Swarovski tour
 

Has anyone done the Swarovski toru? Is it worth the time? I am a member of their collector's club and that is suppose to give one something special. Does anyone know about that?
Thanks for your replys.

I am not sure this is what you are looking for. Outside of Innnsbruch, right off the Autobahn is a fascinating Swarovski facility. I think it is called Kristall Wald. There is lots of parking and the directions to the place are easy to follow. The facility is set in a unique mound of earth. You enter to find many rooms displaying properties and uses of crystal. From the way it is laid out, I can best compare it to going through a fun house we found it fascinating and well worth the trip to visit it. Of course, at the end is the gift shop. The price of Swarovski is regulated in Austria, so you pay the same there as you would in any store in Austria, which is sometimes more than you would pay in the USA, though they do have a great selection and probably items not available here. I don't know anything about the collector's club.

Great information. I've been wondering about visiting there myself.

Thank you very much. That is exactly what I was looking for. We are going to be in the area in June and I wanted to know something about it.
Thanks again.
Carl

The Swarovski Kristallwelten (Crystal Worlds) is located in Wattens, east on the A12 about 15 miles from Innsbruck. Hours: daily 9am to 6pm. Members of the Swarovski Collectors Society get in free. All others pay an admission fee, refundable if one purchases the enticing crystal.

Swarovski homepage: http://www.swarovski.com/crystal
Swarovski Kristallwelten:
http://www.swarovsk-crystalsworld.com

Regards,

Jinx Hoover

My daughter and I took the tour of Swarovski Kristallwelten in September 2003. We really enjoyed it and the shopping too. It was very easy to find.. road signs everywhere. Found all the information on their web site mentioned above.. re: times, costs etc. The tour is more about the "art" of what people have done with the crystals than about formation, mining and such but still worth the stop. Have fun.

This is an off-the topic question, but since you are into Swarovski, I thought I might ask. I am trying to find earrings that match a necklace I bought last year. What is the easiest way to find slightly older items not in the stores without joining a club or anything? A Google search turns up everything but the right ones.

Dan, you might try ebay.

Dan... have you looked on www.swarovski.com under shopping..USA.. to see if they have what your looking for?

Gosh everyone has been so positive here so I hate to be the bearer of bad news. I visited the Swarovski place in Wattens in 8/2002 and was quite disappointed. Their big "plant"(which you don`t get to go into) is behind the "museum" and in the museum they lead you thru a few rooms with a few statues, walls or floors full of crystal pieces and then within 10-15 minutes you end up in the shopping. I was expecting to see the crystals being "worked on" (like when we visited the pearl factory on Mallorca) so this was a real disappointment for me. However the saving grace was the shopping. They have alot of nice things that are affordable and a HUGE selection - better than you will find in any of their retail shops. Don`t know how you are getting there but we caught a bus at the train station - some tour book had told us what bus number it was. It was quite a long bus ride and we asked the driver to let us know when we needed to get off as they drive along expecting everyone to already know their stop.

Thanks. I tracked down the earrings, but they are clip ons. Oh well.

My daughter and I were on an extended visit in Innsbruck and saw a brochure for this site. We are not crystal fans nor shoppers but the brochure made it look interesting - after the visit we were sorry we spent our time going there. Sort of cheesy new age type exhibits and not much to see really. I think there was a vegetation maze but it started to rain and we couldn't go do that. But it did have a large showroom of their products!

I collect various swarovski items as well and was pretty excited about visiting the museum and taking the tour and was bitterly disappointed. I found better prices and a great selection at some of the stores in Innsbruck and wished that I had saved my money and my time by not going out to Wattens. By all means go if you are into the "art" form of Swarovski. But it's a little weird and a little too artsy for my taste and expectations.