5 Days in St. Anton am Arlberg

Sort the practical things before the lift opens. The tourist information is at the valley station of the Galzigbahn and is open from 8 am to 5 pm in winter. Passes can be bought at the ticket offices, at machines or in the webshop, and the operator's live pages show which lifts and runs are open. A chip card costs a 5 EUR deposit.

Rental shops sit along Dorfstraße: Alber Sport, Intersport Arlberg, Sport Jennewein and Hervis, and several take online reservations before you arrive. Consider the 30 EUR Arlberg Safety Card, which gives secondary cover for mountain rescue in the managed ski area.

The Galzigbahn is the main lift of St. Anton and a piece of its history. The operator calls its 1937 predecessor the world's first cable car built only for winter use. The present one, opened in 2006, is a Funitel, a gondola with two carrying cables and big wheels, so you step on at ground level. Its glass station is lit from inside at night and looks like a crystal in the snow.

It carries you to the heart of the area, and from the top you can reach the Valluga, the Kandahar run and the way over to St. Christoph and Stuben.

The Valluga, at 2,811 m, is the highest point of the ski area. Its cable car opened in 1955, and for a time it was the highest in Austria. The tourist board counts the Valluga and the Schindlergrat among the most legendary descents in the Alps.

Be clear about what it is: Valluga Nord is a freeride descent that the tourist board says is only possible with a certified ski guide. If you want it, book a guide through a ski school the day before, and check avalanche conditions. If not, you can still ride up to the viewing platform at 2,811 m.

Gampen is the sunny mountain north of the village, and the restaurant at the start of the toboggan run is a handy place to eat. The tourist board lists Thony's, with a barn that rents toboggans, further down the run, and Thony's winter season is announced from 4 December 2026. Look for what the Tyrol eats on a mountain: Tiroler Gröstl, a pan of potato, beef or pork, bacon and onion, usually with a fried egg, which began as a way to use up Sunday's roast on Monday. Menus change, so ask what the kitchen has.

Eat lightly if you ski the race slopes afterwards. A Knödel, a bread or potato dumpling, is a heavy lunch before a steep run.

The Arlberg Kandahar race, run at Gampen, uses the slope numbers 42, 31, 32 (the Eisfall ski route) and 34, and the Kandahar slope at the Galzig is number 52. St. Anton's own racers, among them the world champion Karl Schranz, come from this village.

Check the difficulty of each run on the operator's live piste list before you drop in, since race slopes are not all the same grade. The Gampen side also has a family slope, the Hopplweg, if someone in your group is not ready for the steep ones.

This is the first stop of the après-ski, on slope 29/50 above the village. The Krazy Kanguruh calls itself St. Anton's oldest après-ski bar, and since 2009 it has belonged to the slalom world and Olympic champion Mario Matt. The terrace opens at 10 am with a view over the village, the kitchen runs from 11 am to 6 pm and drinks are served until 8 pm, with a DJ in the afternoon.

Expect loud music and a party. Go for one drink and the terrace in the late sun, and decide there whether the evening continues in the village. It is closed for the autumn and reopens for the 2026/27 winter.

After dark, walk the Dorfstraße of St. Anton am Arlberg to the parish church of St. Anton and Mariahilf, consecrated in 1698 in honor of the Virgin, Saint Francis and the village's patron, Anthony of Padua. From outside it looks baroque. Inside it is modern: Clemens Holzmeister enlarged it in 1932, and the architecture, paintings and furnishings are in the style of the 1930s. It is regarded as a successful early case of joining old and new in monument care.

The village has two parishes: the other, St. Jakob, is about 2 km east, with a baroque church built between 1773 and 1778. Ten minutes inside is a quiet end to a loud day.

The Rendlbahn starts at the edge of the village, a stone's throw from the center. It is an 8-seat gondola with heated seats that opened in 2009 and replaced a cable car from 1974. Before that, skiers faced a long walk or a short bus ride from the Galzig to reach the Rendl, so the new base station mattered.

