Innsbruck, Austria — Wild Rumpus Travel

Highlights

Innenstadt
Nordkette

Why visit Innsbruck?

For dramatic mountain scenery and fun cafe culture.

Getting There and Around

In April 2024 we visited Austria and Paris by train from the UK. After spending 3 nights in Salzburg we used our interrail passes to travel by train from Salzburg to Innsbruck.

Seat reservations on this route were not mandatory and we could travel with just our interrail passes, but we opted to pay a small seat reservation fee (£2.50 per seat) to ensure we could sit together. The journey from Salzburg to Innsbruck took 1 hour 45 minutes.

Innsbruck town centre is very small and walkable. There is a good network of buses and trams but we walked everywhere.

Accommodation

In Innsbruck we stayed at the Ibis hotel for 2 nights. We had two adjacent rooms, each with a double bed.

This was a basic hotel but clean and safe and each room cost just £60 per night (a total of £240 for our stay) for room, breakfast and free WiFi.

The hotel was very conveniently located next to the train station and a 15 minute walk from the town centre.

Our star rating: 3

Our cost rating: 5

Innenstadt

The town centre of Innsbruck is a charming mix of old and modern. On our first afternoon we walked around the old town, stopping for tea and delicious apple strudel at a cafe right next to the famous Goldenes Dachl building. It was built in 1500 by Emperor Maximilian and is decorated with 2,738 copper tiles.

We walked past the Triumphpforte, a grand arch built by Empress Marie-Theresa in 1765 to celebrate her son’s wedding.

The main shopping street of Maria-Theresien-Straße was buzzing with tourists and locals enjoying the spring sunshine. The kids had excellent ice cream from Tomaselli Gelateria and enjoyed watching the street performers.

We walked down to the river Inn (which gives the town its name) with colourful houses, lots of wine bars, and an excellent food market lining its banks.

The baroque architecture in the town is elaborate and beautiful, and must look lovely in winter framed by snow. Even the drain covers are works of art!

Nordkette

The city is surrounded by the Alps and there are fantastic views of the mountains everywhere you look in Innsbruck. For our one full day in Innsbruck we decided to head up into the mountains.

We were worried it would be cold and windy at the top so we took our fleece jumpers and rain jackets. We needn’t have bothered. It was 25 degrees in the town and the sun was even brighter up the mountain reflecting off the snow. So we’d suggest not bothering with jackets on warm days and to wear sunscreen.

To get up to the mountains there is a funicular railway and then two cable cars. The stations were designed by architect Zaha Hadid.

The funicular railway takes you across the river to the Alpenzoo station. Here we disembarked to visit the Alpine Zoo. The zoo was pretty good, with lots of alpine animals including wolves (sleepy in the sun), goats (very friendly), and otters (our favourite). There were also fish, snakes, birds, insects and amphibians too.

Back on the funicular railway, the next stop is Hungerburg where we transferred to the first cable car. The cable car goes to Seegrube where there were lots of people skiing and snowboarding. We had a good value lunch in the restaurant here, with stunning views of the Alps. There was a ski resort party atmosphere here with loud music and people drinking.

After Seegrube, the final cable car takes you to Hafelekar, known as the top of Innsbruck. Here it is 7,400 feet high and the views of the Alps were breathtaking. The town of Innsbruck looked like a tiny model village below. We could see over to the famous Bergisel Ski Jump and in the distance we could see the start of the Brenner Pass, the mountain road to Italy.

The cost of ascending and descending via the cables cars and funicular plus the tickets to go to the zoo was £140 (!) or £45 per adult and £25 per child. If you are going to visit any other museums in Innsbruck or use public transport, it would be worth getting the Innsbruck card which costs £50 for 24 hours.

It was a fun day but there was a long wait at each stage for the funicular and cable cars and for each ride we were squashed in with lots of other people. The price was high too, even without the zoo entry it costs £40 to go up and down.

It looked like a really fun place to ski or snowboard though, and we enjoyed watching the winter sports enthusiasts hurtling down the mountain and trying out their jumps. The views were spectacular and despite the price and the level of overcrowding we were glad we made the effort to go up.

Final Thoughts

Innsbruck is a youthful town, with a university and lots of young people skiing and drinking. This wasn’t really our vibe.

Having said that, it is a pretty walkable town with a pedestrianised historic core and stunning mountain vistas, and it was fun to visit for a couple of nights.

Over our two days in Innsbruck we spent: