We are delighted to announce that travellers across the globe can now protect their luggage absolutely FREE of charge with one of our original Classic SuperSmartTags.

Simply go online and add a set of 6x classic tags to the shopping cart and only pay a flat $15.00 postage to anywhere in the World.

Protecting your luggage has never been easier and best of all it’s 100% FREE!

The post Classic SuperSmartTags Now FREE! appeared first on SuperSmartTag.

Etihad Airways Senior Vice President of Marketing, Shane O’Hare, said: “Today marks another major milestone for Etihad Airways in Australia.

“With Melbourne joining our A380 network, Australia is the only country in our global network with daily A380 services to two cities – Melbourne and Sydney.

“Deploying our latest technology aircraft and class-leading product and service to Australia recognises its importance to our business and the strong demand from Australian travellers for premium travel experiences.

“From the product and service innovations in every cabin to our inspired approach to hospitality, the Etihad Airways A380 offers touches of luxury to every guest and sets the benchmark for inflight comfort, entertainment, connectivity and service.

The A380 will increase the total number of two-way seats on the Melbourne-Abu Dhabi route by 26 per cent to more than 11,500 seats per week.

Mr O’Hare said this would ease the capacity constraints on the Melbourne-Abu Dhabi, particularly for business and premium leisure travel.

“The A380, with 70 seats in business class, enables us to better meet the demand we have for our premium cabins and will boost our market share of this important segment.”

“Our partnership with Etihad continues to go from strength to strength since the airline’s arrival to Melbourne Airport in 2009. Last year we were thrilled by the introduction of a second daily service between Melbourne and Abu Dhabi and a new Premium Lounge opened at Melbourne Airport last month. Now, capacity has been increased again with the upgauge to an A380, replacing one of the airline’s daily 777 services.”

The post Etihad Upgrades Melbourne Route appeared first on SuperSmartTag.

The carrier claims the sleep suit is an “elegant” souvenir that can be worn at home.

Passengers are also given a comfort kit, containing slippers, socks, a shoehorn and a shoe bag.

On board the Boeing 777, the new La Première cabin offers passengers a real designer suite, promising total privacy. Air France has dressed each suite with thick curtains, held back with leather tiebacks. A unique and daring concept, they enable the passenger to decide whether to be totally isolated or just partially. In an instant, the La Première seat turns into a fully-flat bed over two metres long.

During the flight, each guest has their own personal 24-inch HD touch screen, one of the largest ever offered on board. When the passenger is ready to go to sleep, the crew members install a mattress on the seat, for impeccable comfort. They are then given a fluffy pillow and a Sofitel My Bed duvet.

With the curtains closed, the partition raised and the lighting subdued, the suite provides optimum comfort for a perfects night’s sleep.

The post Air France sleep suit for 1st class appeared first on SuperSmartTag.

Tubes of 3 m (9.8 ft) diameter connect the spheres along the 12 edges of the cube and all eight vertices to the centre. They enclose stairs, escalators and a lift (in the central, vertical tube) to allow access to the five habitable spheres which contain exhibit halls and other public spaces. The top sphere includes a restaurant which has a panoramic view of Brussels. CNN named it Europe’s most bizarre building.

2. Grand Place – Grote Markt
The main attraction and is a World Heritage site According to Unesco is the famed Grand Place/Grote Markt area in the Center of Brussels of which is the main public square of which where the opulent guildhalls and two larger edifices, the city’s Town Hall, and the Breadhouse (French: Maison du Roi, building containing the Museum of the City of Brussels is located.

The Grand Place was started in the 12th century of which three indoor markets were built, namely a meat market, a bread market and a cloth market and then due to the prosperity of the town, several guildhalls and much commerce was built in the area and nowadays there are many shops, bars, restaurants and souvenir shops within the square and the vicinity of it where you can shop, eat, have coffee and hang around and savor the sights.

3. Manneken Pis
just a short 5 minute walk south from the Grand Place along Rue De Charles Bus and then to Rue De Effuve’ will take you to the most famous statue in Brussels which is the cheeky Mannekin Pis.

