Day trip to Zermatt and Matterhorn from Montreux with young kids
A traveler is planning a day trip to Zermatt from Montreux at the end of June, aiming to see the Matterhorn. They want to know if their itinerary is feasible and if they should add or modify any activities, considering their two young children. They aim to leave early and enjoy a full day of exploration.
- Plan for a full day. Allocate at least 2 hours for the Gornergrat ride and the hike from Rotenboden to Riffelberg will take extra time.
- Consider adding Sunnegga for its playground and picnic area, especially with kids, as it only takes about 10 minutes to get there.
- If time allows, stopping at Riffelalp for 30 minutes may be worthwhile for more views, but it's similar to the Riffleberg hike.
- Taking the Riffelberg express back instead of the Gornergrat may be quicker but ensure it aligns with your overall time budget.
AI-generated summary-
We are planning on a day trip to Zermatt from Montreux. I know it’s a long day but we really want to see the Matterhorn and visit Zermatt so we’re ok with it. Looks like it’ll be a 2 hour drive to get to Tasch. We’ll plan on leaving quite early. Ideally before 7AM. We do have young kids (2 and 5) but we’ve done those long days of exploring before and they’ve done well. We will go end of June if we can pick a day for which the weather looks good in Zermatt.
I just want to have some ideas about the following itinerary. Is there items we should modify or should add very easily?
- Ideally get to Zermatt around 930.
- Take the Gornergrat up. Maybe reserve seats so we can be on the right side. Spend maybe an hour exploring the viewpoints and see the glacier.
- Go down to Rotenboden. Do the hike through Rifflesee to Riffleberg (we’ll bring hiking backpack). Maybe have late lunch/snack at one of the restaurants at Riffleberg.
- Go back down to Zermatt-Explore/walk around Zermatt. Rick Steves has a walk
- Have early dinner in Zermatt and drive back.
A few questions:
1. I assume this would the above itinerary would take most of the day. One of the optional activity I was debatting adding is taking the Rothorn to Sunnegga (it seems to take 8 mins and come 6 times an hour) so probably can go up, spend 30 mins and go down fairly quickly. But my guess is this won’t make sense unless we rush through the Gornergrat portion. Is the view in Sunnegga worth it? Is it much different than through the Rotenboden to Riffleberg hike?
2. Should we stop in Riffelalp to see the views for say 30 mins? Or they won’t be much different than the Rotenboden to Riffelberg hike?
3. It seems like we could take the Riffelberg express down instead of the gornergrat bahn on the way back. Does this offer nice/better views than the train? I understand we would have an additional cost for this and the main use for it is being able to get to Matterhorn glacier paradise faster. Just wondering if it’s worth it if we’re not doing that.
4. Also, any easy sights/viewpoints to add to our day?
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Hi wetravel37,
Your plan is doable. The cogtrain journey from Zermatt to Gornergrat takes roughly 40 mins so you would need to allocate about 1.5 h just to go up and down. Allocate more time (maybe 2 hours) if you’re planning to do the hike from Rotenboden to Riffelberg. I reckon this excursion could easily take half a day to a full day. You might have time to visit Sunnegga later in the day. The funicular ride to Sunnegga takes less than 10 mins. With small children, you might want to consider spending more time on Sunnegga. There is a small lake at the top with a nice playground and a picnic area.
Gornergrat: https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/gornergrat/
Sunnegga: https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/sunnegga-rothorn/
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Anna
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