Innsbruck Guide
A picture-perfect Austrian city with Alpine appeal, Innsbruck blends lavish baroque palaces and designer boutiques with old-world taverns and glass-fronted bars. Glittering with crystals and shining slopes, it's steeped in tradition but by no means traditional - as Bögen's all-night parties confirm.
Innsbruck's Golden Roof shimmers with 2,738 copper tiles and the domed church of the Hofkirche shelters Emperor Maximilian's gilded tomb. Take a peek inside the Tyrolean Folk Art Museum, go Rococo in the Hofburg palace's ever-so-grand apartments or gawp at Velázquez paintings in 16th-century Ambras Castle.
Fashionistas kit themselves out with catwalk copies and one-offs in the boutiques and high-street stores lining Maria-Theresien-Strasse and Herzog-Friedrich-Strasse. Seek out fresh produce at the Markthalle, designer labels at the glass-roofed Rathaus Galerien and sparkly Austrian crystals at Swarovski Kristallwelten.
With the Alps just a snowball's throw away, you can cram plenty of nature into an Innsbruck city break. Admire Alpine blooms at Patscherkofel, Europe's highest botanical garden, or marmots in their near-to-natural habitat at the Alpine Zoo. Hike stone pine forests on the Zirbenweg Trail for far-reaching views over the Inn Valley. Skiers and boarders head straight for one of nine ski resorts surrounding the city in winter.
Catch top quality opera, concerts and balls at the Congress Centre. Edgier is the octagonal Treibhaus, staging everything from jam sessions to salsa nights and cabaret (many events are free). Enjoy opera and musicals at the 17th-century Landestheater and small-scale, quirky productions at Bierstindl.
Pull up a chair in a wood-panelled tavern in the labyrinthine Old Town to tuck into Tyrolean dishes, or dine al fresco on the Hofgarten's terraces. Spicing up the Viaduktbogen are restaurants mixing world flavours with a party vibe. Mountain retreat Igls offers a village feel and after-dinner sledging.
Extreme sports are making waves in Innsbruck. Get a bird's-eye view of Alpine peaks paragliding from Ellbögen. Or, dare to dangle upside down from the 192m-high Europabrücke bridge, one of the world's scariest bungee jumps.