The Rendl is a separate mountain with its own runs, including the long valley run, number 1, rated medium by the operator, and marked ungroomed ski routes. The operator's live pages say which routes are open that morning. The Riffl lifts above it are the start of the northern Run of Fame, which you'll meet on day four.

At the top of the pass, in St. Christoph, the Hospiz Alm is the hut to try for lunch. If its kitchen is open, order Kaiserschmarrn, a fluffy torn pancake with plum compote and sugar that is named after Emperor Franz Joseph, or an Apfelstrudel, whose pastry is stretched so thin you could read a newspaper through it.

Its winter hours were not published yet in October, so check on the day, and plan a backup lunch in Stuben or at the Galzig.

St. Christoph is a small group of buildings on top of the Arlberg pass. In 1386 Heinrich Findelkind decided to build a shelter at the pass for travelers who could freeze or be buried in snow, the origin of the Hospiz. The Ski Club Arlberg was founded here on 3 January 1901, and it has more than 9,000 members worldwide today.

Today the Hospiz is a hotel, and St. Christoph also has the federal ski academy where instructors and racers train. For skiers it has a beginner's area at the Maiensee lift, one of the lifts the 30-point beginner ticket covers.

Stuben, at 1,410 m, is already in Vorarlberg and had 90 inhabitants in 2019. Hannes Schneider was born here in 1890, the man who made skiing teachable, and an artwork for him stands on the road through the village. After the Nazis took over Austria in 1938 he was arrested and later fled to the United States. Rudolf Gomperz, who had led St. Anton's tourist office and built up the resort with him, was deported and murdered.

For skiers, Stuben is the junction of the area: the Flexenbahn to Zürs starts nearby at Rauz, and a free ski bus runs several times daily to the Sonnenkopf. Come back to the Tyrolean side while the lifts run.

Keep this one for the end of the day, once you are back on the Galzig side from Stuben, so it never sits between you and the lifts home. It is the best known après bar in St. Anton. The Mooserwirt has stood here since 1989 and its own slogan is that it is probably the worst ski hut on the Arlberg. It opens daily at 11 am, lunch is served until 3 pm, the après-ski with a small menu runs from 3 pm to 8 pm, the DJs start at 3:30 pm and the music stops at exactly 8 pm.

The bar's own motto promises a brutal party and a high bill. The season starts on 2 December 2026. It is a good place for one drink in the sun, and a bad one for a quiet conversation.

The Flexenbahn takes you from Rauz, above Stuben, to the mountain station at 2,227 m that you share with the Trittkopfbahn I. There the Hall of Fame is a free multimedia exhibition open during the lifts' hours. It tells the story of the ski pioneers, champions and film stars of the Arlberg, and you can go in without skis.

The Hunt of Fame, a virtual chase against the skiers Mario Matt, Patrick Ortlieb and Nadine Wallner, is the fun part, and there is a checkpoint for the Run of Fame here. Don't linger: the whole day is a chain of lifts.

Zürs is a small village on the Flexen pass with a long ski history. The first ski course was held here in 1905 by Viktor Sohm, and in 1937 Zürs got Austria's first drag lift. Today it is a village of hotels at the foot of the lifts, and the Zürser Täli run is one of the highlights the Lech Zürs tourist board names.

The Zürserseebahn and the Trittkopf lifts start here. Zürs also suits families, because its practice slope and baby lift are part of the 30-point beginner ticket. Don't expect a village to explore; this is a place to ski through.

The Rüfikopf Panorama Restaurant, at the top of the Rüfikopfbahn above Lech, has a sun terrace and a 360-degree viewing platform. The restaurant also runs in winter, and the short climb from its terrace to the viewing platform is worth the breath. Traditional Austrian dishes and cakes are on the menu, so ask for the Kaiserschmarrn of the day.

