Salt has been mined at Berchtesgaden without a break since 1517, and it still is – the working brine field sits alongside the galleries visitors are walked through. What you actually book is a choreographed hour: a miner's overall, then astride an open mine train for the 650-metre ride into the Ferdinand tunnel, a 34-metre polished wooden slide, a six-minute film in a cinema cut 120 metres underground, a second slide of 40 metres, and a raft across the Mirror Lake at the deepest point of the tour, 130 metres below the surface. It is 12 °C down there whatever the weather above. There is no way in except the guided hour, the walk is about 800 metres, and with changing in and out you should allow 90 minutes to two hours. From Salzburg it is a half-day on a single bus; from Munich it is a full day.
- TicketsWhat you book is a named tour time, not a day.
- Price26.50 € (about $30.37) – Adult, guided tour including audio guide, mine train, both slides, the underground cinema and the raft crossing
- OpenOpen every day of the year apart from six fixed closures. 30 March to 8 November: 9 AM to 5 PM. 9 November to 29 March: 11 AM to 3 PM.
- Best timeWeatherproof, and busiest precisely because of it: the operator names rainy days as the days with the heaviest crowds.
- ClaustrophobiaThe operator advises people with claustrophobia not to come, and says so plainly.
The stations of the tour, in order
Mine train and Ferdinand tunnel
The opening of the tour. In overalls you sit astride an open mine train and ride 650 metres into the mountain, about five minutes. The Ferdinand tunnel was driven by hand from 1628 onwards – roughly 6 centimetres a day, for some 30 years.
Visitors have gone in this way since 1840, on a funicular from 1911, and since 1996 on electric trains seating 50. The first souvenir photograph is taken here, by the company – your own camera has to stay in the locker.
included in the admission price
The two miners' slides (34 m and 40 m)
Polished wooden chutes of the kind miners once used to drop to a lower level: 34 metres down into the Kaiser Franz sink work, and later 40 metres down to the Mirror Lake. 74 metres between them.
Both can be avoided – the first by a walkway, the second by a staircase – and the operator says so in English on its own page. The overall has to be fully closed when you slide. Small children go down with an adult.
included in the admission price
Kaiser Franz sink work
A chamber opened more than 250 years ago that was still filled to the ceiling with fresh water 150 years ago, to dissolve salt out of the rock. Today it is a 17-metre-high room with some 2,000 m² of exposed ceiling and a media installation about salt.
Named after Emperor Francis I of Austria – Berchtesgaden belonged briefly to Austria between 1805 and 1810, which is part of why English guides keep misplacing the mine across the border.
included in the admission price
Underground cinema (new in 2026)
Two auditoriums built 120 metres down into an enlarged cavity in the Haselgebirge salt rock. The film runs 6 minutes 20 seconds and covers the making of the Alps and the journey of the brine to the table; the screen is 8.5 by 2.5 metres.
Building it meant hauling about 140 cubic metres of salt rock – some 300 tonnes – out of the mountain in 240 wagons. The raw rock-salt walls were deliberately left as the backdrop.
included in the admission price
Magic Salt Room
A light-and-sound piece about the working lives of the miners then and now, the Berchtesgaden miners' guild and the mine rescue brigade.
Station 9 of 13 on the tunnel map, just before the second slide.
included in the admission price
Mirror Lake and the raft crossing
The deepest point of the tour, 130 metres below the surface: a salt lake 100 metres long, 40 wide and up to 2 metres deep, crossed on a raft with music, dimmed light and salt crystals on the walls.
The salt content is, the operator says, nearly as high as the Dead Sea's, and the surface mirrors the ceiling so cleanly that the chamber looks twice its height. That is where the name comes from.
included in the admission price
Reichenbach pump and inclined lift
The last-but-one stop is one of Georg von Reichenbach's water-column engines – 14 tonnes of bronze that from 1817 pushed brine over the mountains to Bad Reichenhall. An inclined lift then carries the group 23 metres back up to the Ferdinandberg level and the train.
The 29-kilometre brine pipeline ran without a break until 1927; at Ilsank it lifted the brine 356 metres uphill. A sister engine stands in the Old Salt Works at Bad Reichenhall, which is the other half of the combined ticket.
included in the admission price
Tickets and prices
What you book is a named tour time, not a day. The operator sells its own online shop first and asks you to be at the tunnel entrance 15 minutes before that time; miss your tour and the ticket is gone with no refund, and online tickets are not refunded at all. That cuts both ways for a visitor from abroad: you do not need to book weeks ahead, but you do need to commit to an hour of a particular day, which matters if you are pairing the mine with a boat on the Königssee or a bus up the Obersalzberg.
