St Anton Ski Holidays

St. Anton is extremely popular with skiers from around the globe, offering some 260kms of piste including Lech, Zars, Stuben and St. Christoph plus 180 kilometres of off-piste routes; it is rated by many as one of the world’s premier five star skiing resorts. This resort is famous for its fantastic skiing and outstanding apres-ski which is considered some of the best in Europe.

Hotels in this resort

St Anton Guide

This resort also holds a great snow record and a village which is bursting with traditional Austrian charm, this all helps to make St. Anton a truly world class ski and snowboard destination. It is a very cosmopolitan town which is vibrant and exciting and played host to the Alpine Ski World Championships in 2001. The transfer time from Innsbruck to St. Anton is just one and a half hours.

There is an average snowfall of 7m during the winter months in St. Anton and it has 260kms of runs including the longest ski run which is the Valluga / Ulmer Hutte / St Anton of 10.2kms. A 40kms cross country skiing area is also available to entice the enthusiast. Additionally the uphill transport can shift 123,600 people an hour, so this is a skier’s paradise.

The winter season starts in November and there are special package rates and regular skiers will be aware of the Snow Crystal Week which offers a lift pass with a saving of 25 per cent on the usual low season rate in the first week only. As a guaranteed snow resort, early December skiing holidays in St. Anton are proving to be increasingly popular and the Snow Crystal Week is followed by Wedel Weeks until mid December.

Considered to mainly be an experts’ resort, St. Anton has serious off-piste, moguls and powder. The pistes at St. Anton tend to be under graded, but with first-class guidance and tuition, the mountain can be enjoyed by most levels, except for complete novices.

86 ski lifts are available, catering for 134 slopes, so there are more than plenty to occupy your time. The Galzigbahn is a fantastic cableway system based on a ferris wheel. Skiers enter one of the 28 gondolas at ground level, which then rise back to the cable by use of the ferris wheel.

The capacity stretches to 2,000 skiers per hour; therefore waiting times have become a thing of the past. Then there is the Arlenmahderbahn which is a 6 seater chair incorporating protective hoods. It can transport up to 2,600 skiers per hour and has replaced the existing drag lift.

Skiers can spend their whole day, if they wish, in this spacious winter sports arena – using such diverse pistes, all without skiing on the same run twice. St. Anton is definitely an exciting skiing area and such internationally famous names as the ‘Valluga’ piste create excitement even amongst the most experienced skiers.

Pfannenkopf is an example of one of the most difficult of pistes and is considered to be quite extreme. With the variety of runs available in St. Anton the resort will be sufficient for some skiers, but if not the adjoining villages such as St. Christoph, Stuben, Zurs and Lech can easily be reached by using the regular connecting transport links.

Nightlife

As well as the buzz and excitement on the slopes, St. Anton’s mountainside bars start to fill up by mid-afternoon and the party crowd head for the bars and terraces of ‘Bar Cuba’, the ‘Krazy Kangaruh’ and the legendary ‘Mooserwirt’ which are located a short, distance away from the resort centre.

The nightlife in St Anton is vibrant and features a wide choice of lively clubs and bars which are open until the early hours. The village of St. Anton is itself surprisingly small and compact. There are a vast choice of cafes and bars as well as quality traditional and international restaurants, plus sports and fashion shops, along its pedestrianised main street.

St. Anton’s railway station is a brief walk away from the centre of the resort. There is a leisure and wellness centre, including ice skating and curling rinks. In addition to this there is even an indoor swimming pool, connected to an outdoor pool, complete with waterfall. Sleigh rides are also available locally. A variety of accommodation is also on offer in St. Anton, to suit all budgets and tastes.

This ski resort is truly worthy of a visit and will not disappoint. Suitable for single ski holidays, families, groups and couples; there is a lot going on in this vibrant village to occupy everyone, from the extreme skier to non skiers too.