One of the most luxury hotels in one of the highest altitudes in the Arlberg region is Arlberg 1800. This luxury hotel makes up a large portion of this village and is located near the pinnacle of a mountain between Lech, Zurs, and St Anton. Skiing doesn’t come with more snow-sure than this. You literally need to cross the road to board numerous lifts up the mountain and to the nursery slopes. From the mountain top, you can ski into St Anton.
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Best Time To Visit
The best time to visit St Christoph is always in the prime of winter, the end of January to early March, but prices are much cheaper at the start and end of the season, so we feel there is better value to be had in the lower season. Stay anytime from December, including some of January, and then April, when you can grab a bargain at this luxury hotel and throughout the hotels in this region.
How To Get There
Lech in Austria can be reached by train from Innsbruck or Zurich airports. The nearest station is Langen Am Alberg or St Anton Am Alberg. It’s then around a 20-minute taxi ride to the resort.
Location
St Christoph is a tiny village on the road between Lech and St Anton near the top of the Arlberg pass. It accesses the same pistes as its larger neighbor, St Anton. There’s a good nursery slope near the Sporthotel for beginners and a snowpark, terrain park, and halfpipe. Its lower slopes are ideal for beginners, while more advanced skiers have St Anton and Stuben’s ski area. With a resort altitude of 1800m, this is one of the highest hotels in the region.
Style & Character
The hotel itself is traditional in style. The lobby, main bar, and restaurant areas are a mass of dark wood beams and muted lighting. Dark wood and beams also clad the walls, and thick wood pillars separate the rooms into more petite portions.
In the evenings, the atmosphere is wonderful. An enormous open fire in the center of the bar area radiates a warm glow throughout the room. It is the perfect place to enjoy an apres-ski beer or glass of wine.
Kids from the hotel’s main kids club could often be found scoffing a hot chocolate in one corner. Their kind instructor, a caring man who seemed to work late into the evening, looked after resident kids, from skiing them down the slopes to feeding them their meals and drinks in a separate dining room (my boy was invited to their disco!). We felt that he was a huge asset for any family looking to ski while their children also enjoyed skiing with kids their own age.
For adults, the bar area is a great place to relax. The friendly bar staff keeps the venue beautifully cared for, with fresh flowers and lots of nibbles on the tables.
Beyond the bar, the main restaurant serves an extensive multi-course dinner and a lovely breakfast. Each morning, the high-altitude chefs put on an extensive spread of fruits, cereals, yogurts, cheeses, meats, and bread along with hot options, including vats of delicious scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, and boiled eggs, and you could also order a la carte eggs if you prefer.
If you book half board, you also eat in this excellent restaurant each evening. The breakfast buffet area transforms into an elegant salad bar where you can select any salad imaginably and then add your own sauces. Specialties included homemade sauerkraut, cucumbers in a creamy sauce, potato salad, and numerous other alternatives. After the salad bar, there are five more courses each night, including a starter, soup, main, cheese, and desserts.
The mains are on the meaty side, so if you like your pork cheek and so forth, you will be utterly spoiled. I was, however, thrilled when I discovered that you could also request a number of fish dishes too. Particularly good choices were the Char and Salmon. I also love my desserts and one evening, the chef laid out a smorgasbord of almost unending puddings for you to pick from. It was hard to stop! From the mouse and tiramisu to the chocolate-covered strawberries and pots of vanilla custard dotted with crunchy biscuits, berries, and chocolate, I was in dessert heaven.
Service & Facilities
Beyond the food, the facilities at 1800 were almost endless, a huge spa and relaxation area, an indoor pool, a concert hall, an adjoining music room, and an art gallery that was converted to a meeting area for conferences. They even had a large garage-style painting room where you could paint on the walls or make beautiful artwork. Hallways displayed numerous paintings and artwork owned by the hotel owner. He even had a stone room, which was a room with stones on the floor and art on the wall. Yes, you will feel very cultured after a stay at 1800.
Rooms, Suites and Chalet Apartments
The hotel itself has 88 rooms and suites, but we stayed in an ultra-luxury apartment called a chalet suite, which was perfect for a larger family.
Do not be afraid of renting an apartment here. The apartments here are much, much more luxurious than you would imagine when you think of a ski apartment or a ski chalet. All the apartments are finished like something out of Homes and Gardens magazine. They are truly stunning and feel brand new.
Ours was room 911 called “Glen Miller” and was located in a brand new section of the hotel, in a building that only contained these “Chalet Suites.” It had four bedrooms, three doubles, and a fourth bedroom containing two of the most impressive bunk beds I have ever seen, all hand-carved and fitted into coves on either side of the room. Kiddy heaven! All bedrooms were ensuite, although one room shared the ensuite with the kid’s bedroom, Jack and Jill style. The rest of the apartment was modern and beautifully finished. Most of the walls and all the units in the kitchen, as well as the bunk beds and the doors, were all finished in a light pine with a white stain that had been sanded back.
The main living area of the apartment was a really nice size with a separate snug/TV room for the kids, the main lounge, a kitchen off the lounge, and a steam room. The artwork was particularly lovely, by English artist Pete Caswell who paints unbelievably pleasing ski scenes. My husband liked these so much that he immediately bought two pieces directly from the artist.
The apartment was apparently owned by a British family, and as a result, you had everything you needed to entertain your family and your friends, including an array of English board games and numerous books on wine, entertaining, and skiing to read, plus the apartment also had full cooking facilities if you wanted to self cater, rather than eat in the hotel.
There were, in fact, 13 of these “Chalet Suite” apartments ranging in size, with the largest at the top, which had a rustic barn-style pine ceiling, stunning light fittings, a gorgeous corner kitchen, and an ice bucket above the shower so you could blast yourself with freezing ice before or after your shower or steam.
It was lovely to stay in an apartment, a true home from home in the snow, and yet we had all the facilities of the hotel available less than a 5-minute walk away. Just hop in the lift, stroll through the art gallery, and voila, you’re in the center of the hotel without having to go outside.
Final Thoughts
If you like to ski, I guarantee you’ll love the convenience and snow-sure slopes around Arlberg 1800. If you are into your culture and your art, you will be blown away by the concerts and collections here. If you want a family ski trip, you won’t find a more homely yet luxurious apartment in the snow.
Arlberg 1800 is so high that it is often in the clouds (twice while we were there), but the warmth of the staff combined with the fireside ambiance provides a warm and welcoming haven in this extraordinary mountaintop setting.
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