Innsbruck

Q: Can you really ski from the city centre?

Yes: the Hungerburgbahn leaves from beside the Congress building in the old town and, with two cable cars, puts you at the Hafelekar in about twenty-five minutes. Understand what you are getting, though — the Nordkette has only a few pistes, most of them steep, and on a windy day the top section closes. It is the world's best lunchtime ski, not a week's holiday.

TyrolSee it on the map

Region

Tyrol

Country

Austria

Local time

Europe/Vienna

Currency

EUR

Innsbruck is a city of 130,000 people with a ski area you can reach from the old town by funicular. The Nordkette rises directly behind the cathedral: the Hungerburgbahn, with its Zaha Hadid stations, leaves from the centre and connects to cable cars up to the Seegrube and the Hafelekar at 2,256 m, from where the view drops straight down onto the rooftops. The skiing there is small and steep — it is famous for the Karrinne, one of the steepest marked routes in the Alps, and for freeriding, not for cruising.

The city has hosted two Winter Olympics, in 1964 and 1976, and the Games' venues are its other ski areas. Axamer Lizum, twenty minutes south-west, is the largest and most rounded, a high bowl with wide pistes to 2,340 m. Patscherkofel above Igls is the mountain of Franz Klammer's 1976 downhill, a single long, tree-lined descent with a modern gondola. Add Muttereralm, Glungezer, Kühtai and the Stubai glacier and the regional pass covers a dozen areas within an hour of the city.

None of them is big on its own. What Innsbruck offers is something no purpose-built resort can: a real city with restaurants, museums, a university and an airport fifteen minutes from the centre, and a different mountain every day.

Last reviewed 13 September 2026

Best suited to

Advanced skiers
Off-piste and freeride
Intermediates

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Where lessons start

Do not learn on the Nordkette — it is steep, exposed and has almost no easy terrain. For a first lesson, Axamer Lizum has a beginner area at the base of the bowl and gentle pistes above it, and Patscherkofel and Muttereralm have small nursery slopes near their valley stations. Most instructors based in Innsbruck will meet you at the ski bus or drive to whichever area suits the day, which makes the city a surprisingly good base for an intermediate who wants a week of variety with a coach.

Resort areas

Nordkette
Axamer Lizum
Patscherkofel

Getting there

Innsbruck has its own airport, fifteen minutes from the centre by bus, with a lot of winter flights from the UK and northern Europe, and a main railway station with direct trains from Munich in under two hours and from Zurich in three and a half. Free ski buses run from the city to the surrounding areas for pass holders. The awkward part is that the buses run to a timetable and the Nordkette is the only area you can reach without one.

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Qualifications required in Austria

Teaching skiing or snowboarding for payment in Austria is a regulated profession: an instructor must hold the Skilehrer qualification. Instructors listed as certified on Alpine Pal have either sent theirs to us for review or are vouched for by the ski school that invited them.

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Innsbruck: common questions

Can you really ski from the city centre?

Yes: the Hungerburgbahn leaves from beside the Congress building in the old town and, with two cable cars, puts you at the Hafelekar in about twenty-five minutes. Understand what you are getting, though — the Nordkette has only a few pistes, most of them steep, and on a windy day the top section closes. It is the world's best lunchtime ski, not a week's holiday.