In this episode, we take you on a two-day journey through Zermatt, Switzerland, a stunning alpine destination known for its iconic Matterhorn views and car-free village charm. From scenic hikes to hidden gems in the village, we’ll guide you through the must-see highlights, dining recommendations, and top accommodations.

Whether you’re an adventure seeker or simply looking to immerse yourself in the tranquil beauty of the Swiss Alps, this episode is your ultimate guide to making the most of your time in Zermatt. We’ll also share practical tips on staying connected and packing essentials, ensuring you’re fully prepared for an unforgettable Swiss escape.

Download our ⁠2-day Zermatt itinerary⁠ to take this exact same trip!

Highlights of Zermatt, Switzerland in this episode:

• How to get to Zermatt 
• The best Matterhorn viewpoints in Zermatt
• Gornergrat to Riffelsee Lake Hike 
• Chez Vrony 
• Zermatt Village:
  • Hinterdorf 
  • Goat Parade 
  • Zermatt’s Bahnhofstrasse

Our top recommended Hotels in Zermatt are Hotel Excelsior, Antares Hotel, and Alpine Hotel Perren. Or you can check out these highly rated hotel in Zermatt 

Purchase an E-Sim to have cellular data on the go, and check out our Switzerland Activities & Tours for all activities we recommend and even some that we wanted to do but couldn’t get to.

Things to pack for Zermatt:

• Collapsible Day Backpack
• Umbrella 
• World Travel Plug Adapter 
• Hiking Shoes/Boots
• Wool socks
• Hat
• Blister Bandage
• Reusable water bottle and water baldder

Continue your Switzerland adventures by spending some time in Lucerne and Interlaken too!

Find a great flight deal to Switzerland by signing up for Thrifty Traveler Premium and get flight deals sent straight to your inbox. Use our promo code TSP to get $20 off your first year subscription.

Contains affiliate links, thanks for supporting Travel Squad Podcast!

Two Days in Zermatt – Episode Transcript

0:35

Today we are taking you to Zermatt, Switzerland. We spent two nights in Zermatt, technically a day and 1/2 right.

0:53

We arrived midday.

So we spent that evening, one full day and then we left the following morning.

But this is coming off our four days that we spent in Interlaken, traveled here to Zermatt, Really, really love Zermatt.

Zermatt that is home to the famous Matterhorn Mountain.

1:11

We know this.

It’s just a picturesque mountain of the Alps.

And if anybody is a Disney fan, we know the Matterhorn is the Disney mountain at Disneyland too.

So maybe a little famous that way as well.

But this was a beautiful, fun Swiss village with an iconic Swiss mountain and the views and atmosphere here were just amazing.

1:32

Well, I said last week that I was excited to be hearing this interview.

I’m interviewing you guys literally because I’m also planning to go.

We talked about Interlochen.

I’m going over to Vermont, following in your footsteps, and I have a lot of questions.

1:47

Like it seems like a place you do go for one day, 2 days.

Is there more to do?

How beautiful really is it?

Like what are those hidden gems that are here?

I need to know it all.

Well, we’re here to answer all those questions and retell our stories while we were there, Kim.

So that way when you go and our Swatis go, they know exactly what to do.

2:07

And yeah, we’ll get into all that.

I mean, I feel like I’m not going to answer it yet, but we will discuss how much time is enough time to spend in Zermatt for sure.

Yes.

And Jamal mentioned that Zermatt is home to the Matterhorn and we didn’t know much about Zermatt going into this.

2:25

So I’m like, how visible is it from the town versus like do you have to take a train or gondola to see it?

But there’s so many places in Zermatt that you can actually see it just from the village.

We actually ended up with a hotel room with the Matterhorn view.

2:44

So it is very accessible to see.

Is Vermont itself is a car free village, so it’s very walkable.

There’s tons of shops, restaurants, little chalets, things like that.

And then of course the amazing views and there’s some history here as well.

2:59

There’s the Gornagrop railway and the Matterhorn glacier paradise.

So you have some of the best views of the Alps.

And it’s just a really good spot if you love nature, if you love adventure, and if you just love beautiful Swiss scenery.

So I’m excited to dive in for you guys.

3:18

So with every episode, we start with the tips.