This small 61 centimeter bronze statue, made by local artist Jerome Duquesnoy in 1619 is a regular small boy which is taking a pee to the fountain basin below of which the statue is now a replica as the original is now housed in in the King Place (the Breadhouse just across the Town Hall in Grand Place where the more than 700 different clothes that the mannekin pis statue is dressed differently everyday is also housed).

4. Cathédrale of St. Michael and St. Gudula
The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula is the Main Roman Catholic Church of Belgium and is the seat of the Archbishop of Brusels and where many of the Royal and State Ceremonies as done. the Church was renovated a few times since it was made in 1047 AD of which the Latest Design is Neo Gothic of which is closely resembles the Notre Dame of Paris. The Cathedral originally was a chapel dedicated to St Michael and in the 11 th century AD it was rep!aced by a Romanesque church which became a “collegiale church” in 1047 AD. The relics of St Gudula were transferred there. From then onwards, it became known as “the collegiale church of St Michae! and St Gudula”.

5. Mini Europe
The Mini-Europe exhibition attempts to boil down the essence of Europe into a 24,000 meter square park filled with 350 scaled down buildings. It’s detailed, accurate and big: with a 25:1 scale Big Ben is four meters tall, and the Eiffel tower as high as a three story building. There’s a lot of little details, quite a bit of dynamic scenery, vehicles that move around the park, and even some interactivity.

6. Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert
The Galeries Saint Hubert, built in 1846, feature luxury shops and cafés, a famous tavern, a cinema and a theater. They provide a link between the surroundings of the Town Hall Square and the National Opera. Smaller side galleries are the universe of antiquarians and librarians…. Nice place to visit specially if its a sunny day.

7. Palais Royal de Bruxelles
In my previous visit, we didn’t approach the royal palace – I didn’t inform the king of my visit to Brussels, and I always knew that it is impolite to appear without announcement.
In the recent visit we had a closer look, but again without an invitation, we didn’t enter. Only back home In read in the official site that it may be visited and:

“The Palace is where His Majesty the King exercises his prerogatives as Head of State, grants audiences and deals with affairs of state. Apart from the offices of the King and the Queen, the Royal Palace houses the services of the Grand Marshal of the Court, the King’s Head of Cabinet, the Head of the King’s Military Household and the Intendant of the King’s Civil List.

8. Musical Instrument Museum
Aside from having numerous historical examples of harpsichords and other older keyboard instruments, the Musical Instrument Museum in Brussels also includes a workshop to show how harpsichords are made today.

This museum in Brussels is the newest and largest Musical Instrument Museum that I know of, but there are also some very interesting ones in other European cities such as Paris, Berlin, Stuttgart and Nürnberg.

9. Guild Houses
The Guildhalls around the Grand Place started in the 14th century when Brussels was becoming prosperous and which many artisans and craftsmen build the guildhalls around the square of which most are still standing today of which many of them still sell artisanal arts and crafts and food stuffs and the guildhalls are the following: Maison des Boulangers (bread) , La Brouette (wheelbarrow) , Le Sac (The Bag), Le Cornet (The Horn), La Louve (The She-Wolf), L’Étoile (The Star) and a lot more.

10. Palais de Justice Bruxelles
The Palace of Justice or Supreme Court of Belgium is located in the upper area of ​​the city, Saint Gilles, on the way to the Avenue Louise, in an area formerly known as Gallows Hill. This location gives a panoramic view of the city. The building was designed by architect Joseph Poelaert, who died 4 years before its completion in 1883. The style is described as eclectic, inspired mainly Assyrian-Babylonian

Getting There:

Brussels Airport is an international airport 6 NM northeast of Brussels, the capital of Belgium. In 2015, more than 23 million passengers arrived or departed at Brussels Airport, making it the 21st busiest airport in Europe.

The post Brussels Belgium Must See & Do appeared first on SuperSmartTag.

But as well as the highest per capita income on the continent, this diminutive country also has more than its fair share of natural beauty with rolling hills, verdant valleys and meandering rivers painting picture of rural idyll.

Proud of its role as a founding member of the EU, Luxembourg plays a prominent position in European affairs and is home to a number of European Union institutions.

