The Best Castles in Europe and How to Visit Them

The fairytale palaces

These are the 19th-century Romanticist builds: Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria and Pena Palace above Sintra. Both were deliberate evocations of a medieval past rather than medieval buildings, and both sit on hilltops where the approach is part of the visit. The trade-off is crowds and timed entry. Neuschwanstein admits visitors only on 30-minute guided or audio-guided tours of 14 rooms, with as many as 6,000 people a day in summer, and Pena runs a timed slot system with a steep climb from the park gate. Book the entry-included option on a day tour and let the operator hold the slot.

If you want a medieval castle that simply looks like the fairytale version, Eltz Castle is the honest answer: a genuine family fortress in a Moselle valley, never destroyed, entered on a 35 to 40 minute guided tour that the ticket includes.

The working royal residences

Windsor Castle and Prague Castle are buildings with jobs. Windsor is the King's weekend home, Prague is the seat of the Czech presidency, and both can close rooms or whole areas at short notice. The reward is that the interiors are lived-in state rooms, chapels and treasuries rather than museum sets. Windsor's ticket converts into a free 1-Year Pass for return visits, and Prague's main circuit ticket stays valid for two consecutive days, which is the cheapest per-building entry of any major castle on this list at $21.

Edinburgh Castle sits between categories: still a garrison with the army in ceremonial charge, but essentially the national treasury, holding the Honours of Scotland.

The ruins and fortresses

If you care about military history and views rather than furnished rooms, aim for the broken ones. Urquhart Castle was blown up by departing government troops after the Jacobite risings and now frames Loch Ness from a promontory. The Moorish Castle at Sintra gives you walls and lookout points rather than interiors. Predjama Castle is a functioning fortress built into a cliff face, defensible because of the cave behind it. These cost less, take less time and rarely sell out.

Winter closures

Two of the most photographed castles in Europe shut for the whole winter. Eltz Castle opens only from 29 March to 1 November, with last admission at 17:00, and is closed otherwise. Alnwick Castle is fully seasonal too: The castle closes for the winter and the castle reopens in March, so the Harry Potter filming locations are unreachable in the meantime. The cave under Predjama Castle only opens June to August, though the castle itself opens every day all year.

The safe winter picks are the ones that never close: Hohensalzburg Fortress opens 365 days a year and Blarney Castle opens all year from 09:00. Prague Castle grounds stay open 06:00 to 22:00 with buildings on shorter winter hours of 09:00 to 16:00.

Weekly closing days

Windsor Castle closes every Tuesday and Wednesday, and St George's Chapel inside it is closed to visitors on Sundays as well. Castel Sant'Angelo is closed Mondays except special openings. Bran Castle opens at 12:00 on Mondays against a 09:00 start the rest of the week. A Saturday to Monday city break can lose a castle entirely to these rules, so check the day before you fix your itinerary.

Weather and short-notice shutdowns

Edinburgh Castle can close at short notice in high winds, which happens on the exposed rock summit. Windsor Castle as a working palace can shut the State Apartments or the whole site with little warning, so check closure dates before travelling. Where a castle sells out, the problem is the reverse: Edinburgh and Urquhart Castle both routinely exhaust online tickets in summer, and once Edinburgh sells out online there are no walk-up tickets at all.

From Edinburgh: three different castles in three directions

Edinburgh is the best base in Europe for castle variety. In the city itself, Edinburgh Castle takes a morning. An hour west, Stirling Castle pairs with Loch Lomond and the Kelpies on a single coach day such as the Timberbush Loch Lomond, Stirling and Kelpies tour. North, the Highlands day to Loch Ness can add Urquhart Castle on the option with the cruise and castle ticket, which is the 12.5-hour Loch Ness, Glencoe and Highlands tour. See the full set on our castles in Scotland guide.

The realistic rhythm is one city castle day and two coach days. Trying to squeeze Stirling and Urquhart into the same day means too much road.

From London and from Dublin

From London, Windsor Castle shares a coach day with Stonehenge and Bath on the Evan Evans three-sight tour, and Kent gives you Leeds Castle with Canterbury and the Dover cliffs. The English castles in detail are on our castles in England page.

From Dublin, Ireland's three-castle day is the strongest value in this whole guide: the Blarney, Rock of Cashel and Cahir tour includes every admission for $95 and still leaves time to kiss the stone. More options are on our castles in Ireland guide.

The pairing pairs: Bavaria, the Loire, Transylvania and Sintra

Some castles are built to be doubled. Ludwig II's Neuschwanstein and Linderhof share one coach day from Munich, and the German options run wider on our castles in Germany page. The Loire works as Chambord plus Chenonceau, both entry included on the Paris day trip with wine, with more on our castles in France guide.

From Bucharest, Bran Castle comes bundled with Peleș and Brașov. From Lisbon, Sintra packs Pena, Regaleira and the Moorish Castle into one hill town. Every departure city is compared on our castle day trips page.

Sell-out castles: book the entry, not just the tour

Three castles on this list run out of capacity rather than hours. Neuschwanstein sells timed 30-minute tour slots, and the ticket centre in Hohenschwangau sells same-day tickets only, limited and often gone by late morning in high season. Edinburgh Castle tickets sell out far in advance in summer, with no walk-up fallback. Urquhart Castle also sells out in summer. The fix is the same in each case: take a tour option that includes the entry, because the operator's allocation is held before you arrive.

For Neuschwanstein, the Munich day trip to both palaces is built around a fixed entry time, and the official advice is to arrive in Hohenschwangau village 1.5 to 2 hours before your slot.

Option traps: check what the price actually includes

Many day trips are sold on a sliding scale where the base price covers only transport. On the Bucharest Dracula's Castle day trip you buy the Bran and Peleș tickets yourself at each stop. On the Loire day from Paris entry to Chambord and Chenonceau is included, but guided visits inside the castles are not, and lunch is free time in Blois. On the Sintra day, Pena and Regaleira tickets come only on the option that includes them. Read the inclusion line before comparing prices, because two tours at similar prices can differ by a whole castle ticket or more.

Where a tour leaves entry to you, the castle's own gate price applies on top, for example Bran Castle at $20.90 (100 lei) for adults.

Getting there is part of the ticket

Some tickets assume you are already close. The Prague main circuit ticket covers four buildings but no guide and no transfer, while the guided Prague Castle tour adds the tram up the hill and a local guide for $58. The Chillon Castle ticket works because the castle is a short walk or bus from Montreux.

The Hohensalzburg Fortress ticket comes with a funicular option, which is worth taking unless you want the steep walk up. If a meeting point is a city-centre street rather than the castle gate, plan the last stretch yourself, as with the Edinburgh tours that meet on the Royal Mile.