Hotels in Hohenschwangau

The area is breathe taking, like being in a movie set or in a post card. The Castles are gorgeous and the landscape is stunning. The town closes at 5pm in December! We hadn't realised this and because our hotel restaurant closed at 5pm, we walked into town and luckily decided to stop for dinner at 4:30pm because at 5pm they stop serving food and turn customers away. There was nothing to do, no where to go for a drink. It was such a shame. Our dinner was delicious and we tried some local dishes. They didn't rush us to finish which was great but had we known there was nowhere else to go, we probably would have lingered much longer.

If you are planning to stay overnight, be aware that after 6 or 7 there will be no restaurants or stores open. Either you will need to have an early dinner or go to Fussen.. just 10 or 15 minutes away, either by car or bus... also the bus stops running during the night.

If you're there for the castles or access to trails, Hohenschwangau is great. However, it's a day trip destination for most people, so the whole place shuts down around 5. Even restaurants. We returned from skiing around 6:30 and had to visit neighboring Schwangau for dinner. Not even a shop for snacks. But during the day, all the shops and restaurants are close and within walking distance. We love the network of trails around the Alpensee and castles. I'd recommend staying for a day or two, while visiting the castles, then moving on to a more accommodating location.

There is lack of variety between restaurants and cafes which all seemed to have the same menu. We found some closed very early in the evening which limited our options for dinner in this small town. Town is serviced well by the public bus network.

Be careful about the carriage rides, absolutely no regularity whatsoever. As your ticket to visit the castles are only for a specific time it is really difficult to both take a carriage ride and arrive on time for the visit. We waited 20 minutes at both ends of the carriage ride without even seeing a carriage! So do take some good hiking shoes! The Hohenschwangau castle is more interesting to visit than the Neuschwanstein despite what you might think. The latter actually was not lived in at all! The restaurants are expensive and the food is nothing special. Be careful at night it is a dead town and finding even an open restaurant is out of the question. So you better have a car.

We visited in the winter off-season, so a lot of restaurants and shops were closed. We picked up a quick lunch at one of the wurst stands before heading up the mountain: good wurst on a great roll all washed down with a Schwip-Schwap, yum. Neuschwanstein has a lot of repair work going on right now, which may interfere with your view of many of the interior spaces. (Although it was neat to watch some of the craftsmen at work on the renovations.) There is a lot of uphill walking to get to the castle, even if you purchase the available carriage ride. Once you get in the castle, there is a lot more walking, and A LOT of stairs. I didn't see any way for folks with limited mobility to enjoy any part of the castle interior. Hopefully I'm wrong, but you'd need to check into it. One other caution about visiting Neuschwanstein: be on time! Your ticket has a group number and departure time. If you aren't in the queueing area when your group number goes, you're out of luck and out your money. It will probably take you longer to get up the hill than you think, no matter which way you go, so leave well in advance of when you think you need to!