Austria is a place that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world annually, because it is just such a great place to be in! Of course, many of these tourists are guys and girls who love to go skiing, snowboarding or other winter activities. Indeed, Austria is heaven for skiers, because of the innumerable resorts situated in the great Austrian Alps. Thousands of kilometers of ski runs welcome their users year after year. However, since this land presents an interesting history and gave birth to such a large variety of famous artists, visiting Austria is also a chance to see attractions like the house Mozart was born, the Vienna Opera House and numerous other well known cultural points of interest.

But there aren't many tourists know about other, more discrete locations that are very interesting to visit, like the beautiful Ambras Castle in Innsbruck and the incredible Werfen Ice Caves, a few kilometers away from the same city. And it's a bit of a shame too, because there are other attractions that only locals seem to know of, like the Schloss Hellbrunn and the Golden Roof.

The Ambras Castle is located over the city of Innsbruck, high up on a hill nearby. It was raised by Archduke Ferdinand II, and it was this guy's home for about 3 decades, from 1563 to 1595. Due to this fact, the name of Ferdinand II always appears along with the name of Ambras Castle in almost all discussions about this structure. There are a few wonderful halls in the palace that you can't miss, and the most interesting is the large Chamber of Arts and Curiosities, a long hall full of medieval mechanical devices , statues, paintings, furniture and other items. The bronze animals, rock crystals, coral crucifix and the painting of Dracula are just a few of the things that will surely capture your imagination when seeing them first hand. Then, the Spanish Hall is quite tall and long, being a much preferred setting for nowadays' classical music concerts that are regularly held in Innbruck over the whole year. The Upper Castle and the Armories are also sections you shouldn't miss.

The other tourist attraction I should mention is the greatest cave complex in the world, the Werfen Ice Caves! Almost 40 km of caves have joined under the mountains near Innsbruck, transforming these relatively small caves into a gigantic maze that was an important landmark for geologists for about two centuries. The part that is open for public touring doesn't exceed one kilometer though, but who would like to go forty miles on foot anyway, right? The grottoes are full of beautiful ice structures. This doesn't resemble anything you saw until now, believe me.

As I said, you can discover many other extraordinary things to see in Austria besides the Ambras Castle and the Werfen ice caves, you just need to look around. Here's an idea: if you go to Austria, don't place all your trust into your tourist flyer. Instead, you should ask some locals where to go and what to see. You will love it when you find out there are some great, less famous locations in virtually every city you'll visit.