Official prices
- Adult, guided tour including audio guide, mine train, both slides, the underground cinema and the raft crossing26.50 € (about $30.37)
- Child aged 4 up to and including 1613.50 € (about $15.47)
- Student, aged 17 up to and including 2523.50 € (about $26.93)
- Family ticket (2 adults and one child); each further own child 8.00 € (about $9.17)59.00 € (about $67.61)
- Children aged 0 to 3free
- Adult with a severe-disability pass, or the companion of a holder with code B / child with a severe-disability card23.50 € (about $26.93) / 12.00 € (about $13.75)
- Groups from 20 people, adults / children 4 to 18; one free ticket per 25 paying23.50 € (about $26.93) / 12.00 € (about $13.75)
- Combined ticket Salt Mine + Old Salt Works Bad Reichenhall, adult (instead of 41.50 €) – online shop only33.00 € (about $37.82)
- Combined ticket Salt Mine + Old Salt Works, child 4–16 / family ticket / each further child17.00 € ($19.48) / 75.00 € ($85.95) / 10.00 € ($11.46)
- Group combined tickets, 20 people and up: Eagle's Nest (Kehlsteinhaus) 53.40 € (child 25.90 €), Königssee boat trip 50.70 €, Jenner cable car 53.40 € (child 25.00 €), Berchtesgaden Advent 26.30 € (child 15.50 €)26.30–53.40 € (about $30.14–$61.20)
- Salt mine car park (Contipark, Salzburger Straße 24): flat rate up to 3 hours, then 1.00 € (about $1.15) per hour started, daily maximum 13.00 € (about $14.90). Card payment only.4.00 € (about $4.58)
- Old Salt Works Bad Reichenhall on its own, adult / child 4–16, for comparison with the combined ticket15.00 € ($17.19) / 8.00 € ($9.17)
- Conversion1 EUR = 1.1460 USD, the European Central Bank euro reference rate of 18 September 2026; dollar figures rounded
As of 09/2026 · source and direct booking: salzbergwerk.de/en
When everything is sold out
The number of tickets the online shop shows is, the operator says, the entire allocation for that tour: if nothing is free online, nothing is free at the ticket office either. Wet days are the busiest of the year – the operator names rain as the reason – followed by the German and Austrian school summer holidays.
Day trips from Salzburg and Munich
There is no plain entry ticket for the mine on GetYourGuide – admission is bought from the operator, where you also pick your tour time, and an adult pays 26.50 € (about $30.37) at the gate. What a reseller adds is the journey: the Salzburg half-days run around 85 € with entry included, and the Munich day trips bundle the mine with the Königssee or the Obersalzberg. That earns its keep if you have no car, or if you want one booking to cover a border crossing and a 150 km drive. Two things to check in every description: whether mine admission is actually included, and whether the Eagle's Nest is part of it – that road only runs from late May to October, and the mine and the Eagle's Nest are separate sites with separate tickets.
Bavarian Salt Mine Tour and Berchtesgaden
Salzburg: Sound of Music and Salt Mines Tour
From Munich: Königssee Day Trip with Boat Ride and Salt Mine
From Salzburg: Salt Mines Package - The White Gold Adventure
Show all 8 offers
Booked through GetYourGuide (affiliate link, advertising). Most offers can be cancelled free of charge up to 24 hours ahead. Prices as of 20 September 2026.
Opening hours and best time
Open every day of the year apart from six fixed closures. 30 March to 8 November: 9 AM to 5 PM. 9 November to 29 March: 11 AM to 3 PM. Read the second time carefully – the operator's own footnote on both its English and German pages says it marks the start of the last guided tour, not the last admission, so a 5 PM tour still ends around 6 PM and is a normal ticket. Closed on 1 January, Good Friday, Whit Monday (the miners' own Bergfest, with a procession through the town), 1 November, 24, 25 and 31 December. Every other public holiday is a normal opening day, which is the opposite of what several English listings say.
When it is quietest
Weatherproof, and busiest precisely because of it: the operator names rainy days as the days with the heaviest crowds. Calmest is early – the first tour leaves at 9 AM – or late afternoon. In winter the window shrinks to 11 AM to 3 PM, but the groups are smaller. With a steady 12 °C below ground this is the good option in a Bavarian heatwave and equally good in January. Two dates worth knowing: on Thursdays in July and August, in dry weather, salt is boiled the old way in front of the ticket office from 10 AM to 2 PM; and on Whit Monday the mine closes altogether for the miners' Bergfest.
Who it suits
With children
One of the best underground trips in Europe for children: a train you sit astride, two slides and a raft are exactly what they remember. Under-4s are free, under-13s need an adult with them, and small children go down the slides sitting with an adult. Even toddlers get their own overall.
Minimum age
None – the operator allows the tour at any age. Pregnant visitors may go, but should know it is about 800 metres on foot and that you cannot leave the mountain early once the tour has started.
Wheelchair
Not possible. The operator excludes wheelchair users because of the stairs and the narrow emergency exits, and walking frames may not come underground. Visitors with walking difficulties may join if each has one companion taking responsibility for them; staff decide on the day and refund the admission if they say no. Call +49 8652 6002-0 before you build a trip around it. The staircase that bypasses the second slide and the 23-metre inclined lift at the end are part of the ordinary route, not an accessible alternative.
Pushchair
Pushchairs and back carriers are not allowed underground. A baby sling is fine, and the operator lends out a small number of front carriers. Lockers for buggies and luggage are at the visitor centre.
Dogs
Not allowed, not even carried in a bag, and there is no dog-sitting on site. Plan around it if you are travelling with a dog in the car.
Claustrophobia
The operator advises people with claustrophobia not to come, and says so plainly. You are in the mountain for about an hour, you ride an open train through a narrow tunnel, and you cannot step out of the tour. The chambers themselves are big – the Kaiser Franz sink work is 17 metres high and the Mirror Lake 100 metres long – but the getting there is tight.
What to wear
A constant 12 °C (54 °F) whether it is 35 °C or snowing outside: warm layers and proper closed shoes. The overall is issued on site and is compulsory, partly as protection on the slides; it goes up to 5XL with special sizes beyond. It protects your clothes but does not warm you. Rucksacks, hats, walking poles, umbrellas and bulky bags stay in a locker upstairs.
