How Expensive Is Innsbruck? What We Spent & What to Expect

I wanted an incredible, experiential trip, but on a budget and between Christmas and New Year – here’s what you can expect to spend in 3 days in Innsbruck.

I’ll admit now that I got carried away when I found cheap flights to Innsbruck and had a few days off work to fill. I booked them, but soon realised that cheap accommodation wasn’t so easy to source, as you’ll see.

As for activities, we could’ve done it cheaper. But when you see a spa like this on Instagram, that allows kids, you just have to go for it.

So, here’s a break down of how much our ‘Twixmas’ weekend in Innsbruck cost us. It was as much of a surprise to me as it might be to you.

Cost of flights to Innsbruck

Gatwick to Innsbruck

£360

You can get really cheap flights to Innsbruck from the UK, if you go at weird times on a random Wednesday. I was travelling with my three-year-old son and partner, so wanted some decent times where we didn’t have to stay at an airport hotel the night before, and from the 28th December to the 31st.

I managed to get two return adult flights, and a child’s for £360 with one speedy boarding and a carry on case. Booking Ben separately means we get on with speedy boarding too, as if they haven’t already announced kids can go first, they don’t say no (in my experience). Little travel hack for you there.

I didn’t want to take a cabin case as I hate waiting around for it at both ends. We had enough space to pack for three days, and I invested in this new case that was exactly easyJet’s dimensions to make the most of it. Obviously we packed our underseat bags full, and wore our heavy coats and shoes.

Cost of accommodation in Innsbruck

The Alphotel

£500

Accommodation was so expensive in Innsbruck! I actually couldn’t believe most of the prices being quoted for our 28th to 31st December dates.

The only decent looking place for less than £200 per night for three was the Alphotel, which was a 15-minute bus ride from the centre of the city. It was £550 for the three of us, but I got £50 cashback from Booking.com who were running a special deal at the time of booking.

We had a nice room at the Alphotel with three single beds, a decent bathroom with a good shower and a small balcony that looked out to the Alps with some diggers and a shopping mall to Reggie’s delight.

Breakfast was ok, nothing to get excited about but perfectly edible. The best part about the Alphotel was that there was a spa on the top floor with 4 different saunas and a room with sunbeds looking out to the view. There was also a terrace to freeze on.

We were back in the hotel by 7 every night so it was a treat for one of us to go up there, while the other put Reggie to bed. The bar downstairs was decent too – had a lovely Hugo cocktail with all the German tourists while I wrote in my journal.

The bus stop was right outside the hotel. I’d recommend here if you need the cheapest, decent hotel (like us). If you can stay in the Old Town though, do that.

Hotel price = £500 for three people for three nights with breakfast

Cost of food in Innsbruck

Ben and I always go out with the plan to be sensible when it comes to the cost of what we’re ordering, but it never quite works. We see a menu and get overexcited.

There were a few options for streetfood around the Old Town – with people eating bratwurst and sauerkraut on the streets – but it was -6C so we wanted to be indoors and let Reggie have a rest and sit down. Restaurant meals were around €20 each.

Gasthaus Goldenes Dachl – so good. I had schnitzel, potato salad and cranberries here, with a wonderful glass of Austrian red. Also ordered a side of sauerkraut, so that came to around €35. It was a really lovely restaurant though, all felt very ‘wooden cabin’.

Restaurant Goldener Adler Innsbruck – this place is famous for being one of the oldest restaurants in Innsbruck, and an iconic place to eat. We didn’t actually realise that when we went in after being turned away from two others for being full. It’s a fabulous venue with little nooks and crannies for the tables. We had a great table in our own little area. I went for the reindeer lasagne special at €19.

In general, portion sizes in Innsbruck were decent – Reggie and I could share – and there was a kids menu in every restaurant we went in. I really enjoyed all my meals!

The most unreasonably expensive thing about eating out in Innsbruck was the cost of soft drinks – you’re looking at around €5 a pop. We carried a bottle of tap water with us all the time, obviously, but Reggie wanted something different for meal times. This also meant I felt compelled to go for a wine or beer every time, as it was only a euro more. Poor me, I know.

The other extortionate cost was mulled wine. I had two on the trip, and for each one I had to buy the mug too – so they were around €9 each, although advertised at €4.

Just to note, if you’re visiting in winter like we did, you’ll need cash for the street food chalets.

We spent about £350 on food and drink for the three dinners, and three lunches.

