Castles · Tour

Ten and a Half Hours, Linderhof First, and the Ticket Bought on the Day

A long day out of Munich to the castles of Ludwig II, the king history filed as mad, whose UNESCO-listed palace Walt Disney borrowed for his own. The group meets at Sonnenstraße 1 and heads south into Bavaria by coach. The drive takes two hours, and the guide fills them. Linderhof comes first, the smallest of the Bavarian palaces, and there the time is yours to spend: a guided tour of the interior, or the gardens, or a coffee with the valley in front of you. Then Hohenschwangau, with time for a meal in one of the restaurants before the castle. Neuschwanstein is the reason everyone is here, but Hohenschwangau below it is worth the look: less famous, and the house where Ludwig grew up, which is where the plans for the other one started. The interior of Neuschwanstein is optional. Entry tickets are not included in the price, though you skip the queue for them. The castle is reached by a short uphill walk from the car park, or by horse-drawn carriage or bus. The whole day runs 10.5 hours, ending back in Munich.