We’re going to start you guys off with a few here.

A lot of these are the same as last week’s when we were talking about our time in Interlochen, Switzerland, but still worth noting just in general as a reminder or if you didn’t hear that.

3:35

So packing wise, do bring an umbrella.

We were here in July, but even in July it can be rainy.

You never know when it’s going to rain in Switzerland.

So do bring an umbrella.

Dress some layers.

Weather can be unpredictable.

It can rain or you could be hiking getting close to the glaciers.

3:53

You might want a nice jacket to have with you to be outside.

It does get cool in the morning and in the late evening, so make sure you’re dressing in layers and packing layers.

And one of the most important things when travelling internationally is make sure that you have the appropriate electrical outlet adapter.

4:11

Of course, for us as Americans coming to Europe, we do need a different 1, so you do want to have that if you’re coming from anywhere else, just make sure you have European accessible outlet adapters for you.

Brittany mentioned it in the last episode.

I’ll mention it again this one.

We will link it in the show notes.

4:28

Our favorite travel adapter that we use.

It’s very versatile.

It has adapting plugs for every outlet in the world, whatever region that may be, and all sorts of other unique things about it.

It extends as well, doesn’t just plug into the wall.

So it’s almost like an extension cord has the actual plugs USBUSBC.

4:47

So we’ll put it in there for you guys.

In terms of transportation, I mentioned Zermatt is a carless village, so you arrive via train.

If you rented a car like us, you’re going to park it in a car park in Tesh, you’re going to leave it there and then you’re going to hop on the train to get you to Zermatt.

5:05

If you are arriving by rail or by train, then you can just take it to the Tesh station and transfer over to go to Zermatt.

The train that goes from Tesh to Zermatt runs every 15 minutes.

The ride itself is only about 12 minutes long and you can use your half off card.

5:21

We did purchase round trip initially so just don’t lose your train ticket on the way back.

Or you can purchase it separate, doesn’t matter.

And the town of Zermatt is very walkable.

Of course, like we’ve said, there are no cars in there.

But even though there are no cars, there are small E taxis and shuttle buses, so you can find those.

5:42

But for the most part, everybody is walking.

And the town is small enough again that from one side to the next, very, very walkable.

But when it comes to money and money saving tips, just as last week here in Zurmat, we’re still in Switzerland.

They do use the Swiss franc.

5:58

We used our credit card everywhere.

We didn’t pull out any money nor exchange money.

So everywhere within Switzerland and here in Zurmat is credit card friendly.

And then Brittany alluded to it when we talked about taking the train from Tesh to Zurmat using the half off card on the train.

6:16

If you didn’t listen to last week next episode or if you did and you need a reminder, we do recommend looking into the Swiss Half Year Card or Swiss Travel Pass.

This does give you discounts on all sorts of trains, gondolas, other modes of transportation within Switzerland, making everything half off for certain trains, gondolas, etcetera.

6:36

So do look into that because of course, we did utilize it here for this train to Zermatt.

Right across from the train station there is a Co-op which is a grocery store and it’s very affordable.

So if you want to save money on food and you don’t want to eat out every night, go to Co-op and grab a bite to eat.

6:56

They have some pre made salads, rotisserie chickens and other things that you can pick up.

You’ve also mentioned pastries, yogurts.

What other kinds of things could you eat if you were only eating that food and you weren’t dining out breakfast, lunch, and dinner?

I think it really depends too where you’re staying.

7:13

If where you’re staying has a little mini kitchen, they did have meats there for you that were uncooked, but you can then obviously cook it if you have those facilities to do so.

If you’re staying at Airbnb or hotel that has it, of course you can buy deli meats, cheese, crackers, etcetera.

7:32

Those type of things of course are going to be cheaper.

Fruits, of course, grapes, bananas, apples, things like that.

So.

Did they have any wraps or sandwiches?

Yes they did.

They had wraps and sandwiches and salads and some of them have kind of like pizza bagel type things.

7:49

So lots of different things to choose from.

And a lot of their pre made food is fresh whether it be the hot or cold too.

So there are lots of good options here.

And if all else fails you can go to McDonald’s or that has a McDonald’s too.

But don’t expect it to be cheap.

