The small town of Berchtesgaden is located in the Bavarian region of Germany in the far south of the country along the border of Austria.
It's about an hours drive from Salzburg Austria where we were staying for this part of our vacation and its the next destination that I'm going to highlight of our trip.
The town was quaint and charming but to be honest, there really wasn't a whole lot going on there. Nonetheless, it would still be a great place to visit, which I will explain.
What makes it a good destination to see is its close proximity to other things to do in the area.
It's set within the mountains so it's a great basecamp if you plan to do some hiking there. It's also right next to the Kehlsteinhaus (Eagles Nest), the Berchtesgaden Salt mine, and Königssee (Kings Lake).
You can literally get to any of those locations in less than a 20 minute drive. Just a little further away is the town of Hallstatt Austria (1hr 15mins) as well as several national parks, waterfalls and mountain hikes that would all be worth checking out if you have the time.
We visited the town briefly twice in one day for about an hour each visit. This was while on a tour to see some of the locations mention above.
In terms of things to do in town there are several restaurants and cafes to grab lunch, which is what we did, and quite a few shops to buy artisinal gifts and souvenirs.
I had a delicious coffee and ice cream in the morning at a cafe. I ordered a slice of cheesecake to go with it but the woman never brought it out so I didn't get to try it and I was in too much of a hurry to ask for it again. Instead we opted to take a quick tour around the tiny old town before we had to head back to our bus to continue on to the next location.
I had a beer and apple strudel in the afternoon at another cafe and that was quite good for a snack. I love the dark beers in Bavaria and Austria. Dunkel beers!
The buildings in town were very Bavarian in their style and design and many had elaborate murals around the windows, a very common feature to see in the region.
The monkey building was particularly interesting and unique. Supposedly the story is that the original design depicted regular humans going about their daily lives and chorse but then the painter changed the humans to monkeys at the last minute when the home owners refused to pay their last payment for the project.
It's probably impossible to know if it's a true story or not but I would like to believe it. It's a pretty good story if you ask me.
Other buildings in the town were bright and colorful and others had nicely painted facades as well, albeit much more traditional in their design - no animals dressed as humans.
Brightly colored window shutters and window sill flower boxes are sort of a quintessential staple of any small town in the Alps so there were lots of them to see as well.
Overall, the town of Berchtesgaden is a nice little village set within the mountains or Germany and Austria. It has some restaurants and shops in it and some nice little buildings to see. In itself it may not be worth while to make a special trip for but it's location so close to the mountains and several other main attractions in the area definitely makes up for anything that it may be lacking. I could see it as a great place to make your central hub, your basecamp to go out and explore the area. There is so much to do and see in one little condensed area that you could easily spend 5 days there without running out of things to do.
