Things to do in Zermatt: the Matterhorn, skis optional
More than a ski week, and more of it is free than you would guess: electric buses that charge nobody, two rinks in the village, walks that start from it and a beginners' lift down the valley at Tasch. For anyone not skiing, the Gornergrat railway is the one to do, and the Matterhorn Museum, under the church square, tells the story of the first ascent.
Zermatt is a car free village under the Matterhorn, and nobody picks it to save money. That makes the first surprise a good one: ten of the things worth doing here cost nothing, and a week off skis is easy to fill. The village is made for walking, and the mountain is in view from the breakfast table onwards.
Start there. The electric buses are free to anyone who gets on, no card or pass needed, and the two village rinks charge nothing to skate on. Roughly half the walking and snowshoe routes set off from a village without a lift. Twelve minutes down the valley by train, Tasch has a beginners' lift run by local people, and it is free. For a family with small children, the Wolli Card is worth a great deal.
For anyone not skiing, the Gornergrat railway is the one to do. It climbs from opposite the main station to 3,089 metres, and the top has the Matterhorn, the Gorner glacier and ZOOOM the Matterhorn, an exhibition most train tickets already cover and the way to save a grey day up there. Go up in the afternoon, when the light is better. Lower down, the Matterhorn Museum sits beneath the Kirchplatz and tells the story of 1865 around the rope that snapped.
The evenings are grown up, and not all of them happen in a bar. Kino Vernissage at the Backstage Hotel winches its chandeliers up before every film and lowers them again to dance under later. Country Bar has five billiard tables, an easy evening for four. Keep one settled morning for Italy: Breuil-Cervinia is a cable car over the top rather than a drive round, so take a passport, and do not leave it to the last day.
Free, and worth knowing
Ten things that cost nothing, from the electric buses and the village rinks to a beginners' lift at Tasch, twelve minutes down the valley by train.
The Tasch beginners' ski lift
A ski lift that costs nothing, twelve minutes down the valley on the train. Zermatt Tourism puts it in its own words: the lift is operated by local people and available free of charge, perfect for family outings. It sits behind the old part of Tasch a few minutes' walk from the railway station, on open, sunny and gently sloping ground. In a resort where a day on the mountain runs into three figures, a free lift is worth knowing about.
Tasch village, a few minutes' walk from the railway station
Ice skating at Obere Matten
A natural rink and an artificial one in the middle of the village, and neither charges anything to skate on. The artificial rink at the Obere Matten sports facility runs from November to the middle of March, and you can skate, sit and watch EHC Zermatt train, or hire ice time by the hour. Look at the rink schedule on the way past, because the ice is given over to training, matches and events at times.
Hofmattstrasse, Obere Matten, Zermatt village
The two natural rinks down the valley
Tasch and Randa each keep a natural rink and each opens it to the public for nothing in good weather. The Tasch one is beside the campsite and is looked after by the coach of the local hockey club, and in summer the same patch becomes two tennis courts and a beach volleyball court, also free. Randa's is 27.5 metres by 17.5 in the middle of the village and is maintained by the municipality. Skates for Tasch come from Alpini Sport.
Tasch, next to the campsite. Randa village centre
The free electric buses
Zermatt Tourism says it in one line at the top of the bus stop page: use of the electric bus service is free of charge. Two lines and fourteen stops, from the railway station out to Winkelmatten, Spiss, Wiesti and the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise valley station, and several of the stops are marked as completely wheelchair accessible. No card and no pass, and it is free to everybody rather than to pass holders only.
Throughout Zermatt village
The Wolli Card, for children under nine
This is Zermatt's guest card and for a family with small children it is worth a great deal. A child of guests staying at least one night gets it free up to the ninth birthday, provided the accompanying adult or young person buys a two day lift pass or longer. It carries free travel on every cable car all year round including the Gornergrat railway, free entry to the Glacier Palace and the Matterhorn Museum, exemption from the visitor's tax, and a welcome kit.
It also gives a free overnight stay in a family room in registered hotels, or in a cot or an extra bed in registered flats, free helicopter travel with Air Zermatt when two adults fly, discounts across a long list of restaurants, and the Wolli Wonderland box at CHF 19.00 instead of CHF 29.00. Collect it from a Zermatt Bergbahnen, Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn or Gornergrat Bahn sales point, or from Zermatt Tourism, with official identification showing the child's date of birth.
The whole destination, Zermatt, Tasch and Randa
Wolli's beginners' park at Sunnegga
Zermatt Bergbahnen's sheltered and sunny beginners' area at 2,288 m, with five magic carpets and play equipment on child friendly slopes, and the park itself is listed as free. Getting up there is the part to budget for, at twenty six francs for a pedestrian return, and a child under nine with a Wolli Card rides up for nothing. The self service Leisee shuttle runs across from the Sunnegga station.
Sunnegga, up the underground funicular from the far end of the village
The winter walking and snowshoe network
Twenty six numbered routes are published individually with distance, time, climb and descent, nineteen winter hiking trails and seven snowshoe routes, and roughly half of them start in a village and need no lift at all. Purple signposts mark the winter hiking trails, and the tourist office hands out RECCO reflectors to anybody who wants one.