8:04

We spent a lot of money just trying a meal in Switzerland at one point in time to equivalent like just a meal, burger, fries and a drink is about $20.

That’s how crazy it is, I’m telling you.

So really, don’t underestimate the value of a Co-op in terms of good food and saving.

8:21

Yeah, you can make a charcuterie board Kim Take with you.

Sounds good little girl.

Dinner every day.

Yeah, yeah, one of the salads that we had was like a pasta salad with some like mozzarella and we put some balsamic on it.

So they’re tons of things to choose from at Co-op.

8:38

This was a good one too.

We did go into some other co-ops that weren’t as good so this is a good Co-op.

One thing you will save money on is the drinking water.

Every hotel that we went to had drinking water available from the top and there’s also fountains that you can refill at.

8:54

So we never spent money on bottled water while we were here.

Squatty’s Before we get into what was done each day of this trip, I want to remind you, of course, Brittany’s on it.

She’s making itineraries for the Swiss trip.

There will be one for Zurmat.

You can download that at shoptravelsquad.com or we always link it in the show notes for you.

9:15

So our first day was July 22nd, was a Tuesday.

We drove 3 hours from Interlochen to Zermatt.

One thing we did not know though is to get there you actually have to take your rental car.

If you’re doing a rental car, if you’re on a train, you don’t have to worry about this.

9:31

You have to drive onto a train and this train you then park on and it transports you 15 kilometers.

Do you stay in your car?

You stay in your car, you can’t get out, you can’t do anything.

They tell you how far to pull up, they tell you when to park it.

9:47

We got a list of rules in a few different languages so that you made sure you’re following all of the steps, but yeah, was not aware of.

That I mean, if you’ve honestly been on a boat barge that takes cars sometimes where you have to park on it, this was like that, but just imagine train style.

10:05

So they have you single file going through because your trains parking on the cars doing that and this is actually part of the highway.

I mean, both of us did not know until we arrived and they’re like, oh, you got to pay a fee.

We didn’t ask them what for.

I mean, I just thought it was probably a toll road or something to that effect.

10:22

But come to find now we start reading the signs while we’re sitting there.

Oh, wow, next train’s coming.

Like I think we got to take a train.

So in our downtown, we Googled it and sure enough, you have to drive onto the train.

It cuts 15 kilometers through the mountain and pitch black as you’re sitting there till you get to the other side.

10:40

You offload and then you continue on the highway.

So this is actually technically part of the highway from the route from Interlachen to Zermatt.

I did Look, it’s not the only way you can go, but it’s the most convenient way to go.

If you didn’t go this route, it would make the trip so much longer through Windy Mountain.

11:00

So you don’t really want to do that.

And to take the train is 28 francs, but well worth it in terms of the hours that you will save unless you have all the time in the world and want to do the scenic route.

But this was a really fun, unique experience getting there that we had no clue was going to occur.

11:16

Yeah, so that was a surprise.

If there is a line to get on the train, you will have to wait for the next one, so that can add a little bit longer to your drive than expected.

So by the time we got to our hotel, it was kind of in the afternoon, it was 430 because you’re going to park in a town called Tesh and there’s a car park there and then from there you’re going to get on a train to Zermatt.

11:39

The train is only 15 minutes.

The train ride is just real quick.

There are no restrooms on the train, so make sure to use at the train station, but the trains run consistently so you don’t have to wait a long time between each train to get from Tesh to Zermatt.

Once you get to Zermatt, it’s a car free village.

11:56

So depending on where your hotel is, there are options to take E taxis.

Some hotels had shuttles that we saw.

Ours was only a 6 minute walk away from the train station so we just rolled our luggage the six minutes to our hotel and it was really easy to get to.

12:12

Yeah.

And we stayed at Hotel Excelsior and I really did like this hotel.

We were looking at images of it the night before, just to look at the bathroom because you know, European bathrooms.

We kind of talked about that a little bit in the last episode when we were staying in Interlochen.

12:28

And then when we’re looking at the rooms, sure enough, in the images, when Brittany pulled up where we were staying, we’re like, oh, we have a view of the Matterhorn.

But Brittany was like, well, I don’t know, I don’t remember booking a view with the Matterhorn.

Maybe they’re just showing it as this is one of those style rooms, but we don’t have one with it.