Photography
Banned. Photography and filming are forbidden for the whole tour on safety grounds – according to the mine's own photo lab, a consequence of earlier incidents. The company photographs you instead, on the mine train and at the first slide; you can buy the pictures afterwards at the photo lab, but only that same business day, because the files are deleted and cannot be reordered. Above ground there is plenty to photograph around the mine and along the Salt Experience Trail.
Getting there
By public transport
Bus 840 is the reason Berchtesgaden works as a half-day from Austria. The line runs Berchtesgaden – Marktschellenberg – Salzburg and stops at "Salzbergwerk", 250 metres from the visitor entrance; the operator names it on its own arrival page. On the 2026 summer timetable (valid 24 May to 24 October, Monday to Friday) the 09:10 from Salzburg Hauptbahnhof reaches the Salzbergwerk stop at 09:52 – about 42 minutes – running every half hour to hour through the day. The route crosses an international border, Austria into Germany; Salzburg coach operators tell their passengers to carry a valid passport or ID, and so should you. Coming from inside Germany, take a train to Berchtesgaden Hauptbahnhof (connections via Freilassing and Salzburg) and then the same line 840 for about five minutes to the same stop; walking from the station is 1.4 km, roughly 30 minutes. The BGL day ticket for bus and train costs 22.00 € (about $25.21), covers Salzburg Hbf – Freilassing – Berchtesgaden and the regional bus network, and is worth 10 per cent off at the mine's ticket office.
By car
Give the satnav Salzburger Straße 24, 83471 Berchtesgaden – the visitors' car park, about 600 spaces, run by Contipark; the ticket office itself is at Bergwerkstraße 83, a short walk away. The car park takes cards only, contactless and phone included: 4.00 € (about $4.58) up to three hours, then 1.00 € (about $1.15) per hour started, capped at 13.00 € (about $14.90) a day. Twelve charging points for electric cars (ten AC at 11 kW, two DC up to 150 kW), an e-bike charger in front of the Bergschänke restaurant, motorcycle parking at Bergwerkstraße 81, and about four free coach bays by the visitor centre. Driving from Munich the operator's own route is the A8 to the Piding exit and then the B20 through Bad Reichenhall, toll-free the whole way. Stay on the motorway to the Salzburg Süd exit instead and you are on Austrian roads, which means buying an Austrian vignette – a real cost for a hire car, and easy to miss on a map app that routes you through Salzburg.
From the nearest city
The operator gives the distances itself: Salzburg 27 km, Bad Reichenhall 18 km, Munich 150 km. From Salzburg the mine is a half-day and needs no car at all. From Munich it is a full day – 150 km by road, or about two and a half to three hours by train with a change at Freilassing. Flying in, Salzburg (SZG) is the near airport and Munich (MUC) the one with the long-haul connections. The two names most often paired with the mine sit close by: the Königssee boat pier at Schönau, a short bus ride south of Berchtesgaden station, and the Obersalzberg above the town, 4 km up, reached by bus 838 from the station, where the Documentation Centre with its bunker system stands and where the Eagle's Nest bus road begins. Mine plus Königssee is a comfortable day. Mine plus Eagle's Nest is a long one and only possible from late May to October.
Tips for your visit
- Book online and take a fixed tour time. The allocation shown in the shop is the whole allocation – if it is empty online, queueing at the counter will not help.
- Be at the tunnel 15 minutes before your slot, and count the walk from the car park (Salzburger Straße 24) to the ticket office (Bergwerkstraße 83). Miss the tour and the ticket is void with no refund.
- From Salzburg, take bus 840 rather than a coach excursion. It stops 250 metres from the entrance, takes about 42 minutes from Salzburg Hauptbahnhof and costs a fraction of a four-hour packaged tour – and admission at the gate is 26.50 €.
- Carry your passport or ID on that bus. You cross from Austria into Germany on the way, and the Salzburg operators tell their own passengers to have it with them.
- 12 °C means 12 °C. Pack a jumper or light jacket even in August, and wear closed shoes. The overall protects your clothes; it does not keep you warm.
- Your camera stays in the locker. Photography is banned underground for the whole tour. The company's own shots from the mine train and the first slide are for sale at the photo lab afterwards – but only on the day of your visit, because the files are deleted that evening.
- Rucksacks, hats, umbrellas and poles cannot come down. Lockers are at the visitor centre and the company does not accept liability for what is in them.
- With small children: no pushchairs and no back carriers underground, a sling is allowed, front carriers can be borrowed, and an adult goes down each slide with a small child.
- If you are also doing the Old Salt Works at Bad Reichenhall, buy the combined ticket – 33.00 € instead of 41.50 € for an adult – but note it exists online only, never at the counter, and leave 2.5 hours between the two tours.
- Do not build the day around the Eagle's Nest as though it came with the mine ticket. They are separate sites with separate tickets; the Eagle's Nest road only runs from around late May to October, and the mine's own combined ticket for it is for groups of 20 or more with three days' notice.
- After the tour, the Salt Experience Trail and the brine pipeline path both start at the mine. The salt healing gallery next door is a different business with its own booking – not something your mine ticket gets you into.
