The Innsbruck Card, reviewed
4.7 from more than 550 ratings, and the striking thing about those written notes is that not one of them is really about the card. They are sums. Every reviewer who wrote something wrote a calculation, and that is the only honest way to review a product like this one: it is worth exactly what you put through it, and nothing at all if you spend the day walking around the old town for free.
Going out to Amras?The castle's own admission is on the platform at the same figure its own shop asks and two euros under the door, it cancels free up to 24 hours before, and under-19s go in free either way.
Check ticket availabilityWhat the listing itself says
Included, as the listing writes it
- Admission to Schloss Ambras Innsbruck, once
- IVB buses and trams across the city
- The Sightseer hop-on hop-off bus, which passes the castle
- The shuttle to Swarovski Crystal Worlds
- One ascent and one descent on the Nordkette and the Patscherkofelbahn
- One visit to each of the listed museums: Goldenes Dachl, Stadtturm, Alpenzoo, Ferdinandeum, Zeughaus, Grassmayr bell foundry, Bergisel and others
Not included, as the listing writes it
- A second visit to the same attraction
- Food and drink
The line that matters to anybody reading this site is the first one. The card carries an admission to Schloss Ambras, once, and the Sightseer bus that passes the castle gate. A visitor who buys the card and then buys the castle ticket separately has paid for Ambras twice, and nobody at either counter is going to point that out. The castle ticket, reviewed, if the castle is the only museum in your day.
What reviewers found
Five written notes, five calculations.
- Leslie, United States — reckons the cable car ride on its own pays for the card.
- Sita, Germany — had recouped the full price on the first day.
- Fabrizio, Italy — counts the cable car and the zoo together and comes out ahead.
- William, Singapore — rates the public transport the biggest part of it.
- Tom, Armenia — calls it good value and says they worked it hard.
Leslie, United States, reckons the cable car ride on its own pays for the card, which is the single most useful line on the listing, because the cable car is the biggest number in the Innsbruck price list. Sita, Germany, had recouped the full price on the first day, and Fabrizio, Italy, counts the cable car and the zoo together and comes out ahead comes to the same conclusion by a different route. Then William, Singapore, rates the public transport the biggest part of it, which is the part the arithmetic misses: trams and buses all day take the friction out of a city where the things worth seeing are spread along a valley. Tom, Armenia, calls it good value and says they worked it hard.
Where the sum stops working
A card is not a discount, it is a threshold. Cross it and you are ahead; stay under it and you have made a donation. The threshold here is high, and the way to cross it is a mountain: one ride up and down on the Nordkette, or the run out to Wattens, plus Ambras, plus a museum in town, and you are past it comfortably. A day with Ambras in it and nothing else does not come close, and a card bought on a rainy day when you end up in two cafes instead of two museums does not either. Do the sum for your own day before you buy: the card against the single ticket works it through with the real figures, and a day in Innsbruck with Ambras in it is the shape most people are trying to price.
Start the clock late in the day, not early. The card runs for 24, 48 or 72 hours from first use rather than to midnight, so a first swipe at four in the afternoon buys you the whole of the following day as well. It is the cheapest trick there is with this card and it is entirely within the rules.
Verdict
Buy it if your day has a mountain or a museum excursion in it as well as the castle: that is the shape every reviewer who wrote a note was describing, and on that shape of day the card wins clearly. Skip it if the castle is the only thing on your list, in which case the castle’s own ticket is the whole answer and costs a fraction of this. The card is also the reason the cable car review is worth reading first: the cable car is the number that makes this sum work.
Who it suits
- Anybody with two full days and a list longer than one castle
- Anybody planning to go up the Nordkette or out to Wattens
- Visitors without a car, who will use the buses and trams all day
- Anybody who would rather not buy a ticket at every door
Who it does not suit
- Anybody whose only museum is Schloss Ambras
- Anybody planning a slow day on foot in the old town
- Anybody who wants to go up the same mountain twice: it is one ascent
- Anybody who has already bought the castle ticket separately
The listings the card is competing with
The three that make the sum work, or fail to. All six, compared in one table.
The castle itselfCastle admissionInnsbruck: Tickets for Schloss Ambras
2,256 mTop of Innsbruck: Roundtrip Cable Car Ticket
Shuttle includedInnsbruck: Swarovski Crystal Worlds Ticket and Transfer
Frequently asked questions
Does the Innsbruck Card include Schloss Ambras?
It carries one admission to the castle, along with the buses and trams, the Sightseer bus that passes the gate, and one visit to each of the other listed houses. Buy the card and the castle ticket both and you have paid for Ambras twice. The castle ticket on its own.
Is the Innsbruck Card worth it?
On a day with a mountain or an excursion in it, the reviewers say yes and their sums are convincing: one of them reckons the cable car ride alone pays for it. On a day whose only museum is the castle, no. The arithmetic, worked through.
How long does the card last?
24, 48 or 72 hours from the moment you first use it, not to midnight. Starting it in the late afternoon therefore buys most of two calendar days out of a 24-hour card. How a day in Innsbruck with Ambras in it fits together.
Can I go up the Nordkette twice on the card?
No. The card carries one ascent and one descent on the Nordkette and the same on the Patscherkofelbahn, and one visit to each listed attraction. If the mountain is the reason you came, read the cable car review before you decide which way to buy it.