Things to do in Zermatt

Zermatt sits at about 1,600 metres at the head of the Mattertal. The Matterhorn above it is 4,478 metres high. Petrol and diesel cars are banned, so things to do in Zermatt happen on foot, by rail or by cable car.

The village on foot

The official village walk is a loop of 1.8 kilometres, about an hour and a half. It passes all of this.

• Hinterdorf. The old quarter: more than thirty larch barns and stores from the 16th to 18th centuries, many raised on stone slabs to keep mice out.
• Matterhorn Museum. Zermatlantis, built underground as a reconstructed village of fourteen houses, with the rope that broke in 1865.
• Mountaineers' cemetery. Graves of about fifty climbers who died on the surrounding peaks.
• Bahnhofstrasse. For six weeks in July and August about fifty black-necked goats walk it each morning and evening.

Up the mountain by rail and cable car

The Gornergrat cogwheel train opened in 1898. It was Switzerland's first electric rack railway. The climb from 1,604 to 3,089 metres takes 33 minutes.

• Gornergrat. The operator counts twenty-nine peaks above 4,000 metres in view, plus the Gorner glacier.
• Riffelsee. A lake at 2,770 metres that mirrors the Matterhorn on windless days, ten minutes on foot from Rotenboden station.
• Matterhorn Glacier Paradise. The cable-car station on the Klein Matterhorn, at 3,883 metres.

The private day, and the drives out

The village walk is sold with the Gornergrat train as one private day of about six hours. The rest is the road out, by private car.

• Zurich. About three and a half hours direct, longer with sightseeing stops.
• Basel. About four and a half hours direct, longer with a stop in Bern or Lausanne.

Practical

• Weather. July afternoons average 20C and nights 8C. January afternoons average 1C and nights -7C. The Gornergrat is far colder than the village, so pack a jacket in August.
• Car-free. Petrol and diesel cars stop at Täsch, five kilometres down the valley. A shuttle train takes 12 minutes and runs every 20. When booking a transfer, say where the driver should meet you.
• Getting in. Zurich is three and a half hours by train, Geneva and Basel four.
• Getting around. Electric taxis and a free e-bus serve the village. Most of it is walkable.
• Glacier Express. The panoramic train to St Moritz starts here and takes eight hours.
• Visibility. Cloud can hide the Matterhorn. Check the live webcams before paying for a ride up.