St Anton shares the amazing Arlberg ski area with several other resorts, most famous of which are neighbouring Lech and Zurs. The Arlberg has fully interconnected just a few seasons ago thanks to a huge investment in state-of-the-art lifts, creating the biggest ski area in Austria. Most skiers already believed St Anton had the best skiing in Austria (and some would say the whole world) with its challenging on and off-piste terrain.
Just over an hour by road from Innsbruck airport, St Anton is one of the quickest resorts to access, making it perfect for families with those who get car sick. A big part of the appeal of St Anton is that despite its global importance in the skiing world it has changed very little over the years and managed to maintain its traditional Tyrolian village feel and warm, welcoming atmosphere. Centred on the pedestrianised main Dorfstrasse street, lined with cafes, boutiques, restaurants and hotels. With the Rosanna River running through the heart of the resort and a 17th-century onion-domed church luckily St Anton’s has maintained its charm and any expansion has to some extent been limited by the steep mountains rising on either side of the valley.
St Anton usually has a great atmosphere around its bustling main street, which is quite often snow covered – the region has one of the best snowfall reputations in Europe averaging seven metres of snow a year. In the evening St Anton famously takes the apres-ski up a notch further than most other resorts to create its infamous, party atmosphere.
Whilst St Anton is normally referenced for its incredible skiing and great apres-ski, it should also be noted that the ski lift company has not rested on its laurels and the Arlberg region boasts a very impressive high-speed, comfortable lift network to quickly whisk you up the slopes and to the far reaches of the increasingly large ski region which now goes beyond Lech and Zurs to the small ski areas of Warth and Schrocken, should you fancy a bit of an excursion.
There is a fantastic range of St Anton accommodation on offer with something to suit all tastes and group sizes. Many St Anton luxury chalets are catered to an extremely high standard or those looking to dine out can choose from a number of modern self-catered apartments.
If you’d like to know more about skiing in Austria visit the Austria Tourist board here.
St Anton’s ski area is world-famous, primarily for its exciting slopes, on and off-piste, which puts it on the world’s ‘must ski’ list’ for good skiers alongside resorts like Chamonix, Jackson Hole and Verbier. It also has a good snow reputation, often coming in the top five Austrian resorts for snowfall and snow depth, beating several of the higher glacier areas and underlining its reputation for off-piste powder.
On top of the 50km, or so of groomed black runs on the Arlberg Pass, the area has a further 200 km of marked off-piste and challenging steep slope terrain. Of these, the Valluga north face descent to Zürs is world-famous, and on the list of ‘must ski’ off-piste descents. Unlike many tricky off-piste areas, it’s also lift accessible, as long as you have a mountain guide with you.
The commonest complaint amongst intermediate skiers who simply want to rack up the kilometres on nice easy to moderate groomed runs is that St Anton doesn’t cater so well for them. Especially as the run down to the resort centre can often be heavily moguled and busy. That may still be true to some extent but the recently completed lift connection to neighbouring Lech means that on top of St Anton’s pool of blue-grade slopes there’s now quick and easy access to much more moderate-grade terrain in Austria’s largest ski area from St Anton. In fact, altogether there are about 90 miles (140km) of groomed blue runs.
It’s perfectly possible to learn here with some excellent ski schools and nursery slopes. These are located around the Nasserein base area on the far right side of the village and at Gampen just at the top of the main Galzig gondola.
The separate Rendl sector has lots of beginner-friendly terrain and has been made much easier to reach in recent years by the creation of the new Rendlebahn lift with its base station is in the centre of St Anton.
As with beginners, St Anton is perhaps not the first choice for families and yet there is much better provision of childcare here than at many smaller resorts. You have the choice of various British-run nanny agencies of which there are more than half a dozen and an in-resort creche run by the ski school right by the Galzig gondola which provides childcare for children aged two-and-a-half or older.
