Visiting Innsbruck, Austria at the beginning of July was the perfect trip to take outside of Nice, France. The change in scenery and weather was exactly what Nik and I needed since our last few trips had been within France: to Toulon and to Marseille. The added bonus of this trip was seeing some of our friends from Chicago who were on a trip of their own! This post is all about the incredible sightseeing in Innsbruck. A food and drink related post will be forthcoming.
Getting to Innsbruck
Nestled in the Austrian Alps, Innsbruck is the capital of the Austrian state of Tyrol and the fifth-largest city in Austria. Even though Nice has an international airport, we found the flight options to Innsbruck very limited but eventually booked a roundtrip flight on Austrian Air with a layover in Vienna. Sadly though, we didn’t have enough layover time to venture into the city. The flight was comfortable and we got Lindt chocolates as our snack and managed to get a pretzel during the layover in each direction. The flight descent into Innsbruck was beautiful.
Our first choice of hotel was to stay at the AC Hotel, a Marriott property. For some reason it was all booked for our first two nights so we booked two nights at the Adlers Hotel and then moved hotels to the AC for our last two nights. Turns out the 2025 Roller Derby World Cup was taking place in the city so we think that took up a lot of the hotels around the city. The derby crowd was not hard to miss.
After checking in at the hotel and dropping our bags, we made a short walk to Innsbruck’s Old Town and nearby squares.
The area didn’t feel too big and was filled with so much history. Every building was so unique and the architecture was gorgeous, including Innsbruck Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of St. James (Dom St. Jakob Cathedral in German.)
Landmarks in Innsbruck
A lot about Innsbruck traces back to Emperor Maximilian I of Austria from 1493-1519, who made the city his home. The most notable landmark in historic Old Town is the Golden Roof completed in 1500. In close proximity are the Hofburg Imperial Palace and the Court Church.
A short walk away is the Nordkette funicular, which takes you to the very top of Innsbruck. On the other side of town is the Bergisel Ski Jump, which was used for the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics and is still in use today.
Nik and I came prepared for doing a lot of sightseeing in Innsbruck and decided that getting the Innsbruck Card for 48 hours (89€ / $103 each) made sense for us. The card gets you entry into 22 different sites as well as all your local transit. Having done the math, we knew we’d get our money’s worth with the transit and those four sites alone.
The Golden Roof
Considered the city’s most famous symbol, the roof was decorated with 2,657 fire-gilded copper tiles for Emperor Maximilian I to mark his wedding to Bianca Maria Sforza, his third wife.
The Emperor and his wife used the balcony to observe festivals and other events that took place in the square below. If you look closely, each level of the balcony is decorated with sculpted moldings, carvings and mural paintings. They depict various scenes from the Emperor’s life and marriages. The building now operates as a museum, and although entry is covered by the Innsbruck Card, we chose to skip it.
Just a few yards away stands Stadtturm, the landmark watchtower, which happened to be closed during our visit. Completed in 1450, guards kept a look out over the city while the lower levels once served as a prison.
The Nordkette Funicular
I love a good funicular/cable car/gondola ride up a hill or mountain. Call it what you will, the Nordkette Funicular did not disappoint. We set out early, hoping to beat the crowds and get ahead of incoming bad weather.
The ride to the top starts in city center at the Altstadt station and makes a few stops/transfers along the way. Each of the stations feature architectural designs by Zaha Hadid, the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize, in 2004. If you’d like to learn more about the history of the Innsbruck Nordkettenbahnen, click here. It’s fascinating.
This first leg of the ride is by a train that runs about every 15 minutes and stops at the zoo for pickup or drop-off and then continues to the Hungerburg station where you get off and transfer to a cable car.
We took the cable car to Seegrube station and got off, not realizing the final and highest point was another stop ahead.
Getting off at Seegrube worked out really well because we enjoyed the amazing views and a delicious lunch at Restaurant Seegrube before heading up further. For those of you who are avid hikers, cyclists or skiers in the winter, you would love this area because of all the trails up and down the mountains.
I should note that the temperature dropped by this point because of the elevation: 1,905 meters (6,250 ft). It was roughly mid 70s down in the city and high 50s at Seegrube so it made for the perfect time to enjoy a cheese dumpling soup and a bowl of goulash.
Following lunch, we walked around the area a little bit. The view looking at the restaurant and the top of Innsbruck in the background was amazing.
There was a viewing platform not far from the restaurant that we checked out too. Walking on it was a little nerve-wracking since you can see straight through the grates to the ground below, but it did feel as if I was floating.
