Lech am Arlberg Ski Resort Austria
Lech ski resort is where the rich & famous go to play in the snow & the rest of us go to watch them and ski all the lovely stuff they don't! Lech is also part of the fabulous Ski Arlberg region & in one of the snowiest parts of Austria. The rich & famous come here for a reason - the skiing is exceptional. On a powder day during the storm you may well find yourself alone on the slopes, which makes Lech a Powderhounds delight. Ware when the sun comes out though ...
Lech is a traditional Austrian ski resort with a cosmopolitan town, high-quality accommodation, lively bars & excellent restaurants. And whilst the sophistication of Lech is apparent, it doesn’t overpower the long-established charm of the town, its beautiful alpine location, & excellence of the ski experience.
The lift-accessed backcountry terrain at Lech is absolutely world-class and is why we will always come back for more. And as for the rich & famous at Lech ..... who cares? They are just people. We feel our wealthiest skiing deep powder, not sipping overpriced champagne, but each to their own! Come to Lech & enjoy one of the world's most fabulous snow & ski locations.
Pros & Cons for Lech Ski Resort
Pros
- Fabulous lifts, facilities & terrain for everyone (families with children, intermediates, & advanced skiers).
- Snow-sure with a high annual average snowfall.
- Loads of ski-in ski-out accommodations.
- Incredible, world class, lift-accessed backcountry terrain where untracked snow can be found long after the last storm (skinners are grinners)
- Centrally located in Ski Arlberg & fully interconnected with magnificent St Anton, Zurs & snowy Warth Schröcken.
- Fun après ski activities.
- Superb standard of hotel accommodation.
- Excellent restaurants.
- Ski lifts progressively being upgraded & ‘future proofed’.
- One lift pass for the entire ski region (& no bus connections required).
Cons
- Busy when the sun comes out (on-piste anyway!).
- Expensive accommodation.
- Despite the above, accommodation can be hard to get if you leave to the last minute!
Pro or Con (depending on your perspective!)
- Traditional Austrian ski resort & culture.
- Less lively après scene than nearby St Anton, but better than Zuers!
- Lift pass getting into expensive realm, but you get what you pay for!
- Fashionable with the nobility & those who enjoy a little chic flair (.. not that one really notices any difference to a whole lot of other alleged ‘fancy’ ski resorts across the globe!).
- Not the easiest place to travel to in winter - no direct train transport link and road access can be challenging via the Flexen Pass. (The buses from the St Anton or Langen-am-Arlberg train stations are excellent though!)
- Epic Pass now conditionally valid, so will be interesting to see who the resort attracts?
Skiing & Snowboarding, Lifts & Terrain
The Lech ski & snowboard terrain is well suited to beginners & intermediates. Only one black run graces the pistes but there are several funtastic (sic) ski routes & widespread off-piste skiing to challenge most advanced & expert riders. That said, some of the runs are quite 'under-rated', such as the main 'beginner' run under the chairlift heading back into Lech - it is intermediate at the start of the day & advanced by the end of the day! Most ski routes in the resort get regularly groomed so are as close to piste trails as the piste trails ......... go figure!
Check out the ski trail map for Lech & surrounding interlinked resorts below.
Considering that most of Ski Arlberg’s toughest terrain is around St Anton & Stuben, relatively few advanced skiers venture to Lech, so a major plus is that the off-piste freeride areas don’t get tracked out too quickly on any of the many powder days! We can vouch for the ski routes all being untracked for our own personal pleasure during a winter storm in high season. When the storms pass and the powder is tracked, challenge yourself to do the Alps longest ski-circuit - the 85km Run of Fame. Leave early, you'll need all day to do it.
The ski lifts at Lech were previously an intriguing mix of bright shiny modern cable cars, gondolas & 6-seater chairlifts plus a whole lot of old clunky surface lifts & double chairs. But in a land of super competitive mega ski resorts, several of the older lifts were replaced for season 21/22, including the old 2-seater chairlifts from Zug & the nearby Madloch. Both are important on the very popular Weiße Ring (White Ring) ski-circuit. From ancient double chairs, they have respectively been replaced with a 10-person gondola and a 6-seater chair. Now that is what we call future proofing! Or is it just keeping up with demand?
Lift Pass Interlinked with Ski Arlberg
Lech ski resort is fully lift, piste & lift pass interlinked with all the Ski Arlberg ski areas including Zürs, Zug, Warth-Schröcken, St Anton (incl. Stuben & St Christoph) providing guests with access to 87 ski lifts & over 305km of piste trails (not including another 200km worth of ski routes). For international guests, the Vail Resort's Epic Pass is now valid for use on the lifts with strict conditions.
