Lech & Zürs am Arlberg

The Arlberg villages combine deep snow records with a quietly aristocratic hospitality culture. Family-run houses of exceptional standard, ski-in chalets and the Weisse Ring circuit define Austrian winter luxury.

Lech and Zürs lie in the Vorarlberg, in Austria’s far west, on the high Arlberg massif that is often described as the cradle of Alpine skiing: Hannes Schneider founded his ski school in neighbouring St. Anton in the 1920s. Lech, at 1,450 metres, is a farming village with an onion-domed church beside the river; Zürs, higher on the Flexen Pass, is almost entirely a winter resort.

Since 2016 the villages have been linked by lift with St. Anton, St. Christoph and Warth-Schröcken in Ski Arlberg, the largest connected ski area in Austria. Lech limits the number of skiers on its slopes each day, and its hotels are almost all owned and run by local families across generations.

The season runs from early December to late April, and the Arlberg is among the most snow-sure regions in the Alps, with Warth-Schröcken recording some of the heaviest snowfall in the Eastern Alps. Christmas, New Year and February are the peak weeks; in January, Der Weisse Ring race sends around a thousand skiers around the classic circuit through Lech, Zürs and Oberlech.

March and April bring long days and spring snow on the sunny Oberlech terraces. In summer Lech becomes a walking and cultural village, with the Lech Classic Festival in August and the Philosophicum Lech in September. Most hotels close between late April and late June, and again from late September to December.

Lech’s hotels are mostly family-owned houses, run for generations by the same Arlberg families. Post Lech Arlberg, the former Gasthof Post, in the centre of the village, combines painted wooden interiors with a spa and a celebrated kitchen. Almhof Schneider stands at the foot of the Schlegelkopf lift, and Aurelio Lech, a small ski-in house above the village, offers the most private stay on the mountain. In Zürs, the Grand Resort Zürserhof keeps the long tradition of the higher village.

None of these belongs to a hotel group, and the right one depends on the skiing, the privacy and the evening life wanted. LVXVRY advises on that choice and arranges each stay directly with the hotel, where rooms for the core winter weeks, from Christmas to the end of the Easter holidays, are often allocated to returning guests well in advance.