3 days in Innsbruck, Austria with Kids
Background For Winter Break 2023-2024, our family visited Germany and Austria! This has been at the top of our family wish list for a few years. Planning this big multi-city trip was so fun. We saw Christmas markets, snowy villages, ice-skated in 3 cities, and loved loved loved train rides with gorgeous scenery. European travel is quickly becoming one of my favorite things with family-friendly towns, easy navigating with trains and so much history and beauty. Traveling internationally with kids can be daunting but with a little preparation and research and tips from other travelers, we had a successful trip! This post covers our 3 full days in Innsbruck, Austria. The small towns of the region were so cute and different and had such a wonderful vibe. Read all of our European Christmas Market posts at the following links: Our 2023 Germany and Austria Trip: Flights and Logistics 2 days in Munich, Germany with Kids Day Trips from Munich with Kids: Nuremberg & Neuschwanstein Castle 3 days in Salzburg, Austria with Kids 3 days in Innsbruck, Austria with Kids Getting around Salzburg From Salzburg’s main station, it was an easy 2 hour trip to the main Innsbruck station. On our trips between cities, we generally booked tickets the night before and were able to get really inexpensive tickets. The price for all 4 of us was 44 euro and it was a double-deck train (Ellie was so excited!) I love how easy train travel is in Europe. We used the website seat 61 to get some guidance but it was really straightforward. In Innsbruck, we had the Innsbruck card for bus travel around the city. Where we stayed: We booked a 2-bedroom apartment on booking.com right in the middle of the city. Primarily because we thought we would walk home after NYE celebrations. However, we didn’t stay awake till midnight anyway. Either way, this was an awesome location and made it very easy to adventure out and about in the city. We used the Innsbruck card for 3 days (more below) which came with public transport which made it really easy to get around daily. We stopped at grocery stores for breakfast and evening snacks and had a wonderful stay. Innsbruck Card Tips When exploring highlights of cities, we often like to look at cards that include multiple museums and attractions. The Innsbruck Card was a great deal and included many of the attractions we were most interested in seeing. I included in our itinerary below if it was part of the card. We purchased a 72 hr 3 day card to give us more flexibility but could have been more efficient/squeezed it in 2 days. Definitely make a plan to do non-included things outside of the window if you’re there for a little longer. Our 3.5 day itinerary in Innsbruck Day 0: Transit to Innsbruck, Ambras Castle, Evening Light Show We arrived in Innsbruck in the early afternoon after arriving by train from Salzburg. After settling into our hotel, we wasted no time in grabbing an Innsbruck Card. We went to the information center near our hotel to get the physical passes because the online options weren’t working. With our sightseeing pass secured, we hopped on a bus and made our way to the majestic Ambras Castle. This castle sits high on a hilltop overlooking Innsbruck and has some fun things to see such as armor, weird wacky collections, and fun art. We also explored the outdoor garden areas a little and found a fun bridge to a cave. Off the beaten path! We spent around 2 hours at the castle and then headed back to our apartment. From our spot near the golden roof, we heard a fun little concert at sunset. I looked it up online and found that there is usually a band that plays throughout November and December on the roof. It was a lovely surprise! The Golden Roof is one of Innsbruck’s most popular tourist attraction. The small roof sticks out from a building and is covered with 2,657 fire-gilded copper tiles. We didn’t explore the attached museum or do a lot of history things in the area but the location was really convenient. As part of our innsbruck card, admission to a light show at a nearby park was included. Lumagica was a fun walk-through light sculpture show that was really well done. Lots of different themes and fun areas to see. To complete our evening, we had dinner at Stiftskeller. This was our favorite spot, maybe of the whole trip. We had schnitzel, stew, fish sticks and returned here multiple times throughout the week! Day 1: Top of Innsbruck cable cars, Zoo, Sound Museum Top of Innsbruck Our first full day in Innsbruck began with a fun ride on the Nordkette cable car, which whisked us up the mountainside in style. The rides were all included as part of our Innsbruck card. We walked from our hotel to the nearby park and started our journey at the Congress station. Congress – Hungerburg This is the first leg of the ride, from the Congress Station in Innsbruck city center to Hungerburg, a stop where you can find the Alpenzoo and stunning mountain views. The ride on the Hungerburg Funicular takes about 8 minutes. It was a little squished but super awesome to see the city shrink beneath us. Alpenzoo We stopped at the Alpenzoo, Europe’s highest zoo. Our favorite animal was the ibex, a majestic mountain goat with impressive horns. We spent about an hour and a half at the zoo, following the path and pointing out birds we recognized from wingspan, our favorite board game lol. Hungerburg – Seegrube The second stage involves a cable car ride from Hungerburg to Seegrube, a scenic plateau at an altitude of 1,905 meters. This leg offers panoramic views of Innsbruck and the Inn Valley. The ride takes approximately 6 minutes. At this spot, we were excited to see all the skiers! We oohed and
