Whilst St Anton is well known for both its skiing and its plentiful après-ski, there is a wide range of other stuff that can be done in town, either when the weather is too bad to ski or in the evening.

The phenomenon of Wellness Centres seems to be a fairly peculiar feature of ski resorts. Both the resorts I have been to this season, St Anton and Kaprun, have fairly new and spectacular Wellness Centres. In St Anton the centre is situated near the main Galzig bubble in town and opposite the old railway station. When St Anton hosted the 2001 skiing World Championships, a host of new buildings were built to deal with the influx of athletes, spectators and press into town. The Arlberg Wellness Centre is the result of a conversion of the former World Championship press headquarters, and now features both a state of the art leisure centre as well as a range of conference and event facilities. The main attraction of the Wellness centre is its state of the art indoor and outdoor swimming pools. Whilst the indoor pool is fun with a waterfall and bubble pool, it is the heated outdoor pool that holds the real charm. Swimming outside in heavy snow, is a very surreal but also enjoyable experience.

Outside the wellness centre, is St Anton’s only ice-rink. This plays host to a range of outdoor activities from curling, to ice hockey matches on some evenings. Friday night at the ice rink sees the weekly ice disco that is definitely worth checking out.

The Rodelbahn toboggan run, snakes down 4km, through the trees, from the top of the Nasserein bubble lift into the centre of the Nasserein region of St Anton. During the day, this can be accessed using your normal lift pass and toboggans can be rented for a small fee (8 euros) from any of the ski shops in town. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the toboggan run is open at night. This is usually great fun, however you need to buy a special lift pass that is 12 euros for the evening, and gives you as many runs as you are able to fit in.

Situated near the train station the Arlrock centre hosts a wide range of other après ski activities as well as containing one of St Anton’s rare internet cafes. One of the main attractions here is Austrian Bowling. This differs significantly from British bowling, in that there are only nine pins arranged in a diamond formation, and the balls are significantly smaller. It also employs a different scoring system, that I had trouble getting my head around when I tried last Thursday. On top of this, the Arlrock plays host to numerous other activities including indoor rock climbing, an indoor tennis and football pitch and a shooting range.