St. Anton am Arlberg Transfers

St. Anton am Arlberg: The Village We Drive From

St. Anton sits at 1,304 metres, at the eastern foot of the Arlberg, where the Stanzertal ends and the mountain begins. For us it is not one destination among many: it is where the company is and where the drivers live. Every transfer on this page begins or ends outside our own front door.

The position also explains why there are six airports rather than one. The Arlberg is the line between Tyrol and Vorarlberg, and St. Anton is on the Tyrolean side — close enough to Innsbruck for a drive of just over an hour, and at the same time within reach of Zurich and Munich, where the international flights land.

The village itself runs along the valley floor, with one main road and the districts to either side of it. That sounds like a detail, but it decides the last five minutes of every journey — more on that further down.

How Your Transfer to St. Anton Works

From booking to the front door it is six steps, and not one of them asks you to decide anything on the day you arrive.

Two Ways into St. Anton

St. Anton is reached from two sides, and which one it is depends not on the weather but on the airport. It is the difference the kilometres in the table above do not show.

From the east, up the Stanzertal

From Innsbruck and Munich the drive comes in from the east: the A12 up the Inn valley to Landeck, where it becomes the S16 and the valley narrows. This is the Stanzertal, past Flirsch, Schnann and Pettneu, with St. Anton at the end of it. The Arlberg tunnel does not come into it at all — the exit lies about a hundred metres before its mouth.

From the west, through the Arlberg tunnel

From Zurich, Altenrhein, Friedrichshafen and Memmingen the drive comes in from the west, up the Rhine valley to Bludenz and along the Klostertal to Langen. There the Arlberg tunnel carries it through — fourteen kilometres under the mountain, the toll inside the fixed price — and it comes out on the Tyrolean side, just short of St. Anton.

What that means for you

Two things. First, the tunnel toll is inside the price on four of the six routes and does not arise at all on the other two — you never pay it separately. Second, the last stretch is a different length: from the east the final twenty minutes are valley mountain road, from the west they are inside the tunnel. What snow does to either is in our guide to road closures.

What the Fixed Price to St. Anton Includes

The transfer price you are given when you book is the price you pay. It is for the vehicle and for up to eight people, not per seat, and it does not move because the flight lands later or because there is more luggage than expected.

• IncludedThe vehicle for up to eight · Austrian road charges and the vignette · the Arlberg tunnel toll where the route goes through it · ski and snowboard carriage · child and booster seats · flight tracking · 60 minutes of free waiting · meet and greet with a name board in arrivals
• Not includedThe gratuity. It is optional, and it is the only thing that is not in the price.

The 60 minutes of waiting

The clock starts at the actual landing, not the scheduled one. Inside Schengen it is typically 15 to 25 minutes from touchdown to the arrivals hall, from outside it takes longer because passport control is added — both run inside that hour. If the flight itself is delayed, the pickup moves with it in full and the hour starts again.

Changes and cancellation

You can change or cancel free of charge up to 24 hours before the pickup. If the flight changes earlier than that — and in winter it sometimes does — just send us the new number; it does not create a new price as long as it is the same journey.

Paying

By card or in cash, before or after the journey. Nothing is taken when you book, and there is no card fee that appears at the end.

What Each Airport Means for the Drive to St. Anton

The table above says how far and how much. It does not say what the drive is like — and that is the difference between two airports that look the same distance away on paper. What follows is the driver’s view rather than the travel agent’s: which flight you get is your decision, and it usually decides the airport — and with it the length of the transfer — as well.

Innsbruck

The shortest of the six and the only one that stays inside Austria the whole way: no border, no second country’s vignette, no tunnel. From the terminal it runs up the Inn valley and into the Stanzertal, 1h 15min in normal conditions. Anyone landing with tired children notices the difference from a three-hour drive straight away. More on our page about Innsbruck Airport transfers.

Altenrhein

The smallest of the six, on the Swiss shore of Lake Constance. Small here means quick: it is rarely more than twenty minutes from stepping off to sitting in the vehicle, because there is one terminal and nothing to walk between. After that the drive runs west up the Rhine valley, across the border and through the Arlberg tunnel. See Altenrhein Airport transfers.

Friedrichshafen

The German side of the same lake, a good half hour further out than Altenrhein. The road is the same western one: along the lake, into Vorarlberg, up the Klostertal and through the tunnel. For a lot of people it is the nearest airport they have never thought of. See Friedrichshafen Airport transfers.

Memmingen

Two hours to the north-west, in the Allgäu. There is a trap here that has nothing to do with the road: some tickets call it Munich, and the two are more than a hundred kilometres apart. The boarding pass says FMM, not MUC — knowing the difference is worth more on the day than any advice about the drive. See Memmingen Airport transfers.

Zurich

The largest of the six, with the widest choice of international flights, and for many guests therefore not a choice at all but a consequence of the timetable. The drive is long but plain: motorway almost the whole way, across the border at Feldkirch, then the Klostertal and the tunnel. Anyone arriving on a long-haul flight often lands here. See Zurich Airport transfers.

Munich

The longest of the six, and the only one where we set the pickup six hours before departure. In exchange you can get there from almost anywhere with one change. The drive comes in from the east, through Tyrol — the tunnel does not come into it. See Munich Airport transfers.

So the closest airport is not automatically the most practical one. Which it turns out to be depends on where you are flying from, when the aircraft goes, what the ticket costs and how much road you want after landing. If you would rather weigh the six against each other, the comparison is in our guide to getting here.

Families and Groups Arriving in St. Anton

A private transfer is a vehicle reserved for your group and nobody else. There are no other passengers to collect and no stops that are not yours — the drive runs from the arrivals hall to the door of where you are staying in St. Anton. After a day of flying with children that is the difference between one journey and a chain of connections.

Up to eight in one vehicle

Eight people with cases and ski equipment travel in one vehicle, because the skis ride outside on the rear rack. Above eight we send two, each at its own fixed price, and both arrive at the same door at the same time. Tell us the group size when you book rather than at the airport.

Winter arrivals in St. Anton

All season we run four-wheel drive, winter tyres and chains on board, and in winter we plan for realistic journey times rather than the best a dry summer night would give. If your flight is late the pickup moves with it — we track the flight number, so you do not have to call. What heavy snow does to the roads themselves is in the guide.

And outside winter

We drive all year, at the same fixed prices. St. Anton in summer is walking and cycling country, and bikes travel with us when arranged beforehand.

Flying Is Not the Only Way to Reach St. Anton

St. Anton is the exception among the main Arlberg villages: the railway reaches the place itself. Anyone arriving by train steps off in the middle of St. Anton rather than down in the valley — Lech, Zürs, Stuben and St. Christoph have no station, and the last part of the journey there is by road from Langen or from St. Anton.

For part of a longer journey that can be a real alternative, particularly without a lot of ski luggage. Where the train arrives, though, another journey begins: from the platform to the door, with cases, often in the dark and in snow. We drive that too — the details are on the page about the taxi from St. Anton railway station.

We are not going to tell you a transfer is always the right answer. Train, shared shuttle, hire car and private transfer each have their case, and we have set them side by side in our guide to getting to St. Anton — including the places where we are the worse choice. What a private transfer actually is, and what it is not, is on the page about private transfers.