Lech vs St. Anton: Which Arlberg Ski Town Should You Base In?

The practical footing

Common questions

Are Lech and St. Anton on the same ski pass?

Yes. One Ski Arlberg pass covers the whole region, Lech, Zürs, St. Anton, Stuben, and Warth-Schröcken, and since the Flexenbahn cable car linked the two sides, you can ski between them without ever boarding a bus.

Can you ski from Lech to St. Anton?

Yes, the areas are lift-linked via Zürs in both directions, and the signed Run of Fame route crosses the entire Arlberg, 85 kilometres and 18,000 vertical metres in total by Ski Arlberg's figures. Ski Arlberg says skilled skiers can finish the full circuit in a day and recreational skiers need two or more; for a simple Lech to St. Anton round trip, start early and watch the last connecting lifts home.

Which is easier to get to, Lech or St. Anton?

St. Anton, comfortably: the tourism board describes it as a Railjet station with seven direct connections a day from both Vienna and Zurich, and the valley lifts start in the village. For Lech you take the train to Langen am Arlberg or St. Anton, then a scheduled bus, shuttle, or taxi up; Lech Zürs Tourism puts Langen station about 15 kilometres and roughly 20 minutes from Lech Zürs, and St. Anton station about 20 kilometres and roughly 30 minutes.

Is Lech or St. Anton better for beginners?

Lech, clearly. Its home slopes are gentler and quieter, and the ski schools work calmer terrain. St. Anton's reputation is earned on steep, demanding runs, and true beginners there can feel over-mountained by day two.

Does Lech get more snow than St. Anton?

The official figures do not split it by village. Ski Arlberg publishes one number for the whole area, an average of 9 metres of natural snowfall per season, and both sides share it on one pass. What does differ is altitude: St. Anton's village sits at 1,304 metres, Lech's skiing begins at 1,450 metres and Zürs at about 1,700, by the resorts' own figures, while the lift system tops out at 2,811 metres on the Valluga above St. Anton. In our reading, the higher villages are the steadier bet for snow cover down to the door early and late in the season, but that rests on altitude alone: we found no official village-by-village snowfall figure.

Can you stay between Lech and St. Anton, in Zürs or St. Christoph?

Yes, and for a skier who wants both sides it is a neat answer. Zürs, at about 1,700 metres, sits on the lift link between Lech and the St. Anton side; the tourism board says all its hotels offer ski-in, ski-out, and it is high and small, with hotel bars and a few après and late-night spots rather than St. Anton's scale of nightlife. St. Christoph, at 1,793 metres up on the Arlberg pass about 7 kilometres from St. Anton, is a hamlet of around 40 residents and roughly 700 guest beds by the tourism board's figures, slope-side and calm, with evenings mostly spent in your hotel. Our Lech where-to-stay guide covers Zürs and Stuben, and our guide to the best ski-in, ski-out hotels in Austria names the Zürs and St. Christoph hotels whose own sites describe getting to and from the piste.