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Getting Here & Around

Innsbruck and Tirol Features

Getting Here & Around

Innsbruck Flughafen, the airport 3 km (2 mi) west of Innsbruck, is served principally by Austrian Airlines, as well as by many low-cost carriers during the high season. Buses (Line F) to the main train station in Innsbruck take about 20 minutes. Get your ticket (EUR 1.70) from the driver. Taxis should take no more than 10 minutes into town, and the fare is about EUR 10-EUR 12.

By Bus

The bus is the most convenient way to reach the six major ski areas outside the city. A Club Innsbruck pass (free from the tourist office or your hotel if you spend one night or more) gives you complimentary transportation to the ski areas; many hotels provide shuttle service to the special ski bus stop. These are not the regular city buses, but deluxe ski buses that leave from the Landestheater on Rennweg, across from the Hofburg.

Driving is the best way to see Tirol, since it allows you to wander off the main routes at your pleasure or to stop and admire the view. In Tirol, as throughout Austria, where the train doesn't go, the post-office or railway bus does, and except in the most remote areas buses are frequent enough that you can get around, but bus travel requires time and planning.

By Car

The autobahns are fastest, but for scenery you're best off on the byways. One important exception is the 1¾-km (1-mi) Europa Bridge on the Brenner autobahn running south into Italy, although if you follow the parallel route from Patsch to Pfons, you'll have the views without the traffic. Roads with particularly attractive scenery are marked on highway maps with a parallel green line. To drive on Austria's autobahn, a vignette, or sticker, is required, for sale at almost all service stations. A 10-day sticker costs EUR 7.70, a 60-day EUR 22.20.

By Train

Direct trains serve Innsbruck from Munich, Vienna, Rome, and Zürich. Some of the most fascinating and memorable side trips can be made by rail: two narrow-gauge lines steam out of Jenbach, for example, one up to the Achensee, the other down to Mayrhofen in the Zillertal. From Innsbruck, the narrow-gauge Stubaitalbahn runs south to Telfes and Fulpmes.

The main railway line of Tirol runs east-west, entering Tirol via the Griessen Pass, then heading on to St. Johann and Kitzbühel before wandering over to Wörgl and onward to Jenbach, Hall in Tirol, and Innsbruck. From Innsbruck on, the line follows the Inn Valley to Landeck, then to St. Anton, where it plunges into an 11-km (7-mi) tunnel under the Arlberg range, emerging at Langen in Vorarlberg. From Innsbruck, a line runs north into Germany to Garmish-Partenkirchen and onward back into Austria, to Ehrwald and Reutte in Tirol and beyond, into Germany again. A line from Innsbruck to the south goes over the dramatic Brenner Pass (4,465 feet) into Italy.