to climb/hike up to Marion Bridge. It doesn’t take that long and this is where we were able to take the first two photos in this post. The views basically speak for themselves. If you are wondering how we were able to take a selfie like that it’s because we got a GoPro HERO3 and it takes amazing wide photos. I love the way we were able to take family selfies everywhere we went. We could not do this until we got a GoPro HERO3 and that had nothing to do with why we got one! Go figure.

The pictures we took of the inside are not the best ever, because we had to be sneaky. I must say GoPros really come in handy when trying to sneak some pictures.

Neuschwanstein is open Monday – Fridays during the summer from 8:30 AM until 6:30 PM and is only seen with a tour guide. You have to stay with a tour guide at all times.

Admission is 12 euros for adults and free for kids ages 14 and under! You can also buy a combination ticket for Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau for just 22 euros for adults.

We choose to pay 12 euros each to get into Hohenschwangau (the kids were free) and then buy the Mehrtagesticket family pass for 40 euros that gets you into Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, and the Residenze. We knew we would at least do these three attractions. Rick Steves’ Germany 2014 said in his Germany 2014 guide book, that as long as you did three of the attractions on the pass that it was the most affordable option. In our case this was true.

Don’t forget to check out the Neuschwanstein balcony.

It is another great place to get a photo. It is near the movie theater, which they refer to as the “cafe”. We went down there looking for food totally confused, but happy to see the balcony!

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