“St. Anton am Arlberg is the oldest ski resort in Austria. Located in the Arlberg Valley, the home of the Austrian ski school and the country’s leading ski resort. The first ski club in the Alps was founded here in 1901, and in 1904 the first downhill competitions were held. “(Wikipedia).

St. Anton am Arlberg. Cradle of Alpine Skiing

One of the largest ski resorts in the Alps, opening the season with singers Anastacia and Melanie C, with events constantly taking place here, both traditional and modern, and adrenaline rushes on kilometers of perfectly prepared slopes – this is only a small part of what St. Anton am Arlberg offers its guests in winter. The resort is also one of the founders of the association of the twelve most prestigious ski resorts in the Alps – Best of the Alps.

When the new cable car system opened in the region in December 2016, all the ski resorts in Arlberg became Austria’s largest ski area, with a total length of 305 kilometers and 88 lifts and cable cars. The 40-kilometer continuous network of slopes attracts winter sports enthusiasts not only from Austria but also from all over the world. As an alternative to skiing and snowboarding, the resort has toboggan runs, as well as ice skating and curling rinks.

A truly special holiday in St. Anton am Arlberg is made possible by the unique combination of endless skiing and après-ski fun, which includes a wide range of gastronomic options, from Tyrolean delicacies to international highlights.

Nine of the resort’s restaurants are featured in the new 2018 edition of the Gault & Millau restaurant guide. Among the award winners is the Hotel Tannenhof (3 toques), which was also named “Best Hotel of the Year”. Other hot spots in the resort include the restaurants Raffl’s St. Antoner Hof, Galzig Verwallstube, Hospizalm St. Christoph, Hotel Arlberg Hospiz, Hospiz Alm in the arlberg1800 Resort (2 caps each), Hotel Alte Post and Hotel Schwarzer Adler, Das Sonnbichl (1 cap each). St. Anton am Arlberg now boasts an impressive 16 caps and 135 points according to the prestigious Gault & Millau restaurant rating.

Frozen? The multifunctional arl.rock sports center offers a variety of indoor activities. Among them are climbing and bouldering, including a Via Ferrata route to the roof. Do you like comfort? Then you will love a romantic horse-drawn sleigh ride and the view of the fabulous snow-capped mountain peaks. Tired after skiing? From morning to evening, ARLBERG-well.com in St. Anton am Arlberg and the Wellnesspark Arlberg Stanzertal in Pettneu invite you to enjoy hours of complete relaxation.

The resort is very convenient to get to by train – the train station is located right in the city center. Vacationers also do not need to use their own car – shuttles run throughout the region. Those tourists who stay directly in St. Anton am Arlberg will be able to make the most of their location and reach all the interesting objects in the resort on foot.

Austrian ski resort St. Anton-2019

The resort of St. Anton is called the diamond in Austria’s ski crown. It attracts the “high world” of skiing, as well as winter sports enthusiasts from all over the world. Here, traditional Austrian rural charm, modern technology and Tyrolean hospitality are magically combined.

People come here not only to ski in the heavenly, vast, enchanting Alps, but also to immerse themselves in the unusual atmosphere, walk through the pedestrian zone of St. Anton am Arlberg, and soak up the charm of a small mountain village.

The winter resort of St. Anton, along with the resorts of Lech, Oberlech, Zürs and St. Christoph, is part of the Arlberg ski region. In addition, this resort is a member of the “Best of the Alps” organization.

Please note that the resort is located at an altitude of 1,300 m, so acclimatization may be required.

A bit of history

The world’s first ski school was opened in St. Anton in 1904 by the owner of the Post Hotel, Hannes Schneider. Twenty-four years later, the Arlberg-Kandahar competitions were held here for the first time. The ski resort was not forgotten in the 21st century. In 2001, the Alpine Skiing World Championship was held here.

Now in the small village of St. Anton am Arlberg all conditions for a vacation in the mountains have been created. Hotels, guesthouses, restaurants, bars, pubs, saunas, solariums, billiards, bowling, indoor tennis courts, squash – everything for the comfort of vacationers.

In sports stores you can buy everything you need for excellent skiing in the mountains or rent equipment from famous brands. St. Anton ski schools are considered one of the best in Austria.

