Train Munich to Neuschwanstein: A Step-by-Step Guide

The route has five parts: a regional train, a bus, a timed ticket, the walk up and the tour inside. This guide takes them in the order you meet them.

Train Munich to Neuschwanstein: the whole day in one table

A day on your own needs one regional train, one bus, a timed castle ticket and a walk uphill, and it takes most of a day. The table shows each step and the catch that goes with it. Yes, book the timed ticket in advance. Buying online is the official advice, because tickets may sell out quickly, and the counter cannot reserve one for you. The official page does not say how many days ahead to book, so buy as soon as your plans are fixed.

If you would rather not plan this yourself, a guided Neuschwanstein trip handles the tickets and the timing for you. The rest of this guide covers the do-it-yourself way, then says when a tour is the easier choice.

Key Takeaway The castle ticket has a fixed entry time, so build the whole day backwards from that time.

Step 1: Book a timed castle ticket first

You can only enter Neuschwanstein on a guided tour with a fixed entry time, so the ticket decides your whole day. The Ticket Center says all tours have limited capacity and that tickets cannot be reserved by phone, email or at the counter.

Buy your tickets for Neuschwanstein in the official online shop. It also warns about look-alike sites that copy its name. An adult tour costs €21.00, and the online fee adds €2.50 per person. Under-18s go free, and tickets cannot be exchanged or cancelled.

The shop is updated daily. Official advice is to buy in advance, since tickets sell out very quickly, but no page publishes a number of days ahead. If your date is sold out, try another one. Tickets bought at the Ticket Center are for the same day only. A limited number go on sale from 8:00 and can sell out by late morning.

Entry hours change with the season. Tours run daily 10:00 to 16:00 from 16 October 2026, and 9:00 to 18:00 in summer. The castle is closed on 24, 25 and 31 December and 1 January.

If every slot is gone, a guided option may still have tickets. The skip-the-line guided tour, from €63 per person, lists pre-reserved castle tickets and a guide. The express tour with the shuttle bus, from €58 per person, lasts 2.5 hours. Both meet in Schwangau, so you still travel there yourself.

Pro Tip Pick an entry time at least two hours after your bus arrives in Hohenschwangau, because the Ticket Center advises arriving 1.5 to 2 hours before your Neuschwanstein entry time.

Step 2: Take a regional train from Munich to Füssen

There is no direct line to the castle, so you ride a regional train from Munich Hauptbahnhof to Füssen, the nearest station. Hohenschwangau's Ticket Center lists the service as a Regional Express of Bayerische Regiobahn, leaving from platforms 27 to 36. Füssen's tourist office confirms the same plan: reach Munich or Augsburg by long-distance train, then take a regional train to Füssen, with timetables from Deutsche Bahn and Bayerische Regiobahn (BRB). To pick your train, enter Munich Hbf and Füssen with your date in the Deutsche Bahn journey planner and choose a Regional Express from those platforms.

No official page prints the journey time or the number of trains per day, because both change with the timetable. The only figure available is a day-trip listing that describes about two hours each way. Treat that as a rough guide and read the exact time off the planner for your date.

A day pass can save money. The Bayern-Ticket costs €34 for one person and €44 for two, in second class. It works from 9:00 on weekdays (from 0:00 on weekends and public holidays), and not on ICE or IC trains. Each extra person adds €10, and first class costs €46.50 for one. The Deutschland-Ticket costs €63 a month and covers regional trains too. Neither is valid on the shuttle bus up the hill. Deutsche Bahn says the Bayern-Ticket covers almost all regular buses in Bavaria and links a PDF of buses that do not accept it. Neither that page nor the DB Regio Bus Bayern site names bus 73 or 78, so no official page confirms it for Hohenschwangau. Open the PDF and look for lines 73 and 78, and keep a few euros for the bus in case the driver says no.

If you want a guide and no planning, a guided day trip by train from Munich costs from €71.10 per person and runs about 10 hours. The listing says the castle entry of €24 is payable on the morning of the tour and is not in the price.

Step 3: Ride bus 73 or 78 from Füssen to Hohenschwangau

The bus from Füssen station to Hohenschwangau takes about 15 minutes, according to the Ticket Center. It lists two lines, 73 and 78, and tells you to get off at Hohenschwangau, Alpseestrasse. Füssen's tourist office confirms that line 78 runs from Füssen via Schwangau and Hohenschwangau.

