Ultsch Consult Insights — Tourism / Destination Spotlight

A Winter Day That Starts in the Old Town and Ends in the Alps

How Innsbruck, the capital of Tyrol in Austria, fits Christmas markets, Olympic history and a snow-covered mountain into one itinerary

In Austria’s Olympic city, the cable car to the Alps starts a few minutes’ walk from the Old Town and reaches the snow in under half an hour. Along the way, a Pritzker Prize architect, a Himalaya pioneer and a Nobel laureate all left their mark. For agents selling Europe in winter, that gives guests a story to tell and a day to plan around, whether they ski or simply come for the view and a meal.

You finish breakfast in the Old Town. A few minutes on foot and you are in a station whose glass roof was shaped to echo ice. The funicular climbs out of the city, crosses the river on a bridge and reaches the first mountain station eight minutes after leaving the centre. Then you change to a cable car. The forest thins and turns to rock.

When the doors open at the top, the air is thin and cold. In January, Innsbruck’s average daytime high is about −2 °C, and nights drop to around −10 °C. Up here it is colder still. The station is more than 2,200 metres above sea level, roughly 1,700 metres above the Old Town you left. The whole ride takes less than half an hour.

Skiers and non-skiers, one cabin

In winter, the halfway station is where the ski area begins. There is skiing, freeriding and a snow park, and experts test themselves on a run the operator counts among the steepest in Europe. The Nordkette is one of nine ski areas around the city that share a single pass.

The same ride works just as well for guests who never put on skis. You ride up in an enclosed cabin and walk a few steps to a table. The restaurant at the halfway station is in the station building, is open all year and serves Tyrolean dishes with a view over the city. The summit station has a restaurant of its own, serving strudels and other Tyrolean dishes, with the city on one side and Austria’s largest nature park on the other. The operator’s group packages include a panorama breakfast on the mountain. Guests who want the snow can step outside for a few minutes. Guests who don’t can stay at the window.

Where you are

This is Innsbruck, the capital of Tyrol, in Austria’s western Alps. About 132,000 people live here. The mountains are the first thing you see on arrival, whether you come by train, car or plane.

It is easy to reach. The fastest train from Munich takes 1 hour 44 minutes, and there are direct trains from Vienna and Zurich. The airport is linked to the centre by a bus of about 20 minutes. In the Old Town stands the Golden Roof, a balcony covered with 2,657 gilded copper tiles, built for Emperor Maximilian I.

The station: Zaha Hadid

The funicular stations were designed by Zaha Hadid, who in 2004 became the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize, architecture’s highest honour. Her studio studied glacier movement and frozen mountain streams to shape the roofs. When they opened in 2007, the stations were reported to be the largest structures ever built with double-curved glass.

Halfway up: a zoo for the Alps

One of the funicular’s stops is a zoo, and it keeps only animals of the Alps. There are about 2,000 animals of some 150 species: lynx, wolves, brown bears, ibex and golden eagles among them. The zoo describes itself as the world’s largest collection of Alpine animals. It sits on a hillside at 750 metres with the city below, and it has helped bring endangered species such as the bearded vulture and the ibex back into the wild. The funicular leaves you at the entrance.

The square: Hermann Buhl

At the first mountain station, guests cross a square named after Hermann Buhl. He was born in Innsbruck. In 1953 he became the first person to climb Nanga Parbat in the Himalayas, and he climbed the last stretch alone, without extra oxygen. His career began on the mountains above this city, and the range right above the Old Town was always his home ground.

The hut: Victor Franz Hess

A few minutes’ walk from the summit station stands a small hut. In 1931, the physicist Victor Franz Hess needed a high place that scientists could reach all year. He had discovered cosmic rays on balloon flights in 1912. He found his place in a former construction hut of the cable car company, and wrote that it could be reached from the city in 40 minutes.

It became the world’s first high-mountain laboratory for cosmic ray research. In 1936 Hess received the Nobel Prize, and the world’s foremost scientists came to see the hut. Today you can visit it.