What the internet gets wrong
It is in Bavaria, Germany, and the difference costs money. Thrillophilia heads its page “Berchtesgaden Salt Mine, Salzburg Tickets” and tags it “Austria”; Headout sells “Berchtesgaden Salt Mine Tour: From Salzburg”, still stamped “[Updated 2022]”; Hellotickets files its Berchtesgaden half-day under austria/salzburg. The address is Bergwerkstraße 83, 83471 Berchtesgaden, Germany, and bus 840 crosses an international border to reach it – which is why Panorama Tours in Salzburg tells passengers “Please ensure you always carry a valid original ID (passport) with you”, and why driving from Munich via the Salzburg Süd exit lands you on Austrian motorway with a vignette to buy. The Austrian salt mine near Salzburg is a different place: Salzwelten Salzburg at Bad Dürrnberg by Hallein, about 30 km away, 35 € for an adult.
Those are old numbers still circulating. tourismattractions.net gives “around €22-25” and “€13-15”; whichmuseum.com lists “Adults €25.50”, “Ages 4–16 €13.00”, “Students €22.50”, “Family package (2 adults, 1 child) €56.50”; showcaves.com still shows a 2023 table – “Adults EUR 22.50, Children (4-16) EUR 11.50, Students EUR 20, Family (2+1) EUR 50.50”. The operator's own English price page in September 2026 says 26.50 € (about $30.37) for an adult, 13.50 € ($15.47) for a child of 4 to 16, 23.50 € ($26.93) for a student of 17 to 25 and 59.00 € ($67.61) for the family ticket, with each further own child 8.00 €.
Two errors in one line. The 2026 season runs 30 March to 8 November, then 9 November to 29 March at 11 AM to 3 PM – and the operator's footnote, in English on its own page, marks that closing time as the start of the last guided tour, not the last admission. So the 5 PM tour is a normal ticket and you come out around 6 PM. thebettervacation.com publishes “25 March to 3 November, 9 am to 5 pm (last entry 4 pm)” and “4 November to 24 March: 11 am to 3 pm (last entry 2 pm)”; undiscoveredberchtesgaden.com has “0900-1700 from 25th March to 3rd November”; showcaves.com splits the year “MAY to OCT” and “NOV to APR”. Public holidays are normal opening days here, with six exceptions: 1 January, Good Friday, Whit Monday, 1 November, and 24, 25 and 31 December.
The online allocation is the whole allocation, on any day. But you are not booking weeks out either: what you buy is one named tour time, often for the same or next day, and the mine's own blog says the counter's next free tour can be two hours away. The practical rule is a day or two ahead, a morning slot, and be at the tunnel 15 minutes early – arrive after your tour has left and there is no refund.
The ride into the mountain is 650 metres and takes about five minutes, as the operator's English mine train page states. The 1,400 metres is a track length that has been circulating since a 2017 press pack, and English pages repeat it as distance travelled inwards: salzburg.info writes “the train covers a distance of some 1400 meters”, relaxing-koenigssee.com calls it a “1400-metre journey”, and the English Wikipedia article says “The track length of the visitor mine is about 1400 meters”. The obvious reading is that 1,400 m is the whole loop including the run back along the Ferdinandberg level, but the operator has never confirmed that. The same Wikipedia article puts visitors at “about 330,000” a year; the operator's own figures page says around 390,000.
There are two of them and neither is 36 metres. The operator's English page gives “The first slide descends around 34 metres into the Kaiser Franz sink work” and “The second slide takes you directly to the sparkling mirror lake and is 40 metres long” – 74 metres together. salzburg.info lists “the 36 meters-long miners' slides” as a single attraction. Worth knowing alongside the numbers: both slides are optional, bypassed by a walkway and a staircase respectively, there is no minimum age, and a small child slides sitting with an adult. What is compulsory is closing the overall properly before you go.
They are two sites with two tickets, 4 km and a mountain apart. The mine's own combined Salt Mine + Kehlsteinhaus ticket does exist – 53.40 € for an adult, 25.90 € for a child of 4 to 16 – but the operator states it is “only available for groups of at least 20 persons”, runs “from May 20 - October, depending on the weather” and needs three days' lead time. Individuals buy each separately. The seasons do not even match: the mine is open all year, the Eagle's Nest road is not, which is why thebettervacation.com's Berchtesgaden day tour swaps the mine in as the fallback – “On days when the Eagle's Nest is closed due to snow, ice, or fog, the itinerary includes the Berchtesgaden Salt Mine instead.” The same group-only rule applies to the Königssee (50.70 €) and Jenner (53.40 €) combinations.
That list, published by undiscoveredberchtesgaden.com under the heading Disabled Access, describes the ordinary route, not an accessible one. The operator's English FAQ says the opposite: “A visit to the visitor mine by wheelchair users is unfortunately not possible due to the obstacles to be overcome (stairs), narrow emergency exits.” Walking frames may not come underground at all. Visitors with walking difficulties may join only with one companion each who takes responsibility, and staff decide on the spot and refund the ticket if the answer is no. The thing at the end is a 23-metre inclined lift; the funicular ran from 1911 to 1996 and no longer exists.
History in brief
- Salt is being won at the Tuval near Schellenberg by about 1193, and soon afterwards there is mention of mining at the Gollenbach in Berchtesgaden itself. For centuries salt carries the economy of the Berchtesgaden monastic provostry.
- In 1517 Prince-Provost Gregor Rainer founds the mine that still works today and has the Petersberg tunnel driven. The brine first runs to the saltworks at Schellenberg and from 1564 also to the new Frauenreuth works in Berchtesgaden.
