Wattens Travel Guide

  The Giant's Head entrance to...
by zadunajska8
 
  • The Giant's Head entrance to Kristallwelten
      The Giant's Head entrance to...
    by zadunajska8
  • Kristallwelten - The Giant's Park
      Kristallwelten - The Giant's Park
    by zadunajska8
  •   Wattens
    by zadunajska8
  •   Wattens
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  • The Mouse
      The Mouse
    by zadunajska8
 

Pro

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 The most famous crystal show in Austria 


Con

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 costs 


In a nutshell

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 High-Tech Kitsch 

 

Explore Wattens

Things to Do  

Swarovski Kristallwelten

Swarovski Kristallwelten, Wattens

 zadunajska8 Says:  The perfect day out for those people who have a magpie like disposition and are just drawn to shiny, sparkly things.Swarovski Kristallwelten is essentially an art gallery showing off art which makes use of crystals and light for it's effect. It is, of course, also aimed at... 

Kristallwelten - The Giant's Park

Kristallwelten - The Giant's Park, Wattens

 zadunajska8 Says:  The park at Crystal World, around and behind the amazing entrance is a delightful and well thought out garden dotted with water features and "art in the park". There are also children's play facilities and of course the labyrinth. 

Kristallwelten - The Labyrinth

Kristallwelten - The Labyrinth, Wattens

 zadunajska8 Says:  In the park outside Crystal World is a Labyrinth in the shape of a hand which whilst not big is more difficult than it first looks. Actually, it didn't take us too long to find the centre, but getting back out was the problem! 

Kristallwelten - Reflections

Kristallwelten - Reflections, Wattens

 zadunajska8 Says:  A room of strange angles and changing colours. The surfaces are all covered with fragmented images from real life and fantasy. 

Kristallwelten - Poseidon's Puzzle

Kristallwelten - Poseidon's Puzzle, Wattens

 zadunajska8 Says:  This corridor glitters and sparkles like the world beneath the waves. Look down at the sides of the pathway to see various crystal undersea objects and animals. 

Kristallwelten - The Gallery

Kristallwelten - The Gallery, Wattens

 zadunajska8 Says:  The Gallery contains just a few (but very beautiful) crystal models of famous buildings such as the Empire State Building, the Pyramids and the Taj Mahal. 

Kristallwelten - The Giant's Belongings

Kristallwelten - The Giant's Belongings, Wattens

 zadunajska8 Says:  This room contains oversized sparkly, shiny items that are said to be the belongings of the Giant. Again, slightly surreal but amazingly pretty. 

Kristallwelten - The Ice Passage

Kristallwelten - The Ice Passage, Wattens

 zadunajska8 Says:  As you walk down the Ice Passage, accompanied by the cracking and clinking sounds of the Crystal World, the walls and indeed the floor under your feet changes and just keeps moving. It's a magical/wonderful/slightly disorientating experience. I've uploaded a video to VT of... 

Kristallwelten - The Crystal Theatre

Kristallwelten - The Crystal Theatre, Wattens

 zadunajska8 Says:  A strange, bejeweled collection of fairy tale-like surreal set ups this room is both bizarre and interesting at the same time. Like many of the other displays at Crystal World, it's all a bit surreal, but very pretty. 

Kristallwelten - Winter's Dream

Kristallwelten - Winter's Dream, Wattens

 zadunajska8 Says:  Made from steel branches and many thousands of crystals this christmas tree is beautiful as it sparkles in the changing light and shadow. 

Kristallwelten - The Crystal Dome

Kristallwelten - The Crystal Dome, Wattens

 zadunajska8 Says:  The Crystal Dome is a strange and sometimes wonderful space. It's actually a domed room with 590 mirrors and changing light colours. When it's full of people it's just weird and felt a little uncomfortable, when you are in there alone it's quite magical, so wait a while and... 

Kristallwelten - The Mechanical Theatre

Kristallwelten - The Mechanical Theatre, Wattens

 zadunajska8 Says:  This is surreal! I'm not entirely sure of what is has to do with crystals but it was certainly an experience to see this. Shirts flying by overhead on hangers whilst mechanical bodies fly apart and reassemble in the middle of the room, dancing disembodied legs ... it's all... 