Check out the ski trail map for Ski Arlberg Region below.
For more detailed information on lifts, terrain, lift passes, snow & maps, see the Lech Skiing & Snowboarding page.
Where is Lech Austria?
Lech is in Vorarlberg state, western Austria on the banks of the river Lech. The ski resort and town of Lech-am-Arlberg is 120 km west of Innsbruck & 20km from the legendary town & ski resort of St Anton. The town of Zurs (& its associated ski area) is 5km south of Lech, with Zug 3km to the west. Other nearby villages include Oberlech & Stubenbach.
Gateway airports to Lech are Innsbruck (INN), Zurich (ZRH) & Munich (MUC), with Zurich being the most convenient for most international visitors. Many people heading to Lech will prefer a private transfer direct from the airport. Search & book here for all airport transfers. It is easy to travel to Lech from all the airports by train to St Anton or Langen-am-Arlberg & then take a local bus (or taxi) direct to the centre of town. Driving to Lech from the north via Warth is not possible in winter due to seasonal road closures.
For detailed information on the best ways to get there, see the Travel to Lech page.
Lech-am-Arlberg Accommodation
The town of Lech am Arlberg offers a massive range of accommodations with a quintessentially Austrian ski resort village atmosphere. Development has been restrained along traditional lines. The centre of town bustles through the day with a steady stream of well-dressed guests & locals heading to the slopes, browsing the shops or enjoying the bars & restaurants.
With hundreds of options to choose from, the various Lech accommodations range from excellent pensions like the Pension Cafe Fritz, up to numerous grand 5-star hotels such as the Gasthof Post. Other Lech accommodation options include private chalets & apartments dotted throughout town. Accommodation in Lech is highly sought after & can book out quickly for high season dates. Note that the skiing can be awesome at either end of the season so leave your options open if you can. For an incredible 'small' hotel experience, try to get a room at the Alpenland, located in our favorite part of Lech just above town near the Flühen ski lifts, but so quiet & still within a stroll of everything.
Search & book all Lech ski accommodation.
Above the main town, Oberlech provides the absolute best place to rest one’s head for the night. A range of superb chalets & hotels like the Hotel Sonnenburg are slopeside & offer the convenience of being ski-in /ski-out. Access is via a cable car to the upper village. On sunny days these hotels do a roaring lunchtime trade in their wonderful restaurants, plus everyone congregates on the sun terraces to work on their tan.
The tiny village of Zug is connected by a new gondola & regular free bus to Lech providing a perfect place for relative solitude after the White Ring skiers have cruised through by early afternoon. The fringes of Lech included toward Stubenbach are delightfully quiet throughout the day & still within easy walking distance, or free ski bus, to the centre of town. Another refuge from the masses near Lech is arguably the Arlberg’s best overnight location, Zürs.
For more detailed information on the best accommodation, see our Where to Stay in Lech page.
Ski Rentals, Lessons & Mountain Guides
Our local partners have numerous ski & snowboard gear rental locations throughout Lech. Receive a discount when you compare, search & book on our Lech Ski & Snowboard Rentals page.
Lech has a mind-boggling array of ski instructors & ski schools plying their trade in the resort & adjoining valleys. Similarly, if you want to venture off piste at Lech or the greater ski Arlberg area, it is handy to have a guide to show the way. To narrow down the field, search & book a private ski lesson or mountain guide with the best providers on our Lech & Ski Arlberg Ski Lessons & Guiding page.
Lech Activities
As expected of any major European ski resort a full range of other winter activities are available at Lech once the knees have finally given way. Sleigh rides, ice-skating, cross-country skiing, winter walking & sledding are just a few of the multitude of possibilities to check out once you arrive.
Review
The Powderhounds reviewed Lech in 2019 & then twice again during the peak of the season in February & March 2024. A great time was had, including enjoying a cold, snowy day in deep powder with almost no one else on the slopes and then sampling wonderful, untacked, lift-accessed backcountry powder when the rest of the Alps was struggling for snow. Click on the review link in the left column (or top of the page if on a mobile) to read its inciteful & witty prose.
See how Lech & the other Ski Arlberg resorts compare to the rest of the Austrian ski resorts on the Austria ski resort ratings page, or compare to the rest of Europe on the European ski resort ratings page.
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