- 1628: work starts on the Ferdinand tunnel, the one the visitor train runs through – 650 metres by hand, about 6 centimetres a day, some 30 years of it.
- 1803 ends the provostry. After spells under Salzburg, Austria and France, Berchtesgaden passes to Bavaria in 1810 and is Bavarian for good from 1815/16. The mine and the saltworks come under royal Bavarian administration.
- In 1816 Georg von Reichenbach is commissioned to build the brine pipeline to Bad Reichenhall; on 22 December 1817 the first Berchtesgaden brine flows through wooden pipes over 29 kilometres. The line runs until 19 February 1927.
- 1816 also brings the first selected visitors underground, and in 1880 the mine opens to the general public – so this has been a show mine for close to 150 years.
- In 1911 a funicular replaces the walk into the mountain. It runs for 85 years and gives way in 1996 to the electric trains that carry 50 people at a time.
- 2007 sees the rebuild into the "SalzZeitReise" with a new visitor centre; 2017 marks 500 unbroken years of salt extraction; 2024 adds the show installation in the Kaiser Franz sink work and 2026 the cinema underground.
- Extraction today is wet mining: fresh water dissolves salt out of the Haselgebirge in about 30 active solution chambers, producing roughly 900,000 cubic metres of saturated brine a year, pumped to Bad Reichenhall and turned into table salt.
Frequent questions
How much does the Berchtesgaden Salt Mine cost in 2026?
An adult ticket is 26.50 € (about $30.37), a child of 4 to 16 pays 13.50 € ($15.47), a student of 17 to 25 pays 23.50 € ($26.93), and the family ticket for two adults and one child is 59.00 € ($67.61), with each further own child 8.00 €. Under-4s are free. The guided tour, the audio guide, the mine train, both slides, the underground cinema and the raft ride are all in that one price. Dollar figures use the European Central Bank reference rate of 18 September 2026.
Is the Berchtesgaden Salt Mine in Germany or Austria?
Germany – Bavaria, at Bergwerkstraße 83, 83471 Berchtesgaden. It is close enough to Salzburg (27 km) that English booking sites routinely file it under Salzburg or even under Austria, and the bus from Salzburg does cross an international border on the way. The Austrian mine people confuse it with is Salzwelten Salzburg at Bad Dürrnberg near Hallein, about 30 km from Berchtesgaden and 35 € for an adult. Carry ID on the bus, and if you are driving from Munich, take the B20 through Bad Reichenhall rather than routing through Salzburg, or you will need an Austrian motorway vignette.
How long does the Berchtesgaden Salt Mine tour take?
The tour underground is about one hour. Add roughly 30 minutes for buying or scanning your ticket, getting into the overall and handing the miner's clothing back, so allow 90 minutes to two hours in total. You walk about 800 metres of it. From Salzburg, with bus 840 each way, the whole outing is a comfortable half-day; from Munich it fills a day.
Are the tours in English, and is there an English-speaking guide?
The live guide is a miner of the company and speaks German. English comes through a free audio guide, one of 17 languages, handed out before you go in and synchronised to the stations of the tour. There is no separate English departure to choose and no surcharge, which means you can book any slot in the calendar rather than a handful of English-only times. The trade-off is that you cannot ask the guide a question in English as you go.
Do you need to book Berchtesgaden Salt Mine tickets in advance?
Not weeks ahead, but do not count on walking up either. You book a specific tour time rather than a day, and the operator states that what the online shop shows is the entire allocation: if it is sold out online, the ticket office has nothing left. The counter does sell tickets, but the next free tour there can be two hours away. A day or two ahead, aiming at a morning slot, is the right amount of planning – and be at the tunnel 15 minutes before your time, because a missed tour is not refunded.
How do you get from Salzburg to the Berchtesgaden Salt Mine without a car?
Bus 840, the line Berchtesgaden – Marktschellenberg – Salzburg. On the 2026 summer timetable the 09:10 from Salzburg Hauptbahnhof reaches the "Salzbergwerk" stop at 09:52, about 42 minutes, with departures every half hour to hour during the day; the stop is 250 metres from the visitor entrance. You cross from Austria into Germany, so carry your passport or ID. It is by far the cheapest way to do this – admission at the gate is 26.50 €, against roughly 85 € for a four-hour coach excursion from Salzburg with entry included.
How do you get there from Munich?
By car it is 150 km: A8 to the Piding exit, then the B20 through Bad Reichenhall, toll-free. By train, Berchtesgaden Hauptbahnhof is reached with a change at Freilassing, roughly two and a half to three hours, and then bus 840 covers the last five minutes to the mine (or a 1.4 km, 30-minute walk). Either way this is a full day from Munich, not a half one.
Do you have to go down the slides, and how long are they?
No, and they are 34 and 40 metres – 74 metres between them, not the single 36-metre slide some guides describe. The first drops into the Kaiser Franz sink work and can be avoided by a walkway; the second goes down to the Mirror Lake and can be avoided by a staircase. If you do slide, the overall has to be fully closed, and small children go down sitting with an adult.
How cold is it in the Berchtesgaden Salt Mine, and what should you wear?
A constant 12 °C (54 °F) all year, whatever the weather above ground. The overall issued on site protects your clothes but gives no warmth, so bring a jumper or light jacket even in August, and wear proper closed shoes – you are on your feet for about 800 metres. Rucksacks, hats, umbrellas and walking poles go in a locker at the visitor centre.
Can you take photos inside the Berchtesgaden Salt Mine?
