Tirolland / Haus Steht Kopf + Dinoland — Attraction in Terfens

For grown ups overall lowbrow, a bit trashy even, but lots of fun for the little ones. Our 4 and 6 year olds found the animated dinos quite scary, despite their enthusiasm for dinosaurs. Guess they never realized how big they are, until seeing live-size ones. I found the Velociraptor impressive, made me imagine how terrifying it would have been, facing one in real life, back in the Cretaceous period. The German phrasing on the signs was questionable, better have a native german speaker proofread them to improve the expressions. Pretty surprising in the middle of Austria (Hungarian owners though).

Wax sculptures seemed anachronistic and gimmicky, could have lived without this part. Kids don't know those celebrities anyway. Seeing Trump made me wonder how his face was still intact. Probably because of the alarms that go off when you attempt to touch the figures.

Legoland was pretty cool. Especially because of the interactivity, allowing trains to run and ferry wheels to spin by pressing buttons. Some buttons didn't work though, or just turned on little, unimpressive lights. The section on WW1 and WW2 features impressive tank and plane models (Made by a polish company, not original Lego), Luckily our kids are yet too little to understand the implications of this time, so we didn't have to explain what this section was about.

Receiving lollipops and small bricks for the kids from the cashier at the exit was a sweet gesture!

Wouldn't necessarily visit again, we just went because it was a rainy day and we couldn't be in the mountains. Otherwise, the rich nature of Tirol is a lot more valuable. Would be a waste on a sunny or dry day.

Nearby this amusement park is an (unrelated) educational path featuring our solar system. You walk on a flat gravel path in the forest, visiting the planets one after the other, with proportional distances between them. The planets are metal globes with their appropriate size. I highly recommend to take the detour before going to Tirolland. The inner planets Mercury , Venus, Earth and Mars can be reached within a short 5 Minute walk, visiting Jupiter and Saturn takes about 20 Minutes each, but it's quite a long walk to Uranus and Neptun. They are extremely far out in the solar system, so by my estimation it was 1,5km to Uranus and another 1,5km to Neptune - makes you realise how far the Voyager probes have travelled, and beyond. In total we walked nearly a full hour, without...

One ticket buys four different attractions. Entry is 17 euro for adults, free for kids up to 5. Check website for pricing. Our experience varied among them. The upside down house was our starting point. Excellent experience and it really gets one dizzy. Then there is the main building with from top to bottom: dinosaurs, wax figures, and building blocks. The dinosaurs were well done but in our view could have been a bit more interactive for kids. One dinosaur figure offered the option for a kid to sit on it while it moved. Only, one euro coin was needed for this to work. Difficult if one does not have coins at hand. That should have been included in the entry price. The wax figures were in our view average. Very often one had to consult the name plates to see who it was, or else the context helped a bit. But Madam Tussaud it is not. The building blocks were very impressive: an abundant collection of Lego as well as Cobi (primarily military equipment - amazing to see these all together). Only regret: very limited interactivity for kids. All in all we would give Tirolland 3 and a half stars but that is not possible. The missing stars mainly come down to lack of interactivity for kids, and the very ‘90ies like set up. Also, staff attitude at the upside down house was excellent, but not at the main building. An experience to do on a bad weather day but probably not something we would do again (unless if one could only visit the building blocks section but, alas, that is...

The experience is pretty solid. The house itself is upside down, the floor is not the regular floor you know and everything inside the house is upside down. After a room or two you get the feeling of it, get ideas and even catch a few cool pictures, but that's about it. Rooms tend to repeat themselves, even if contents change. Everything is static, almost nothing requires interaction. The second floor is a bit more interesting (after all it is the ground floor).

Everything looks pretty much maintained, yet the many visitors (beware of large school-like groups which make picture taking even harder) start to show their marks a bit. The visitors toilet outside needs the most maintenance and is a bit disgraceful considering Austrian standards and considering the pretty high enterance fee. The latter, comparing to the value you get, makes this place...