Innsbrook information

It's Innsbruck
Could you tell us your itinerary? Innsbruck is usually a base for hiking, otherwise not a place high on people's list.

If you want to do a day trip to Salzburg, do it from Munich. Use the regional train which goes every hour starting at 5:45 am. With the summer 9 EUR ticket, that covers both ways plus any other regional trains in Germany for an entire calendar month. This deal expires at the end of August. The trains take 2 hours to get to Salzburg.

Ironically, the mainline train tracks to Innsbruck go half way to Salzburg before turning south toward Innsbruck. You could arrange to go to Salzburg from Munich in the morning, store your bags in a locker at Salzburg train station, then go to Innsbruck in the evening.

BTW, "Bruck" is the German word for bridge. So Innsbruck is literally "The bridge over the Inn River".

It has great food, a nice downtown and several smaller museums for a day or a day and a half. I doubt if I would spend 4 nights in Innsbruck itself, but there are a number of great places to visit from there. Garmish-Partenkirchen and the Zugspitze is about an hour north by train (less if you go only to Ruette and go up the Zugspitze from the Austrian side).. One can make it to the HIntertux Glacier on a day trip by going east to Jenbach and then taking the local train (the Zillertalbahn) down the Ziller valley to Mayrhofen and a bus to the glacier. The whole area is great for hiking the mountains and "wandering" in the Ziller and Stubai Valleys. There are lots of gondolas/chair lifts, so the trip up can be easy. It is a it farther, but one can head south over the Brenner Pass to the South Tirol of Italy which has lots of other things to see (Parks, Bolzano, etc.).

We just got back from Austria, where we had 3 nights in Innsbruck. We arrived by train from Salzburg around 8am so we really had 3 full days in Innsbruck. I would say that for us, 2 days would have been enough. However, we loved Innsbruck. We bought the Innsbruck City Card and enjoyed our stay. The highlight of our stay in Innsbruck for our family of 5 (2 adults, and 3 young adult sons) was taking the cable cars up to the top of the mountains, included on the Card. This could possible take up the whole day if you took your time stopping, eating and shopping at the various stops on the way up/down. Another day we took the Hop on/Hop off bus to see the Olympic sites, Ambras Castle, Tyrol Panorama Museum, the Hofburg Palace and the Golden Roof Museum. We also took the shuttle to the Swarovski Crystal Exhibit. Again, all these were included in the City card. Of course we also enjoyed some delicitous food along the way.

The Innsbruck area is one of our favorites in Austria. We stayed five times in nearby Hall in Tirol. Never get tired of things to do, day trips to take and the amazing scenery. We think it makes a good home base.

In Innsbruck the Nordkettenbahn is an amazing 3 stage funicular/cable car trip right from outside the pedestrian zone.

Schloss Ambras is very worthwhile going to.

Make a trip to Bolzano, Italy if only to walk around and definitely to see the Ice Man Exhibit at the Museum of Archaeology. Perhaps stop in Sterzing/Vipiteno on the way back for dinner. Very picturesque old town.

Get a bus or train for the 15 minute trip to Hall in Tirol. Very pretty, less touristy than Innsbrucks old town.

Spend a day or an afternoon in Mittenwald, Germany.

The Zillertal is gorgeous and close by.

Alpen Zoo is amazing. It’s right on the Nordkettelbahn.

We spent one day and night there and it was plenty for us. Nice little main square area, and there is a really cool old Irish pub off the main area. We also enjoyed staying at the Mariott after a week in a small lodge in Garmisch. Loved the cold AC, King size bed and all the amenities a Mariott offers. It was a short walk to the train station and minutes from the mail pedestrian area. Munich would make much more sense to do a day trip to Salzburg, which is worth it. There are many more train schedule options. It is quite beautiful. Did you consider Garmisch at all? It is a short distance from Munich, and easy ride to Innsbruck. There is so much to do there. We spent 3 nights in Munich (which was plenty) using one of the days for the easy trip to Salzburg. We then trained to Garmish (also did the Flixbus once) for 3 nights. So many day trip options from there. Although we did the one night in Innsbruck, we agreed a day trip would have been plenty. There are train and Flixbus options available as well. A lot depends on what you want to do.

Innsbruck is a wonderful place to visit! Lots of beautiful scenery, a delightful Alpine Zoo with interesting exhibits, wonderful restaurants, cafes, coffee shops, old town, etc. My husbnad and I stopped there on a cross country train excursion several years ago when we walked into a nearby hotel intending to spend one night and ended up staying a week! We even left our luggage there for 2 nights and took the train to Venice and back and the hotel kept our room for us without any charges! We have gone back again and on that visit we went to nearby Wattens to visit the Swarovski Museum and hike around the areas. We are hoping to revisit again this fall.

Well, one option is to travel from Munich to Salzburg and spend 1 night there. Then take the train to Innsbruck. I like and have been to both destinations. I think I have lots left to explore in both locations, but I realize in thinking back that usually, I have only given Innsbruck a short visit - kinda of on the way to somewhere else. I think I will give it more days next time around. The suggestions here are great.