Germany · Bavaria & the Alps · Travel guide
What a few days in the south-easternmost corner of Germany really cost, why you have to take the first boat across the Königssee, and how to place the Eagle's Nest and the Obersalzberg without it turning into a Hitler tour.
Photo: Wolfgang Weiser / Pexels
Adjust the values to your trip: the calculator updates live (EUR, converted from CHF estimates).
Estimates for orientation, not booking prices. Getting there means train or car from Switzerland, return, per person. Hotels vary strongly by season: current prices are behind the links below.
Money & payment: You pay in euros (EUR). Germany is fonder of cash than Switzerland: bakeries, kiosks and small restaurants often say "cash only", though cards work almost everywhere from about EUR 10. Tip 5 to 10 percent by rounding up and naming the total when you pay. Getting there: By train (DB), car or plane, 1 to 8 hours depending on the destination.
Nine options in three price ranges, each among the best-rated on Booking.com.
Budget
Traditional inn on the road to the Königssee, five minutes' walk from the station, with a tavern, Bavarian cooking and simple, clean rooms, some with a view of the Watzmann. For travellers arriving by bus and train who want an honest breakfast.
Family-run house in a quiet spot on the edge of town with indoor pool, sauna, garden and rooms with balconies facing the mountains. Bus stop outside the door. For families and hikers looking for wellness at inn prices.
Family hotel on the River Ache, three minutes' walk from the station and ten uphill into town, with indoor pool, sauna and free parking. Solid, quiet rooms, breakfast buffet, closed in November. For families and rail travellers who want wellness at a budget price.
Mid-range
The traditional house in the town centre since 1876, with indoor pool, sauna, restaurant and rooms looking from the Watzmann to the Hoher Göll. Partly renovated, partly with patina, always warm-hearted. For anyone who wants to be in town on foot and eat well in the evening.
Family hotel in Schönau with indoor and outdoor pools, sauna, a large garden and views of the Watzmann and Jenner, ten minutes from the boat jetty. Good cooking with half board. For families and anyone who wants to stay near the lake for the first boat.
Modern four-star house in the middle of town with a rooftop pool facing the Watzmann, a large spa, bar and restaurant. Rooms contemporary and bright, garage in the building. For couples and families who want to combine comfort and a central location.
Luxury
Luxury resort on the Obersalzberg with a panoramic pool, large spa, Michelin-starred restaurant and views of the Watzmann and Untersberg, right by the Kehlstein bus car park. The location on the historic site is addressed openly. For anyone who wants comfort on the mountain and quiet once the day visitors have gone.
Family-run wellness hotel on a rise above Schönau with an infinity pool, sauna village, garden and suites looking onto the Watzmann and Hochkalter. Cooking with produce from the valley, half board included. For couples who want to get warm after a day in the mountains.
Organic hotel in Ramsau, family-owned for generations, with pool, spa, its own farm and a kitchen that brings the valley to the plate. Rooms with wood from the family's own forests. For anyone who takes sustainability seriously and wants quiet in the mountaineering village.
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Electric boat from Schönau, 35 minutes to St. Bartholomä (around CHF 24 return), 55 minutes to Salet (around CHF 30), then 15 minutes on foot to the Obersee. First boat at 8 am, in high summer the only sensible option. A full day.
Mid-May to the end of October, bus from the Obersalzberg with tunnel and brass lift for around CHF 32, at the top a restaurant and the best panorama in the region. Three hours including the loop walk; do not buy a ticket when there is fog on the mountain. No exhibition on site.
Since 2023 with a new permanent exhibition on the Führer's restricted area, the perpetrators and the bunker under the mountain, around CHF 5, two hours, bus 838 from Berchtesgaden. Visit before the Kehlstein, not after. Guided tours with a historian from CHF 60.
In operation since 1517, tour with mine train, two wooden slides and a raft across the mirror lake, around CHF 24, children CHF 13, 90 minutes at 12 degrees. The best rainy-day programme in the valley; book online, sells out early on wet days.
Two sections from Schönau up to 1,800 metres for around CHF 40 return, summit in 20 minutes, view straight down onto the Königssee and across to the Watzmann east face. Middle station with alpine pastures and a playground, walk down in three hours.
