Intro
You know what the worst part about the end of the world would be? Not getting to live through it in style. Well, that’s not a problem if you have one of these luxury doomsday bunkers.
Europa One
Things like The Walking Dead and Mad Max have made it seem like the end of the world is going to be the absolute worst. I mean, you have to pick out a full leather ensemble and then choose if you’re gonna take out zombies with a crossbow or a samurai sword. Sounds like a lot of work.
Of course, if you picked out the right German survival bunker, you might just be eager for that whole apocalypse thing to happen. After all, Robert Vasino is the CEO of Vivos, the company dedicated to making sure the end of the world is as luxurious as possible.
The company specializes in special underground living spaces that are honestly nicer than many of the celebrity homes we cover on this channel. Europa 1 is certainly their masterpiece.
For starters, it is built to survive pretty much every disaster you can think of, from nuclear armageddon to planet shattering earthquakes. But how nice can something earthquake proof really be?
Approaching the compound definitely doesn’t give you luxury vibes. With the concrete walls and long underground tunnels, it looks more like you’re going into an underground prison than your new luxury home.
Once you get through all that scary concrete, though, the place starts looking less like a facility James Bond would shoot his way through and more like a hotel James Bond would stay in.
I mean, just look at that spiral staircase leading to a spotless marble floor. This is about as far from my idea of a survival bunker as it gets.
Things only get classier from there. The space features an enormous pool with plenty of seating by the pool. It also says that restaurants are included, though I’m not sure that means a five-star apocalyptic eating establishment or the last McDonald’s in the world.
Then there’s the movie theater where you can ironically screen everything from 28 Days Later to A Quiet Place.
The other amenities include a gym, an office space, and plenty of security that goes along with the special apocalypse amenities you’ll want, like plenty of water, climate control, plenty of food, and advanced security systems.
That’s just the public space, though. I would show you what the private spaces look like, but I can’t. That’s because each space has its own interior designer that works with the guests to make sure that it’s as comfortable as possible for each customer.
The entire space is 21 108 square meters underground with an extra 4079 square meters of above ground space.
On top of that, before you decide to make an offer, I have some bad news. Places in this German shelter are only available by invitation only. That means if you haven’t already gotten an invite in the mail, chances are you’re probably not getting one.
That might not be the worst thing, because getting yourself your own slice of Europa One will set you back five million dollars. That’s quite the chunk of change to drop on a hypothetical apocalypse. If the zombies don’t come, you’re gonna be really embarrassed.
Germany isn’t the only—
The Survival Condo
—country with an end of the world real estate market. This place in Kansas might not be as high-end as Europa One, but you can’t say they haven’t thought of everything.
Honestly though, if the worst happens, what do you really want: your own private underground resort with restaurants, a designer home, and a specially tailored list of high-profile neighbors, or a place that looks like it would probably be just fine if an asteroid hit the planet tomorrow?
It’s really not hard to guess what Larry Hall’s answer to that question would be.
This intimidating man looks exactly what you’d expect a guy who’s obsessed with disaster planning to look like. Not that that’s a bad thing, especially once you see what he’s managed to accomplish.
The founder of the Survival Condo has taken an abandoned military silo in Kansas and turned it into an inverted skyscraper that serves as one of the nicest underground apartment buildings the end of the world has to offer.
Once you walk into the terrifying elevator to this nuclear base, you’d probably get nervous as you descended deeper and deeper into the earth. Then when those doors open, you probably let out a laugh as you see the most mundane site imaginable.
The first thing you’ll see is a fully stocked supermarket with little shopping carts and everything. It even has an espresso machine that really sets the tone for a bunker that’s less about offering the five-star experience as it is about offering the just like home experience.
This isn’t an accident either. They literally hired a psychologist to consult on the design who told them that the supermarket area had to basically look like a Whole Foods. I mean, you can’t freak out about the end of the world in a Whole Foods, right?
Beyond the underground Whole Foods, the aim of this space is to combat panic by making everything seem as normal as possible. Hall wants to make a true community where people can bake bread, learn new trades, teach yoga classes, and feel like this is basically their new home, not their new refuge.
As far as how this place works, everything has been thought through—from the aquaponics area, which provides fish and droppings to fertilize the garden area, and then there are the security systems, the armories, and the automated rifles where you can take out intruders as he says like it’s a video game. I really wouldn’t make that your sales pitch, man.
The special amenities the space offers aren’t super fancy, but are definitely comparable to what you might find in your hometown. You’ll have access to a small pool area, a theater, a fully stocked gym, a dog park, and even a wine bar.
There are even offices where people can work to fulfill the supposed need for a four-hour workday. They also offer shopping spaces, but don’t worry—money is not needed. That’s because you’ve already paid for everything.
A half-floor apartment costs 1.5 million dollars. A full-floor apartment costs 3 million dollars. And a two-level, three thousand six hundred square foot penthouse goes for four point five million.
All of those spaces also have to cover an additional five thousand dollars a month for other fees.
