by: Hunter Rinehart
Zermatt, Switzerland has to be one of the world’s most attractive ski villages. This small town located on the Swiss/Italy border has everything a winter sports enthusiasts could want. All the way from skiing to hiking and great food to shopping this village has it all.
I spent 5 days in Zermatt and let me tell you it was the best skiing of my life. I came back to the United States not wanting to ski at my little hometown resort. I will cover everything I think you should know about coming to this very desirable ski village.
First off, If you are thinking about taking a ski trip out to Colorado or anywhere in the Rockies… I would consider looking at Zermatt. Everyone thinks that it is going to be so much more expensive to travel to europe for a ski trip, but in reality it isn’t.
How do I get there? Does Zermatt not allow cars? How do I get around?
There are all questions one might have when trying to plan a trip to Zermatt. For flights you can find round trip flights from $400-$600. Flights to denver usually range from $200-$300 from what i’ve experienced or if you want to fly into Aspen it will cost more.
When getting to Switzerland you will have to take the train from either Geneva or Zurich. Tickets cost around $50-$70 and it is a lovely train ride with great views (definitely recommend sitting next to the window on the right side).
When it comes to finding a place to stay, I used Airbnb and found a decent sized studio and for 4 nights it cost me 475$. It had a great view, nestled right into the mountain side and it came with everything I needed.
Yes, there are no cars allowed in the village, however they have transportation from the train station. I mostly walked everywhere and it seemed like that’s what everyone did.
I snowboarded 2 of the days at the Matterhorn Ski Resort, and it came out to $450. This included my ticket plus the international pass(This allowed me to ski into Italy), snowboard, boots, helmet, gloves, jacket and snowpants. I think that this was a fair price and came out to less then what i would’ve spend out in Colorado.
The BIG question i got was, “how were the condition?” I mean it when i say this, it couldn’t have been more perfect. The sun was out and visibility was perfect. They had a ton of snow even with the rain from a week before I got there. Another thing is that since the mountain is huge, it seemed like I had trails all to myself. I didn’t have to wait in lift lines, I could just ride right up and down.
Zermatt truly has my heart and I can’t wait to take another trip back there soon!