Most of the action takes place in the capital, Luxembourg City, which has something of a split personality: while it’s all antiquated charm in the Old Town, with its elegant squares, imposing churches, independent shops and cobblestone streets, the Kirchberg district has a modern, flashier feel thanks to its ubiquitous offices, shopping malls and entertainment complexes.

The most popular destination outside the capital is medieval Vianden in the northeast, with its cobbled streets and hilltop castle, which is the envy of many European cities. Vianden also hosts a range of festivals and events throughout the year, many of which celebrate its historical past.

Echternach, founded in the 7th century, is the oldest city in the country, with a picturesque centre dominated by an abbey. It is also a convenient base for exploring ‘Little Switzerland’, a tiny region of rocky outcrops, cliffs, cascades, and forests, crisscrossed by walking trails that are a haven for hikers and mountain-bikers.

On the southeastern border with Germany, the Moselle Valley enjoys a unique microclimate that has given rise to one of Europe’s smallest wine-growing districts, producing award-winning whites and sparkling wines. Meanwhile, northern Luxembourg is dominated by the Ardennes, an area of high plateau where wooded valleys, shimmering rivers and lofty peaks make for stunning trekking.

All in all, not bad for a country the size of Dorset.

Getting There:

Luxembourg Findel Airport (IATA: LUX, ICAO: ELLX) is the main airport in Luxembourg.
It is Luxembourg’s only international airport and is the only airport in the country with a paved runway.

It is located 3.25 NM (6.02 km; 3.74 mi) away from Luxembourg City.

In 2013 it handled 2,197,497 passengers. By cargo tonnage, Findel ranked as Europe’s 5th busiest and the world’s 28th busiest in 2010.

Luxair, Luxembourg’s international airline, and cargo airline Cargolux have their head offices on the airport property.

The post Luxembourg Travel Guide appeared first on SuperSmartTag.

When aircraft number 16, MSN 026, A350-941 registered 9V-SMA, was handed over to Singapore Airlines (SIA) on Wednesday, the buzz was considerably less than before. Even more so in comparison to the last milestone delivery for SIA in Toulouse, the first-ever Airbus A380 in the fall of 2007.

With the first A350 for the Asian quality carrier, it was almost a low-key event for Airbus and SIA standards.DSC_0179Adding to that was that Airbus’ top brass was in China at the time, breaking ground for a new A330 completion center in Tianjn.

Didier Evrard , EVP Programmes at Airbus and former Head of the A350 Programme, was the master of ceremonies on the manufacturer’s side back in Toulouse. “Having SIA as a customer is the strongest possible endorsement of the A350”, remarked Evrard during the handover ceremony.

For SIA, the A350 is a truly new dimension. “In the last five years, we had very little expansion on long haul, we didn’t have the right aircraft with the right efficiency to expand in a commercially viable manner”, said SIA-CEO Goh Choon Phong in talking to AirwaysNews.

“The A350 is a game changer for us because it is this particular aircraft offering us the right size, efficiency and cabin to add more capacity on long haul.” In fact, the A350 will open up a new route for SIA, from Singapore to Düsseldorf, Germany, in July this year. “That would have been difficult to serve for us without the A350”, adds Goh.

The A350s 253 seats (42 in Business Class, 24 in Premium Economy and 187 in Economy) are just about the perfect size to establish new routes off the trunk routes or add more frequencies with extra flights to existing destinations.

The first long-haul route for the new aircraft in the SIA fleet will be the service to Amsterdam from May 9th, replacing a Boeing 777-300ER.

The post Onboard Singapore Airlines A350 appeared first on SuperSmartTag.

The underlying result is a record first-half performance and means Qantas’ 2015 calendar-year performance was the best in its 95-year history.

Every part of the Qantas Group contributed strongly to the result, with record underlying profits for Qantas Domestic, the Jetstar Group and Qantas
Loyalty.

The Group continues to expand margins through both revenue growth and cost discipline.

Revenue increased by five per cent to $8.5 billion, while total unit costs were down by seven per cent compared with the first half of last year.