The community consists of 57 people that live in 12 apartments. There are specialized designs ranging from one space that looks like a log cabin to some that are just like standard modern apartments.
So you ready to move in yet?
The Oppidum
Next up on our apocalyptic apartment tour is the biggest and best space the end of the world has to offer. I mean, that’s what the folks at the Opetum are saying at least.
You just probably need to arrange for emergency travel to the Czech Republic just in case.
The estate is located in a secluded valley behind enormous walls. It’s a 323 thousand square foot property that has a bit of a different style than the other apocalypse apartments we’ve seen so far.
For starters, it offers above ground housing. Obviously that means this facility isn’t mainly focused on just a full-blown nuclear winter.
You’ll be able to pick up either one large 6750 square foot apartment or one of six 1720 square feet apartments.
It was built in the 80s during the Cold War where everyone was waiting for the next global apocalypse to start at any moment.
This place is designed to protect you from war, disease, natural disasters, and that sort of thing, and of course zombies.
Basically, this place offers you a normal-looking apartment life with some special apocalyptic amenities. That includes an advanced security team that is ready to deal with any uncoming threat.
Once that threat arrives, you’ll be escorted to the underground bunker that is sealed by blast doors in just under a minute.
The complex features things like automated weapons that are designed to pretty much take out any zombies, raiders, or aliens that might be on their way.
Once you have to go into the underground area, they will try to make you as comfortable as possible until the threat passes.
Underneath the simulated natural light, you’ll be treated to a spa, an underground garden, a pool, a gem, a library, a movie theater, and more.
There are also offices and plenty of supplies if the stay is longer than you’d hope for.
The underground space has its own generator in case of a mass blackout. It also has a water purification system and even surgical facilities if they are needed.
They also offer customized vaults to store any possessions you might want covered in case of the worst.
Then once the threat has passed, you are ushered back to your apartments in no time at all, though I imagine that would kind of ruin your perfect afternoon.
So how much does the largest just-in-case apartment complex cost? I haven’t posted the prices for one of these spaces yet, but my guess is that we’re looking at hundreds of thousands, if not millions. I mean, automated zombie slaying turrets ain’t cheap.
Trident Lakes
Some people dream of building giant businesses, remaking the tech world, or becoming an all-star athlete, and there’s James O’Connor who dreams of building the nicest community to survive the end of days.
Apparently that’s getting more and more common these days. Who knew?
O’Connor is the CEO of Trident Lakes, a planned post-apocalyptic survival community. The plan was to build this 320 million dollar resort-style location in Hector, Texas, 70 miles outside of Dallas.
Once you get a look in the area, you can see what that really means: the middle of nowhere. Right now, the place might be great big patches of empty greenlands, but one day they will turn this location into Texas’s number one stop for wealthy clients who want to outlast the rest of humanity.
Least that was the plan.
The pitch was that it would be designed to withstand pretty much everything from nuclear assaults to pandemics to any other disaster Roland Emmerich can come up with.
Trident Lakes was set to feature 600 luxury condominiums. On top of that, it was supposed to have a golf course, an athletic center, polo fields, seven outdoor and indoor sports courts, 45 acres of water sports, gun ranges, and 12 helipads.
It would be prepped to hold 2,000 people and 532 steel-reinforced concrete underground luxury condominiums. These would be anywhere from 900 to 7200 square feet.
The promises continued with a giant fountain in the middle of the community, to a luxury spa available 24 7, and even to several man-made lagoons.
While some of the other places we’ve seen want to be the luxury hotel of the apocalypse or the hometown of the apocalypse, Trident Lakes clearly wanted to sell itself as the country club of the apocalypse.
Though they have one thing that I bet no country club can offer: a DNA bank. This is designed apparently to help repopulation efforts in case of certain disasters. This will be used to identify and correct chromosomal defects.
I can’t imagine why most country clubs don’t feature one of these.
If this all sounds a little fishy, that’s because it is. Turns out that while many of these doomsday bunkers are surprisingly legit, Trident Lakes was just a giant hoax.
There were claims that the entire project was conceived as a giant money laundering scheme, allegedly for a Colombian drug cartel. I mean, this basically sounds like the worst season of Ozark.
After a few complaints were made to the FBI, they were quick to send in some fake money to see if they were legitimate.
Spoiler alert: they were. Several arrests were made and the entire project was shut down.
Not only that, but one of the primary developers for the project filed for bankruptcy.
I guess they really should have protected themselves against the feds before nuclear winter, I think.
Las Vegas Underground Shelter
We all know on some level that even if all of human society collapses somehow, Las Vegas will be just fine. I mean, it certainly looked to be doing well in Fallout: New Vegas.
Well, as you would probably expect, Vegas is making sure that the house always wins even in the case of everyone else in the world losing in as grand a fashion as humanly possible.
The Las Vegas underground shelter is as delightfully weird as you would expect.