For the very adventurous, you could take a narrow-ish and rocky walking path to go a tad higher for a view. (Pictured below.) We did not do this.
The other side of the mountain looks out at the Karwendel mountain range. Gorgeous. The mountains are largely located on Austrian territory, though a small part is situated in Bavaria, Germany.
Eventually the rain came pouring down and the cable cars back to the city stopped running for about half an hour. Luckily, I suppose, we were inside waiting to go down and not caught out in the rain.
The whole excursion and time spent enjoying the ride and views were wonderful and so worth the time. The ticket alone for this ride to the top is 52€ which seems steep. No pun intended. But when you think about how high up you go and the maintenance, it’s worth spending the money.
Bergisel Ski Jump
On the other side of town, and equally cool as the funicular ride, is the Bergisel Ski Jump. It was a comfortable morning so Nik and I chose to walk to it. I’m glad we did. We passed a different church, a rather old cemetery and other local buildings we wouldn’t have seen otherwise.
The first ski jump there was built in 1925 and what you see today was rebuilt starting in 2001 and officially opened in 2003. The venue has twice hosted Olympic events, in 1964 and 1976, with the Olympic flame situated on the Bergisel hill at both Olympic Games.
You get to the top of the jump by funicular, though you could walk the stairs too.
Halfway up, you’ll spot the ref box on the left and the press box on the right.
At the top, there is an elevator that takes you up higher in the tower. The tower itself has a panoramic restaurant, a viewing platform and a landing they call the “jumpers view.” It was really impressive to look down the ski jump and out to the city.
We rode the funicular up with a guy who was in ski gear and we didn’t know what he was going to do. Sure enough it’s also a year-round training center featuring a ski jump with an artificial surface. Water runs down the tracks and the athletes ski down and jump as they would in the winter with snow. Nik and I got lucky with the timing and was able to see him ski down and jump.
The venue also hosts the Four Hills Tournament, a ski jumping event composed of four World Cup events.
All in all, it was a really cool place to explore. If you’re ever in Innsbruck, we highly recommend fitting this in as part of your sightseeing.
Hofburg Imperial Palace
One visit that we felt was slightly underwhelming was touring the Hofburg Imperial Palace, completed in the year 1500 under Emperor Maximilian I. In addition to Maximilian, various sovereigns resided there including Empress Maria Theresa. It seems most of what’s on display today stems from Maria Theresa’s era.
The sidewalk around some of the building was under construction and the architecture is nowhere as beautiful as the Hofburg and Schönbrunn Palaces in Vienna.
It was an easy building to explore and didn’t require a lot of time. There were a few rooms that were interesting to see, including Giants Hall. Pictures aren’t allowed and I got scolded once for trying. But then I snuck a few anyway.
The Giants Hall does not refer to its size but to the former wall paintings, where scenes with giants could be admired. Today it contains paintings of Maria Theresa’s children and grandchildren.
Court Church
Adjacent to the Hofburg stands the Court Church, which Emperor Ferdinand I built in 1553 to honor his grandfather, Emperor Maximilian I. Another underwhelming facade, though it does have a beautiful interior.
Emperor Maximilian I is buried in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, but Court Church holds a cenotaph (an empty tomb) in his honor. A bronze figure of him kneels in prayer on top of the tomb.
The cenotaph is surrounded by 28 large bronze statues of ancestors, relatives and heroes, as seen in the picture below. One of the most famous figures is the legendary King Arthur of England.
You know how some bronze statues have shiny noses because people rub them for good luck? Well, Kaiser Rudolph has a shiny…um…codpiece:
The Ottoburg
Located at the northern entrance to Innsbruck’s old town, Ottoburg is the oldest building in Innsbruck. It’s most recognizable for the bay windows and red-white-red painted wooden shutters that resemble the Austrian flag.
Its history dates back to 1180, when Otto II of Andechs built a defense tower at this location. It then changed hands numerous times over the years and in 1542 the late Gothic building was remodeled and extended. In 1913 the Ottoburg was converted into an inn and now houses a restaurant. Of course we made a stop at the cities oldest building for a drink!
In front of the building is the ‘Father and Son’ bronze monument which commemorates the Tyrolean fight for freedom against the French under Napoleon in 1809.
This is part 1 of our trip recap to Innsbruck. It is such a beautiful city. Sightseeing in Innsbruck was so easy and fascinating. It was hard to write this post without adding so many more pictures.
Part 2 on the Innsbruck food scene will be coming soon. In the meantime, what’d we miss?
Now I really want to go to Austria! Vienna has always been on my list, but we’ll have add Innsbruck! Great photos as always.