The $2 billion Qantas Transformation program is reshaping the Group into a more agile and innovative business.

In the half, the Group unlocked $261 million in cost and revenue benefits through transformation initiatives, with $1.36 billion in total benefits now realised since 2014.

Total transformation benefits in the full year are expected to be $450 million.

Volatility in the global economy underlines the importance of transformation as the key to building shareholder value and sustainable returns over the long term.

The group secured a first-half benefit of $448 million through effective fuel hedging, which enabled it to participate in lower global fuel prices.

Chief executive Alan Joyce said the national carrier was ready to make the most of an exciting future.

“This record result reflects a stronger, leaner, more agile Qantas.

“I’m extremely proud of our people, who are working hard to transform the Qantas Group and make flying with Qantas and Jetstar better than ever for our customers.”

Joyce added: “Without a focus on revenue, costs and balance sheet strength, today’s result would not have been possible.

“Both globally and domestically, the aviation industry is intensely competitive.

“That’s why it’s so important that we maintain our cost discipline, invest to grow revenue, and continue innovating with new ventures and technology.”

The post Qantas Reports Strong Results appeared first on SuperSmartTag.

Salamanca Market is one of those special places where you actually meet the people who create, make or grow what they sell.

A range of nearly 300 stallholders includes hand-made Tasmanian pieces from woodwork to jewellery, fashion to fanciful glassware and ceramics, not to mention fresh fruit and organic vegetables, all accompanied by buskers and music.

From the market, it’s a short climb up historic Kelly’s Steps to the Georgian cottages and the early maritime village atmosphere of Battery Point.

MUSEUM OF OLD AND NEW ART – MONA
The Museum of Old and New Art – Mona is Australia’s largest private museum and arguably one of the most controversial private collections of modern art and antiquities in the world. Described by its owner as a ‘subversive adult Disneyland’, the collection ranges from ancient Egyptian mummies to some of the world’s most infamous and thought-provoking contemporary art.

With around 300 art works on display, the collection takes up three floors within a subterranean architectural masterpiece and is guaranteed to impress.

The 3.5 ha site includes the Ether Building Function Centre, Moorilla winery and vineyard, Cellar Door, Wine Bar and Barrel Room, Void Bar, The Source restaurant, a 63-seat cinema, the Mona Library and gallery and eight contemporary accommodation pavilions.

MOUNT WELLINGTON
Kunanyi/Mount Wellington is a wilderness experience just a 20-minute drive from Hobart and is much loved by locals.

The 21-kilometre drive to the summit passes through temperate rainforest to sub-alpine flora and glacial rock formations, ending in panoramic views of Hobart, Bruny Island, South Arm and the Tasman Peninsula.

No other city in Australia has a vista like this one. The interpretation centre at the top protects you from the blustering winds while an open viewing platform on the western side of the car park looks out to the southern World Heritage Area beyond.

PORT ARTHUR HISTORIC SITE
The Port Arthur Historic Site on the Tasman Peninsula is Australia’s most intact and evocative convict site and one of Australia’s great tourist destinations.

The Site has more than 30 buildings, ruins and restored period homes, dating from the prison’s establishment in 1830 until its closure in 1877. During this time around 12,500 convicts served sentences and for many it was a living hell.

Today, the site sits in 40 hectares of landscaped grounds and you’ll need plenty of time to fully experience all that it has to offer.

Site entry is valid for two consecutive days and includes an Introductory Guided Walking Tour, harbour cruise, access to the museum, access to the Convict Study Centre and Interpretation Gallery and the site of the Dockyard.

CATARACT GORGE RESERVE
Cataract Gorge Reserve, known locally as the Gorge, is a unique natural formation within a two-minute drive of central Launceston – a rare natural phenomenon in any city.

In an easy 15 minutes, you can walk from central Launceston along the banks of the Tamar River into the Gorge and from there follow a pathway originally built in the 1890s along the cliff face looking down onto the South Esk River.

The First Basin on the southern side has a cafe and a swimming pool surrounded by bushland knows to locals as Launceston’s beach.

In contrast, the shady northern side, named the Cliff Grounds, is a Victorian garden created with ferns and exotic plants.

