Hi friends, welcome back to my Germany and Austria series 🙂 This is my final post about our time in Germany before I conclude this series with Austria. After checking out of our hotel, we had a short drive to the Eagles Nest parking lot. Eagles Nest is perched atop Mount Kehlstein, roughly 6,000 feet high, and only special busses are allowed to access the one-lane road up. The busses are timed perfectly so the ones coming down and going up meet at a turnoff so they can pass each other safely. We purchased our bus tickets onsite and patiently awaited our turn up.
The ride was incredibly scenic as it wound up the mountain, but if you’re afraid of heights you might not like this. You can also hike up, but it would be a grueling three hours to the top. After exiting the bus, we headed through the 400-foot tunnel into the mountain. I’d suggest exiting the bus as quickly as possible and powerwalking through the tunnel because a long line forms for the elevator. Four busses go up at a time, and each bus has at least fifty people, so the line can get long. The elevator goes up 400 feet and sadly we couldn’t take pictures of the interior. It was the fanciest elevator I’d ever been in and covered in brass.
Upon exiting the elevator, we couldn’t believe the spectacular views!
 
I sound like a broken record, but the views up here were incredible! I loved being able to see our hotel down below and Königssee.
The sky was so clear we could see Salzburg way off in the distance! To the right of the mountain ridge there is a whiteish colored area that that’s Salzburg and the fort overlooking the city.
The chalet was built in 1939 as a 50th birthday gift for Hitler. He was afraid of heights and only visited here fourteen times. The interior has been converted into a restaurant with a popular beer garden outside.
Jon wished it looked more like what it looked like back in the day, but it’s been commercialized. The documentation center below was closed for construction so we couldn’t check out the bunker system or museum. Hopefully when you take this trip yourself it will be open 😉
As much as we could’ve stayed up here all day soaking in all the views, we only had a day about 24 hours in Salzburg, so we headed back down the mountain. You need a return ticket to take the bus back down, so make sure you hold onto it. They give you a prescribed time slot, but you can always change it at the top.
I’d highly recommend visiting Eagles Nest if you’re in the area on a clear day. The beautiful views are so worth the cost of admission (28 euros I think)! I hope you’ve enjoyed following along on our wonderful time in Germany! Southern Germany was absolutely stunning and I’d encourage you to add this area to your travel bucket list! It completely exceeded all of my high expectations, and as pretty as my pictures are, it was even more stunning in person!
Posts in my Germany and Austria series:
Germany
- Munich – New Town Hall & St. Peters
- Munich – The Residenz & German Food
- Bavaria – Lake Starnberg & Eibsee
- Bavaria – Neuschwanstein CastleÂ
- Bavaria – Hohenschwangau Castle & Alpsee
- Bavaria – Zugspitze & Eibsee
- Bavaria – Walchensee, Geroldsee, & Partnach Gorge
- Bavaria РK̦nigsee
- Bavaria – Obersee & St. Bartholomew
- Bavaria – Maria Gern, Hintersee, & Ramsau
Our one trip to Germany was a Viking cruise on the Rhine river, so thank you for showing us so many other reasons to go back (especially this one). I would park my vertigo on the shelf just to experience Eagle’s Nest. I’m fascinated by the fact it sits at “roughly 6,000 ft. high”. Our house in Colorado, on the plains just east of the Rockies, sits at 7,600′. To achieve the same views as Eagle’s Nest we’d have to smash all of the states east of Colorado together so we’d be looking directly down on the Atlantic. The views still wouldn’t be as nice!
Germany is a great place to go back to one day! Pretty amazing to get such views with no work to see them. Sometimes I forget how high altitude out west is. I haven’t been to Colorado yet, but I hear a lot of people get altitude sickness visiting.
What a way to end your time in Germany! The views are stunning! In some ways it reminds me of Colorado. Also, Hitler being afraid of heights was a fun little factoid. He was such a monster, it’s strange to think of him being afraid of something.
It was the perfect last excursion! The views were incredible and it was neat to see places we’d been. I’d love to visit Colorado one day! It is strange to think he was afraid of something so common, you’d think nothing would phase him.
What a grand finale! Your photos are spectacular, and I cannot imagine this type of scenery in person. Thank you so much for inspiring my wanderlust. I definitely want to go!
Thank you! It was so beautiful!! Hope you make it to Germany soon 🙂
Worth it for the view
I agree!
I’d not heard of Eagles Nest Lyssy but it’s absolutely beautiful and I’d love to take the bus journey up one day.
I hope you can visit soon, it’s stunning!! Even more so in person 🙂
I thought it was blown up after the war but I guess that structure is a relatively modern one? Stunning scenery again! 🙂
I think they blew up every other building, but wanted to make this one a teahouse/tourist site.
Understood! Thank you!! 🙂
OH wow; those are some incredible views!!
It was absolutely stunning!
What do you get for the guy who has the whole world in his Fascist grasp? An amazing place with amazing views. Thanks for sharing your trip. Allan
It is a nice gift for the guy who can have everything! Glad you enjoyed following along the trip 🙂
Amazing views and photos! I’d love to visit the Eagle’s Nest for the views and the history. I wish they let people take photos of the elevator.
Veterans Day Note: The Kehlsteinhaus was liberated and occupied by Easy Company of the 101st Airborne. That unit that was the subject of the mini series Band of Brothers, which followed them from training in the U.S. and England to Normandy to the Battle of the Bulge and finally the Eagle’s Nest.
Thank you! It was hard to take a bad picture with all those views!! Hope you can visit one day and visit the documentation center. Thanks for the note – that sounds like a great mini series!
Stunning images Lyssy, some of them actually look like paintings. Imagine hang gliding over that!
Thank you! I’ve always wanted to hang glide, but didn’t think about it when planning this trip. I’m hoping to do it next year in the Swiss Alps for my 30th!
I wasn’t very attracted to the place, too tied to its evil owner, but I agree that the view is outstanding.
I agree. We stuck to nature this trip instead of all the WWII history we could’ve seen.
Spectacular views!
Such an incredible site you saw..this would catch my attention to go there. Great photos.
Ahhhh you made it. The history and the incredible views make this place so very worth a visit. I spent most of my visit in the documentation centre though being a history geek so it’s really nice to see more of the mountains and nature – you got incredible weather and blue skies 🙂
So glad you inspired us to visit here!!! It was absolutely stunning.
I like hiking, but the trek to the top of the mountain does not sound very appealing! Good call on taking the bus. The views are spectacular.
I agree, the views would be worth the effort, but if the bus doesn’t cost an arm and a leg it makes more sense 🙂
The landscape in Germany looks incredible, and the mountains are gorgeous.
Simply gorgeous! Have been there and loved it as well! Thanks for the great post! I’ll check out your other adventures and follow you!