Tyrol: Natur Eis Palast Hintertux (Natur Eis Palast Hintertux)

Tyrol: Natur Eis Palast Hintertux (Natur Eis Palast Hintertux)

Directions & parking:

Today the Hintertux Glacier with its Natur Eis Palast (natural ice palace) is the destination. With the car it is literally to the end of the Zillertal, since Hintertux is the last place. The road doesn’t go any further here. The valley station of the Hintertuxer Gletscherbahn (Hintertux 794) is exactly at this point. We drive up to parking lot 1, as it would be a very long way from parking lot 2 to the cable car. Fortunately, there is still enough space in parking lot 1.

Tickets for the cable car:

At the cash desk it is confirmed that nothing is going on in the off-season: Usually there are hourly tours for the Natur Eis Palast, otherwise it is not possible to visit. In the beginning of September this is no longer the case: there are no guided tours, instead you can explore the cave on your own. But we’re not there yet, first it is time to come upstairs.

Three cable cars bring you to your destination. The ticket price for the Fascination Ice panorama ticket (ascent & descent Gefrorene Wand, 3,250 m) of € 40.00 is correspondingly high. The journey takes about 35 minutes to the end of the third station.

ATTENTION: this is only the price for the gondola, not for the ice cave. You buy the ticket above, or there are a lot of different tours online. But more on that later.

1st station:

There is a small children’s playground at the first station. There is hardly anything going on here on September 2nd. There is also a large restaurant to warm up and, if necessary, change clothes. When we arrived it was 6 °, in the valley it was still about 20 °. We get out and take a short break. As luck would have it, this is exactly when the Glacier King takes place: over 150 old tractors drive to the top of the mountain, what a spectacle.

2nd station:

Finally we continue to the second station. There is already an exuberant skiing atmosphere. Here, too, you can stop in a huge, multi-story restaurant right next to the gondola. Attention: now you have to be careful how it goes on, as two gondolas lead away from here! With the right gondola you get to the ski slope, with the left one, which is hidden behind it, you get to the Nature Ice Palace. It is the glacier bus. We almost missed it because of the fog.

3rd station:

The glacier bus now goes up to the third station. There is a playground for children and a panoramic terrace. Unfortunately the mountain is so clouded that we can hardly see any other mountains. So no trace of the panoramic terrace. Anyway, we came mainly because of the Natur Eis Palast. The container for registration and ticket purchase is located directly to the left of the “Gefrorene Wand” / Gletscherbus 3 mountain station.

The basic tour including a boat trip on the glacier lake costs € 26. There is no need to register in advance! There are many additional offers that require prior registration, such as: paddling, kayaking, special photo tours, diving or even ice-swimming. The VIP tour is enough for us.

The entrance to the ice cave is only a 5-minute walk from the mountain station of Glacier Bus 3. You have to walk down the ski slope. It’s only 200m to the entrance, but the path is still slippery. So good footwear is recommended. As mentioned before, there are no guided tours during our visit, which we are actually happy about because we don’t have any stress. You can’t get lost either, as there is only one way through the ice, here too there are fixed ladders up and down. For this reason, entry is only permitted from the age of 6.

Natur Eis Palast (Natur Eis Palast)

The ice world is really unique. Do not forget to look up every now and then, then there will always be new perspectives. The whole lap takes about 1 hour if you take enough photo breaks like me.

At the end of the tour, a boat trip awaits you if you have booked the VIP tour. This takes another 10 minutes and is absolutely recommendable, as you learn a lot about the ice cave here (for example, that surprisingly you have cell phone reception inside).

After about 70 minutes it is all over, but we are very happy to leave the Natur Eis Palast and make our way back down to the valley.

If you still have time, I recommend taking a walk along the stream in the village, as you get really nice impressions of Hintertux here.

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