Eagle’s Nest

I have been there twice in the last five years. You get to berchesgaden, and catch a bus to the Eagles Nest. There are no tours. You take the elevator to the Eagles nest , walk thru the property and out on the rocks beyond. stay until you wish to catch a return bus to the Berschesgaden

When I was there in 2000, there were freelance guides at the entrance to the tunnel to the elevator offering guided tours of the "nest", but I haven't seen them in two times since. However, in retrospect, I don't think you need a guide. The nest is small. There is the hallway leading from the elevator through the restaurants to the large octagonal room on the end where Hitler entertained quests the few times he went there. In the room is the fireplace given to Hitler by Mussolini for his 40th birthday (the entire building was a gift from the Nazi party for his 40th birthday), which was vandalized by American soldiers for souvenirs. The guide will tell you a bunch of statistics about who had it built, when it was built, how long it took, what it cost, how many bricks were used, etc, but you won't remember that stuff anyway.

If you are interested, you can read about it online or purchase a book at the souvenir shop at the nest.

From the bus station (ZOB) in front of the Berchtesgaden Hbf, you catch a bus (RVO 838) to the Dokumentation Center stop, where you pay for and board a special bus up to the Nest. If you are coming into Berchtesgaden using any one of a number of special tickets (Bayern-Ticket, RVO Tagesticket, or BGL Tagesticket Bus & Bahn), the 838 bus will be included.

The research I did before going indicated that there was little of interest at Eagle's Nest. There's the engineering marvel of the road up to the peak, and mountain views and a modern restaurant. Hitler spent very little time there and much of the WWII buildings were destroyed by the Allies. You can buy individual bus tickets (expensive). There are special buses that can negotiate the steep road. On the day I visited, there were low clouds so no scenic views and I didn't go up.

Hitler spent a great deal of time at the area now encompassed by the Documentation Center. This was his HQ when he wanted to get away from Berlin. I spent a couple hours going through the Center on my own. There's a great deal of information on the little town before Hitler arrived, then how it changed as he took it over and transformed it from a summer vacation spot for city folk to Nazi HQ. There's a video with interviews with people who lived through that time. There's also a great deal of explanations for the rise of Nazism - how it was accomplished gradually through various propanda campaigns and grass roots organizations. The most impressive area for me was visiting the bunkers which astounded me. Hitler directed their construction (never completed) from inception.

Even if you aren't interested in spending time at the Documentation Center, it's well worth walking through the museum to visit the bunkers (including in the reasonably priced admission).

Can someone tell me how early you have to book this tour? We're still not 100% sure our group wants to dedicate 4 hours to the tour, if the weather is bad.

if the weather s bad, its not worth going, as the views once there are spectacular on a nice day. but you could look around the document centre. the buses that go up to eagles nest leave from the same area as the document centre , that is low down on the mountain.
Both places don't require a guide, just wander around them and spend as much or as little as you need. for eagles nest, you need to allow time for the bus time up and down the mountain. assuming you are there on a day with a small amount of tourists, as the special buses ( 4 of them for memory) travel up and down together, so you have to wait your turn ( to get on the bus) to leave the area where you buy the tickets.
when we were there we booked the return bus ( do this at the top of the mountain) with an estimated time, so we knew we would not have to wait in line to come back down.

hope this helps

The views at the Eagle's Nest are magnificent. It was a something I am glad that I did.