12:44

I said, I don’t know.

I feel like if they’re showing that we’re going to have a Matterhorn view, sure enough, we check in and boom, we have a balcony with chairs, a table, and then you look right up and there is the Matterhorn and oh, by the way, right in front of our balcony there’s a whole bunch of Swiss chalets.

13:04

I mean, it really put the whole atmosphere and vibe into place here.

And I really did like this hotel.

And then when we were walking through the village of Zermatt later, and I’m looking at all the other hotels, very few of them, it seems a really angle to actually have views of the Matterhorn.

13:22

Like you could see it in lots of places throughout the city.

But when you really look at the buildings and the way that they’re actually angled in the windows, not a lot of them do.

So I feel like we were really lucky and I enjoyed that aspect of like, we could just wake up in the morning or go to bed at night.

And here’s this iconic mountain just right here from our balcony.

13:40

It was really awesome.

Cool.

You guys got me really excited about my hotel and I wasn’t sure if we booked a Matterhorn view either, but I’ve been looking and it does look like it has it.

I don’t know.

About every room.

But it’s called the Zermatt on Taurus Hotel and it was 269 a night.

13:55

So, you know, not cheap, but not expensive.

A lot of the pictures look like there’s chairs out there with views of it.

I don’t know about the room, but I’m excited.

I hope you do, Kim.

I’m I’m knocking on wood for you on that one.

That’ll be awesome.

I want to feel that feeling you had as you’re recording the story of the view from your room.

14:13

Yeah, I mean, Jamal, when he gets excited, he gets really excited.

So we walk in, he’s like, Oh my God, I have to record this.

He was so pumped up when he did the room recording and went out into the balcony.

The room itself was OK.

It was actually quite a large room for European standard.

14:32

It was better than our hotel in Interlochen, which we enjoyed.

The bathroom was definitely an upgrade, but what really made it was that balcony with the Matterhorn views.

It was just so nice.

We spent so much time on our balcony and I’m really glad we had time to like really enjoy it.

14:50

So that was definitely A+.

We had probably one of our best meals from Co-op with a view while we were here so that was great.

There was free breakfast at this hotel and the breakfast was good.

Probably one of our best breakfast.

There was not AC in this hotel and in Europe sometimes it’s hard pressed to find hotels with AC.

15:11

So this one did not have AC.

But we also didn’t need it.

When the room felt a little stuffy during the day, we just opened up the window and the door for the balcony and that was perfect.

You have me said you paid 269 a night.

I think we paid 280 a night, so very equivalent.

15:27

Same range price wise.

So then after we checked into our hotel, we were like, let’s get to exploring.

So we walked through the Heinterdorf area of Zermatt, which is their Old Town.

So what I mean by that is a lot of these buildings in the Old Town area, which was right by our hotels.

15:46

Like we walk right outside and it’s there around the corner are old barns, homes and stables that were built in the 16th and 18th centuries.

So I mean, we’re talking like hundreds of years old at this point of the old Alpine villagers, explorers coming to this region.

16:04

So you can still see these old towns homes in this area.

So we were walking through that and I thought that was a really unique experience because you could just really see how old they are.

It was also unique to see how they built the roofs.

They would actually take stone slabs from the mountains, like flat ones and create like the roofs with that and level it.

16:24

It was quite interesting to see.

Yeah, it’s a quick walk.

Definitely do it.

We walked it up to Zermatt Main Street, which is the same St. you got off on the train station at this street is lined with tons of shops, restaurants, traditional Swiss architecture.

16:41

We definitely hop from shop to shop, just kind of window shopped and I did some souvenir shopping as well.

So that is a highlight.

And then if you do plan to do the Goat parade during your stay, which we’ll talk about later because we did do the Goat parade.

The Goat Parade happens on this same St.

16:58

Yeah, which is the ban Hofstraussy, if I’m saying it correctly.

Again, forgive me for not knowing German or being able to pronounce it right if I did not.

But that is basically the Main Street.

And then from there, after exploring the Old Town and the Main Street and just window shopping, looking at what restaurants there were, Brittany knew of a few places within the town of Zermatt that’s supposedly supposed to have really good photo spot and opportunities of the Matterhorn.

