A Week In Zermatt
Travel Tips for Zermatt
The only train into Zermatt departs from Visp and takes nearly an hour.
Food in Zermatt is extremely expensive – the most expensive we encountered in Europe over three months. Eat grocery store meals or cook to save money, or else budget $20 minimum per meal per person. Better yet, pack a picnic from a grocery store and enjoy the views!
You’re going to be doing tons of hiking in Zermatt so be prepared with plenty of sun protection. It’s essential as there are very few if any trees on the popular hikes.
Check to make sure you’re not booking a stay on a mountain side or huge hill. You won’t enjoy walking 100 meters uphill to get home every day.
The public buses are more like vans. Space fills quickly and you may find yourself packed in like a sardine with others.
Our Travels In Zermatt
Zermatt is one of the most famous small towns in Europe thanks to the Matterhorn. There was no way we could miss such a perfect trail loving town! Yours truly had thankfully recovered from a fever in Bern before departing to Zermatt. From Bern we arrived in Visp early because the only trains to Zermatt depart from that station. They look close on a map but it’s a long beautiful ride through the mountains. This was one train ride I didn’t fall asleep on! Sit on the left side of the train going towards Zermatt for the best views of mountains, valleys, and glacier creeks. However, be aware that you can’t see the Matterhorn from the train.
Not long after arriving, we felt a little out of place.
Menus posted in the restaurant windows only offered $25 plates. Souvenirs were double the price anywhere we had visited since we arrived in Europe. Speaking of doubles, it seemed like the average visitor age was nearly double ours! We were in the most expensive city that we would visit in Europe in groups that could actually afford to visit. Thankfully I had found a fully furnished apartment outside the central area that came with a kitchen. We cooked every meal while in Zermatt except for the greasy goodness of a $2.98 cheeseburger at McDonald’s. We’re now connoisseurs of microwave meals and frozen pizzas, and let me tell you what, Swiss frozen meals put American frozen meals to shame! Maybe Swiss food is so expensive that there must be cheaper yet still tasty options created in the frozen section. People would probably riot otherwise.
The point is we didn’t starve! Calories are especially important in trail towns like Zermatt because you hike to most things worth visiting. Every day came with a hike for us starting with the famous Five Lakes trail. The aptly named trail starts in the mountains and connects five alpine lakes.
Anybody that knows me well knows that I love me some hiking, but famous five lakes was actually fairly disappointing. Despite the amazing views of everything everywhere, the trail isn’t very interesting in itself. Hear me out. The lakes are pretty, but they’re crowded with tourists. You won’t have a moment to yourself anywhere unless you’re up there before 9. Navigating is also frustrating. The main trail crosses dozens of other maintenance, biking, and other hiking trails making it very tough to stay in trail. You’re almost guaranteed to take the wrong route but eventually reach the right place. That also makes the terrain far less natural than you’d expect. The lack of vegetation doesn’t help, either. Between the open rocky landscape, hundreds of people, and many maintenance roads it’s tough to immerse yourself in such an otherwise majestic place. I’m glad we hiked Five Lakes once, but we probably would not do it again on our next visit to Zermatt.
Our two favorite hikes were actually less popular. The first was a hike through the seasonal trail Gorner Gorge. The trail is a wooden boardwalk in a ravine above the Gornera River. There’s a 10 CHF fee to enter, but you’ll also be nearly alone hiking above rapids and waterfalls! Even the trail to reach the Gorner Gorge boardwalk goes through a pretty mountain forest. Timing your visit in the mid afternoon will allow the sun to enter the gorge. The second hike was to the Matterhorn base camp! The Hörnli Hut is a mountain house on the slopes of the Matterhorn where many alpinists begin their Matterhorn summit attempt. It was closed when we visited but the trail was open. After a very long cable car ride up the mountains we began our ascent.
I mentioned it once before but I’ll say it again, Swiss steep is much worse than American steep!
We mountain goated our way up very steep sections precariously made of loose gravel.All views in Zermatt are postcard worthy, but the views from this trail are magic! The Matterhorn towers right above you the entire hike. On a clear day you’ll see tiny Zermatt below and every peak in the region around you. The last push is a true alpine section. You hike along a bouncy metal grate above a huge drop. Anyone with a fear of heights will have a terrible time because you can see straight through the grate down the drop below. Add in that the walkway has missing sections and you have a proper test of fortitude. Ultimately the trail was iced over just after this section so we couldn’t continue, but what an amazing hike!
Everything in Europe worth seeing is uphill, but in Zermatt everything is three to four hours of hiking uphill. We couldn’t afford to lose a third of a day every day, but we also couldn’t afford all the cable cars to save time.
We rode them anyway. The cable cars took us almost everywhere we needed and saved us probably a full day of hiking. Anyone visiting Zermatt must budget a hundred CHF or more for cable car rides. As I said, they save sooooo much time but will cost a wallet in a weekend if you have a large group. The Swiss GA Pass and other Swiss travel passes give discounts on Zermatt’s cable car passes so invest in a travel pass when you visit Switzerland. Depending on the pass, the train ride to Zermatt may also become free! Hiking uphill can become really tough anywhere, but doing it daily can even become a grind. That’s why we enjoyed everything in Zermatt except one thing: walking home. Our apartment was great, but it was situated half a mile from the center of town, there was limited bus service, and the last section was a 100 meter uphill walk.
Every time we left we had to climb back up roughly 350 feet to get to our front door. This wasn’t a gradual climb – it was only across a couple of blocks. Sometimes we managed to catch the only bus, but there are only two total bus routes in Zermatt. The busses are also the size of a soccer mom’s minivan. Space goes quickly. All the to say we had a daily workout returning home. When you visit Zermatt make sure you check the elevation of your home along with the bus route so you’re not huffing and puffing home like us.
The view I was most excited to photograph was also a mile away from us. For three days straight before sunrise and sunset I walked the two mile round trip down our hill, across town, up the mountain side, and back.
I kept returning so many times hoping for clouds but only found clear skies. Clear skies make for a great view, but a great view doesn’t make a great image. Even though I’m not as happy with my image as I could have been, I am happy that my attempts lead me to watch sunrise and sunset at such a pretty place. I wouldn’t have braved the freezing temperature without the motivation of photography.
I would have been happily warm in bed resting from the past day’s hikes. So often it’s very easy to stay comfortable and have a nice time. (Chandni’s note: “this is what I do most mornings”) It’s very hard to choose being uncomfortable hoping for a better time.