The Ticket Center's page gives no fare or timetable, and the DB Regio Bus Bayern pages do not list them for these lines either. Download the Füssen timetable from the Fahrplandownload section of dbregiobus-bayern.de, or ask the driver, before you go. From the stop at Alpseestrasse, the Ticket Center is in Hohenschwangau, where you pick up or show your timed ticket and start the walk in Step 4. The main road through Schwangau is closed for roadworks until about mid-December 2026, with a detour via Hohenschwangau, so allow extra time.

If you want a guide from the first step, a guided walk that starts at Füssen station costs from €45 per person and lasts 3 hours. It does not include the castle entry, so you still need your timed ticket.

Step 4: Walk or ride up to the castle

From the Ticket Center in Hohenschwangau you walk about 40 minutes uphill to Neuschwanstein. The Ticket Center's visitor page lists three ways up.

The shuttle bus stops near Marienbrücke, not at the castle door. From there it is a steep walk of about 15 minutes downhill to the entrance. In summer it runs from 8:00 to 17:30 uphill, about every 20 minutes. In winter it runs only in suitable weather, with no snow or ice.

Marienbrücke is about five minutes from the top bus stop. In winter it can close for ice and snow, and the castle tours are not affected. Buy your castle ticket before you take the bus up.

The walk is hard if you have trouble walking. Two of the guided tours listed here say they are not suitable for people with mobility impairments, so ask before you book. Do not count on the shuttle bus or the carriage in winter.

Step 5: Go inside at your entry time

The tour inside Neuschwanstein lasts about 30 minutes, and you walk it with a guide in German or English. You cannot wander the rooms alone.

Other tickets bundle the second castle. The Kings-Ticket for Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau costs €43.50 for adults, plus a €5.00 online fee. The Hohenschwangau Castle tour lasts about 45 minutes. Combination tickets are valid for one visit date only.

Linderhof Palace does not fit into this same day. Its tour lasts about 25 minutes, and a ticket costs €11. No official page links Linderhof and Neuschwanstein by public transport in one day, so plan it as a second day or choose a coach tour.

The Best Travel Destinations' count of GetYourGuide listings for the Munich area on 28 October 2026 found 33 listings that name Neuschwanstein in their title, and only 4 of them name a ticket.

Train or car: which is easier?

The train is easier for most visitors, because private cars cannot drive up to the castles. Cars park in the paid lots P1 to P4 in Hohenschwangau, at €12.00 for up to six hours, then €1.00 per extra hour, up to €16.00. From there the walk, the shuttle bus and the carriage work as in Step 4.

A car lets you reach Hohenschwangau without a connection, and it makes a Linderhof stop easier. The roadworks in Schwangau mean slower driving until mid-December 2026. The train needs no parking but ties you to the bus times.

Is a guided Neuschwanstein tour worth it?

A guided tour is worth it when you cannot get a ticket or do not want to plan three connections. On your own, you pay the ticket price and a train fare, and you keep the freedom to stay longer. The guided picks listed here bundle the ticket and a guide, and some add the bus up the hill. Either way, book ahead, because the Ticket Center says tickets may sell out quickly and gives no number of days.

Trust a pick by what its page states, not by its star rating. The skip-the-line tour has free cancellation, groups of up to 35 and is run by A-Travel GmbH, as listed on 28 October 2026. The Füssen walk has groups of up to 20 and is run by Gladiator tours in the mountains. Each listing states what it leaves out, such as food, tips and hotel pick-up. We cannot say whether the ratings are fair beyond what each page shows, so read the cancellation terms, the group size and the operator before you pay.

Before you book, here is what each page says, so you can weigh the tour against the do-it-yourself day. The skip-the-line tour and the express tour both meet in Schwangau; the express tour lasts 2.5 hours. The Füssen walk starts at Füssen station, lasts 3 hours, takes up to 20 people and leaves out the castle entry. That train day lasts about 10 hours and leaves out the €24 castle entry, which you pay on the morning. Its page gives no meeting point, so confirm it before you pay.

The best castle days are the ones where the ticket is already in your pocket.