Brühl Castle — Attraction in Brühl

Rococo jewel of Germany and stunning beauty, but the tour option needs to be improved!

Getting to the castle by train was fairly easy, I was quite surprised how close the train station was to the entrance of the castle, not even 100 meter away from the platform. The most stunning views of the castle were exactly from here, from the entrance - the long checker design path leads all the way to the beautiful colored castle - that's what I wanted to see.

For visiting the castle I bought a combined ticket for 15 € that entitled me to visit both Augustusburg and Falkenlust castles, but I must say I was highly disappointed with the tour! I was only able to participate in a German speaking guided tour that lasted around one hour, for non-German speakers an audio guide was available (in many languages and free of charge) unfortunately without headphones being provided. So there I was, listening to the audio guide with one ear and the German guide with the other ear not being able to focus on the explanations of either of them. On top of that the audio stories were short (some of them less than a minute) as opposed to the guide's explanation, so I felt like I was missing out. I could not focus therefore I did not enjoy it and the large group of visitors (at least 30% were non-german speakers) murmuring around didn't help either.

We were allowed to take pictures only in 3 rooms, luckily the main staircase was one of them. This room was splendid, an absolute marvel and a highlight of the castle,a very photogenic place. The summer dining room was also quite beautiful. As for the rest of the rooms the most interesting part of them were the ceilings, as they were stunning and exceptional. Each room had different coloring and different motifs, however there was not much to see in the rooms apart from the ceiling stucco and beautifully decorated walls, just a few pieces of furniture, certainly not as much as I expected. The library didn't even have books, and if it weren't for the tiles I would not even recognize we visited a bathroom.

The gardens with the fountains were nice, however I was not amazed as they were vast and spread out. Unfortunately some parts were not in the best condition as the buxus disease stroked here too. I did enjoy the walk to the Falkenlust castle, which is around 30 minutes walking distance, the alleys leading there were pretty amazing (great wedding picture opportunity). I did enjoy visiting Falkenlust castle as it was less crowded, more compact, equally beautiful and I could explore the rooms on your own with an audio guide.

I am giving 5 starts for the beauty and historical meaning of the castle, but my tour experience would be rated much lower. Visited in...

There are 2 castles next to each other and it isn't very easy to decide which one to go to as the difference isn't explained clearly.

The garden outside is beautiful and free to visit if you don't wanna pay for the castle.

Unfortunately, the info given at the tickets desk isn't sufficient and informative.

Only after we bought the tickets we were informed that we would have to wait for the entire group to start our castle tour. We had to wait around 20 minutes and it wasn't convenient for us as we had other plans afterwards. We were only informed after we paid for the tickets and tried to find our way in.

To top that up, after we went for the group and started the tour with the guide, we were shocked that the tour was in German! No one has informed us about that at the tickets desk. Yes, we were given audio guides in our chosen language, but it was very annoying and distracting to walk with a group of people who are being guided by a language you don't understand while you try to focus on the audio device that you have. I mean what's the point of waiting for the group if the tour will be German? Makes 0 sense for tourists.

Another con about the experience is that there's minimal ventilation in the castle on such hot summer days. I don't get why aren't more windows open for ventilation esp that around 20 people are being squeezed together in the same room!

Given the above, a couple of us decided not to continue the tour and were refunded the ticket money.

Also, you won't be allowed to take pictures in 80% of the castle. Funny that I wanted to take a picture of the external garden from the window upstairs and the guide didn't allow me saying that it's a no photos area. Total nonsense. Why does it matter if I'm taking a photo of something that's outside?

A guy with us in the group made sure to always be behind everyone and literally took videos of the ENTIRE thing while he was trying to play it cool placing the phone a low angle. I'm not sure if the guide was that naive and genuinely didn't realize what he was doing or if she decided to turn a blind eye just because the guy is from that nationality that claims that falafel and hummus belong to their cuisine🤣. Ifykyk 🙃 Lol what a joke really.

Overall we didn't have a very nice experience at the castle and we mostly enjoyed the garden where to had the freedom to roam around and take pix...

The palace itself is gorgeous and a delight to walk through the gardens but the way the place is managed is unacceptable. You have to take a mandatory tour (no wandering at your own pace allowed) which is led by what I can only describe as the most insecure person on a power-trip. No videos, no photos except for in two spots and you are rushed from room to room without being allowed any time to observe at your own pace - you only have one hour within the actual palace which is just not enough time to see it all. The guide constantly interrupted the tour to tell people off for taking photos and treated us like children on a school tour. Do not mention Datenschutz for the reason behind the no photo rule because you couldn't even take a pictures of the ceiling without being reprimanded but in the vestibule there are 25 other people in the photos because of the group 'urgently needing to move onto the next sspace' - I mean, really? The Schloss Falkenlust (Hunting Lodge on the grounds) was much more enjoyable purely because we could take our time and take photos. It was such a pity that this beautiful site has such a horrid atmostphere and I really hope they consider hiring a few security guards to ensure the preservation of the interior whilst allowing people to roam freely. Being treated like a 6 year old really put me off and I would rather reccommend somewhere else...