Please sign in to post.

Reaching Eagles Nest/Kehlsteinhaus

Hi,

I'm a bit confused with the scattered information found on its website and the Schonau am Konigssee's web. I'd like to confirm some of the things:

  1. Could we park our car at Eagle's Nest parking area or we must take the RVO Bus from Hintereck parking area? Do we have to book/reserve the bus or could we do it on the spot?
  2. Where does the tunnel lift start? from Hintereck or the Eagle's Nest parking area?
  3. In regards to the bus fare, it's stated in Schonau am Konigssee's web there're 2 types of fare for individual adults:
    I. From Post Office Berchtesgaden to stop Hintereck??(not really sure what this means) Euro 6.20
    II. From carpark Hinterect including lift Euro 14.60 with guest card, Euro 16.10 without guest card

  4. What does the guest card mean? Is it given by our accommodation if we stay in Berchtesgaden area?

Just to reconfirm, I heard about the bunker tour, it's in Hotel Zum Turken WWII Bunkers at Hintereck 2 not far from the Obersalzberg Documentation right?
TIA

Posted by
4684 posts

3) I suspect this means that there is a normal local bus to Hintereck charged at the standard fare, and a premium fare journey on from Hintereck.

4) Many German towns with a very tourist-dependent economy are allowed to charge a so-called "Kurtax" to help fund public services for residents, which is a tourist tax that you have to pay for each day that you stay. You will usually pay this to your hotel when you check in, and it will not be included in the hotel bill. It usually costs only a few euros. To make this more palatable, you are often given a "guest card" which offers free or heavily-discounted travel on normal local public transport, and discounts for attractions/restaurants/shops/tours. This is why you should often wait to buy a long-term transport pass until after you have checked in at your hotel. (The "Kur", incidentally, is German for "cure", and is because when first introduced the scheme applied only to spa towns.)

Posted by
795 posts

I recommend taking this Eagle Nest tour- www.eagles-nest-historical-tours.com/EN/eagles-nest-tours/index.php?navid=2#_=_
You can take the train to the Berchtesgaden train station and the tours start at the Welcome center across from the station. They provide all transport and admissions. You'll ride a specially made mountain bus up. Visits to the bunker are also included. You'll be guided all the way. You need no guest card and will pay nothing for transport or parking. Everything is included in the tour fee and they take care of it all leaving you to enjoy the tour as carefree as can be. We loved this tour!!

Posted by
32517 posts

When I went up a few years ago it was simple. I simply followed the easy instructions in the Rick Steves book.

There are special buses for the very steep drive up and down the mountain to the small turning area most of the way up. From there you walk over to the elevator entrance. It is a long straight square corridor from the outside doors into the mountain and the end of the corridor is the door to the elevator (lift).

Up in the lift one stop and step out into the area at the top with the Kehlsteinhaus - I remember seeing the scratched GI graffiti in the fireplace mantelpiece. Then outside and you can walk all around and see the rocks and the view all around. There is no time limit unless you are with a group tour. We were DIY, and we hiked around for about 90 minutes or so. The restaurant has sit down informal and more formal restaurant areas.

Only the special buses are allowed up the mountain road.

My memory is that parking was really easy right near the ticket office. Get a ticket which includes the bus, the lift, and both down. Really simple, and I don't remember any particular wait to queue for the tickets. My memory is that there were about 4 or 5 windows and I walked right up. They tell you which bus you will be on - so they are all full - and we may have waited for 15 minutes for the right bus on our ticket. The buses were right there, with a big number in the window. It was maybe a 10 minute ride up to the lift, lovely scenery on the bus. I don't clearly remember if there was a charge for parking the car but if there was it was minimal. I think probably it was free.

The documentation centre is also there. I never saw the bunker.

I'm considering a revisit this July.

I honestly don't see a lot that a guide would tell you beyond what you can easily read. €53 per person seems a lot to pay when DIY is around €12. I guess you get a private bus?

Posted by
32171 posts

Jen,

The Dokumentation Centre & Bunkers are on the hill just above the town of Berchtesgaden, so you'll have to drive up to the car park there. From the car park, walk along the concrete path to the Dokumentation Centre building. Most of the displays inside are in German, but you can rent an Audioguide with an English language option when you pay for your admission. To reach the Bunkers, exit the back door of the centre and walk along a paved path to the area that looks like a greenhouse attached to the side of the mountain. Note that only a part of the bunker complex has been renovated, but some fenced-off parts are as they were during the war. The multi-media displays in the bunkers are also in German, but the content isn't hard to understand without translation.