Malerwinkel 30 minutes from the boat jetty, free, the classic view over the lake. From St. Bartholomä an hour to the Eiskapelle at the foot of the east face; do not step onto the snowfield. Guided national park hikes with a ranger from CHF 15.
Mountain lake with boulders in the forest, one-hour circuit, free, bus 846 with the guest card. The loveliest thing in the valley with children; at sunrise the Hochkalter is reflected in the water. On into the national park to the Blaueishütte for the experienced.
Germany's highest panoramic road at 1,600 metres, around CHF 10 per car, views of the Dachstein, Tennengebirge and Salzburg, a stop at the Rossfeldhütte. A classic by bike or motorbike, a toboggan run in winter.
Bus 840 in 50 minutes to Mozart's city, 35 minutes by car. Old town, Hohensalzburg fortress (around CHF 17 with the funicular) and the Mirabell gardens in a day, festival in July and August. Guided combined Berchtesgaden tours from Salzburg from CHF 60.
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Berchtesgaden cooks Bavarian with a Salzburg accent: dumplings in every form, game from the national park, char from the Königssee and butter from the valley dairy that sits on shelves all over Germany. Then there is Enzian, a root schnapps distilled here for 350 years, which you should not refuse after a meal.
Char from the Königssee, smoked at the fishery on the St. Bartholomä peninsula and eaten warm with bread and horseradish. CHF 12 to 15 for a piece, as a fillet in an inn CHF 24 to 28.
Tip:On the first boat the fish is fresh from the smoke and the bench on the shore is empty.
Flattened dumplings of bread and tangy mountain cheese, fried in the pan and served in clear beef broth, a Salzburg legacy. CHF 7 to 9, as a starter or a small lunch.
Tip:As "Kaspressknödel mit Kraut" you also get them without soup as a main course.
Venison goulash from the hunting grounds around the national park, braised dark with cranberries and a bread dumpling. CHF 20 to 26, on every menu in autumn during game week.
Tip:September and October are game season, when it comes fresh and not from the freezer.
Roast pork with crackling in dark beer sauce with a bread dumpling and cabbage salad, the standard dish of every inn in the valley. CHF 15 to 19.
Tip:The Bräustüberl is the locals' inn with a beer garden and brass music at weekends.
Bacon, Kaminwurzen (smoked sausages), mountain cheese, butter, radishes and farmhouse bread on a wooden board, with buttermilk or alpine beer. CHF 10 to 14, at the Fischunkelalm also with fresh milk.
Tip:The huts take cash only, and the Jause is often the only meal, but it is enough.
Shredded pancake with raisins and stewed plums, as a main course or to share. CHF 11 to 14 at a hut; in Berchtesgaden it is closer to the Salzburg version, airy and caramelised.
Tip:At the Kehlsteinhaus it costs more, but comes with a view nobody else has.
Clear schnapps from the root of the yellow gentian, earthy, bitter, taken as a digestif after the meal. A shot CHF 3 to 4, a bottle at the distillery from CHF 25.
Tip:Grassl, founded in 1692, is the oldest gentian distillery in Germany; the tour costs a few francs and explains why the root has to grow for 20 years.
The Berchtesgadener Land dairy processes milk from 1,800 mountain farmers, and its butter and mountain cheese are on every breakfast table in the region. In the farm shop or supermarket CHF 3 to 5 a piece.
Tip:As a souvenir buy mountain cheese in a piece, it survives the journey home in a rucksack.
Through markets and eateries with a guide, tastings included.