Straight out of Zermatt, the circular route No. 117 is 6.5 km and two hours with 198 m of climb, past the Blatten chapel and over the wooden bridge into the winter meadows at Moos. Zermatt to Zmutt, No. 121, is 2.7 km and an hour and twenty up to a hamlet over five hundred years old with a small white chapel in it. The flattest of the set is the AHV route, the Lower High Path No. 109, 2.2 km and an hour from the Winkelmatten chapel.
Down the valley the Tasch circular No. 132 is 4.4 km and an hour and ten on the flat, and Tasch to Randa No. 131 is 4.2 km with sled pulling allowed on it. The ones that need a lift are the ones with the pictures: Rotenboden to Riffelberg No. 113 is 2.5 km and downhill all the way, and Furi to Stafel No. 122 is 4.9 km with 339 m of climb to the foot of the Matterhorn north face.
Zermatt, Tasch, Randa and the lift stations
Zermatt Community Library
On Bahnhofstrasse in the middle of the village, and locals and guests borrow books, magazines, films and audiobooks free of charge. There is a PC, a printer and free wifi, a reading corner where you are allowed to take a coffee or a tea in with you, and a programme of storytelling sessions and readings. In a resort where everything else costs, a warm hour indoors for nothing is worth having on the list.
Bahnhofstrasse 92, Zermatt
Tuba-Christmas
Tuba players gather on the church square and play Christmas music together, an idea that started on the Rockefeller Plaza rink in New York in 1974 and travelled. Zermatt's edition is organised by the conductor and euphonium soloist Ueli Kipfer, and if the cold wins the second half moves inside the church of St. Mauritius.
Kirchplatz and the parish church of St. Mauritius, Zermatt
What the paid attractions let in for nothing
Three worth knowing before anybody buys a ticket. The Matterhorn Museum is free to a child up to nine accompanied by an adult, and free again to anybody holding a Swiss Museum Pass, a Swiss Travel Pass, a Swiss Flexi Pass, a Swiss Youth Pass or a Raiffeisen card carrying a Maestro, VISA or Mastercard logo. The Glacier Palace is free to Wolli Card holders and is included in the Peak Pass and most excursion tickets. ZOOOM the Matterhorn up on the Gornergrat is included in most train tickets, and Gornergrat Bahn's own line is that admission is already included in most train tickets.
Zermatt village, Matterhorn Glacier Paradise and the Gornergrat
On the mountain
The railway that matters most to somebody not skiing, and huskies at almost 3,000 metres, where you meet the dogs before you ride.
The Gornergrat railway
The biggest single thing here for somebody who is not skiing. A rack and pinion railway climbing from a station directly opposite Zermatt's main station up to 3,089 m, over fifteen hundred metres of ascent in thirty three minutes, and you can get on and off as often as you like on the ticket at Findelbach, Riffelalp, Riffelberg and Rotenboden.
Over CHF 50 · Gornergrat Bahn valley station, opposite Zermatt railway station · Their page
Husky sledge rides at Trockener Steg
On a private circuit at almost 3,000 m at Trockener Steg. A guide meets you at the restaurant and walks you down to the husky site, ten minutes down and fifteen back up, 950 metres each way with 80 metres of climb. You meet the dogs first and the musher talks about them while you make a fuss of them, then they are harnessed and you ride, once each or twice if the snow is good. Wear the warm boots, because the standing about is the cold part and the ride itself averages eight minutes.
Price on request · Meet at the Trockener Steg restaurant · Their page
In the village
The first ascent told under the church square, a cinema whose chandeliers come down for dancing, and five billiard tables for an evening.
Matterhorn Museum, Zermatlantis
Underground beneath the Kirchplatz, and the one indoor cultural fixture in the village. Whole houses and their interiors have been rebuilt down there, and the story of the first ascent of 14 July 1865 is told around the original snapped rope and the effects of the men who died coming down.
Under CHF 20 · Kirchplatz, Zermatt village centre · Their page
Kino Vernissage at the Backstage Hotel
Not an ordinary cinema. It is cinema, stage and club in one, conceived by the Zermatt artist and hotelier Heinz Julen and built in 1991, and it is where Zermatt Unplugged began. The chandeliers hang in front of the screen and have to be winched up off the ceiling before every showing, then come back down to dance under later in the evening. Early evenings are children's films, with the local documentaries Menschen am Matterhorn and Whymper's Weg aufs Matterhorn by August Julen of Zermatt on Thursdays and Fridays, and international releases from 20:30.
Price on request · Hofmattstrasse 4, Zermatt · Their page
Country Bar billiards
Five billiard tables at sixteen francs a table an hour, which splits four ways into an evening costing less than a round of drinks in this village. There is a table football table as well, three Photo Play machines, a golf machine and twenty internet stations, which is a sentence from another decade and part of the charm.
Under CHF 20 · Hofmattweg 3, Zermatt · Their page
Nearby
Italy by cable car over the top rather than a drive round. Bring a passport, and go the first morning the weather settles.
Breuil-Cervinia, over the Theodul
The Italian side is a lift ride over the top rather than a drive round. For a skier the International pass puts Cervinia on the same keycard for about forty eight francs more across six days, which is a small premium for a second country and a different lunch.
Over CHF 50 · Over the Theodul from Matterhorn Glacier Paradise
These are our own picks, not paid placements. Prices and opening times change, so it is always worth checking before you set off.