For the second time in less than four months, we headed to Austria. This time to Innsbruck en route to Mayrhofen for four days of snowboarding.
A lifetime ago (ie in my early to mid-twenties), I had traveled to Flachau with a couple of friends. We had the most fun dancing on tables, refusing shots of schnapps, and drinking unbelievably crisp pilsners. I had been trying to return to Austria to ski ever since.
Covid got in the way, costings got in the way, things got in the way. We took trips to other, more reasonably priced resorts in Italy with better beginner slopes for Sam. In fall 2023, Sam said he found the cheapest hotel in Austria, and it was in Mayrhofen. I was so excited that we booked just about immediately.
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Getting to Innsbruck
At the time of booking I was pretty certain I would not be employed full time when the trip rolled around. This was important for efficiency, as getting to Mayrhofen via Innsbruck did not offer any after work flights. This essentially meant burning a day of potential snowboarding to travel to the mountains. Unacceptable. Lo and behold, on February 29th, 2024, neither of us were employed full time. (I did have to cram a fair bit into that Monday to Wednesday for a client but zero complaints).
We treated ourselves to a hotel in Gatwick the night before. Bloc Hotel provided its customers with a glorified shoe box of a room, but frankly it had all we needed when we weren’t planning to unpack. It was also located literally inside the airport and gave its guests 20% off to all the middling restaurants and bars pre-terminal. We took advantage with a dinner at Giraffe and some beers at Wetherspoons to kick things off the night before.
In the morning, I very quickly dropped off my snowboard in the luggage hold while Sam ran ahead to get us entry to the lounge. Our flight was running early, and it took us all of about 10 minutes from landing to clear passport control, pick up my snowboard, and get on a short bus (less than €6 each) to downtown Innsbruck. Within one hour of landing, we had checked in early to our hotel, freshened up, and headed straight back out for lunch. We were staying at Hotel Central which was less than a ten minute walk from the station. It included an excellent and early breakfast in their cafe. This was important, given that we needed to leave early the next day to go to Mayrhofen. It was all as efficient as an Austrian train. (Which we would be catching in the morning).
Lunch
This theme of easy travel and efficient layouts carried on throughout the day. Lunch was less than a five minute walk from the hotel. Stiftskeller was an Augustiner-dominated haven of German fare. As Innsbruck is so close to the border of German Bavaria, we found a lot of our favourite lagers in Innsbruck. We sat outside in the sun and enjoyed our lunch of roast pork and sausage, whilst comfortably warm, with a view of the Alps in the background. With two beers and a main each our bill was less than €50.
Following lunch we had a stroll through a very clean, very beautiful small downtown. Sam had to buy snow pants following a split-cident in Italy the month before.
We stopped for draught Tegernsee (Sam’s favourite lager) at a small hotel bar in the main square of town, overlooking Innsbruck’s famous Golden Roof.
It had been a good two hours since lunch so it was definitely time for the famous apple strudel at Strudel Cafe Kroll.
Walking up a few flights of stairs burns off a whole portion of strudel, right? Right. We climbed the 133 steps to the top of the city tower, or Stadtturm, for some great views of the city.
Beers in Innsbruck
Just about within the main square, we stopped for a beer at Franzs. The town was pretty quiet given that we were at aperitivo hour. We heard that it was a student town and that it was reading week, so the students were all off skiing.
I am embarrassed to say that we stopped for gelato next at Tomaselli. Not that embarrassed though because even though it was 5pm, getting dark, and pretty cold outside, there was a line out the door. And we had to see what the commotion was. Excellent gelato!
After a nice little stroll around more of the downtown, we set our sights for the Stiegl bar. Sam and I know the importer of Stiegl in the UK and couldn’t go to its homeland of Austria and not try the wares. We sat at the bar and tried a medley of their lagers/pilsners.
When traveling in Europe in particular, Sam and I generally prefer to go traditional rather than modern when eating and drinking. It’s cheaper, more authentic, and gets to the root of the country’s essence much more than modern places do. Even still, we had a quick stop at Tribaun, a trendier basement bar which served a range of craft beers. They were good but neither as good as the traditional lagers and pilsners we had throughout the day.
Dinner
We had a dinner reservation at Fischerhausl where we got in the alpine spirit early, sharing a traditional schnitzel and rosti with Zillertal lagers between us.
One last stop before an early bed for our early train. We stopped at Der Sandwirt for one last beer. This was the first place that served Stiegl besides the Stiegl bar. Pretzels hanging from wooden stands were positioned on each table for guests to enjoy free of charge. It would have been our cheapest round of the day anyway, but it was also cash only, and both of us had left our cash in the hotel. Genius. The bartender was extremely generous and said not to worry about it. After our free drinks, I asked if I could even just transfer him money. Not only did he say no, but the guy standing at the bar insisted on ordering us two more beers. These sadly went unfinished as we really needed to get to bed. But what a fun place filled with true locals!
We were asleep by 11pm and up before 6am to load up on our early breakfast (not that we really needed it after our calorie intake the day before). The train from Innsbruck HBF to Mayrhofen was 1h20m with a single transfer and only €17 or so each to get there. Spending the afternoon in Innsbruck was a perfect start to the trip and the city definitely exceeded my expectations. I would even recommend it as a Friday evening to Sunday afternoon destination in itself. If only such flight timings existed!