No. Photography and filming are banned for the whole tour on safety grounds – unusually strict for a show mine, and the reason is earlier incidents. The company photographs you on the mine train and at the first slide instead, and you can buy those pictures at the photo lab when you come out. Only that day, though: the files are deleted the same business day and cannot be reordered. Above ground you can photograph freely, including along the Salt Experience Trail.
Is the Berchtesgaden Salt Mine good for young children?
Very. There is no minimum age, under-4s are free, and the mine train, the slides and the raft are exactly what children remember; even toddlers get an overall. The catches are practical: pushchairs and back carriers may not go underground, a sling is allowed and the mine lends out a few front carriers, and under-13s need an adult with them. Lockers for the buggy are at the visitor centre.
Is the Berchtesgaden Salt Mine wheelchair accessible?
No. The operator rules out wheelchair users because of the stairs and the narrow emergency exits, and walking frames cannot come down either. Visitors with walking difficulties may join provided each has one companion taking responsibility for them; staff decide on the day and refund the admission if they cannot take you. Call +49 8652 6002-0 before you plan around it. The bypass stairs at the slides and the inclined lift at the end are part of the ordinary route, not an accessible alternative.
Can you do the Eagle's Nest and the salt mine on the same day?
Yes, but as two separate visits with two separate tickets – they are 4 km and a mountain apart, and the mine's own combined ticket with the Kehlsteinhaus (53.40 € adult, 25.90 € child) is for groups of 20 or more, runs only from about 20 May to October and needs three days' notice. Individuals buy each site on its own. Bear the seasons in mind: the mine is open all year, the Eagle's Nest bus road is a summer affair and closes for snow, ice or fog. Pairing the mine with the Königssee is the easier day.
Is the salt healing gallery included in the mine ticket?
No. The Salzheilstollen at Bergwerkstraße 85a, on the same site, is run by a different company – Heilstollen Berchtesgaden GmbH – and described by the operator as the only salt healing gallery in western Europe. It is not a tour: you lie on a lounger at 85 per cent humidity and breathe salt-laden air, for asthma, bronchitis, hay fever and similar. It has to be booked separately, directly with them, and has nothing to do with your one-hour mine ticket.
How deep does the tour go, and is it claustrophobic?
The deepest point is 130 metres below the surface, at the Mirror Lake; the cinema is at 120 metres. The mine train runs 650 metres horizontally into the mountain at the start, and the descending is done on the two slides. The operator advises people with claustrophobia not to come and says so plainly: you are inside for about an hour, you ride an open train through a narrow tunnel, and you cannot leave the tour early. The chambers themselves are large – 17 metres high in the Kaiser Franz sink work, a 100-metre lake at the bottom.
Is the combined ticket with the Old Salt Works at Bad Reichenhall worth it?
If you want to see both, yes: 33.00 € (about $37.82) for an adult instead of 41.50 €, 17.00 € for a child of 4 to 16 and 75.00 € for the family ticket – about 20 per cent off two separate tickets. Two conditions: it exists only in the online shop, never at the counter, and the two sites are 20 km apart, so leave 2.5 hours between the tours. The Old Salt Works is a different thing from a mine – a 19th-century industrial monument with huge water wheels, a brine tunnel and a salt museum.
Sources
Show 41 sources – every figure on this page is sourced
- www.salzbergwerk.de/en/plan-a-visit – Operator's English page: 2026 admission prices (26.50 / 13.50 / 23.50 / 12.00 / 59.00 / 8.00 €, combined ticket 33.00 / 17.00 / 75.00 / 10.00 €), opening hours 30 March – 8 November and 9 November – 29 March with the footnote "*Start of the last guided tour", the six closing days, "The underground experience can only be booked as part of a one-hour guided tour", 1.5 to 2 hours in total, distances Munich 150 km / Salzburg 27 km / Bad Reichenhall 18 km, line 840 Berchtesgaden – Marktschellenberg – Salzburg, 250 m from the stop, 1.4 km / 30 minutes from the station, BGL day ticket 10 per cent off at the ticket office, card-only car park, free coach bays, A8 Piding and B20 toll-free with the Austrian vignette warning, e-bike and motorcycle parking
- www.salzbergwerk.de/en/the-salt-mine/faq – Operator's English FAQ: tour approx. one hour plus 30 minutes changing, constant 12 °C, lowest point 130 m, "a tour without a guide is not possible", 17 audio-guide languages, photography and filming forbidden, wheelchair visits not possible because of stairs and narrow emergency exits, walking difficulties only with one carer per person, no prams or baby backpacks, no dogs, claustrophobia advised against, any age with an adult for under-13s, slides can be bypassed by walkway and stairs, "If no tickets are available online, there will be no additional tickets available on site either", and the Bad Reichenhall confusion