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Berchtesgaden was a state of its own for over 700 years, and that explains why the place still does not feel entirely Bavarian. In 1102 Augustinian canons founded a priory here, and because there was salt under the ground, the monastery became a prince-provostry that was immediate to the Empire from the 13th century until 1803, meaning it answered only to the emperor, with its own coinage, its own court and a salt mine that has been producing without interruption since 1517. The salt brought wealth and quarrels with the Archbishop of Salzburg, who ran the same business twenty kilometres away. Alongside it, woodcarving developed: Berchtesgadener War, wooden toys and chip boxes, went as far as Russia and America. In 1810 the land came to Bavaria, and the Wittelsbachs turned the provostry into their hunting lodge; Crown Prince Rupprecht lived here until 1955. The painters of Romanticism discovered the Königssee, which with its fjord-like character and the pilgrimage chapel of St. Bartholomä became the most painted lake in Germany; since 1909 the boats have run on electricity, back then out of consideration for the fish and the quiet, today an argument in itself. The dark period began in 1923, when Hitler found refuge on the Obersalzberg above the town and from 1933 had the whole plateau converted into the Führer's restricted area, with the Berghof, houses for Göring and Bormann, barracks, bunkers and the Kehlsteinhaus, which Bormann had built at 1,834 metres for Hitler's 50th birthday in 1938. Chamberlain and Schuschnigg were received here, and the decision to invade Poland was taken here. In April 1945 the Royal Air Force bombed the Obersalzberg, the remains were blown up, and only the Kehlsteinhaus survived intact. The Americans used the site as a recreation area until 1995, then Bavaria built the documentation centre and the hotel. In 1978 the Berchtesgaden National Park was founded, Germany's only alpine national park, with the Watzmann, the Königssee and the Steinernes Meer. Today the market town of Berchtesgaden has 8,000 inhabitants, the valley basin with Schönau, Ramsau and Bischofswiesen around 30,000, and Salzburg is closer than any Bavarian city.
Berchtesgaden lies in a basin surrounded by Austria on three sides, and that makes Salzburg the gateway: from Zurich you take the Railjet to Salzburg Hauptbahnhof in 5 hours 20 and there board bus 840, which runs direct to Berchtesgaden in 50 minutes, a good 6 hours in all, saver ticket from CHF 45 (about EUR 48), full fare with the Half Fare Card around CHF 90 each way. The alternative via Munich, Freilassing and the Berchtesgadener Land railway takes 6 hours 30 with two changes, but is useful if you visit Munich first. By car it is 460 kilometres from Zurich via Innsbruck and the Inn valley motorway to Salzburg, just under 5 hours, Austrian vignette (10 days CHF 12) plus the toll section through Tyrol, or via Munich and the A8, about as long and without a vignette, but with traffic jams before Salzburg at weekends. A car makes sense here but is not essential: with the guest card, which you get with every overnight stay, all RVO buses in the Berchtesgadener Land are free, so to the Königssee (line 841, 15 minutes from the station), to the Obersalzberg (838), to Ramsau and the Hintersee (846) and to the Jenner. The car park at the Königssee costs CHF 8 a day and is full from 9.30 am in summer, which alone is an argument for the bus. If you come by car, leave it at the hotel on days like that.
The electric boats run from 8 am in summer, and that time decides your day: on the first or second boat you travel with thirty people, from 10 am you stand for an hour at the jetty in Schönau. The trip to St. Bartholomä takes 35 minutes and costs around CHF 24 (about EUR 26) return, to Salet at the southern end around CHF 30, and you should always go as far as Salet. On the way the boatman stops in front of the echo wall, plays his trumpet against the rock, and the echo comes back twice; after that the hat goes round, CHF 1 is usual. St. Bartholomä with its red onion domes in front of the Watzmann east face is the picture you know, plus a fishery and an inn. From Salet you walk 15 minutes to the Obersee, which is quieter and even greener, with the Fischunkelalm at the far end (45 minutes along the shore, buttermilk and cheese sandwiches) and behind it the Röthbachfall, Germany's highest waterfall. The way back has a problem: from 3 pm everyone wants to return at the same time, and the last boat in summer leaves at 6 pm. Take the 2 pm boat or stay until 5 pm, when the rush is over. From St. Bartholomä the walk leads to the Eiskapelle (one hour, do not step onto the snow bridge), and for the sure-footed the path through the Saugasse to the Kärlingerhaus on the Funtensee, the coldest place in Germany.
