Keeps, curtain walls and citadels you can walk into

Some castles let you in at nine. Others sell out in April.

Which Neuschwanstein tour actually gets you inside the keep. What the Alcázar costs without the queue. Whether Bran and Peleș fit into one day out of Bucharest. Reviews of the castle and fortress tours you can book, wherever the walls are.

Start at the famous gates All the walls, one list →

2,183castle tours to book

from $7cheapest way through the gate

530castle days under $50

Windsor Castle at the head of the Long Walk

WindsorStonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from London★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · from $111

PragueSkip-the-line Castle Ticket and Optional AudioGuide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · from $35

SintraPena Palace, Moorish Castle, Qta. Regaleira & Sintra★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · from $132

Start here

Bran, Neuschwanstein, Edinburgh, the Alcázar.

Four castles almost everyone books first, and the version of each that is worth the money.

Countries built of walls

Six countries where castle days are the reason to go.

Britain keeps its castles on cliffs and crags. Spain built alcázares out of mosques. Romania has the Carpathian pair, France the Loire chateaux, Germany the fairytale keeps, Czechia the biggest castle complex in Europe. Six starting points, and the best day out inside each.

Best ofThe UKEdinburgh, Windsor, and the Highland ruins Best ofSpainAlcázares, alcazabas and hilltop fortresses Best ofRomaniaBran, Peleș and the Carpathian passes Best ofFranceLoire chateaux and walled citadels Best ofGermanyNeuschwanstein and the Rhine keeps Best ofCzechiaPrague Castle, and the towns below it

Behind the portcullis in Britain

Britain has more castle in it than any country on this site.

A rock fortress above a capital, a working royal residence an hour from Heathrow, and a string of Highland ruins on lochsides. Three kinds of British castle day, what it costs to get through each gate, and where it starts.

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from London

The rock above the cityCrown jewels, the one o'clock gun, a guide who knows the sieges. from $45

The royal residenceState apartments, St George's Chapel, usually paired with Stonehenge. from $43

The Highland ruinsEilean Donan, Urquhart, Dunnottar. Long drives, big weather. from $30 All 292 British castle tours →

Out and back in a day

The best castles are usually an hour out of the city you flew into.

Almost every great castle sits somewhere a train does not go. These are the day trips that solve that: one coach, one gate, and dinner back where you started.

Every castle day trip

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 14,646 reviewsNeuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Full-Day Trip

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 7,275 reviewsNeuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle-Fairytale Day Tour from Munich

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 6,100 reviewsDracula’s Castle, Peleș Castle & Brașov Day Trip

Best ofFrom LondonBest ofFrom BucharestBest ofFrom ParisBest ofFrom CairoBest ofFrom MunichBest ofFrom Edinburgh

The gates with the queues

The castle tours more travellers take than any others.

Every castle tour we have reviewed →

Eight gates that carry more visitors than anything else on the site, and what earns each of them the slot.

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 28,378 reviews

Royal Alcázar Entry Ticket

Review of Seville’s Royal Alcázar ticket, with practical advice on entry, palace rooms, gardens, price, crowds, and extras.

From · $23

Read our review →

2 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 18,662 reviews Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from London from $111

3 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 17,858 reviews Dracula’s Castle, Peles Castle, & Brasov Old Town from $40

4 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 14,646 reviews Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Full-Day Trip from $94

5 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 11,699 reviews Edinburgh Castle: Guided Walking Tour with Entry Ticket from $49

6 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 11,525 reviews Alcázar, Cathedral & Giralda Skip-the-Line Tour from $64

7 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 11,121 reviews Skip-the-line Castle Ticket and Optional AudioGuide from $35

8 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 10,891 reviews Dracula Castle, Peles Castle & Brasov Old Town from $40

What it costs to get in

What a castle day actually costs, from a turnstile ticket up.

Every tour on the site grouped by price. A skip-the-line ticket at a city keep and a private car around three Loire chateaux are both castle days, and they are not remotely the same money.

Under $50

Entry tickets, audio guides and the guided walks around a city castle district.

1Royal Alcázar Entry Ticketfrom $23
2Dracula’s Castle, Peles Castle, & Brasov Old Townfrom $40
3Edinburgh Castle: Guided Walking Tour with Entry Ticketfrom $49

$50–150

The full-day standards: Neuschwanstein from Munich, Bran and Peleș, Windsor with Stonehenge.

1Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from Londonfrom $111
2Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Full-Day Tripfrom $94
3Alcázar, Cathedral & Giralda Skip-the-Line Tourfrom $64

$150 and up

Private cars, multi-castle Loire days and the small-group tours that get you inside the private rooms.

1Premium Neuschwanstein Castle and Linderhof VIP Tour from Munichfrom $227
2Kronborg, Frederiksborg Castle and Roskilde Tourfrom $205
3Premium Neuschwanstein Castle & Linderhof Tourfrom $228

Before you turn up

What actually shuts a castle gate on you.

Castles are not museums with a foyer. Keeps run on timed slots with hard caps, state apartments close for state occasions, hilltop ruins shut in winter, and the last ticket is often two hours before the last visitor leaves. Two hundred spiral steps and no lift is the other one nobody mentions.

Timed entry tickets Skip the line Guided, ticket included Grounds-only tickets Walk the castle district Private, your own hours

1Royal Alcázar Entry Ticketfrom $23
2Edinburgh Castle: Guided Walking Tour with Entry Ticketfrom $49
3Alcázar, Cathedral & Giralda Skip-the-Line Tourfrom $64

Gone by April

Four castles that will not wait until you land.

Plenty of walls you can wander up to on the morning. These four run on capped time slots and coach seats, and they are the four everybody wants on the same three days of the year.

01Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Full-Day TripKeep entry is by timed ticket with a daily cap, and the castle is a shuttle ride above the village. Day-of tickets routinely run out before lunch.
02Royal Alcázar Entry TicketThe Royal Alcázar caps how many people stand in the courtyards at once. The walk-up window closes hours before the palace does.
03Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from LondonThe State Apartments close whenever the castle is being used for a state occasion, and those dates are published, not negotiable.
04Dracula’s Castle, Peles Castle, & Brasov Old TownPeleș closes on Mondays, and on Tuesdays outside high season. Turn up on the wrong day and you are photographing the courtyard.

Only here

Three castles that could not stand anywhere else.

Curtain walls and arrow slits repeat across a continent. A castle wedged into a cave mouth, a Moorish palace kept by Christian kings, and a Saxon border fort that became the vampire industry do not.

The Carpathian pass

Bran, and the Dracula question

Bran was built by Saxons in the fourteenth century to hold a mountain pass, and Vlad III almost certainly never lived in it. Bram Stoker never saw the place either. None of that has stopped it becoming the busiest castle in Romania, and the tour that pairs it with Peleș an hour away gets you a border fort and a nineteenth-century royal summer palace in the same afternoon.

1Dracula’s Castle, Peles Castle, & Brasov Old Town★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 17,858 reviews
2Dracula Castle, Peles Castle & Brasov Old Town★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 10,891 reviews
3Dracula’s Castle, Peleș Castle & Brașov Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 6,100 reviews

Open the whole castle list →

Seville and Cordoba

The Alcázares

When Castile took Seville the new kings kept the Moorish palace and hired Moorish craftsmen to extend it, which is why the Royal Alcázar reads as Islamic architecture built for Christian courts. It is still an official royal residence, so parts of it close without much warning, and the upper floor needs its own ticket. The gardens run on for hectares behind it and most visitors never reach the far end.

1Royal Alcázar Entry Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 28,378 reviews
2Alcázar, Cathedral & Giralda Skip-the-Line Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 11,525 reviews
3Cathedral, Giralda & Alcazar Entry With Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 8,560 reviews

Open the whole castle list →

Slovene karst

Predjama, in the cave mouth

Predjama is built into the entrance of a cave, using the cliff as three of its walls, with a tunnel system behind it that let a besieged garrison come and go for a year. It sits twenty minutes from Postojna, so almost everyone books the two together: a river cave the size of a cathedral, then a castle that used the rock as masonry.

1Postojna Cave & Predjama Castle Tickets and Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 2,146 reviews
2Postojna Cave and Predjama Castle – Entrance Tickets Included★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 938 reviews
3Slovenia in One Day: Lake Bled, Postojna Cave and Predjama Castle★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 879 reviews

Open the whole castle list →

Spain and Portugal

In Iberia the castle is usually a palace with battlements.

Andalusian alcázares, the Moorish walls above Sintra, a fortress in Cordoba with the gardens of Catholic monarchs behind it. Most of these were fought over for five hundred years and then decorated for another five.

Best ofAlcázaresBest ofSevilleBest ofCordobaBest ofSintra

Every Spanish castle tour →

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 — Royal Alcázar Entry Ticket

Alcázar, Cathedral & Giralda Skip-the-Line Tour