CRADLE MOUNTAIN
Cradle Mountain is part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area and one of the most accessible, interesting and most visited places in Tasmania.

Located at the northern end of the Cradle Mountain – Lake St Clair National Park, Cradle Mountain is surrounded by smooth glacial lakes, ancient rainforest, and unusual alpine vegetation.

It’s easy to gain a full appreciation of the place on one of the many short walks found in the area.

You can stroll from cascading rivers to dense, old-growth rainforest in just 20 minutes on the Enchanted Walk, walk the two-hour circuit of Dove Lake – one of Australia’s great short walks – or spend the day tackling Cradle Mountain summit itself.

FREYCINET NATIONAL PARK
When you first set eyes on Great Oyster Bay set against the backdrop of Freycinet National Park and the three pink-granite peaks of the Hazards mountain range – you know you’re somewhere different. This is a visual experience to remember.

Situated on Tasmania’s beautiful east coast, Freycinet National Park occupies most of the Freycinet Peninsula – a long strip of land that looks out to the Tasman Sea from the eastern side and back towards the Tasmanian coastline from the west.

The park is loaded with natural assets, including the granite peaks of the Hazards that dominate the Peninsula, abundant birdlife and the iconic and much-photographed Wineglass Bay.

There are long and short walks across the park to secluded bays, clean beaches and bird-filled lagoons, and can be enjoyed by walkers of all abilities.

BLOW HOLE AND TASMAN ARCH
The Blow Hole and Tasman Arch are just two of several unusual geological formations found in the Tasman National Park, a place of rugged beauty and natural diversity with some of the most stunning coastal scenery anywhere in Australia.

Formations like the Tasman Arch, the Blow Hole, the Devils Kitchen, the Tessellated Pavement, Remarkable Cave and Waterfall Bay can all be reached by car, but by far the best views of the rugged coastline are from the park’s many bushwalks.

Not surprisingly, the park offers some of the best coastal walks in the country. A stroll of just an hour or two will reveal sheer drops overlooking chasms and surging ocean, off-shore islands, white sandy beaches and a waterfall that tumbles into the sea. While at the southern end of the park are some of the highest and most spectacular sea cliffs in the world.

ROYAL TASMANIAN BOTANICAL GARDENS
The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens were established in 1818 and are just a short walk from Hobart’s CBD.

They may be small compared to other states but many say they’re the best.

The Gardens hold historic plant collections and a large number of significant trees, many dating back to the nineteenth century as well as the world’s only Subantarctic Plant House. Here, plants from subantarctic islands in high southern latitudes are displayed in a climatically-controlled environment, where chilly fogs and mists mirror the wet, cold conditions of their island homes.

The Gardens also contain some of Tasmania’s most significant built heritage, including the Superintendent’s cottage (now the Administration Office) and the Arthur Wall. This wall, of a design once common in Britain, is hollow and capable of being heated to encourage the growth of fruit trees planted beside it.

The post Top Attractions Tasmania Australia appeared first on SuperSmartTag.

But technologies being introduced beginning this year should increase that number before 2017 rolls around, and more innovations are in the works for next year.
“We have to wait and see how fast airlines can install it on their aircraft, but the direction is definitely up,” said Jason Rabinowitz, Routehappy’s data research manager.

The most recent provider to roll out an in-flight WiFi upgrade was market leader Gogo, which introduced its new 2Ku satellite-based technology late last year. Until then, the company offered two earlier and slower WiFi technologies: air-to-ground, which offers speeds up to 10 megabits per second (Mbps) but can only be used over land, and Ku, an air-to-satellite system that offers speeds between 3 and 8 Mbps but can be used over water.

2Ku differs from Ku in the number of antennas it uses: one for Ku and two for 2Ku, which more than doubles Ku bandwidth, according to Gogo.

So far, 2Ku deployment has been slow. Gogo has equipped approximately 2,500 planes with WiFi connectivity: 2,300 with ATG systems and 200 with Ku systems.
Upgrading planes to 2Ku from Ku is a much simpler process than retrofitting them from ATG to 2Ku. Making the latter switch is a costlier installation and puts a plane out of commission longer.