The mountain has been a film set, too. Innsbruck’s tourism board lists it among the mountains in Sissi, the 1955 film that made Romy Schneider a star at 17.

Down in the valley: three Olympic Games

In January 1964, days before the Winter Olympics, the snow did not come. The Austrian army carved 20,000 blocks of ice from the mountainside for the luge and bobsleigh tracks and hauled 40,000 cubic metres of snow to the ski slopes. The Games opened on time.

In 1976 the city took the Games again, stepping in at short notice for Denver. Franz Klammer won the men’s downhill.

Then, in 2012, Innsbruck hosted the first Winter Youth Olympic Games. The first Summer edition had taken place in Singapore two years earlier, and the IOC president called Innsbruck a continuation of that work. At the opening ceremony, the fire bowls were lit by Egon Zimmermann for 1964, Franz Klammer for 1976 and a young athlete for 2012. Innsbruck was the first city to host Olympic Games on three occasions.

December: markets, brass and Kiachl

The Old Town Christmas market is the oldest and most traditional. It fills the square in front of the Golden Roof, and more than 60 wooden stalls stand between medieval house fronts under a tree strung with lights. The air smells of roasted almonds and mulled wine. Stalls sell carved nativity figures, felt hats and folk-art ornaments. Kiachl, a Tyrolean fried dough, comes dusted with sugar or, for the adventurous, with sauerkraut. Every evening at half past five, brass players sound from the balcony of the Golden Roof, and a lane of fairy-tale figures keeps the children busy.

Two other markets are within a few minutes’ walk. The one on the main shopping street looks up to the mountains. The family market by the river has a carousel, a puppet theatre and a Swarovski crystal tree.

Then, at dusk, take the funicular to the highest market. It is small, about ten stalls, and it is there for the view. In winter the sun sets around half past four, and the city below switches on its lights. On weekends until shortly before Christmas, wind players play and children hear fairy tales.

From January: sun, deckchairs and a snow igloo

The mountain changes after New Year. From January to April, a sun terrace with deckchairs and a bar opens next to the halfway station at 1,905 metres. Each January, a snow artist builds an 8-metre igloo there from natural snow.

New Year’s Eve has its own scene. At midnight, fireworks are fired from the mountain. In the Old Town, a street party watches them from below, so groups without tickets to the top don’t miss out.

How to sell it

The calendar. Christmas and New Year fit one stay. Tet and Chinese New Year fall on 6 February 2027. Vietnam has five statutory holiday days from 5 to 9 February, and Singapore has a public holiday from 6 to 8 February. In the Alps, that is deep winter.

FIT guests want a story with their view. Give them Hadid, Buhl, Hess and the Olympic fire bowls, and a lunch at 1,700 metres above the Old Town.

Families need a day with a clear shape. The zoo stop, lunch at the halfway station and the view make one half-day without a transfer.

Mixed groups ride the same cabin and split at the halfway station: some head for the slopes, the others for the terrace and lunch, and everyone meets again for the ride down.

Incentive groups start and end in the city centre, so the programme fits between conference sessions.

Sources

• Nordkette: Architecture and Zaha Hadid · Hermann Buhl · Victor Franz Hess station · Terrace and igloo · Hungerburg Christmas market · Christmas fondue · Restaurant at the halfway station · Summit restaurant · Group packages
• Science and architecture: University of Innsbruck, Hess Observatory · Zaha Hadid Architects, Nordpark stations · ArchDaily
• Olympics: City of Innsbruck, 1964 · Olympics.com, 1964 · Olympics.com, 1976 legacy · Olympics.com, 2012 · City of Innsbruck, 2012 opening · IOC, Innsbruck 2012 closing
• City, markets and events: Innsbruck (Wikipedia) · Austria.info, Innsbruck · Train connections · Innsbruck Tourismus, Christmas markets · Old Town market · Innsbruck Tourismus, Bergsilvester · Innsbruck Tourismus, films (Sissi) · Innsbruck Tourismus, ski areas · Alpenzoo Innsbruck
• Climate and holidays: Weather Atlas, January · Tet 2027, Vietnam · Chinese New Year 2027, Singapore