The Kehlsteinhaus, the Eagle's Nest in English, stands at 1,834 metres above the Obersalzberg and is accessible from mid-May to the end of October, only by the special buses from the Obersalzberg car park (around CHF 32 including the lift, about EUR 34), because the road is closed to private cars. After 124 metres of tunnel and a brass lift up through the rock, the view over the Königssee, Watzmann, Salzburg and the Salzkammergut is the best in the region. You still have to place the site honestly: the house was a representative building for diplomats and Hitler's birthday present, not a command post, and today it holds a restaurant with a terrace and a souvenir shop. There is no exhibition, only an information board, and visitors take selfies in front of Mussolini's fireplace. That is why the Dokumentation Obersalzberg belongs beforehand, reopened in 2023 with a new permanent exhibition, admission around CHF 5, two hours: it explains the restricted area, the cult around the Berghof, the perpetrators and what the idyll concealed, including the walk-in bunker. The documentation in the morning and the Kehlstein in the early afternoon make a coherent day. Buses run every 25 minutes; if there is fog on the mountain, do not buy a ticket. Guided tours with a historian from Berchtesgaden or Salzburg (from CHF 60) are more worthwhile here than elsewhere, because they take over the explaining that is missing on site.
The market town of Berchtesgaden is the main centre with the station, the palace and the pedestrian zone; Schönau am Königssee lies on the lakeshore and is the best base for the first boat; Ramsau in the side valley is the mountaineering village with the most photographed church in Bavaria and the Hintersee. With the guest card and the bus you are at the lake from anywhere in 15 to 20 minutes. A mid-range double room costs CHF 130 to 180 (about EUR 139 to 193), an inn with breakfast CHF 100 to 130, a guesthouse CHF 80 to 100, plus the visitor's tax of around CHF 3 per person and night. The price level is slightly above Garmisch and well below the Bernese Oberland. Many houses require a minimum stay of three nights in summer and over Christmas, holiday flats almost always. It is full from mid-July to the end of August, on the Whitsun and autumn holiday weekends, over New Year and when the festival is on in Salzburg, because festival guests then move out to the cheaper hotels in the Berchtesgadener Land. Then you book two to three months ahead. The best low season is September to mid-October: all lifts and boats running, stable weather, prices 20 per cent lower. From November to mid-December and from Easter to mid-May the Kehlstein and the Jenner are closed or being serviced, but the Königssee is at its quietest then. Breakfast is usually included and good in the inns, with mountain cheese and butter from the Berchtesgadener Land dairy.
The salt mine has been in operation since 1517 and as a show mine is the best rainy-day programme in the region: with a mine train, two wooden slides, a raft across the mirror lake and miners' clothing, the tour lasts 90 minutes and costs around CHF 24 (about EUR 26), children CHF 13, and it is a constant 12 degrees below ground. Book online; on rainy days the time slots from midday are gone. The Jennerbahn climbs from Schönau in two sections to 1,800 metres, around CHF 40 return, and at the top you look straight down onto the Königssee and across to the Watzmann; the summit is 20 minutes from the mountain house. Expensive, but the viewpoint that is worth it when the Kehlstein is closed. Cheaper is the view from the Malerwinkel, a 30-minute walk from the boat jetty, free. The Rossfeld panoramic road (around CHF 10 per car) is Germany's highest pass road with views of the Dachstein and Tennengebirge. The Watzmann itself at 2,713 metres is a two-day project with a night at the Watzmannhaus (dormitory CHF 25 for DAV members, otherwise CHF 40); the traverse over Hocheck, Mittelspitze and Südspitze is a serious via ferrata on which people die every year, nothing for trainers. The Watzmannhaus alone an experienced hiker reaches in four hours from the Wimbachbrücke. The Almbachklamm near Marktschellenberg (around CHF 6) is the empty alternative to the Partnachklamm, and the Zauberwald at the Hintersee is free and the loveliest thing in the valley with children.