Cost of activities in Innsbruck

price OF 24-hour Innsbruck pass

£120

Innsbruck Tourism kindly gave us a 24-hour Innsbruck pass each in return for a write up on the blog. A 24-hour one would cost £60 each for adults (three year olds are free).

We went the Top of Innsbruck cable car ride, which was brilliant. We went up one funicular, and two cable cars to get 2,300 metres high above Innsbruck on top of the Hafelekar Peak in the Nordkette range. This would be €52 / £45, but it’s free on the pass.

We also went to Swarovski World on the pass, which included a shuttle bus there. This would’ve been €25/£21. Another fabulous experience, with many crystal filled rooms to explore. They also had a soft play, a playground and a carousel.

There are 20 other museums and attractions to try on the pass, but we were pretty worn out after those two. In fact Ben and Reggie fell asleep on the bus on the way back so we just went back to the hotel.

Even just doing those two activities on the pass still saved us £7 each though, and we got 24 hours of transport too.

price OF audioversum museum

£15

On the final day, we visited Audioversum in the morning. This is a great museum, all about sound and how it travels and is received by our ears.

We had a fab two hours in here. Reggie was free, and I showed our expired Innsbruck cards and he gave us a discount on the price too. I’d definitely recommend it in here, especially if it’s a rainy day.

There’s a great cafe up the road called Cielo – nice Hugos and lemon cake.

price OF AQUA DOME

£251

Ooo this drove up the cost of Innsbruck for us quite a bit, but, no regrets. It was incredible, and the perfect way for us all to do something relaxing we all enjoy.

We paid £100 for the three of us for three hours, + £26 for two dressing gowns and towels. Then we spent £70 on lunch and drinks while we were there. It also cost £55 on the trains and buses to get there as it was 90 minutes each way. A lovely 90 minutes though, as we saw more of the Austrian countryside and the train and bus lined up nicely both ways.

My top tips to make this cheaper would be to take your dressing gown and towels from the hotel (I didn’t want to carry wet ones home) and to take your own drinks for lunch.

Also, I spent so long deliberating about whether to go or not I missed the €119 all day passes for two adults and a child, and ended up paying €114 for three hours – which we got charged an extra €5 for the extra half hour we were there. No dramas, doesn’t matter, but you could stay all day for the price we paid if you were more decisive!

Other costs in Innsbruck

Luggage storage at City Locker

£8.50 

This was a very convenient locker storage by the Central Hauptbahnhof. Took about two minutes to get there from the F bus and meant we didn’t have to lug our stuff around on the last day. The price is for 24 hours, but we only used it for three.

Transport in the city

£18

The cost of getting around Innsbruck was very reasonable. If you download the IVB Tickets app, you can buy a 24-hour pass for two adults and a child for €10.30. I did two of these over the three days, and it covered the cost of getting to and from the airport on the F Line bus too. We did about four journeys a day on this, so it was very well priced.

How expensive is Innsbruck for three nights then?

God, here goes, let’s add it up. I told Ben it wouldn’t be too expensive…

• £500 accommodation
• £360 on flights  
• £350 on food (three restaurant dinners, one airport lunch, two restaurant lunches)
• £251 on the spa
• Free 24 hour pass (gifted, but would’ve been £120)
• £18 travel ticket
• £8.50 luggage storage
• £16 Audioversum

Total: £1,503.50

Bit more than I thought, but we didn’t really do Christmas presents, and we would’ve had four days in Portsmouth to fill. I’d much rather be up a mountain, or lazing in a sky pool with my family – so, absolutely worth it!

Money-saving tips for Innsbruck

The transport links are great in Innsbruck, with trams, buses, trains and cable cars supporting your travels in the city. This means you can save quite a bit by staying out of the centre – our hotel was about a third of the price of the ones in the centre for our dates. All we had to do was ride the bus for 15 minutes, which was an adventure in itself.

The city was very walkable, so that can save money on attractions. It’s a very beautiful place to be. Obviously there are many supermarkets dotted about – although I bought some blueberries and two bananas and it was £7!

Using bakeries for breakfast and eating bratwurst for dinner could save you a bit too. And if you do get the Innsbruck card, you could use it a lot more than we did. Our three year old was worn out though.

I loved being there between Christmas and New Year, but it’s probably one of the more spendy times to travel. You could visit in shoulder season to save a bit more.

Whenever you go, I’d definitely recommend visiting Innsbruck at some point in your life!