How to get there

St. Anton is located near the border with Switzerland. The nearest airport Innsbruck is located a hundred kilometers away, a little further – the airport in Germany Friedrichshafen, and the Swiss airport Zurich is 200 kilometers away.

It is very convenient to get to St. Anton by train, the train station is right in the city. By the way, it was opened in 1884, when a 10,648 m long railway tunnel was drilled under the Arlberg Pass.

If you are planning a trip by private vehicle, buy a “vignette”. This road sign is attached to the windshield if it was purchased at a gas station or in shops on the border. Or be sure to save the purchase information on your phone if you bought it online. The “vignette” indicates payment of the road fee and gives the right to travel on motorways, roads in Austria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova. They are sold for a period of 10 days, 2 months and 1 year.

Do not forget that in Austria the speed limit on autobahns is 130 km/h, on ordinary roads – 100 km/h, in cities – 50 km/h. Violation of traffic rules is subject to a rather large fine.

Slopes and lifts

Thanks to the amazing nature, guaranteed snow in the winter season, excellent ski slopes, Arlberg attracts like a magnet.

Just imagine: 305 km of slopes of any level of difficulty, descents on virgin snow, steep slopes, hotel areas for snowboarding. All this will give unforgettable emotions to winter sports lovers.

All 88 modern lifts, cable cars, funicular meet the highest standards of safety and comfort. Their speed is impressive – in just 5-10 minutes you will be at the top of the mountain. Six lifts lift skiers to the main slopes right from the center of the resort.

The slopes of Schindler (2650 m), Valluga (2811 m), the classic descent “Kandahar”, the black run “Karl Schranz” are known far beyond the region. Freeriders have chosen the slopes of the Valluga Grat ridge (2660 m) and the Rendl and Albona areas.

STANTON PARK will interest freeriders, snowboarders with its new-fashioned kickers, rollers, rails and boxes. A natural sledge 4.3 kilometers long will give a lot of positive emotions.

The Arlberg region has a huge selection of sports and entertainment. For the convenience of vacationers, a special chip card ARLBERG-CARD has been created, which provides unhindered access to the ski lifts.

Ski passes

The Ski Arlberg ski pass is valid in the entire Arlberg ski region.

A 1-day pass this season costs 54.50 euros for adults, 32.50 euros for children 5-15 years old and 49.50 euros for teenagers, and if you are over 74 years old, you will pay only 26 euros.

It is more profitable to buy a ski pass for 6 days: adults for 289.00 euros, children for 172 euros, teenagers will pay 249 euros for theirs. Active pensioners, who are offered to buy a ski pass for only 5 days for 74 years, it costs 127 euros.

Holidays in St. Anton

After a magical skiing day, it is nice to relax in one of the mountain restaurants with a bottle of wine and local cuisine.

Some skiers call a holiday in St. Anton expensive, but this is not at all the case. With reasonable planning, you will have money left even to buy Bogner skis for 2250 euros, if you need them.

In après-ski bars in St. Anton you can drink coffee for 3 euros, a small beer will cost around 4-5 euros, a bottle of wine will cost you 20-45 euros. An exquisite dish of the day on the restaurant menu will cost 13-23 euros.

Do you like more active nightlife? Go to discos and pubs. By the way, the most famous apres ski in the town is Mooserwirt. Believe me, the choice of places to relax in St. Anton will amaze you.

Be sure to visit the Ski Museum, which is located in a picturesque building. You will learn a lot of interesting things not only about the history of skiing, but also about the area where the resort is located.

Skiing in St. Anton. First person

Gampen and Kapall peaks

On the first day we decided not to go far, but went to explore the peaks in our “home” skiing area – right from our apartments we climb the Nassereinbahn gondola lift, transfer to the Kapall chairlift (on the left side of the picture):

and go to the very top, to the Kapall peak (2330 m).

Three trails lead down from here – black, red and blue. We chose blue No. 43 for a warm-up. Oh, and it was not easy for us that time! Perhaps the blame for everything was New Year’s Eve and the champagne drunk the day before. We remembered that, besides, we had not skied since last season. However, in the following days we could not relax on this trail: despite its comfortable width, its slope is decent, you have to work along the entire length of the descent.

And the red route No. 44, which leads from the same peak Kapall, is narrower and has seriously steep sections, and is invigorating!