For starters, the entrance to this place is hidden so no one can find it. All of the entry points to the bunker are designed to look like ordinary rocks in the vast Nevadan desert, which seems a bit risky to me.
Full-blown armageddon is the last time where you want to be confused about which rock was it again. I think—no, that’s just normal boulder.
Once you finally do find the right rock to look under, you’ll find a tunnel that will lead you to the most interesting-looking doomsday shelter I’ve seen yet.
I’m pretty sure whoever designed this one just finished up with like a mini golf company.
As far as specs go, it’s a 14 620 square foot bunker 26 feet below the ground. It has brightly colored ceilings that apparently supposed to resemble the sky.
Then there’s the fake grass, the pool that’s supposed to look like a river, and teeny tiny little houses that I think are supposed to look like a classic American neighborhood.
If it all looks a bit old-fashioned, that’s because it is. The place was built during the Cold War in 1979 and is complete with all the trappings of classic Americana, including a barbecue area, a giant fountain, and even a nightclub.
Because of course the Vegas doomsday shelter would have a nightclub. I’m sure it has a casino too.
If you think that it looks cool, you’re in luck. This one is actually for sale. You can pick up your own underground Vegas for 18 million dollars.
This also comes with a house above it that also looks like it was designed by the same mini golf designer.
The only problem with this doomsday shelter is that they might not be as alone as they’d want to be. You see, Vegas apparently already has an underground city—the so-called mole people, not my word choice.
Of Vegas have escaped the city to live life in the tunnels beneath Las Vegas, so you might not be the only people to survive the Vegas apocalypse after all.
An underground city next to a doomsday bunker built during the Cold War. This is sounding more and more like a Fallout game to me.
The Aristocrat
As you can tell, the doomsday places all have to have a theme. You’ve got your luxury hotels, your underground Vegases, your Colombian money laundering schemes—you know, the basics.
Well, The Aristocrat seems to be the man cave of the apocalypse. Seriously, this might not be the best doomsday bunker of the bunch, but it might be the most fun.
From the outside, the entrance to this bunker looks like a normal prefab building. This acts as a safe house for the place.
Then you push past the false wall and into the doomsday bunker. It may not have as many luxuries as some of the others, but it still has a sauna, a swimming pool, and a gym.
It doesn’t offer full apartment spaces, but it does have plenty of master bedrooms and futons to sleep on. I mean, who doesn’t want to sleep through the apocalypse on a futon?
It also has a greenhouse, an air filtration system, and plenty of refrigerated supplies.
Let’s get to the main event though. Why is this place the fun bunker for the end of the world?
It has all sorts of fun activities available. The bunker has a pool hall, a bowling alley, a gun range, and a multi-vehicle garage. I mean, Mad Max has taught us you’re gonna need cool cars in the apocalypse.
It’s also got a big movie theater area, which apparently seems essential for these bunkers.
So if you want to go through the end of the world with a few beers and plenty of fun things to do, this might be the bunker for you.
So how much does this kind of end of the world fun cost? Well, you’d have to pay 8.3 million dollars. That’s quite a lot for a man cave, even if it is the end of the world.
The Greenbrier Bunker
Rich people aren’t the only ones who have a back-up plan in case everything ends. As you would expect, the governments of the world have their own just-in-case locations.
During the Cold War, this kind of thing made a lot of sense in the United States of America. The place where Congress was supposed to go in case Russia were to attack was the Greenbrier bunker.
It was hidden underneath the Greenbrier Hotel. It had two meeting spaces that had a capacity of one room and 100 seats in the other.
It had decontamination showers to clean off any potential radiation before they could come inside.
Once they got into the place, it held enough supplies to last for 60 days.
If that sounds horribly, horribly stressful, don’t worry: it was painted to resemble the DC skyline to make it feel more open. So that probably cut out all the panic of nuclear winter.
This entire system was designed to make sure that the government was still active if the worst were to occur. It was built for 14 million dollars in 1962, right before the Cuban missile crisis, which is just incredible timing.
Of course, once it was revealed to the public, it was decommissioned. I’m pretty sure there’s a completely different hotel they’re supposed to go to now.
The president actually doesn’t have to go that far in case of a disaster. That would be the presidential emergency operations center, or PIAC, which is just a terrible code word. They really should have had Marvel help them out with that. I mean, SHIELD would be a pretty good name for an end of the world presidential base.
The one we have is a secure bomb shelter that has plenty of supplies and communications equipment to keep the country running during the worst of times.
So where is this located? Well, it’s right under the East Wing of the White House.
In case of a disaster, the Secret Service will literally swarm the president and take him underneath the White House. Rumor has it they’ll even pick him up if they need to.
The whole thing supposedly cost over 400 million dollars.
There are similar locations for heads of state all over the world. All of the top government leaders of the planet all have doomsday buckers, you know, just in case they cause a doomsday.
Outro
In order to build your own doomsday bunker, apparently it costs around 52,000. Just make sure you build a movie theater and pick a cool theme, otherwise apparently no one will show up.