At the moment, Gogo said it has an 800-order backlog for upgrades to 2Ku service, though Aeromexico has already begun employing 2Ku technology, Gogo spokesman Steve Nolan said.

Next in line for Gogo’s 2Ku rollout is Virgin Atlantic, Nolan said, and he added that Delta, which plans to equip more than 250 aircraft with 2Ku antennas, is also slated to begin its rollout by the end of March.

Gogo claims that 2Ku’s performance will be similar to what a person would experience with land-based WiFi, including the ability to stream videos.
Rabinowitz was a bit less bullish, saying that during a test flight he was on last fall it worked “moderately well.”

“It was definitely better than your traditional global-coverage WiFi,” he said.
With Gogo’s 2Ku now already entering service, the next in-flight WiFi innovation to launch is expected to come in April from Panasonic Avionics, which spokesman Brian Bardwell said counts United, American, Emirates and Lufthansa among its airline customers.

Through a service contract on a newly launched satellite, Panasonic plans to offer a five-fold upgrade in bandwidth, to as much 200 Mbps, on any route that flies any city pair that lies between the West Coast of the U.S. and Europe.

The new satellite, called a High-Throughput Satellite, enables Panasonic to deliver its WiFi signal via spot beams targeted at portions of the world that get the most airline traffic.
That efficiency won’t just improve speed, Bardwell said; it will also reduce cost. Panasonic is selling the service to airline clients at prices that are less than half its current rates.
He also said that deployment by the airlines should happen as soon as the service becomes available, since High-Throughput technology will work with the equipment already installed on clients’ planes.

A second High-Throughput Satellite launch will enable Panasonic to extend the service to the Middle East in October, Bardwell said, with service farther into Asia slated for the second half of 2017.

The other primary providers of in-flight WiFi in the U.S. don’t have any major technology upgrades planned for this year, though the satellite company ViaSat, which provides what is currently regarded as the fastest WiFi in the sky, is adding Virgin America to its client base.
Working through the provider Thales, ViaSat already supplies WiFi to JetBlue and the old Continental portions of United’s fleet. The service is delivered on Ka-band satellites, which operate at a higher frequency than Ku satellites.

But while the ViaSat service is fast, customers on JetBlue flights to the Caribbean can tell you that it’s limited by its spacial coverage, which is confined to the continental United States and the nearest edges of Mexico and Canada.

ViaSat will offer a partial fix to that problem this year in the form of a hybrid Ka/Ku satellite that Virgin America, pending federal certification, will put to use on routes between the mainland and Hawaii as soon as this summer.

But ViaSat plans to offer much more comprehensive improvements in mid-2017 with the launch of its next generation ViaSat-2. The satellite will double ViaSat’s WiFi speed, said Don Buchman, the company’ s vice president of commercial mobility, while increasing its geographic coverage sevenfold. Along with the continental U.S., ViaSat-2 will cover Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America as well as the North Atlantic routes to Europe.
In addition, ViaSat has entered into a joint venture with a European satellite provider that will connect its network as far east as Istanbul.

ViaSat-2 is slated to be followed in 2019 by the launch of ViaSat-3, an even faster broadband platform that will make the satellite provider’s Ka-band global.

Global Eagle, the final major provider of airline WiFi in the U.S., counts Southwest as well as several international carriers among its customers. Like Panasonic, Global Eagle plans to roll out a fast Ku-band service via High-Throughput Satellite technology. The satellite will launch early next year, company spokesman Paul Sims said.

In its Annual Global State of In-Flight WiFi report last month, Routehappy wrote that U.S. airlines now offer at least spotty service on 78% of their available seat miles. While coming upgrades should make that spottiness less common, Rabinowitz said only time will tell for sure.

“It all sounds great,” he said. “But we’ll have to wait and see once we get on an aircraft.”

The post Airborne Wifi Advances appeared first on SuperSmartTag.

While the shining Golden Roof lures travelers to the Old Town, nearby sites like the Hofburg and Maria-Theresa Strasse keep them there. If you’re traveling with kids, you should enjoy the city vista from the Alpenzoo, the highest zoo in Europe, or the thrilling Bergisel Ski Jump.

