Search hotels in Hohenschwangau

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!

Prepare to spend more time if you come here at fall (autumn). The scenery is bravo but the weather is very unpredictable. We have a sunny good day on day 1 but have foggy, misty and rainy day 2 & 3. Both castles were obscured by the fog and the rain almost stopped all activities.

It is an incredibly beautiful spot. Would have been great to have planned time to do some hiking as well as visiting castles. The fall rain however meant this was not a good timed for the outdoor activities. It poured!