Things to do in Innsbruck

Innsbruck is a university city of about 131,000 people sitting at 574 m in the Inn valley, boxed in by the Nordkette (2,334 m at the Hafelekar) to the north and the Patscherkofel (2,246 m) to the south — mountains you can see from most streets and reach from downtown in under half an hour.

It hosted the Winter Olympics twice, in 1964 and 1976, plus the Winter Youth Olympics in 2012, and the airport is just 4 km from the centre (bus F, 15-20 minutes), with the station putting Munich at roughly 1 h 50, Zurich at 3 h 30 and Vienna at 4 h 20. Summer here means the old town plus a cable car ride up to Nordkette or Patscherkofel; winter runs on the Olympia SkiWorld pass and free ski buses.

Mid-April to end of May, and November, are between-seasons: several lifts and mountain huts close for maintenance, so it is worth checking dates before planning a mountain day.