[Anonymous]

19 November 2022 at 16:33:31 #828649

Hi all…I am excited to announce, my wife and I have booked our third annual trip to Zermatt. (Thank you thank you…You’re too kind. Please take your seats 🙂 )

We pushed our trip a little later this year arriving on Jan 31st and extended to 7 nights in the hopes of experiencing more snowfall than we did last year. We were in Zermatt for 5 nights the week before Christmas 2021 and it was sunny every day. I don’t think we saw a single flake. Hopefully, this year will be different.

Anyway…Since we have a couple extra days this time, we’re thinking of taking a day trip or two while in town, something we’ve never done before. One destination that piqued our interest is Chamonix. We understand it’s a 4 hour train ride each way, which I guess is manageable, if not optimal. Is this a viable option for a single day roundtrip? Anyone done it?

The Glacier Express is another option that interests us. We’d love to see St. Moritz but 8 hours one way doesn’t work this year. Is there another itinerary that you would recommend?

Any other recommendations. We’d like to visit quaint villages similar to Zermatt with views and good food/drink, opposed to bigger cities with museums and fancy restaurants. We have no physical limitations and love to walk and wander and discover, uphill, downhill or flat..doesn’t matter.

Thanks in advance!

Rob

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[Anna]

Reply 1 of 5 • 19 November 2022 at 17:59:17 #948410

Hi Rob,

Day trip to Chamonix from Zermatt is certainly doable if you plan carefully. Use the Swiss timetable to check train schedules. Alternatively, you can plan shorter day trip to Saas Fee or Brig. Both are local favourites for winter sports and holidays. If you’re interested in the Glacier Express but not keen to travel the whole stretch for 8 hours, a sensible option would be to travel one section only for instance from Zermatt to Andermatt, then take a local train back. You can find more information about the Glacier Express route here: http://www.myswissalps.com/glacierexpress/gettingthere. I can also recommend a day trip to Montreux and Sion. You can find additional day trip options here: http://www.myswissalps.com/zermatt/activities

Regards,

Anna

[User]

Reply 2 of 5 • 20 November 2022 at 0:30:32 #948411

I agree in part with Anna, except that I would not take the Glacier Express – just use MGB local train to shuttle up and down the MGB railway route Zermatt – Visp – Brig – Andermatt – Disentis — for this have a look at the ‘Adventure Card’ pass offered by Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn (MGB).

erlebniscard.ch/en/

I’m not sure Zermatt classifies as ‘quaint’ any more. I recommend you study the map of southern Switzerland carefully – there are hundreds of quaint villages far more ‘untouched’ than Zermatt in all the many valleys that branch off the Rhone Valley in the Valais canton. Examples: Saas Fee, Zinal, Evolene, Grimentz, Leukerbad, Ovronnaz. Not many are served by railways but all have regular post bus services .

All the villages in the upper Valais (Brig – Oberwald) are very quaint (and include the village where is the birthplace of Mr Ritz…)

[User]

Reply 3 of 5 • 20 November 2022 at 15:08:03 #948412

Thank you Anna and 1960Man for helping to get me pointed in the right direction. I’ll do more research based on your leads and will likely be back for follow up questions. 🙂

Again…Thank you.

[Mark]

Reply 4 of 5 • 20 November 2022 at 15:23:40 #948413

I agree with what has been said above. We have visited Chamonix for hiking in the summer and it does have scenic views of Mont Blanc but the experience will be very similar to Zermatt in my opinion. Small Swiss towns a better option

Mark

[User]

Reply 5 of 5 • 22 November 2022 at 15:18:45 #948414

Thanks again all for the replies. Will continue with my research!