Alpenzoo Innsbruck - Tirol — Attraction in Innsbruck

We waited in the queue around 15 minutes because we went there on a nice sunny Sunday. Probably you won't wait that much during the week. I think you need to allocate between 3-4 hours, or maybe even 5 (if you want to read all the little details carefully) 🙂

What I like about the zoo is that there has been both German and English names of the animals but explainations were mostly in German.

There's also a restaurant but it's self-service. The good thing is you can pay with the credit card 💳 We ate cheeseburger 🍔 and Käsespätzle and both were nice. Moreover, the view of the restaurant is amazing. That's why, you should definitely eat outside!

It was such a shame that we couldn't see bears, some wild cats and a couple more of the most interesting animals 😪

And one of the things what I don't like is that you need to pay extra if you want to get a map of the zoo. It's just insane! It's the first zoo I've encountered for me to pay for it 🙈🙊 Normally, they just give it to you for free in the entrance along with your entry ticket.

In addition, I need to say that it's more like a family destination and it's very likely to hear crying kids so often around:) and the thing is it's kind of hard of parents to go there especially with babies because the path you follow is kind of steep and would be demanding with a stroll in my opinion. Other than that, it's a nice activity when you're bored in the city and want to do something different. However, you can do other nicer stuff if you're in Innsbruck only...

Such a great place to visit. We were expecting to be a little underwhelmed as we live near a safari park and have visited many large zoos. But it was brilliant, our children, who are 4 and 6 had a great day - we spent 5 hours here, and we had to run out as they were closing! It’s a steep walk around, but nothing too strenuous as you are stopping often. The farm area is great for the kids, and with a slide at the top of that section, it’s a great way to split up the visit with something other than watching animals. We visited in March, and some of the animals were still in hibernation, but after reading a few other reviews we were expecting half the zoo to be asleep! (They weren’t) The infographics next to each enclosure is great for non native speakers - the diagrams are easy to understand. The bears didn’t seem to have enough space, which was a little upsetting to see, but all the other animals seemed happy.

I’ll write a separate review for the restaurant, but in case this is on your mind - the food is great. Way better than any UK zoo I’ve visited. It’s clean, easy to navigate and the food options are perfect for families. Don’t expect high end cooking, but as a gluten free vegetarian, I was pleased to have a couple of options.

It’s a great day out for families (especially with younger children - pushing a pram would be hard work though) and we’ll worth the 1hr20 drive we made to get there. Probably best to visit on a dry day. I suspect it’s not as great...

Frankly, I don’t understand the hype. On the pro side, if you are a local and want to spend some time looking at some animals, you can go there once. On the cons side: the online tickets give you access to the fast line but it is not mentioned anywhere, you have to figure out yourself how to work them on the left machine but not the right (?!?!?); you pay 50 cents for a paper map (who does that, give me one other example really); the enclosures are too small for wild animals to have a decent way of extending their limbs, what the brochures mention as “close to the way they would live in the wild” is simply a lie and a sad one. As a consequence, some animals clearly show stress signs that are painful to see (the bear is mechanically going into circles). Not surprising, the zoo is very small, so when crowded, it gets really crowded on these tiny asphalt alleys. Needless to say, if you don’t speak German don’t look for English explanations cos there is none to be found except “toilets”. Toilets are not properly cleaned. Food is okay but overpriced. Staff must be somewhere, but like with some enclosures, too timid to appear in front on you. There are no marmots, no foxes. In summary, do not waste your time and money there, even with free/somewhat...