Moreover, it is invigorating so much that we did not dare to look at the black route No. 42 leading from here.

A little lower, from the patch where the “Nassereinbahn”, “Gampen” and “Mattun” lifts converge at the top, a scattering of trails leads down – for every taste. We didn’t feel like doing any feats that day, so we ignored the black ones No. 30 and 34, and the others – red and blue – pleased us.

They are, of course, all different: some are quite narrow, laid in the forest, very picturesque (for example, No. 27 and 31), some are wide, like football fields (No. 26, 29, 31). But they all have one wonderful quality in common: despite the vagaries of the weather, they all, right down to the very bottom, remained in consistently beautiful condition until the evening. I still wonder how they manage to do this, with such a not-so-small number of skiers.

By the way, it was at the top of Gampen that we found a cozy restaurant “Gampen”, where we often had lunch, with an excellent selection of perfectly prepared dishes and stunning views of the valley.

Rendl Ski Area

Historically, this is where skiing in St. Anton began (and if you believe that St. Anton is the cradle of alpine skiing on the planet, then it turns out that this cradle is in Rendl).

This area is very different from the skiing areas of the Kapall, Galzig, Valluga peaks located on the opposite side of the valley. Firstly, the northern orientation of the slopes, and secondly, visually the local slopes are unlike any other: all the slopes of Rendl are wide and treeless (except for those that lead down into the valley along red route No. 1). Here they are – typical landscapes of Rendl – “here the birds do not sing, the trees do not grow …”,

but it is here – the famous photo point with a bright red inscription – the name of the resort:

And it is here that the St. Anton snow park is located.

The skiing area is not that big, but it is definitely worth a visit. There are a few unremarkable and fairly short blue runs. (It seemed that if someone were to come to St. Anton to learn to ski, then, after the children’s slides located between Nasserein and the center of St. Anton, they should go here first.)

I especially remembered the black run No. 5, leading along the Gampberg lift (for the first time in Rendl we got into very bad weather, heavy fog, and it turned out to be the easiest to navigate in space on this run, along the bright orange mats of the lift supports – we skied along it). For the first time in my life, I saw such a black slope – as wide as a football field, and with an absolutely identical (black) slope along its entire length. Amazing! (The photo shows the upper half of the descent.)

I also really liked the red slope No. 1, which we followed down into the valley to finish skiing in Rendl.

A serious slope (sometimes – practically “black” sections), the track runs through the forest – beautiful, but you need to be extremely careful here: for some reason it was on it that we encountered the largest number of fallen skiers, if compared with all the tracks of St. Anton.

The “cons” of Rendl include the oldest 2-chair lifts in the region on the blue slopes, which hurt your legs:

(Know-how: if you are not too lazy to smile and say hello to the employee at the bottom station of the lift, he will kindly hold the lift, and you will not be in danger of bruises).

Galzig, Schindler and Valluga peaks

The Galzig area also offers great skiing. Sunny, wide slopes, blue and red, will please many.

Excellent modern lifts. For example, here is this, almost alien, structure – the Galzigbahn lift, which leads from the central part of St. Anton to the top of Galzig:

But we never found the “Kandahar” track, the fame of which thunders far beyond the borders of Austria. Or rather, there is a guess that on the modern map it is the black track No. 52, but this is not accurate. Please share your knowledge on this subject!

Run No. 52 looks particularly impressive from the top of Gampen: this is the angle that inspires awe, because from here the descent looks like a vertical wall (the black dots on the slope on the left side of the picture are skiers):

Fortunately, this illusion disappears if you look at it from the Zammermoos lift located along its lower part. The fact that run No. 52 is probably the most popular run in St. Anton also speaks in favor of the Kandahar hypothesis. Never before have we seen so many people on a black run at the same time!

One day we reached the highest point in the entire region – Valluga (2811 m).

The huge Valluga “pendulum” type lift was often closed due to the wind, but we still managed to catch good weather when it was working. From its upper station to the very top of Valluga, another lift leads – a 6-seater cabin:

At the top there is a traditional observation deck, where, as usual, all the surrounding peaks are signed on the signs.

The descent from here is along the red trail No. 92, then up on the rope, and then the red trail No. 85. I really liked it: the trails are fast and interesting, without ice, stones and other unpleasant surprises.

And the views!!!