Lech

Lech is the refined side of the Arlberg, a beautifully kept village that pairs some of the most reliable snow in the Alps with quiet, understated luxury. It shares the vast Arlberg area with St. Anton but keeps a calmer feel.

Skyspace-Lech, free to walk into. The single best free thing in either resort. A walk in light installation by James Turrell, sunk into the hillside at Tannegg at 1,780 m above Oberlech, with a retractable dome open to the sky and room for thirty people inside. Entry during opening hours costs nothing and donations go into a slot under the screen in the entrance tunnel.

The Lechmuseum at the Huber-Hus, admission by donation. A village museum inside a historic Walser house where you set the entry price yourself, which is as close to free as a museum gets. The current exhibition is about how the Arlberg has been photographed since photography began and how tourism changed what the pictures were for, and it runs right through our season. There is a photo lab inside where families and children are welcome, and a set of museum mouse characters and Tonie figures for the smallest ones.

Fifty kilometres of groomed winter walking. Groomed, signed and published route by route with distances, times, ascent and difficulty on each one, which is more than most resorts manage. The character is different from St. Anton's: shorter, higher, more of it looping round the villages and less of it going up one long valley, and two of the routes finish at the Skyspace.

The blue local bus, free with a ski ticket. The bus that joins every district together, Lech, Oberlech, Zug, Stubenbach and Zurs, at short intervals through the day and tighter still at the morning and afternoon peaks. Line 703 between Lech and Zurs runs every ten minutes in peak season and line 704 goes up to Oberlech, last stop Schlossle. It is what makes staying in Zug or Zurs workable without a car, and anybody holding a valid ski ticket rides for nothing.

Oberlech, car free, on foot. A practical fact distinctive enough to be worth its own entry. The Burgplateau at Oberlech, 1,750 m, is car free from December through to April and can only be reached by the Bergbahn Oberlech. Every hotel up there is joined to the next by an underground tunnel system, so guests and their luggage move between buildings without going outside at all.

Der Weisse Ring, free to watch. The Arlberg's mass participation classic and a fixed date in the middle of January that works as well for somebody who is not skiing as for somebody who is. A twenty two kilometre circuit round Lech, Zurs, Zug and Oberlech with five and a half thousand metres of ascent and descent in it, watched from alongside the course and at the finish, with a race commentary running through the village all day.

Tanzcafe Arlberg, the Rufiplatz stage. The Lech half of the free spring music festival that St. Anton runs the other end of. The village stage is on the Rufiplatz, right in the middle of Lech and reachable on foot from anywhere in the village, and every concert on it is free with no booking of any kind. Admission from half past one in the afternoon, first come first served.

The Oberlech to Lech toboggan run. Shorter and gentler than St. Anton's and with far better hours. One and a bit kilometres through snow covered forest from Oberlech down into the middle of the village, dropping two hundred metres, prepared daily, floodlit, and open from nine in the morning until nine at night every day of the winter. Under 20 euros.

Single ascents, every one priced for this winter. The practical difference between the two ends of the Arlberg. Lech has published a fare for every lift it runs this coming winter and St. Anton has not, so a guest who wants to go up once and come back down can be quoted an exact figure here. All of them are return, up and down. The Rufikopfbahn at twenty nine euros is the one that matters most, because it is the way onto the high panorama walk. 20 to 50 euros.

The Sonnenabo, the pedestrian pass. Seven consecutive days on the main cable cars at both ends of the Arlberg on one card, needing a photograph and nothing else. In Lech and Zurs it covers the Zugerbergbahn, Rufikopfbahn, Schlegelkopfbahn, Schlosskopfbahn, Weibermahdbahn, Petersbodenbahn, Seekopfbahn, Zurserseebahn, both Trittkopfbahn sections and the Flexenbahn, and then everything in St. Anton and St. Christoph as well. At 201.00 it is the buy for somebody who really will ride lifts most days. Over 50 euros.

All 24 picks for Lech, dining included, live in the Ski Snug app.

Innsbruck is about an hour and a half away, with Zurich a comfortable alternative.