Salzburg is 25 kilometres away and reachable by bus 840 in 50 minutes, by car in 35. That makes Berchtesgaden a cheap base for a day in Mozart's city and, during the Salzburg Festival in July and August, a fallback address. One day is enough for the old town, the fortress and the Mirabell gardens; in Advent the Christkindlmarkt on the Domplatz is an alternative to the small Berchtesgaden Advent market. The food in the valley is Bavarian with a Salzburg influence: Kaspressknödel in soup, venison goulash from the national park, char from the Königssee, with gentian schnapps from the Grassl distillery, the oldest gentian distillery in Germany, and beer from the Hofbrauhaus Berchtesgaden, whose Bräustüberl on the edge of town is the locals' inn. On timing: July and August are hot, full and stormy; on fine weekends the Königssee car park is closed from 9.30 am and the road from Berchtesgaden to Schönau is at a standstill. If you come in high summer, stay in Schönau, be at the jetty at 7.45 am, come back at 2 pm, spend the afternoon in the hotel pool or the Watzmann-Therme (around CHF 15 for three hours, about EUR 16) and only go out again at 5 pm. Winter is quiet and beautiful: the boat runs to St. Bartholomä as long as the lake is not frozen, the Jenner has a small ski area, Ramsau has cross-country trails, and on Christmas Eve the Weihnachtsschützen wake the night with their salutes.
By Railjet from Zurich to Salzburg (5 hours 20), then bus 840 to Berchtesgaden (50 minutes), around 6 hours in total, saver ticket from CHF 45 (about EUR 48), full fare with the Half Fare Card around CHF 90 each way. Via Munich and Freilassing it takes 6 hours 30. By car it is 460 kilometres and just under 5 hours, via Innsbruck with the Austrian vignette or via Munich without. On site all RVO buses are free with the guest card, to the Königssee, Obersalzberg, Jenner and Hintersee; in high summer the car is better left at the hotel.
Three nights: one day for the Königssee as far as Salet with the Obersee and the Fischunkelalm, one day for the Dokumentation Obersalzberg and the Kehlsteinhaus, one day for the salt mine plus the Jenner or the Hintersee and Zauberwald. With a fourth day you go to Salzburg or do the hike to the Watzmannhaus. For mountaineers with hut tours in the Steinernes Meer or the Watzmann traverse, a week is not enough. Two nights are the minimum, because the Königssee alone needs a full day if you do it properly.
September to mid-October: stable weather, all boats and lifts running, the larches in the Steinernes Meer turning yellow, 20 per cent fewer people and lower prices than in August. June is green and still quiet, but with leftover snow on the high paths. July and August are full, then only with the first boat. The Kehlstein is only open from mid-May to the end of October; the Jenner is serviced in November and April. Winter with snow on St. Bartholomä is quiet and cheap, and the boat runs to the peninsula as long as the lake is ice-free.
Neither, and that is the problem. It is a historic building with a restaurant, a magnificent view and no exhibition; only an information board explains the history. That is why we recommend visiting the Dokumentation Obersalzberg first (around CHF 5, about EUR 5, two hours, with a new permanent exhibition and bunker since 2023), which puts the restricted area, the cult and the perpetrators in context, and then taking the bus up (around CHF 32). That way you know where you are standing. If you only want the view, you are better off on the Jenner.
Around 30 to 40 per cent less. Königssee boat CHF 30 (about EUR 32) against a Lake Brienz cruise at CHF 50 without the Half Fare Card, Jennerbahn CHF 40 against Schilthorn CHF 110, mid-range double room CHF 130 to 180 against CHF 180 to 250 in Grindelwald, roast pork at an alpine hut CHF 16 against CHF 28. Visitor's tax CHF 3 a night, but buses free. With CHF 120 to 150 per day and person including hotel and one attraction you travel comfortably, with CHF 90 in a guesthouse frugally.
As far as the Watzmannhaus at 1,930 metres, yes, as an experienced hiker in four hours from the Wimbachbrücke, overnight stay CHF 25 to 40 (about EUR 27 to 43) in the dormitory, reservation compulsory. The Hocheck (2,651 metres) is two hours from there on a good trail, without a guide if you are sure-footed. The traverse over the Mittelspitze and Südspitze with the descent into the Wimbachgries is a long, exposed via ferrata of grade I to II with fatal accidents every year, only in stable weather, with a helmet, and for the inexperienced only with a mountain guide (around CHF 350 to 450 per person in a small group). The east face is alpine climbing.
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