Things to do in Innsbruck & Tyrol

Innsbruck's old town centres on the Golden Roof, a late-Gothic oriel covered with 2,657 gilded copper shingles and built for Emperor Maximilian I, whose tomb in the Court Church (Hofkirche) is surrounded by 28 larger-than-life bronze statues known as the 'Schwarze Mander'. From the city centre, the Hungerburgbahn, Seegrubenbahn and Hafelekarbahn climb the Nordkette to the Top of Innsbruck, with the city on one side and the Karwendel Nature Park on the other, and two lifts rise up Zaha Hadid's tower at the Bergisel Ski Jump, an Olympic venue in 1964, 1976 and 2012. Visit Ambras Castle, billed as the first museum in the world still in the place where it was founded, browse regional food stalls at the Markthalle Innsbruck on the bank of the Inn, and head to Wattens, about 20 km away, where the Giant guards the Chambers of Wonder of Swarovski Kristallwelten (Crystal Worlds). Higher in the Alps, the Stubai Glacier reaches the TOP OF TYROL viewing platform at about 3,210 m, a gondola in Sölden climbs to the James Bond installation 007 Elements at over 3,000 m, and in Advent the Innsbruck Old Town Christmas Market, the city's oldest and largest, sets its stalls in front of the Golden Roof.

Good to knowAll Nordkette lifts close for a few weeks of maintenance in November, Ambras Castle is closed in November, with its Habsburg Portrait Gallery open only from spring to autumn and tickets cheaper online, and 007 Elements operates seasonally. The Bergisel Ski Jump is closed on Tuesdays from November to May, and the museum in the Golden Roof closes on Mondays in the winter half of the year. The farmers' market at the Markthalle runs every morning from Monday to Saturday, and the Stubai Glacier, about a 45-minute drive from Innsbruck, starts its ski season in autumn.