- www.salzbergwerk.de/en/the-salt-mine/here-s-what-is-waiting-for… – Operator's English mine train page: 650 metres into the mountain, 5 minutes, 50 people per train; Ferdinand tunnel from 1628, about 6 cm a day, roughly 30 years for the 650-metre tunnel; visitor operation from 1840, funicular until the present trains
- www.salzbergwerk.de/en/the-salt-mine/here-s-what-is-waiting-for… – Operator's English slides page: "The first slide descends around 34 metres into the Kaiser Franz sink work", "The second slide takes you directly to the sparkling mirror lake and is 40 metres long", alternative walkway and stairs, coverall must be properly closed, "An adventure for all ages"
- www.salzbergwerk.de/en/the-salt-mine/here-s-what-is-waiting-for… – Operator's English cinema page: two auditoriums deep inside the mountain, film of 6 minutes 20 seconds on the formation of the Alps and salt production, several languages, existing cavity renovated with the Haselgebirge backdrop preserved
- www.salzbergwerk.de/en/the-salt-mine/here-s-what-is-waiting-for… – Operator's English page on the salt healing gallery: run by Heilstollen Berchtesgaden GmbH, Bergwerkstraße 85a, 85 per cent humidity, loungers rather than a tour, advance booking required by phone or e-mail, only salt healing gallery in western Europe
- www.salzbergwerk.de/en/plan-a-visit/exclusive-group-offers/comb… – Operator's English combined Salt Mine + Eagle's Nest ticket: 53.40 € adults, 25.90 € children 4–16, "only available for groups of at least 20 persons", bookable "from May 20 - October, depending on the weather", three days' lead time, includes mine admission, the Obersalzberg bus and the historic Kehlstein lift
- www.salzbergwerk.de/de/das-salzbergwerk/das-erwartet-sie/stollenplan – All 13 stations of the tour: 650 m in and five minutes, slide 1 at 34 m, Kaiser Franz sink work (over 250 years old, 17 m high, 2,000 m² of ceiling), stone salt grotto, cinema as station 5, blind shaft, tunnelling progress of 6 cm a day, solution chamber, Magic Salt Room, slide 2 at 40 m, Mirror Lake, Reichenbach pump of 14 t, inclined lift 23 m
- www.salzbergwerk.de/de/das-salzbergwerk/das-erwartet-sie/spiegelsee – Mirror Lake: 100 m long, 40 m wide, up to 2 m deep, 130 m below the surface, salt content almost as high as the Dead Sea, raft crossing with light and sound
- www.salzbergwerk.de/de/das-salzbergwerk/das-erwartet-sie/daten-fakten – Wet mining, about 30 active solution chambers, 900,000 m³ of brine a year, salt content of the rock about 50 per cent; the show mine in figures: 390,000 guests a year, mine train 650 m, slides 74 m together
- www.salzbergwerk.de/de/das-salzbergwerk/das-erwartet-sie/geschi… – History: salt from about 1193, foundation in 1517 by Prince-Provost Gregor Rainer, Petersberg tunnel, Frauenreuth saltworks 1564, end of the provostry 1803/1815/16, Reichenbach brine pipeline from 1816/1817 over 29 km until 1927, visitors from 1816 and the general public from 1880, new visitor centre 2007
- www.salzbergwerk.de/de/das-salzbergwerk/das-erwartet-sie/fotolabor – Photo lab: souvenir photographs from the mine train and the first slide, files destroyed the same business day, no reordering, the photography ban explained by earlier incidents
- www.salzbergwerk.de/de/besuch-planen/kombiticket-as – 2026 combined prices with the Old Salt Works (33.00 / 17.00 / 75.00 / 10.00 €), online only, no other discounts combinable, 20 km apart, 2.5 hours between the two tours
- www.salzbergwerk.de/de/ticketshop/type/784 – Ticket shop: individual tickets up to 19 people, group reservation from 20, group combined tickets with the Eagle's Nest, Königssee, Jenner cable car and Salt-Berg-Advent with prices, reservation of a chosen date
- www.salzbergwerk.de/de/blog/wartezeiten-ade – Operator's blog on waiting times: scan the ticket at the turnstile, be on site 10 minutes before the tour, the next free tour at the counter can start two hours later
- www.salzbergwerk.de/de/das-salzbergwerk/presse/pressetexte/2026… – New cinema: two auditoriums 120 m underground, about 140 m³ or 300 t of salt rock removed in 240 wagons, screen 8.5 × 2.5 m, content of the film, brine to Bad Reichenhall
- www.salzbergwerk.de/de/das-salzbergwerk/presse/pressetexte/2017… – 2017 press pack: "oldest active salt mine in Germany", about 30 km of tunnels in total, visitor railway track length 1,400 m, slides of 34 m and 40 m, about 370,000 visitors, rebuild into an adventure mine in 2007
- www.salzbergwerk.de/de/das-salzbergwerk/aktuelles – News 2026: cinema expected from 23 May 2026, closure on Whit Monday for the miners' Bergfest, salt boiling on Thursdays in July and August from 10 AM to 2 PM
- www.contipark.de/de/parken/berchtesgaden/parkplatz-salzbergwerk/ – Car park charges at the salt mine: up to 3 hours 4.00 €, then 1.00 € per hour started, daily maximum 13.00 €, charging electricity 0.55 €/kWh, open 8 AM to 8 PM
- bahnland-bayern.de/de/tickets/freizeit-und-tourismus/ticket/bgl… – BGL day ticket bus and train: 22.00 € per person, up to three children under 14 free, valid Salzburg Hbf – Freilassing – Berchtesgaden and on the regional bus network
- www.berchtesgaden.de/fileadmin/Berchtesgaden/PDFs/Busfahrpl%C3%… – 2026 summer timetable for line 840 (valid 24 May – 24 October 2026): Salzburg Hauptbahnhof dep. 09:10, Salzbergwerk stop arr. 09:52; half-hourly to hourly service, "Eishöhle" stop on the route, free travel with the guest card from Zollhäuser
