Eagle's Nest Historical Tours

  
A highly specialized local tour company in Berchtesgaden, Germany, that runs in-depth guided tours of the Eagle's Nest and associated sites of Obersalzberg – and in that capacity they are quite simply peerless!
 
The company was founded in 1990 and is headed by multilingual expat David Harper and his wife Christine (both originally from the USA, and both with multilingual family backgrounds). David's expertise in the Berchtesgaden area and all its WWII-and Nazi-related history goes back to the days even before the whole complex became accessible to the general public, when he ran tours for the US military.
 
Their by now well-established regular group tours depart by coach from the company's base, which is in the same building as the local tourist information office, inside a yellow building opposite the main Berchtesgaden train station (address: Königseer Str. 2).
 
The tour first goes past a few historic buildings, including the Hotel Pension zum Türken (but without going into the bunkers there). The guide then takes you through the bunker part of the Documentation Centre, but there's only a brief stop inside the exhibition. After that, you get allocated to the one of the regular buses that drive up to the Eagle's Nest and take the lift up to the top. There you regroup, get more information, and then have some free time to explore the top of the mountain, before reassembling for the return journey.
 
The tours last ca. four hours altogether and cost 50 EUR per person, including all transport costs and admission fees. It may not seem cheap, but it is well worth it. The guiding is expertly done, and at the same time lively and engaging. A real treat, even if you are already fairly clued up on the history of the place. And if you're not yet so clued up then this is probably the best live introduction to the topic that can be had here in this authentic place!
 
The guides deliver their info in a lively and entertaining manner and for illustration also employ large blow-ups of historic photos (carted around in a thick folder), which do help to bring the various sites to life and provide an impression of what the area looked like back then. Highly recommended.
 
The same company also offers private tours, including tailored itineraries, both within the Berchtesgaden area as well as further afield, from the basic four-hour Obersalzberg tour to full-day tours of the area, and even more extensive several days long "Backroads of Europe" tours.
 
For more info consult their own website (external link). And if you book a tour with them remember to mention that you saw it on dark-tourism.com – you may qualify for a small discount or other incentive and at the same time you'd support this website as well (see under sponsored pages in general).