So this question was asked a lot during my time in Salzburg. Is it possible to visit both places in one day?

It was really hard to find any information about whether it would be possible or not to do this yourself.

Sure, with a car no problem. Or you can even pay to do a tour with a company such as Panorama and you’ll see it all too. It will set you back a hefty fee though.

But is it possible for you to do the whole thing in one day using public transport? Well no need to wonder any longer because the answer is yes!

I did this very trip on September 5th 2018 for only the price of a day bus ticket at €10.20.

I actually had time to hike up to the EagLake Konigsseeles Nest and down again. This included lots of photo stops and lunch at the restaurant on top of the mountain. You can read about my experience here.

I then managed to jump on a bus over to Königssee. Obviously you won’t have bundles of time there but enough to see the beauty of the place. If you choose to take the bus up to the Eagles Nest this could possibly free some of your time up too.

So here is what you need to do:

Take the 8.15am bus from Salzburg Central Station. This is bus number 840 and labelled Berchtesgaden HBF.

Ask for a day ticket and this will cover all your buses for the day*. It cost €10.20 at the time of writing this.

Your first bus of the day to Berchtesgaden should take around 45 minutes.

When you get off at the main station you can choose which place you’d like to go first. I went for Eagles Nest as I wanted to hike it and the bus happened to be at the station as I arrived.

Berchtesgaden bus station

Bus number 838 will take you to the Dokumentation Centre. There will be a lot of people getting on this bus and getting off at the same stop as you!

Once you get here you can choose to hike or go queue for the next bus that will take you to Eagles Nest*.

The hike will take you 3-6 hours to complete the round trip. Possibly more to allow for lunch at the top if you wish. They suggest taking the bus option with the lift to the top will take around 2.5 hours but I did not try this so can’t confirm.

On your way back you will take the same bus in the opposite direction. 838 to Berchtesgaden. The buses are not frequent at all. Around 1 or 2 per hour. I got the 15:45 bus down to the bottom and it took me around 15 minutes back.

After this you can then head to Königssee on the 841 or 842 bus. I got the 16:15 bus and the journey takes around 10 minutes. Get off at Königssee, you’ll know it because of all the hikers and tourist shops!

This is a nice place to walk around and I hear on a summers day a good place to go for a swim. You can also get a cruise along the lake or even hike to a waterfall. So if you have more than just one day perhaps you can come back? Read about my time at Königssee here.

If you want to catch the last bus back to Salzburg this is at the very early time of 18:15! You can catch the 17:30 bus back from Königssee which will give you enough time to ensure you don’t miss it! There is another bus after this at 17:53 but I didn’t want to push it. You will have a good hour at Königssee which is more than enough time to see Kings Lake.

Alternatively I did see a sign for a hostel in Berchtesgaden – so you could make the short trip from Salzburg, stay over one night and get everything done at your own pace too. This will still work out cheaper than booking the €99 day trip I nearly booked and you have complete control over where you spend all your time.

Thanks to Yoho International Hostel in Salzburg for their helpful directions when planning my trip.

*The bus you take from the Dokumentation centre to Eagles Nest is not included in your day pass. This will cost an additional €16.60.

Read about my time in each place in my previous blog posts:

– Eagles Nest

– Lake Konigssee