For a more elaborate lunch, Lech is the place: the tourist board lists a Fondue-Stüberl & Raclette and the Seekopf mountain restaurant, and three restaurants in Lech hold MICHELIN Guide listings. Book those in advance and expect to pay for it.

From the Rüfikopf, the Lange Zug (slope 215) falls to Lech and is counted among the ten steepest groomed pistes in the world. It is a run for strong skiers with good legs, not a place to practice. In January 2019 four German skiers were killed by an avalanche on it while it was closed, a reminder that a closed piste on the Arlberg means closed.

The White Ring is the other classic: a 22 km circuit of runs and five lifts with 5,500 vertical meters, and each year a race of about 1,000 starters takes the same route, billed as the longest ski race in the world. Ride the route with the arrows and leave the race to the racers.

Oberlech is a ski-in, ski-out hamlet above Lech that has been free of cars since 1997. On the hill of Tannegg, a short walk away, the American artist James Turrell built the Skyspace Lech, opened in 2018: a mostly underground oval room, reached by a 15 m tunnel, with a round bench and an opening in the ceiling that frames the sky. After dusk, changing colored lights wash the walls and the dome.

It is open in winter from around noon to 8 pm, closed on Mondays, and reached on foot by a winter trail. The light show works best around sunset and needs a clear sky, because the dome must be open, and the room can close for guided tours or bad weather, so check the opening calendar that day.

Lech was settled in the 13th and 14th centuries by Walser migrants from the Swiss Valais, and was called Tannberg until the 19th century. The Huber-Hus, a farmhouse built in 1590, is the village's museum. The ground floor shows how farmers lived and worked, with a cooper's workshop from the 18th century, and the upper floor holds changing exhibitions. Until 11 April 2027 it shows Blende auf!, a look at photography on the Arlberg. In winter (December to April) it is open Thursday to Sunday, 3 to 6 pm, so on a Tuesday, the day this plan puts you in Lech, it is closed. Look at the farmhouse from outside, or shift the whole plan by a few days if you want the inside.

Lech has about 1,550 inhabitants and a cap of 10,000 beds. The old parish church of St. Nicholas, from around 1390, stands on the hill above the village and is worth a short walk.

The Run of Fame is 85 km with 18,000 m of descent and climbing, and the operator calls it the longest continuous ski circuit in the Alps. You travel only on skis, lifts and cable cars, with no bus connections. The northern route, marked with purple signs, starts at the mountain station of the Rifflbahn II at the Riffelscharte in St. Anton, reached by the ungroomed ski route no. 16. The Rifflbahn I, on the Rendl, is the easier way in, and both mountain stations have a start lounge. The operator spells it Rifflbahn, with two f.

It is rated advanced. Fit skiers can finish it in a day, and everyone else splits it over two or more. Track it with the Ski Arlberg app: you need three checkpoints, the start in St. Anton, the Hall of Fame in Zürs and the finish in Warth, and the reward is a ski pole spike that changes every year.

The circuit crosses three passes, and each one has a story. The Arlberg, at 1,793 m, is the border between Tyrol and Vorarlberg, and gave Vorarlberg its name, 'before the Arl mountain'. Its road was so bad from the 15th century that wagons couldn't use it until the Josephinian road in 1787. The Flexen road, over a pass at 1,773 m, first reached the top of the pass in 1897, was finished to Lech in 1909 and has been open in winter since 1936.

Under the mountain, the Arlberg Road Tunnel, 13.976 km long, opened in 1978 and was the longest road tunnel in the world at the time. It still charges a toll, 13 EUR one way in January 2026. You'll see none of it from the piste; it is the reason the village is not choked with traffic.

The Auenfeldjet gondola, opened for the 2013/14 season, joined the Lech side with Warth-Schröcken, which had been a separate area. Schröcken is a Walser village, and the resort portal says it gets about 11 m of snow a year, one of the snowiest villages in Europe.

Warth-Schröcken has a children's fun park, and the area is the far point of the circuit: from here every kilometer is toward home. Lech and Schröcken also got the world's first heated chairlifts in 2004.

