Zermatt, Switzerland

Klein Matterhorn, Zermatt, Switzerland

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Zermatt Travel Guide

Introduction

Zermatt is a small but glamorous resort town in the Swiss Alps, which can give St. Moritz a run for its money. It's a top-tier resort, touted as "an all-year skiing resort." It's hugely popular with the jet-setting crowd, with pricey shops and restaurants and pricier lift tickets, where zippy little electric cabs whisk skiers about, from lodge to restaurant to ski lift. The pace is frantic: it's a place where resort-goers go not to relax but to play, and play hard. Still, the town is to be admired equally for its stunning setting, with lofty mountains all around. There are some 38 peaks here with elevations higher than 4,000 meters (12,300 feet!), and several more in the 3,000-meters-plus range, most famous of them all the Matterhorn, with its distinctive hook peaking at 14,760 feet (4,501.7 m). The resort itself sits at an elevation of 5,314 feet (1,620 m), all but a stone's throw from the border of Italy.

Location

Zermatt is situated 77 miles (124 km) east of Geneva, or 102 miles (164 km) south of Zürich, and accessed mainly by train from the nearby town of Täsch.

How to Get There

Sightseeing

Neighborhoods

How to Get Around

Where to Stay

Where to Eat

Where to Party

Essential Information

Nearby Destinations

How to Get There

Sightseeing

Zermatt's principal in-town attraction is the Matterhorn Museum, where the theme is, what else, the Matterhorn. It recounts the story of the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865 by Englishman Edward Whymper and party, in which four members of the party were killed on the descent. The museum itself consists of 14 buildings, reconstituting a mountain village.

Main Neighborhoods