Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau tickets: one shop, two owners

The short answer

Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau are seen only on guided tours at a fixed entry time, and both are sold through one official channel: the online ticket shop at hohenschwangau.de, or the Ticket Center in Hohenschwangau village for the same day only.[6] The Bavarian Palace Administration, which runs Neuschwanstein, says remaining tickets on site are sold exclusively for the same day and that reservations are not possible.[1]

What makes the two castles confusing is that the shop is shared and the owners are not. Hohenschwangau Castle has belonged to the Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds since 1923,[9] and the Bavarian Palace Administration's own admission page says its annual and 14-day tickets cannot be used there because Hohenschwangau is not administered by it.[2] A pass that opens Neuschwanstein does not open its neighbour.

Both castles are in the municipality of Schwangau. The Bavarian Palace Administration gives Neuschwanstein's address as Neuschwansteinstraße 20, 87645 Schwangau.[4] XTOUR lists them under Füssen because Füssen is the neighbouring town used as a base, not because they are in it.

Who owns what

The Bavarian Palace Administration (Bayerische Schlösserverwaltung) runs Bavaria's state palaces; its pass page lists Neuschwanstein among more than forty state sights.[5] The Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds is, by its own legal notice, a foundation under public law based in Munich, with its own Hohenschwangau administration.[12] It runs the online ticket shop, sells Hohenschwangau and museum tickets on its own behalf, and sells Neuschwanstein tickets on behalf of the Bavarian administration.[6] It also owns and organises the Museum of the Bavarian Kings, which opened in September 2011.[13]

Hohenschwangau is the older of the two castles. Its owner's page says the later King Maximilian II, Ludwig II's father, bought the ruin in 1832 and had it rebuilt between 1833 and 1837; after its completion it served as the royal family's summer and hunting residence.[9] Neuschwanstein was Ludwig II's own project; the differences between his palaces are set out in Ludwig II's palaces: Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, Herrenchiemsee and Schachen.

Timed guided tours

The Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds' ticket page says both castles can be visited only as part of a guided tour at a fixed entry time, and that every tour runs with limited capacity.[6] For Neuschwanstein, the Bavarian administration's tour page adds that the ticket is valid for a tour at a specific time, that tours start punctually and that a visitor who arrives late can no longer join. The same page asks visitors to allow extra time on site for possible security checks.[3]

The two operators describe tours of different lengths. The Neuschwanstein page gives about 30 minutes for both its guided and audio-guide tours,[3] and the Hohenschwangau tour page gives about 45 minutes for that castle. Guides speak German and English at both, and audio guides cover further languages.[3][10]

The ticket page's own planning advice is to arrive in Hohenschwangau village at least an hour and a half to two hours before a Neuschwanstein admission time, and at least an hour before a Hohenschwangau one.[6] That buffer is the operator's, not an XTOUR estimate.

Online shop or Ticket Center

There are two ways in, and the operators describe both in nearly the same words.

• The online shop. The Bavarian administration recommends buying Neuschwanstein tickets in good time from the official online ticket shop.[2] The Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds says that if the shop has no tickets for the chosen date, a visitor should check whether another date works.[6] Children enter Neuschwanstein free, but the Bavarian page says they still need a free ticket when booking online.[2]
• The Ticket Center, same day only. Tickets bought on site are valid only for that day, the Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds says, and its ticket page adds that "a limited number of additional tickets may be released for sale daily starting at 8:00 a.m."[6] The Bavarian admission page describes these as first come, first served, often sold out very early, and says that once they are gone the castle cannot be visited that day.[2]

The ticket page also asks drivers not to stop in front of the Ticket Center, where a strict no-stopping zone applies, and to use parking areas P1 to P4.[6] The castles themselves are not reachable by private car, according to the owner's access page, and the shuttle bus and carriages up the hill are run by independent companies with no fixed timetable and no advance reservations. The same page warns that the bus does not stop at Neuschwanstein's entrance: from its upper stop at Mary's Bridge, the last stretch is a steep walk downhill.[11] XTOUR does not publish journey or walking times for any of this.

Where the official pages disagree

The operators' pages agree on the essentials. They differ on wording in two places that a careful planner will notice.

"Reservations". The Bavarian administration says on its English pages that reservations are not possible,[1] and its German Neuschwanstein page says they are in principle no longer possible.[4] The Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds' price page, however, mentions a service fee on "reserved tickets" and handles group tours on written request.[7] Both describe buying a timed ticket online as the advance route. XTOUR does not know what, if anything, the price page's "reserved tickets" means for an individual visitor, and treats the online purchase as the only advance option the operators describe.

When the Ticket Center's summer selling hours start. Both pages list the Ticket Center's sales times in a summer and a winter period. The English opening-hours page starts the summer period on 28 March,[3] while the German Neuschwanstein page starts it on 1 April.[4] Anyone planning around the end of March should check the current page on the day.

Passes and combination tickets

The Bavarian administration's annual and 14-day tickets cover Neuschwanstein, though its pass page (in German) says holders must in most of its houses still have a free admission ticket issued, and lists Neuschwanstein among the houses where that ticket can be booked online; Hohenschwangau is excluded on both the German and the English pages, and the Museum of the Bavarian Kings does not appear on the list of sights the passes cover.[2][5] How the passes work across all the administration's houses is set out in who runs Germany's palaces and castles.

For more than one sight, the Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds sells its own combination tickets: the Kings-Ticket for both castles, the Prince-Ticket for Neuschwanstein and the museum, the Wittelsbach-Ticket for Hohenschwangau and the museum, and the Swan-Ticket for all three. Its page says each is issued for one visit date and cannot be spread over several days.[8]

Children are treated differently by the two owners. The price page lists Neuschwanstein as free for children and pupils under 18, but for Hohenschwangau Castle gives free entry only under 7 and a separate children's price for ages 7 to 17. It also says tickets cannot be exchanged or cancelled.[7] XTOUR does not publish the prices themselves.

What XTOUR does not know

XTOUR does not publish prices, opening hours, journey or walking times, accessibility information or how quickly tickets sell out on a given day. It does not sell tickets for either castle, and it does not know of any official channel other than the hohenschwangau.de shop and the Ticket Center. The operators' price pages are headed 2026; check them again close to a visit, because operational notices change. For the town used as a base, see Füssen.