The Hofkirche and the Emperor’s Tomb
Innsbruck’s spectacular Court Church, the Hofkirche, was completed in 1563 in the local Late Gothic style. This three-aisled hall-church with its narrow chancel and off-center tower boasts many notable interior features, in particular its 18th-century high altar and side altars, and a choir screen from the 17th century.

The Golden Roof
The arcaded Herzog-Friedrich-Strasse, lined with handsome old merchants’ houses, enters the Old Town quarter from the south and makes straight for the famous Golden Roof (Goldenes Dachl). This magnificent Late Gothic oriel window, roofed with gilded copper tiles, was built in 1496 to commemorate Maximilian I’s marriage to Bianca Maria Sforza and served as a box from which the court watched civic festivities in the square below (the house behind, the Neuer Hof, was a former ducal palace rebuilt in 1822).

The Hofburg
Innsbruck’s old Court Palace, the Hofburg – a former imperial residence originally built in the 15th and 16th centuries – was remodeled in Baroque and Rococo style in the 18th century upon instructions from Maria Theresa. Best viewed as part of a guided tour (available in English), highlights include its luxurious apartments with their fine painted ceilings.

Old Town Innsbruck
With its narrow house-fronts, handsome doorways, oriel windows, and arcaded-façades, Innsbruck’s Old Town boasts many fine examples of old Tyrolese architecture and southern influences, along with many sumptuous Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo buildings. The semi-circular quarter of the Old Town, enclosed by a ring of streets known as the Graben (Moat), is now a pedestrian precinct and a wonderful place to pass the time of day.

The Cathedral of St. James
In the Domplatz, Innsbruck Cathedral (Innsbruck Dom) – formerly the Parish Church of St. James – was raised to cathedral status in 1964. Notable for its imposing twin-towered west front and the high dome over the choir, it was built in Baroque style in 1724 and fully restored after WWII.

St. Anne’s Column
Lined with handsome 17th and 18th-century houses and numerous shops, bustling Maria-Theresien Strasse affords a magnificent vista of the mountains to the north. In the middle of this wide old street, directly in front of the Town Hall (Rathaus), stands St. Anne’s Column (Annasäule), erected in 1706 to commemorate the withdrawal three years earlier of Bavarian troops on St. Anne’s Day. Surmounted by a statue of the Virgin Mary, St. Anne stands on the base near St. George, the patron saint of Tyrol, and other saints.

The Hofburg District Christian Allinger
In addition to its imperial Court Palace and Church, the area around the Hofburg offers much else worth seeing. Of particular interest is the Silver Chapel, built in 1587 as the burial chapel of Archduke Ferdinand II and named after a silver image of the Virgin and embossed silver reliefs on the altar.

The River Inn Walking Tour
There’s no better way to spend time than exploring the beautiful riverbanks and esplanades of the River Inn. A great place to begin your walk is the Mariahilf District, noted for its Baroque Mariahilfkirche from 1649 with its wonderful 17th-century frescos, and the beautiful Botanic Garden and observatory. Next, head for the district of Hötting, home to the splendid Old Parish Church (Alte Pfarrkirche) with its tower rising above the new parish church from 1911.

Alpenzoo Innsbruck-Tyrol
Just one kilometer north of Innsbruck’s Old Town center is the 15th-century Schloss Weiherburg, home to Alpenzoo Innsbruck-Tyrol. This beautifully situated zoo is well known for its collection of mountain animals from the world’s Alpine regions – including mammals, birds, and reptiles – and is popular with both experts and tourists alike.

Getting There:

Innsbruck Airport also known as Kranebitten Airport, is the largest international airport in Tyrol in western Austria. It is located approximately 2.5 miles from the centre of Innsbruck.

The airport, which was opened in 1925, handles regional flights around the Alps, as well as seasonal international traffic to further European destinations. During the winter, activity increases significantly, due to the high number of skiers travelling to the region

The post Innsbruck Austria Top Attractions appeared first on SuperSmartTag.