I believe the Hotel Zum Turken air raid shelters are another entrance to the vast bunker complex. I'm not sure if visitors can enter at Zum Turken and walk to the Dokumentation Centre?

Note that there is also a Salt Mine in Berchtesgaden that can be toured. I haven't toured that yet, but suspect it's very similar to the one in Hallstatt.

Posted by
464 posts

Hi All, thanks so much for the input. I really appreciate it.

noted , I need to park my car (btw I didn't mention that we're going to drive there) in Hintereck then take the shuttle to the Kehlsteinhaus. I also think the Euro 6.2 bus fare is from a stop in downtown near Post Office that will take you to the Hintereck parking area.

Hi Phillip, thanks so much for the tax info. I would email my accommodation and ask about it whether they provide or not.

Hi again Nigel :)
thanks for the detail, it clears me up now. yes i prefer the DIY tour too as i could be more flexible with my time. sometimes hubby wants to sleep a bit, boy he loves sleeping on the scenery spots.

Hi Terry,
thank you for pointing out the tour. i see the website, what they offer is good and thorough but i like to enjoy my walk so i plan a diy one :)

Hi Ken,
from the reviews I got, the zum turken could be visited by public but i just run through 1 comment that says it's only for registered guest?? a bit confuse but majority of the comments say we could enter and even if the entrance machine is off, we could ask the hotel staff turning it on.

Cheers All have a good day :D

Posted by
703 posts

Jen, we visited the document centre and bunkers on one day, it was late in the day and they let us in for free. very interesting. we drove up the short distance from Berchtesgaden and parked, not far to walk. the car park is also the spot to park if you want to go to eagles nest, however you just walk a different route then pay for your ticket and wait till the next lot of buses take you up.
if you are happy to drive up to there and DIY then you shouldn't need to get a tour. we did not pre book tickets but I imagine its gets very busy, when we were they a few weeks ago the bus loads of tourists were rolling in. try for a nice day, as its really the scenery you are going for.
Konigssee lake is in another direction from Berchtesgaden and we found the parking there not a problem, walked a few hundred metres and bought our ticket for the boat ride. no waiting.
we had a 'guest ' card that really only allowed for discounted car parking in the area ( from what we found)

Posted by
19052 posts

Everyone keeps saying the bus to Hintereck (Kehlstein Bus Abfahrt) leaves from near the "Post Office". It leaves from the ZOB (Zentrale Omnibus Bahnhof = bus station) in front of the Berchtesgaden Hauptbahnhof. There is a post office there, off to the side, but the Hbf is what you should look for. If you come in on the train or the bus, that's where you'll arrive. If you are driving, it's down in the valley, where the main roads come in, not up in the town.

If you have a guest card from your accommodation it will not only give you a discount on the special bus to the Kehlsteinhaus, it will also include free use of virtually all the regular buses in Berchtesgaden, including Bus 38 to the Kehlstein Bus Abfahrt and Buses 841/842 to Königssee. You also get free use of the buses with an RVO Tagesticket or a Bayern-Ticket.

The road to Kehlsteinhaus is closed to the public because it's a one lane road with no passing. The buses all go up together and come down together.

I've been to Kehlsteinhaus three times. The first time (2000) there were freelance guides at the tunnel entrance giving guided tours for a few Mark. My guide gave us a few facts, like when the elevator was built, how high it goes, how many seconds it takes. At the top she showed us the big octagonal room at the end where Hitler entertained visiting dignitaries, the Mussolini fireplace, and the small room on the side where Eva Braun entertained their wives. I also bought a book for a few Mark that had all the information you would ever want to know about the Eagles Nest.

The inexpensive freelance guides are gone, but I'm with those who say that, unless you want an extensive history lesson, you can do it yourself and save.

The Dokumentation Center, which I highly recommend, stands on top of where a large SS installation used to be. Obersalzberg was the site of vacation homes for all the top Nazis and there was a system of bunkers connecting all of the homes to the SS installation. The SS installation and most of the bunkers were destroyed by allied bombing shortly before the end of the war. A light coating of snow obscured Kehlsteinhaus, and the bombers couldn't find it, so it survived.