My daughter and I travelled to Germany, we took many tours to have safety and the chance to get the most our of our trip. I read many reviews before we left about people who travelled using the city buses and trains that were stressed finding places and getting there when the attraction was near closed or closed.
We were very happy we paid the money to take Gray Line Tours. We saw what we wanted to and the Tour guide Margeet I believe her name was( please correct me if I am wrong) was the tour Guide for the Zugspitz Tour it was on May 31st, 2015. She was informative, interesting and ALWAYS made sure we all stayed together and no one got separated! She was wonderful, I can not say enough about this lady. She made our Zugspitz Day Tour the highlight of our trip we will never forget it. Please do not hesitate to take this trip or Tours with Grayline. We did have tours booked in Austria months before we came with Viator unfortunately and this Tour company did not even compare to Grayline's excellence of customer service! Because of Margeet and another lady( I wish I knew her name, she did the Eagle's Nest Tour May 29th 2015) we will always take Gray line Tours, they are exceptional! The picture below with the lady pointing is the Tour guide and she is pointing to one of the smallest churches in Germany on the mountain in the Zugspitz Tour! Dawn & Lindsey Martin
My husband and I undertook this tour with Ursula as our guide. Ursula shared stories about the relevant areas which made the time on the bus pass by quicker.
However, I recommend that at Linderhof there should be guidance about how long it takes to walk to the actual castle from the ticket point. Also, it should also be advised that the gardens of the castle may be explored prior to the ticketed tour time.
Unfortunately we missed exploring the gardens of Linderhof since we had to head directly to the bus shortly after the castle tour.
I feel that the Oberammergau stop could be eliminated to shorten the duration of the tour.
In relation to Neuscwanstein, the views were quite amazing. However, the castle tour included in the entrance fee is actually an audio guide tour.
Ensure you wear comfortable walking shoes as the walk to and from the Neuscwanstein castle is around 15 to 20 minutes.
In retrospect, we probably would have hired a car, organised tickets and checked out the sights ourselves as the cost of this tour for two prople is comparable.
Thank you for writing in with your feedback. We are pleased you enjoyed your guide Ursula´s commentary. But we need to clear up a misunderstanding – our Royal Castles tour does not include any time to explore the grounds at Linderhof or a visit to the grotto there. Only a visit to the Linderhof palace itself is part of this tour. This fact is made clear in our tour description online as well as in our info brochure. A visit to the Linderhof grounds and grotto is offered only on tour number 15, which runs once a week on Sundays from mid-May to mid-October. We are sorry that this was not clear to you.
It’s also a shame that you felt your stop in the town of Oberammergau could have been eliminated. We bring our groups to this town because it is one of the most famous places in Bavaria. It has been the home of the world-famous Passion Play for almost 400 years now and it is also where the beautiful Bavarian house painting style „Lüftlmalerei“ originated. Oberammergau is also famous for the exquisite work of the local woodcarvers. The majority of our guests are glad to have the opportunity to spend some time in this unique little town.
Gray Line is the only company which offers both the Linderhof Palace and Neuschwanstein Castle as well as the Passion Play town of Oberammergau in one day. No other company will take you to all these places in a single day. If you rent a car and go on your own, you will definitely see less if you try to do it all in one day. You also will spend a lot of time waiting in line (up to two hours) trying to get tickets for the castle tours, as is normal for visitors coming without a tour group. For your convenience on our Royal Castles tour, our guides always pre-reserve timed tickets for their entire groups before even arriving at the castles in order to maximize guest comfort and eliminate any waiting time.
We would also like to point out that we recommend allowing 30-40 minutes to walk up the steep hill to Neuschwanstein and not just 15 to 20 minutes, as you wrote.
We hope this response helps you to better understand how our Royal Castles tour works, why you couldn´t see the Linderhof gardens on your recent Royal Castles tour and why we took you to Oberammergau. The vast majority of our guests are overwhelmingly satisfied with our agenda and find their Gray Line Royal Castles tour to be a highlight of their trip to Munich. We hope to see you again someday on another tour in Munich.
