Getting Around St. Anton am Arlberg
St. Anton looks like one village on the booking confirmation. On the ground it is four: the pedestrianised centre, Nasserein and St. Jakob down the valley, and St. Christoph up by the Arlberg Pass. You find out which one you are in on the first evening, when the restaurant you booked turns out to be in another.
Often the first time a car is useful is at the station. St. Anton is a Railjet stop with direct trains from Vienna and Zurich, and the station sits in the centre: a short walk if your hotel does too, a drive with luggage if you are staying in St. Jakob or in St. Christoph. Give us the train and its arrival time and the car is booked to meet it.
The evenings are the other time. Friends staying in Lech are about 20 km away over two passes. You can ski to them by day, since the Flexenbahn joined the Arlberg villages into one 300 km ski area, but nobody skis home from dinner. Booked by the hour, one chauffeur and one vehicle stay with you for the time you reserve, there for the drive over and still there for the drive back.
Some guests are here for work. The Arlberg WellCom congress centre, built for the 2001 Alpine World Ski Championships, seats up to 1,950 in its main hall. If you are the one organising, you can set up the whole programme in one account, and each guest gets their own car and their own confirmation: the director going from hotel to meeting, the colleague whose flight came in late, the client you are taking to dinner in Zürs.
The centre is a pedestrian zone, and some streets are closed to general traffic in winter, so send the full address with your booking, and the confirmation will tell you where the car can stop.
Airport Transfers to St. Anton am Arlberg
St. Anton has no airport of its own, so the first decision is which one to fly into. Innsbruck is the closest, about 100 km and a little over an hour away. Friedrichshafen is about 130 km and Memmingen about 170 km. Zurich is about 200 km, around two and a half hours, and as the largest airport within reach it is often the one with the flight times that suit. Munich, at about 250 km, is the long option.
The airport also decides which way you arrive. From Innsbruck and Munich you come up the Inn valley and the S16 and turn off for St. Anton just before the Arlberg Tunnel. From Zurich, Friedrichshafen and Memmingen you come through Feldkirch and Bludenz and reach the village through the tunnel or over the Arlberg Pass. Either way the final stretch is a single valley road, and on winter Saturdays, when most of the Arlberg changes guests on the same day, that is where the time goes.
So the pickup is planned from your flight, not from the map. Book with your flight number: your chauffeur checks the flight status and times the pickup to when you actually land, and your booking confirmation shows where to meet the chauffeur. For the journey home, you set the pickup time yourself, and the confirmation shows it.
Long-Distance & Cross-Border Travel from St. Anton am Arlberg
Not every journey from St. Anton ends at an airport. Some holidays have a second half: a few days in Innsbruck, about 100 km down the Inn valley, or a move to another resort for the rest of the week. Ischgl is in the next valley to the south and Kitzbühel is at the other end of Tyrol, and neither is a simple trip with a week's luggage. By car it is one booking, from the hotel you are leaving to the one you are arriving at.
St. Anton is also closer to three other countries than it is to Vienna. Zurich is about 200 km to the west and Munich about 250 km to the north-east, and for plenty of guests they are where the trip starts or finishes, flight or no flight. Vaduz, Lake Constance and St. Moritz are within reach for a day. A journey across the border is booked the same way as any other, with the same chauffeur and car from start to finish, with no change of vehicle at the border.
Two things are worth knowing before you cross. Switzerland and Liechtenstein are in the Schengen area but outside the EU customs union, so theirs is still a customs border. And checks on borders inside Schengen come and go, so everyone in the car should carry the travel documents their nationality and itinerary require, whichever direction you are heading.
Groups, Ski Equipment & Winter Travel in St. Anton am Arlberg
A ski holiday rarely travels light, or alone. Six friends sharing a chalet arrive with six suitcases, six boot bags and a pile of skis and boards, and that, more than the headcount, is what decides the vehicle. A Sprinter van carries up to 12 people with their bags, and bigger groups go by coach, with up to 56 seats for clubs, school parties and company trips. When you book, tell us what you are bringing as well as how many of you there are, and the vehicle is matched to the load. If the party is landing on different flights, every arrival gets a transfer of its own.
Winter is the other thing to plan around, and mostly it is planned for you. Austrian law requires winter tyres from 1 November to 15 April whenever roads are wintry, and buses are fitted with them for the whole season regardless of the weather. When the Arlberg Pass is not the sensible way in, the tunnel is, and that is the driver's call on the day.
The dates to book early are the obvious ones: Christmas and New Year, and the Saturdays from then until Easter, when most of the Arlberg changes guests at once. Local vehicles and drivers are booked up early for those dates. For anything that does not fit a standard booking, such as several cars for one evening, speak to support and they will put the arrangement together.