- www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/eurofxref/eurofxref-daily.xml – European Central Bank euro reference rate USD 1.1460, effective 18 September 2026, used for every dollar figure on this page
- www.alte-saline.de/de/besuch-planen – Old Salt Works Bad Reichenhall: single prices 15.00 € / 8.00 €, opening hours and closing days, 12 °C, about one hour
- obersalzberg.de/besuch/ – Documentation Obersalzberg: daily 9 AM to 5 PM, last admission 4 PM, bunker system part of the permanent exhibition, 4.50 € for adults and free up to 18, Salzbergstraße 41, bus 838 from Berchtesgaden station
- www.salzwelten.at/en/salzburg/prices-opening-hours – Salzwelten Salzburg (Bad Dürrnberg near Hallein): 35 € for adults, 16 € for children 4–15, 2026/27 seasons – the Austrian mine Berchtesgaden is confused with
- eishoehle.net/ – Schellenberg Ice Cave: 1,570 m in the Untersberg, 3 to 3.5 hour climb from the B 305 at Marktschellenberg, Toni-Lenz hut at 1,450 m; current closure notice aiming at reopening in the 2027 season
- www.thrillophilia.com/tours/berchtesgaden-salt-mine-salzburg-ti… – English error source: page headed "Berchtesgaden Salt Mine, Salzburg Tickets" and tagged "Austria"; a four-hour coach excursion sold as "Berchtesgaden Salt Mine Tickets"; "the town's 500-year-old salt mine atop Obersalzberg"; "The live guide is available in various languages"
- www.headout.com/salt-mine-tours/berchtesgaden-salt-mine-tour-fr… – English error source: "Berchtesgaden Salt Mine Tour: From Salzburg", filed under Salzburg, page title still marked "[Updated 2022]", "Take the wooden slide 34 meters down the Stone Salt Grotto"
- www.hellotickets.com/austria/salzburg/berchtesgaden-half-day-tr… – English error source: the Berchtesgaden and Eagle's Nest half-day trip filed under austria/salzburg
- www.panoramatours.com/en/salzburg/tour/salt-mine-tour-tour-3a/ – Salzburg coach operator: four-hour salt mine excursion from Mirabellplatz from €85.00, "Yes, the entrance fee to the Salt Mine Berchtesgaden is included in the tour price", "Please ensure you always carry a valid original ID (passport) with you"
- tourismattractions.net/germany/berchtesgaden-salt-mine-tour – English error source: "Current adult ticket prices are around €22-25. Children typically cost €13-15."
- whichmuseum.com/museum/salt-mine-berchtesgaden-28460/tickets-prices – English error source: "Adults €25.50", "Ages 4–16 €13.00", "Students €22.50", "Family package (2 adults, 1 child) €56.50"
- www.showcaves.com/english/de/mines/Berchtesgaden.html – English error source: 2023 fees "Adults EUR 22.50, Children (4-16) EUR 11.50, Students EUR 20, Family (2+1) EUR 50.50"; season given as "MAY to OCT daily 9-17" and "NOV to APR daily 11-15", tours every 10–15 and every 25 minutes
- thebettervacation.com/munich/berchtesgaden-salt-mine/ – English error source: "25 March to 3 November, 9 am to 5 pm (last entry 4 pm)", "4 November to 24 March: 11 am to 3 pm (last entry 2 pm)", "Book in advance during summer months (July–August)", and the Eagle's Nest fallback "On days when the Eagle's Nest is closed due to snow, ice, or fog, the itinerary includes the Berchtesgaden Salt Mine instead"; correct on "650 metres into the heart of the mountain in just five minutes" and on wheelchair access
- undiscoveredberchtesgaden.com/essential-tips-for-visiting-berch… – English error source: "0900-1700 from 25th March to 3rd November", "1100-1500 from 4th November to 24th March", address given as "Salzbergerstraße 24", and under the heading Disabled Access: "There is an alternative staircase for each of the two slides en-route and a funicular railway at the end"; also the Munich rail journey of about 2.5 hours with a change at Freilassing
- www.salzburg.info/en/sights/excursions/salt-mine-berchtesgaden – English error source, Salzburg tourist board: "the train covers a distance of some 1400 meters", "the 36 meters-long miners' slides", "10% discount on the online ticket with the Salzburg Card (only on adult and children's tickets)"; correct on the constant +12 °C and on bus 840 to the "Salzbergwerk" stop
- www.relaxing-koenigssee.com/en/activities/saltmine-berchtesgaden/ – English error source: "1400-metre journey" through the mine
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salzbergwerk_Berchtesgaden – English error source and reference: "The track length of the visitor mine is about 1400 meters", "about 330,000 visitors" a year, passenger vehicles dating from 1995
- de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salzbergwerk_Berchtesgaden – History and changes of ownership, the 2007 rebuild into the "SalzZeitReise", visitor railway 1,400 m at 56 cm gauge, about 390,000 visitors a year, coordinates
- www.berchtesgaden.de/en/pois/das-salzbergwerk-berchtesgaden – Regional tourist board in English: 2026/27 opening hours including public holidays, guest card benefit, the cinema "since June 2026", audio guides included in the admission
- freewalkingtoursalzburg.com/salzburg-salt-mines/ – English comparison of the three salt mines reachable from Salzburg: "The town of Berchtesgaden lies in Germany, across the border in Bavaria", bus 840 from Salzburg train station or Mirabell square taking about 50 minutes, and the Petersberg tunnel of 1517