My new favourite city. Nestled in the Alps, Innsbruck is the most picture perfect city I have ever visited. We decided to go just a week before we flew and got a really good deal on flights and hotel, booking our flights with Easyjet and the wonderful Adlers Hotel via booking.com. For the Easter weekend we paid just £220 each for flights and hotel making it unmissable! Here are 13 photos showing you why you Innsbruck needs to be on your travel hit list…
I’ve mentioned it already but Adlers Hotel is up there with the best hotels I’ve ever stayed in. It’s the tallest hotel in Innsbruck and at just 12 floors high, it’s certainly not a skyscraper. Opened in 2013, expect dark and moody rooms with mountain views to die for, big bathrooms, a lush spa, and awesome rooftop bar and restaurant (more on the bar and restaurant later…).
I’m massively scared of heights and basically anti-anything-that-makes-your-pulse-race! However, my boyfriend was adamant that we were going to try paragliding in Innsbruck so he signed us up with Mountain Fly. They collected us from our hotel and drove us into the mountains so we could take to the skies. Eek! We took the cable car up the mountain (which turned out to be the scariest part) and from getting off the cable car at the top to walking down a small part of the mountain to meet my guide with the parachute (equally scary), I was in the air within 4 minutes. I didn’t have time to be scared and my guide was having none of it anyway. It turned out to be one of the best things I’ve ever done and the views were something else! We were flying for around 15-20 minutes before landing at the bottom. Amazing!
This is basically code for the way to the boyfriend’s heart! Researching online, Ludwig seemed to offer both so I booked us in for the Friday night. Good job I had as it was rammed – definitely a popular place with locals! The burgers were very good and the home made fries tasted delicious! If you like your burgers, this place is up there. The boyf also got his pick of craft beers to accompany the meat.
Cycling seemed to be the thing to do in Innsbruck so we followed the crowds and hired bikes for the day. From cycling along the river, which was the bluest, clearest river I’d ever seen, to arriving at the entrance to the Castle and locking the bikes so we could hike uphill through lush woodland with super tall trees overhead.
I’d read up about the best places for brunch in Innsbruck and The Breakfast Club was up there. I thought it might be like The Breakfast Club in London and not that distinct but I was wrong. This place was the place to go for Sunday brunch it seemed with a never-ending flow of customers in and out the door. The menu was vast and super cheap. As the sign says, go here and ‘brunch up your life’!
Innsbruck is peppered with awesome architecture by world renowned designer, Zaha Hadid, including the Bergisel ski jump, which is probably the most famous of the lot. Classically cool, her designs are instantly recognisable and we took the lift up to the top on a drizzly day for awesome views over Innsbruck plus a look down at the scarily high ski jump that’s been used in past winter Olympics.
If you’ve read my post on Milan then you’ll know that an Aperol Spritz is my new favourite cocktail. On two of our days in Innsbruck, we were blessed with amazing sunshine and the rooftop bar at Adlers Hotel, where we were staying, was the perfect spot for watching the world go by.
The Spanish Room at Schloss Ambras (Ambras Castle) was a sight to behold! Beautifully ornate, this was an instant Instagram moment the second I stepped into the room. Definitely worth seeing.
As I said already, cycling is the best way to see Innsbruck. We hired these cool green road bikes and cycled around 20 miles taking in the riverside and castle before heading back for a delicious lunch at an Austrian restaurant next to the river for Tyrolean pizza. We’d definitely earned it – yum!
This is more my boyfriend’s choice than mine but I can still appreciate a cool bar when I see one. Tribaun is a craft beer lover’s heaven with a multitude of beers on tap to choose from. It’s a spacious area underground and was packed with locals hanging out on a Friday night after work. It had a great laidback vibe and the pizza menu looked pretty good too!
Although it’s technically not where The Sound of Music was filmed (right country, wrong city), the mountains and hillsides surrounding Innsbruck did make me feel like belting out the musical classic. This place was just so peaceful and it made me feel all warm inside!
Cute pastel coloured buildings, winding streets and a rocking horse, what’s not to love about Innsbruck’s old town? It’s easy to spend a good few hours wandering round the little cobbelstone streets stopping off for gelato or spritz along the way.
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