Innsbruck is a gorgeous little mountain town situated right at the base of the Austrian alps on the northern border with Germany. There’s a gorgeous trek you can take up to the top of the nearby mountain. Atop the mountain there is some great hiking, a large bar, restaurant and beer garden, as well as a play ground for kids. There’s even a large alpine zoo near the top of the mountain that you can visit as well. In the winter months the mountain is obviously used mostly for skiing.
The town below the mountain is the perfect Austrian Alpine city. The old part of town is simply gorgeous. All the buildings have stunning frescos painted on their front facades. The cobblestone streets filled with cafes, bars, restaurants and clothing stores is small enough to experience in a day, but varied enough that you could easily spend a whole weekend exploring.
Where to Stay in Innsbruck
There’s two hotels that we would highly recommend for staying in Innsbruck. But, wherever you stay you want to make sure you are within the city center or within very close walking distance. The Old Town area is really where you want to spend your time and outside that area there isn’t much else in the city that you need to spend your time on.
The Penz Hotel
The Penz Hotel is in the absolutely perfect location situated right in the middle of Innsbruck’s Old Town. The rooms are very comfortable and modern. There’s a parking garage underneath the hotel and a handful of restaurants and bars attached to the hotel.
aDLERS Hotel
If you want to stay in a stunning hotel with absolutely fantastic views that has a wonderful restaurant and bar on it’s top floor with even better panoramic views, then aDLERS Hotel is for you. It’s even slightly less expensive than The Penz Hotel. There’s an attached parking garage as well. The only downside is that it’s about 4 blocks outside the main area of the town so you have to be willing to walk a bit to get to the areas you want to hang out as opposed to The Penz Hotel where you’re right in the middle of everything.
Best Things to Do in Innsbruck
Buy The Innsbruck Card
The very first thing you should do upon arriving in Innsbruck is buy one of their Innsbruck Cards. Scattered throughout the town are tourist information centers where you can buy The Innsbruck Card which is a citywide pass that provides you access to all of the towns attractions. You don’t have to buy this pass in advance, it’s very easy to get one once you arrive. Just google tourist information centers and use your phone to guide you to the nearest one. You can buy a 24, 48 or 72 hour pass for 24.50, 27.50 or 33.00EUR respectively. The card literally provides you access to everything you could imagine within the city. Every tourist attraction, the tram, the cable cars and lifts up the mountain, public transportation, bike rentals, the zoo…you name it and the card gets you access.
Take the Funicular Tram to the Top of the Nordkette Mountain Range
The peak of Hafelekarspitze Mountain provides one of the most gorgeous vantage points to view Innsbruck. To get up to the top you’ll need to take a small train from the center of the town to the funicular tram that brings you up the mountain to a large lift that brings you up the final leg. You can hike up the mountain, but it is a challenging hike and only recommended for advanced hikers. Once at the top of the mountain there is a restaurant called Restaurant Seegrube where they serve traditional Tyrolean cuisine, a number of hiking paths, a playground, rock climbing, and an area that routinely hosts wine tastings and other events in the summer.
Go to the Alpine Zoo
One stop below the peak is a fairly large Alpine Zoo that you can visit with your Innsbruck Card for free. It’s well worth your stop. You can get pretty close to all the animals and there’s a large petting zoo area for the kids.
Explore Innsbruck’s Old Town
Spend a day window shopping and checking out the cafes, bars and restaurants in Innsbruck’s perfect little Old Town Center.
Go see a classical music concert at Ambras Castle
This Renaissance castle located just outside of Innsbruck was once home to Archduke Ferdinand II. Today it’s a popular tourist attraction that hosts regular classical music concerts. As part of the castle is the stunning Imperial Palace Hofburg. For more information click HERE.
Visit Swarovski Kristallwelten
The Swarovski Crystal World is a magical place where you can explore displays of the famous crystal company.
Try Tandem Paragliding
Not much else to tell you about this activity as we didn’t try it when we were there, but we saw plenty of people taking off from the mountain top as we walked around. It looks like a blast.
