Innsbruck, Munich and Salzburg

Hello,

In two weeks i would be in Innsbruck for a week and i would like also to go for a day to munich, a day to salzburg and a day to bolzano italy and i would like your advices.

I would also like to add that i would be returning to Innsbruck as it would be my base town.

1. What is the cheaper option to get to those places by train from Innsbruck? would it be better to buy a eurail pass? as i have noticed, the cheapest price for it is more than 300 euros for 3 countries and i only need 2 countries.

2. Would you recommend going to Bolzano at this time of year? i heard its a beautiful place but i wanted to make sure its worth the time it takes to get there (from Innsbruck) and spend a day there.

If not, would you recommend any other place in italy that i worth visiting that i can go to from innsbruck with a time travel of not more than 2-2.5 hours by train?

Thank you

Munich and Vienna each need more than just a day to visit. If you plan to travel on the morning and return on the same day, then you are wasting a lot of your time. Innsbruck-Munich non-stop train service takes nearly 3 hours, and Innsbruck-Vienne non-stop train service takes about 5 hours. Add on the return journey, you do the maths. You'll be on the train more than you'll be in those cities.

Innsbruck-Bolzano takes about 2 hours to travel on non-stop train service, and you could do a comfortable day trip for that, since it takes less time to travel to Bolzano plus it is a much smaller town compare to the cities of Munich and Vienna.

1. I don't think there is a need for a rail pass. If you buy one, you will need a rail pass for 3 countries - Austria, Germany and Italy, and it's hardly worth your while spending over €300 for that. You're better off buying tickets as required.

I just had a quick look at OBB (Austrian Rail) website and did a quick search. Innsbruck-Munich one way costs as low as €19 (2nd class, adult, normal rate, non-stop train). Innsbruck-Vienna is more expensive, with one way ticket at €58.30 (2nd class, adult, normal rate, non-stop fast train) although if you don't mind adding on another hour of travelling time and a couple of train changes, one way ticket can be as low as €29. I can't seem to get a price for Innsbruck-Bolzano on OBB but Trenitalia indicates the ticket to be as low as €15 one way (2nd class, adult, normal rate).

2. I have not been to Bolzano at this time of year but looking at your rough itinerary right now, it looks like a much better day trip than the others. You'll be hard push to find somewhere else in Italy to visit if you're constraining the travelling time to 2-2.5 hours of train travel, considering Bolzano is already taking 2 hours as it is.

(ps: I did the train searches very quickly based on a random day two weeks from now)

[ Edit: Edited on 02-Nov-2009, at 00:46 by lil_lil ]

You can easily figure out prices for train tickets, travelling times and schedules by going to the following websites:

http://fahrplan.oebb.at/bin/query.exe/en
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en
http://www.trenitalia.com/homepage_en.html
http://www.jizdenka.cz (this website only displays the price of the ticket, it is a useful tool for international journeys in Europe but it does nothing else)

bahn.de (the German website) is usually the best option for schedules Europe-wide.

You can buy tickets online from www.bahn.de and from www.oebb.at

I can definitely recommend a visit to Salzburg. The castle is absolutely worth a visit. Make sure you come while there is still daylight and if possible some sunshine, otherwise the climb up to the castle tower won't be sweetened by the view. One-way fare to Salzburg with a direct train that takes 2 hours is 38 EUR.

Quoting lil_lil

Munich and Vienna each need more than just a day to visit. If you plan to travel on the morning and return on the same day, then you are wasting a lot of your time. Innsbruck-Munich non-stop train service takes nearly 3 hours, and Innsbruck-Vienne non-stop train service takes about 5 hours. Add on the return journey, you do the maths. You'll be on the train more than you'll be in those cities.

Innsbruck-Bolzano takes about 2 hours to travel on non-stop train service, and you could do a comfortable day trip for that, since it takes less time to travel to Bolzano plus it is a much smaller town compare to the cities of Munich and Vienna.

1. I don't think there is a need for a rail pass. If you buy one, you will need a rail pass for 3 countries - Austria, Germany and Italy, and it's hardly worth your while spending over €300 for that. You're better off buying tickets as required.

I just had a quick look at OBB (Austrian Rail) website and did a quick search. Innsbruck-Munich one way costs as low as €19 (2nd class, adult, normal rate, non-stop train). Innsbruck-Vienna is more expensive, with one way ticket at €58.30 (2nd class, adult, normal rate, non-stop fast train) although if you don't mind adding on another hour of travelling time and a couple of train changes, one way ticket can be as low as €29. I can't seem to get a price for Innsbruck-Bolzano on OBB but Trenitalia indicates the ticket to be as low as €15 one way (2nd class, adult, normal rate).

2. I have not been to Bolzano at this time of year but looking at your rough itinerary right now, it looks like a much better day trip than the others. You'll be hard push to find somewhere else in Italy to visit if you're constraining the travelling time to 2-2.5 hours of train travel, considering Bolzano is already taking 2 hours as it is.

(ps: I did the train searches very quickly based on a random day two weeks from now)

Thank you for your answer, but you have a mistake. i did not say i wanna see vienna since im aware its not close to innsbruck. I was talking about salzburg and not vienna.

I apologise. I guess I must read things more carefully even at 8 in the morning, and for some reason I had it in my mind it was Vienna. For the case of Salzburg, ticket price indicated on OBB is €37.80 one way (2nd class, adult, non-stop train).

In any case, you can see quite clearly now that you can get point-to-point train tickets much cheaper than trying to use a rail pass. If you manage to get the prices as per the searches, you'll be spending approximately €150 or so, which is more than less than half the price of the rail pass.

If you require more information on rail travel and booking for tickets on various websites, I find Seat 61 an excellent site to use, even if most of the journeys commence in UK (as the author is UK-based). Look for the general European rail information from the toolbar to the left of the page.

Enjoy your trip!

Would you happen to also have any recommendations about what are the must see things in Innsbruck as i will have about 2 days to travel there?

Having not been to Innsbruck, I can't give specific recommendations but from what I recall when I looked into visiting a couple of years ago (I ended up in Vienna instead) there are plenty to keep you busy in Innsbruck for a couple of days. There are a few cathedrals, a castle, a couple of parks, and quite a fair few museums as well. Sorry I don't have much details right now though. Have a look at the tourist information page.