Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

A long weekend in one of my favourite places on the planet – St Anton in Austria, where wild flowers and pine trees cover the green hills, where the air is fresh and where the locals really like beer and potatoes. We went hiking, tried yoga up in the mountains and took to the skies to paraglide over this alpine paradise.

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria
Image via Sequin This

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

I thought I was in love with St Anton after a happy few days skiing here in the winter. I like snow, I like hot wine, I like racing through a fairyland white wilderness all day with a gaggle of hilarious girls. How could St Anton differ much when the snow had melted and the sun shone?

But it turns out that this alpine gem is even lovelier in the summer. When our skiing girl gang (that’s Annie of Tales of Annie Bean, Sarah of Sequin This and Helen of the Manchester Evening Post) arrived, all world weary and teary from the Brexit announcement, St Anton was an immediate and effective tonic. The streets were fresh from recent rain, the enticing hills rose up all around and a music festival was taking place, with locals dressed in lederhosen and dirndls playing traditional folk songs in every cafe and bar.

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

There was more food for the soul the next morning. We took the chair lift up to the mountains I’d been gazing at hungrily the day before. It felt oddly light and free to sit on a ski lift without skis on, and it was a beautiful way to look down on St Anton’s thick pine forests and remote wooden cabins, cows grazing on grass where I’d only ever seen pristine pistes. Whilst the locals might all be mad-keen skiiers in winter they make sure they keep fit in the summer too, by hiking, mountain biking, and increasingly, practising yoga. The first Mountain Yoga Festival will be held here from the 1st of September, and we got a taste of what a wonderful place St Anton will be for a sun salute with instructor Sandy Duncan. After class we unrolled our mats outside on a wooden platform looking across at the mountains, shrouded in a thick mist. You can check our moves out in this video introducing the festival.

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

 

After exploring St Anton’s wide open spaces I wanted to go get lost in its miles of forest. One of the easiest ways to take to the mountain roads in the area is on the sturdy electric bikes which can be rented in town (or grab the St Anton Summer Card, which includes free activities such as cycling and hiking as well as free use of the chair lifts). They make the tortuous hill climbs easier and leave you free to explore much more of the woods, which are rather like living inside a Heidi illustration – all fragrant pines and duck-egg blue lakes, roaring rivers and bright alpine flowers.

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

St Anton isn’t just the perfect place to get active – it’s steeped in history, too, with a lovely museum dedicated to its past as the ‘cradle of alpine skiing’, back in the days when ladies would wear huge wooden skis and a billowing woolly skirt to careen down the pistes. And the old traditions are strong in St Anton today – we were all fascinated by the local ladies in their beautiful dirndl dresses, an essential part of an Austrian’s wardrobe. The wonderful Wilma, our adopted mama for the weekend, had a surprise for us – she’d brought four of her dirndls for us to wear. An amazing idea, except for the fact that Wilma is on the petite side. We withdrew to our hotel’s gorgeous medieval sitting room and attempted dirndl dressing – first a blouse, then a tight corset buttoned up the front, then an apron tied in certain ways according to your marital status. It was the funniest outfit I have ever tried to put on, mainly because poor Helen had been given the tiniest of the corsets and had to lie on the floor and gasp for air whilst we attempted to button her up, shaking with laughter. Girl bonding, eh?

 

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

The next morning we swapped our fineries for waterproofs and went hiking in the foothills. Up close, the landscape was teeming with small wonders – we spotted a shiny salamander, black as liquorice, tiny forget-me-nots and white edelweiss. We learnt to identify medicinal plants used by locals to make soothing syrups and muscle rubs. And after our walk we retired to a mountain hut to eat giant portions of Tiroler gröstl (potato, bacon and fried egg hash, aka heaven) with lashings of hot coffee, looking out over the hills.

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria
Image via Tales of Annie Bean

The best view of St Anton was still to come. On our final day we headed up to the high mountains, where snow still lay in furrows on the ground. We were there to meet the paragliders from Flight Connections Arlberg. They strapped us expertly into parachutes and with very little ado we trotted off the edge of a cliff and, magically, were instantly caught by the wind and floated high above the white peaks. As we sailed on thermals tiny St Anton lay far below, like a wooden toy town. Paragliding is one of the most addictive adrenaline rushes I’ve ever experienced – this must be a what it feels like to be a bird.

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

HOTEL SCHWARZER ADLER
We stayed at the Hotel Schwarzer Adler. Traditional and cosy, rooms were comfortably old-fashioned but the spa was as modern as they come, with an outdoor sky pool to float in after a hard day hiking in the sunshine. The staff were all utterly charming, too – they let us stuff our faces with cake at tea time and didn’t even laugh at us running around in dirndls. The restaurant is worth seeking out even if you’re staying elsewhere – they serve up delicious, carefully prepared local fare in their candlelit restaurant. Rooms £76 per person per night on half board.

Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

Thanks for the adventures, St Anton. Your army of fangirls will be back.
Summer in St Anton Am Arlberg, Austria

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4 Comments

  1. August 6, 2016 / 1:21 pm

    This is just utterly sweet and perfect in every way. I adore those dirndl dress and what a delightful bunch of girlfriends you have. It sounds like St Anton is heaven on earth – one day, maybe I too will walk those beautiful hills 🙂

  2. August 8, 2016 / 10:51 am

    Love this, Sian! Such a great round-up of an amazing trip. And your new blog layout looks fab too 🙂 let’s get planning our next #ThisGirlCan adventure! x

    Sarah | Sequin This

  3. sian
    Author
    August 8, 2016 / 11:02 am

    New layout totally inspired by your gorgeous blog! xxx

  4. August 9, 2016 / 9:04 am

    Glad you Girls had such an awesome time here in my hometown! Was a pleasure to share the mountain yoga on Gampen with you and hope we can do it again in the future-this time with some sun shine