Warth and Schröcken are Walser villages on the Tannberg with just under 500 people between them, and their huts serve Vorarlberg food. Look for Käsespätzle, soft egg noodles layered with melted mountain cheese and fried onions. You may also meet Riebel, a Vorarlberg dish of corn and wheat semolina fried in butter, once a farm breakfast.

Eat properly, because the second half of the circuit is the long way home. Huts sometimes prefer cash, so carry some.

The southern route, marked with orange signs, starts at the valley station of the Dorfbahn in Warth and leads back toward St. Anton, through Zürs and Stuben. Entry is possible almost anywhere, so you can also join it from Lech if you slept there.

The last section is the one that tests you, because the lifts close in the afternoon and the route is long. If you are late, it is better to stop in Lech or Zürs and take a taxi or the paid Postbus than to push on. From Warth, a taxi is the safe plan, since winter bus times were not published in October. The Run of Fame is an achievement, not a deadline.

If anyone in your group is a beginner, St. Anton can teach them but isn't the easiest place. The beginner lifts are real: the Nassereinlift, Kindlisfeld, Muldenlift and Fangbahn in St. Anton, the Maiensee in St. Christoph, Angerlift and Walchlift in Stuben, the practice slope and baby lift in Zürs and others in Lech and Oberlech all work with a 30-point ticket valid to the end of the season. The nearby Skischule Arlberg has offices at Kandaharweg 15, in Nasserein and at Dorfstraße 13, and children's areas at Nasserein, St. Christoph and elsewhere.

The honest part: St. Anton's reputation is for strong skiers, and the party starts at lunch. Families will find calmer places in Zürs, Warth and Schröcken. Book lessons before you arrive; five-day group courses were listed at roughly 440 to 630 EUR depending on level and dates, and a private instructor from 390 EUR for three hours.

The Arlberg museum is in Villa Trier, an art nouveau house built around 1910 for the German industrialist Bernhard Trier and bought by the municipality and the tourist board in 1971. The rooms upstairs tell the story of the Arlberg: the pass and its salt trade, the railway, the first skiers who were laughed at, the Ski Club Arlberg and the careers of Hannes Schneider, Rudolf Gomperz and the racers who followed.

Entry was 5 EUR in summer 2026 and includes the free Hearonymus audio guide in four languages. Its summer hours were Tuesday to Sunday, noon to 6 pm, with Monday closed. Winter hours are not published yet, so phone ahead (+43 5446 2475) before you go.

The ground floor of Villa Trier is a restaurant that serves modern mountain cooking from local, seasonal products. After its summer break it reopens on 2 December, and in winter it serves lunch and a more formal dinner. It sits beside piste 50, 200 m before the Galzig valley station, so it works on skis too.

It is a calmer lunch than the mountain huts. Winter hours are not published yet, so book by phone before you walk over.

Without the railway there would be no ski resort. The Arlberg line was built between 1880 and 1884, and Emperor Franz Joseph walked about a kilometer into the tunnel when he visited the site in 1881. It was one of the largest building sites of the monarchy. The line opened in 1884, brought the first tourists and later the first skiers.

For the 2001 World Championships the line and station were moved to the southern edge of the village, finished on 10 September 2000, and the old station building, protected as a monument, stayed. The move healed the village that the tracks had cut in two for decades.

Finish with the toboggan run from Gampen to Nasserein, 4 km long with 500 m of descent, which takes about 15 minutes. It starts at 1,850 m, is secured with snow bands on the sides and is classed as moderately difficult but suitable for beginners and families. The Nassereinbahn carries you up, and on Thursday evenings from 6 pm it is the toboggan night.

Toboggans can be rented in the daytime at Thony's barn and in the sports shops, and the Gampen restaurant at the top and Thony's along the way are the stops for something warm. The run is open daily from 11:15 am to 4:15 pm depending on the snow.