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Good Day,
I’m planning for a one week’s Swiss trip to celebrate my partner’s birthday in Sep 18. We have been to Zermatt in Jun 16 but was unable to view the Riffelsee lake due to the lake covered by snow. So this time round, i’m planning to have a 3 days stay in Zermatt. May i know whether the Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge is near to Zermatt and is it worth the travelling time?
1) Day 1 – Train ride to Matterhorn and hiking (accomodation-Unique hotel post)
2) Day 2 – Hike to Riffelsee lake (May i know do we still need to buy the train pass to go up to the nearest station and walk down?) (accommodation-Unique hotel post)
3) Day 3 – Mountain biking (accommodation-Matterhorn Focus Suite 50-was wondering whether is this the best accommodation that have the view of Matterhorn as i would like to wake up seeing Matterhorn)
I’m intending to plan for one more place to explore which is near to Zermatt so that we can trim down the travelling time and would like to seek for recommendation. We are into photography and love the scenic views. So would like to explore places with nice scenic views.
Thanks for your time 🙂
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Hi Shockingviz and welcome to MySwissAlps!
- The suspension bridge is a fair hike from Zermatt: 6-7 hours. The closest train station is Randa (two stops before Zermatt which reduces the hike time down to 2.5 hours or so.
- Day 2 – The most direct route would be to take the train up to Gornergrat and then hike in from there.
- We list several hotel suggestions for Zermatt here. You can see the Matterhorn from most areas in Zermatt but whether you can see it from your particular room will depend on the hotel and the rooms themselves.
I’m not sure how close to Zermatt you would like to be; but Saas-Fee is quite popular (next valley over). In between there is the town of Brig as the Bettmeralp.
Hi Shockingviz
We stayed in Zermatt this past September for 5 days. Our hotel was just above Zermatt at the second stop of the Gornergrat Bahn at Riffelalp. The hotel is called Riffelalp as well. It looks down on Zermatt and is just across from the Matterhorn with great views from most rooms. See attached photos(first 2 photos taken from the balcony of our hotel room). The Hotel is newly renovated with new furnishings, a great spa, and a large heated outdoor pool looking directly at the Matterhorn. Of course this comes at a price and you may find the rates excessive but for a special occasion it may fit you needs.The hotel has a dedicated mountain guide to assist you on planning hikes and the staff is quite knowledgeable as well.
We hiked from our hotel to Riffelsee and it was a beautiful hike(about 2 hrs)see 3rd photo.If you continue to the right of Riffelsee for about 5-10 minutes you will come to a little used lookout of the Gornerglecher. See att photo #4. From there you can continue on towards Mt. Rosa and take switchbacks up to Gornergrat summit(fairly hard) or take an easy 15 walk to Rodenboden train stop and go up to summit or down to Riffelalp. Mark
Dear Lucas & Marki,
Thanks so much for your insights! Really appreciate it! Thanks to Marki for the beautiful photos!
1) For Saas-Fee, i have read up and it looks amazing! For Mittelallalin, can we use our Swiss pass to enjoy discounted rate? For the Mattmark reservoir, do you know if the hike to here is consider tough? Apart from Sass-Fee, is there other places that is worth visiting on the way back to Zurich?
2) For the hike from Riffelsee to Gornerglecher, if i choose the easy walk to Rodenboden train stop, can i still use Swiss Pass for the train ride?
Thanks once again. Cheers to 2018!
>> For Mittelallalin, can we use our Swiss pass to enjoy discounted rate?
Yes. If you are interested, I have written a trip report (with photos) about Mittelallalin:
http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/saas-fee-mittelallalin
>> For the Mattmark reservoir, do you know if the hike to here is consider tough?
Do you mean the hike from Saas-Almagell to the Mattmark? I haven’t done that hike myself, but there is a list of hikes in the Saas-Fee area, with information about difficulty etc. I can’t find a way of linking directly to that hike, but there is informatiion about it on the site below.
In summary, the level of difficulty and fitness required is 2 out of 5, distance is 6.4 km with an ascent of 533 m, and time requirement is 3.25 hours.
>> For the hike from Riffelsee to Gornerglecher, if i choose the easy walk to Rodenboden train stop, can i still use Swiss Pass for the train ride?
Yes.
Alpenrose
Just to be sure there is no confusion, there is no hike from Riffelsee to Gornergletcher ( that would be a very long and technical hike). There is a very nice moderate 2 hour hike from Riffelalp to Riffelsee. Then a short easy 10-15 minute walk to a lookout over the Gornergletcher area. Then a short 15 minute easy walk to Rotenboden train stop on the Gornergrat Bahn. Happy New Year. Mark
Dear all,
Thanks to Alpenrose for the very detailed field report! The sharing has indeed give me a clear insights of Saas Fee! I shall share my proposal to my partner and hope he will likes it.
Marki, thanks for clarifying as i was under the impression that we can hike to Gornerglectcher from Riffelsee. So from Riffelsee, it is a short easy 10-15 minute walk to a lookout over Gornergletcher area. So if i hike from the nearest train station (Rotenboden station) to Riffelsee, how long would the hike be and how tough would it be? May i also check which is the best period for hiking as i noticed the weather in September is pretty low (single digit)? When i last went in June, i noticed that the surface at the slope to the lookout point at Gornergrat was slippery as the snow were melting. Just want to be sure that we have the right gear for the right weather condition.
Thanks once again 🙂
From Rotenboden to Riffelsee to lookout and back to Rotenboden will take approximately 30 minutes. While it’s possible to have bad weather including snow at any time of year, the weather in September normally is not a problem at Rotenboden but snow is much more likely at Gornergrat summit.. Mark
Good Day,
Noted, Marki! Just want to make sure the weather allows us to see the Riffelsee lake. I have came across Murren’s view and would like to seek for opinion. I saw that from Zermatt to Murren is a 2+hour journey and is able to have great mountain views and there are discussions between whether Murren or Wengen is better. May i know which place have easier hikes and better views? As the last round we travelled to Jungfraujoch, the weather did not allow us to have a good view. Thanks!
Hello again,
You should have no problem viewing Riffelsee as you can walk right up to the edge. In my opinion the lake is small and would be called a pond in Tennessee. What makes it special to me is the view of the mountains and setting around Riffelsee. The view of the mountains is certainly dependent on weather especially cloud cover.
Again, in my opinion, both Wengen and Murren have great views but if pressed I would say the view from Murren is slightly more spectacular. However, I believe the amenities and hiking in Wengen to be substantially better. I have hiked and stayed in both and the choice is a little like asking which is better, chocolate or vanilla! Mark
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