I was skeptical at paying almost $100 more than Gray Line's regular bus tour to Neuschwanstein, but it was awesome and money well spent. The bus itself was the equivalent to 1st class seating with only 20 or so seats on board. You did not feel like you were being herded like cattle at any point in the trip. Our guide Ursela was GREAT! Very engaging and very invested in the history of the region. The fact that she limits herself to doing this tour only once a week really keeps it fresh. The coffee & beer & snacks were icing on the cake!!
We took the premium tour of Neuschwanstein Castle. Very small group, super luxury bus. Excellent super knowledgeable tour guide Ursula made our day very special. Very organized, no hustle, no waiting in line for tickets. Worth every penny. Can't wait to return.
We had reservations for Gray Line SIGHTseeing for the neuschwanstein castle tour and also utilized their Hop On Hop Off city tour as well. The city tour was a problem in that after they took our $50 US, we had to wait 45-60 min for a bus with openings as the next two that arrived 'were full'. The bus they finally put us on had only one seat and my wife and I got separated (she up stairs sitting in a non-seat or storage area) and I had to sit where the tour guide would have sat. Bad move, as clearly I snapped a photo of the bus driver texting on his cell while he weaved around cars and we had to hold on tight. There were two routes and the one with the native German speaker was rough as her English was barely passable. The other, with the English speaker was very good, but she missed some of the major points covered by the German speaker.
The Neuschwanstein trip was very good, but our rating is more for how they treated some of the mobile impaired tourists . . when the German's say to be on the bus at 4:44 pm as the bus leaves at 4:45 pm, you better be on the bus OR THEY WILL LEAVE YOU! Our bus actually left Neuschwanstein at 4:50 and left no less than 3 of the more elderly and mobile impaired somewhere in the city . . . they assured us they would have another bus pick them up (but how would these folks even know WHICH of the multitude of buses was there for them?).
So they do tours, but you are on your own and they do not take roll call or do head counts as they come/go, so just be aware of this . . .otherwise, the trip woul dhave been very good.
We are surprised that you were not aware of the famous German reputation for punctuality. Our day tours stick to a timetable and when our guides tell you to be somewhere or the bus will leave, you need to take that seriously. Gray Line runs a tour company and not a school trip, so you are right in that we don’t take a roll call. We rely on our guests to act as responsible adults and be on time at the meeting places. Not only is this the right thing to do, it also shows respect towards your fellow guests as well by not keeping them waiting.
On every day tour, all our guests are repeatedly and amply informed about the correct departure time at any given stop and the consequences of being late and thereby missing the bus. Our tour guides are instructed to wait a certain amount of time for latecomers, but after that the bus must leave even if the people have not shown up yet, because it is on a schedule. It is also unfair to keep whole busloads of 65 – 75 passengers waiting for one or two people who, for whatever reason, , cannot manage to be on time.
As far as our Hop On Hop Off city tour is concerned, during the peak season, we always run the maximum amount of buses because we are aware of how crowded it can get. We regret that it still did not seem like enough, but Munich is one of the most frequently visited cities in Germany and during peak periods, there may be waiting times caused by the sheer volume of customers wishing to take our city tour all at once. We understand that this can be annoying, but Munich is a popular tourist destination and we have no control over the number of guests who come to us at any given time.
Our guides are all highly trained experts with many years of experience who speak fluent English and German. We regret that you had trouble understanding our guide and did not enjoy the live commentary. Most of our guests rate the commentary of our live guides as being the best part of their experience. Gray Line is the only company in Munich which has live guides.
Please try coming back at a different time of year next time in order to experience Munich in a less crowded way. The vast majority of our guests are overwhelmingly satisfied with our city tour and find their Gray Line Royal Castles tour to be a highlight of their trip to Munich.
