Zermatt from 1 Jan 2018 – 5 Jan 2018

  • Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    7 June 2017 at 13:33:36 #812165

    Hi all,

    Firstly, this is a superb site, many useful info and helpful tips….

    We planned to visit Zermatt travel from Milan on 1 Jan 2018 and back to catch my flight from Milan on 5 Jan 2018.

    We are family of 4 (2 adults and 2 teenager age 13 and 16 as at 1 Jan 2018) Please help to comment on the following ternary. Any tips or suggestions are welcome. Sincerely, I thank the site admin and all in advance.

    Day 1 – 1 Jan 2018:

    Catch earliest train from Milan to Zermatt. We need to change at Brig. Does the train go pass Tasch? Is Tasch a good place to stay for the rest of trip (Relatively, hotel are cheaper here than in Zermatt itself) If I’m n ot wrong, the train ride is 10min to Zermatt and runs every 30min.

    We should reach Tasch (If this is the good place to stay) about noon. We will check in and roam around city hall and check in to tourist information counter and check out timing for subsequent days . BTW, it’s 1 Jan 2018, New Year. Does Tourist Information Counter open? Are there any supermarket or restaurant or fast food outlet (eg McDonalds) for us to settle our meals for that day? Is there cinema, just in case nothing better to do on arrival, we can hop into cinema to catch latest Star Wars Movies, if so, will the movies be in English, how much will the ticket be?

    Day 2 – 2 Jan 2018:

    We will wake up early and go up to Gornergrat to admire and worship my childhood dream mountain – Chocolate Toblerone mountain.

    As all my research were based on going Gornergrat from Zermatt, so is there direct transport from Tasch or do I still need to go via Zermatt as my research?

    Most likely, we will spend whole day up there and by the time coming back, we will mere hang around at Zermatt city before retiring back to Tasch.

    Day 3 – 3 Jan 2018:

    We planned to do some skiing or paragliding on Rothorn. The problem is my wife are not into such sports, any suggestion what she can do in Tasch or Rothorn while the rest of us doing these extreme sports?

    Day 4 – 4 Jan 2018:

    We planned to see Matterhorn from lake or valley point. Thus, we want to head on to Stellisee Lake and do some hiking.

    Do you recommend Stellisee or Lake of Riffelsee? OR can we do both? Other wise should we just join the crowd to do the Glacial walk @ Furi?

    *********

    For day 2 -4, depend on weather condition, priority is always Gornergrat. MUST DIE DIE see Matterhorn! 🙂 So, I’m giving myself 3 days of window to give it at least 1 shot to see it with our own eye. So, the next questions is 1 Jan – 5 jan, is it a good time to visit Zermatt to see Matterhorn? Will it be good clear sky? (I’m praying very hard that you guys will say it’s GOOD 😉 )

    *********

    Day 5 – 5 Jan 2018:

    We head back to Milan to catch our flight back home. Our flight is late night, so, can we catch the recommended scenic train ride? Do we have enough time? Else we will just head back to Milan via normal 3hour train ride and take our slow walk in Milan before heading to Airport.

    Sorry for the long threads. Lastly, If we are travelling from/to Milan, do we get a swiss pass and use it from Milan or only in Brig onwards? Do we also better off to get the 50% VIP discount pass too for cost saving?

    Thank you again!

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    Arno
    Moderator
    15471 posts
    8 June 2017 at 19:35:36 #864701

    Thank you for your compliments Alberttay, and welcome!

    Täsch is certainly a practical place to stay as it’s close to Zermatt and indeed a bit cheaper, on average. The atmosphere is not the same as in Zermatt, but as you said a short train ride gets you there. The weeks around Christmas and New Year are the busiest of the year so you can expect everything to be open.I recommend to book your hotel as soon as possible (for Zermatt see myswissalps.com/ zermatt/ hotels). It is an excellent time to go there, but there is no guarantee whatsoever regarding the weather. It can be sunny, cloudy, foggy, rainy, there can be lots of snow or only a little. It’s all possible. From Täsch, you will need to travel via Zermatt to reach all major attractions in the area, including Gornergrat.

    You don’t have to be into sports to enjoy the area. There are plenty of viewing points and winter walking trails. For the trails, check with the tourist office. Most are closed to hikers as it will be winter in the high mountains. But some are prepared especially for winter walking.

    For scenic train rides, please see myswissalps.com/ activities/scenic trips/train.

    If you buy a Swiss Travel Pass you can use it from Domodossola (see the map) and need a regular ticket from Milan to Domodossola. You do not need a SwissPass, that’s only available to Swiss residents. I don’t know what a VIP discount card is. But there is a Swiss Half Fare Card. That one might be more economical to you, but you will need to do the math to be sure.

    Please see all of the above links for additional information.

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