Kristallwelten - Entrance Hall

Kristallwelten - Entrance Hall, Wattens

 zadunajska8 Says:  The shiny things start as soon as you enter the Giant at Crystal World. In the entrance hall you find a number of objects using crystals to good effect including a jellyfish-like chandalier and a bejeweled stallion. There is also the largest and smallest ever cut crystals on... 

The Giant

The Giant, Wattens

 zadunajska8 Says:  Probably the most popular photo spot in Wattens is in front of the Giant. This is actually the building of Crystal World and the hill has been built around it with this amazing Giant's head with waterfall from the mouth above a pool in front. It's quite a sight! And the eyes... 

The Mouse Who Guards the Entrance

The Mouse Who Guards the Entrance, Wattens

 zadunajska8 Says:  By the entrance and ticket office is a tribute to a mouse. No, not a real mouse, a crystal one. In 1976 Swarovski produced their first crystal figure and it was a mouse produced for the Innsbruck winter olympics. It was a big hit and now countless such figures of all sorts... 

Restaurants  

Cafe Luna: Expect more...get less!
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LeatherBikerGene 40 reviews

This is the restaurant/bistro/cafe at the Swarovski Crystal Worlds. I really expected much more, so it was kind of a let-down, although I can´t complain about the food.

Favorite Dish: I had a tuna-salad sandwich with the crusts cut off (good for tuna salad...had some chi-chi name I don´t remember) and a piece of raspberry-yogurt cake (I´ve had better cake, but I´ve also had worse...).

Written Jun 20, 2006

Address: Kristallwelten

Website: www.swarovski.com

Related to:
 Luxury Travel
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 Arts and Culture

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Transportation  

Kristallwelten - Shuttlebus
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3.5 out of 5 starsHelpfulness

zadunajska8 395 reviews
Kristallwelten Shuttlebus stop at Museumstrasse
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A Shuttle bus runs from Innsbruck to Swarovski Crystal World (and back again!) every 2 hours. The bus is free if you have an Innsbruck card (as is entrance to Kristallwelten). The bus goes from both the main train station (Hauptbahnhof) and Museumstrasse in Innsbruck and the journey takes just under 30 minutes.

Written Jul 15, 2012

Website: http://www.kristallwelten.swarovski.com/Content.Node/besucher_informationen.en.html#!anreise

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Shopping  

Kristallwelten - the shop

Kristallwelten - the shop, Wattens

 jojes Says:  When visiting Kristallwelten, your visit will automatically end up in the huge shop.Besides the traditional figurines, jewels and gadgets, you can also admire these statues.Your entrance ticket entitles you to a discount when you buy something.Some people think the prices in... 

Most important room in Crystal World: The Crystal Shop

Most important room in Crystal World: The Crystal Shop, Wattens

 Anjutka Says:  Since Crystal Worlds was built to promote Swarovski producrts It is of course the most important room of this whole ensemble. If you buy anything you get 2 EUR price reduction for every ticket.... All kind of Swarovski products. 

Tourist Traps  

Swarovski Kristallwelten
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3.5 out of 5 starsHelpfulness

sabsi 2811 reviews
Niki de Saint Phalle - the crystal way

An underground tour through uninteresting laser installations and crystal boredom. You will see some nice crystal arts by Keith Haring or Niki de Saint Phalle at the beginning but that's about the only interesting part of this place. Oh wait no, the toilets were very stylish, too ;) Apart from that there's a crystal room, lots of laser crap, crystal dresses and costumes and a half-interesting room designed by Brian Eno.

Prices in the shop (yes, there is a shop. Probably the main reason for creating this place!) are not lower than in "normal" shops.

Outside there's a little park with a labyrinth. We were looking forward to it because we thought it would be nicer outside than inside. But it wasn't. It was boring!

Unique Suggestions: Run away! As fast as you can!

Fun Alternatives: Go hiking! After all you're in the alps. Who wants to see computer installations in a wonderful landscape like this.

Or spend the day in the beautiful town of Hall instead! It's very close to Wattens where the Kristallwelten are.

Written Jan 28, 2003

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