17:25

So we went to those locations.

Yeah, The first one was called the Kirch Brook Bridge.

It has really good views of the Matterhorn with the Matter Vista River running below in the Matterhorn on top.

So check that spot out.

And then we also went to the Zermatt Matterhorn viewpoint in Murini, which is an easy day.

17:46

You have to do some stairs to get up to this viewpoint, but when you get to the top, you are overlooking the entire village of Zermatt with fantastic views of the Matterhorn.

This is a really good sunset spot.

There are a lot of people up here for sunset so just prepared for the crowds but really amazing view.

18:06

Yeah.

And initially Brittany did want to watch sunset up there, but ultimately we decided not to.

I think combination of things, it was like crowded and then really you’re not going to see the sunset.

It’s really just seeing the twilight in the sky and colors of the sunset because you’re not really facing the right direction for it.

18:25

So we’re like, why are we going to stay up here with the people?

Let’s go back to our room and sit on the balcony and oh hey, by the way, let’s just get a bottle of wine and some food.

So we walked from here to the coop and we decided to get some food that we were going to take back.

18:41

We each ended up getting 1/2 rotisserie chicken to eat as well as splitting one of their pasta salads.

That bottle of wine and we just enjoyed sunset colors and the sky.

Looking at the Matterhorn.

Eating it from our balcony hotel.

18:58

That’s nice.

And how much was the bottle of wine?

Very cheap, probably like 4 francs.

Wow, OK.

I know.

So they do have more expensive wine that you could buy, no doubt.

But since Brittany and I are not wine connoisseurs and everything already in Switzerland is expensive, we’re like, you give us a four or five franc bottle of wine from a region, I don’t really care.

19:20

And we just enjoyed a white wine with our dinner and it was pretty good for what it was.

Yeah.

You know, while we were in Switzerland, we probably picked up 3 or 4 bottles of wine during our time there, and every bottle was probably about the same price.

19:36

And they were all very good actually.

Like decently good.

Were they the most amazing wine ever?

No.

But were they good?

Would I drink it again?

Yes, definitely.

But of course, if you are a wine connoisseur or just aren’t a wine connoisseur and think to yourself, hey, I don’t want to spend four or five francs.

I want to spend more.

19:51

Yeah, you’ll find your 20, thirty, $40 franc bottles of wines in the grocery stores just as well.

So those are available.

But honestly?

Eating dinner, a good meal by the way.

I mean, if we go back to our last episode and we’ve kind of hinted it on it here, like the food in Switzerland in general in restaurants.

20:12

This was an amazing meal with how good Co-op actually is, the ambiance, the wine, everything.

This was one of my favorite days in Switzerland that we had just because of the excitement.

I’ve seen the Matterhorn, the balcony, the food, the wine, being with Brittany, it was a great day.

20:30

So something on my radar for Zermatt is to take the vernicular and and Oregon the cable car up to Blaherd, then walk 15 minutes, Stella Seed, Mearshot Lake, Matterhorn views, and then maybe even continue on to Glacier Paradise.

20:47

Was that on your radar at all?

Did you consider that?

If we had an extra day, I would have loved to do the Glacier Paradise and so we were kind of talking about how much time do you need in Zurmat.

We did two nights but we were really only there for like a day and a half.

21:02

I would have loved to be there either 2 full days or one additional night to be able to fit that in.

So something different than and we did Kim, but I think you’re going to do something really nice.

So the next day was our full day in Zermatt.

21:19

And I was really excited about this day because we were going to do a really amazing hike with supposedly the best Matterhorn views.

And I had two hikes on my list of initially 1 was like the Five Lakes hike, which I hear is really great.

21:35

And what’s really iconic about that hike is that you can see the Matterhorn reflection within the lakes, but you have to have really prime conditions for that.

Like it used to go in the morning, there can’t be any wind.

The water has to be still to get that iconic shot.

And with the weather that we were having, which was sometimes rainy and sometimes a little windy, I knew we were going to get those conditions.

21:57

And one of the hikes that I researched was the hike from Gornagrat to Rifle Sea Lake.

And so that is the hike that we were going to do.

So in order to get there, I booked a one way train ticket from Zurmat to Gornagrat.

22:13

We did the 8:00 AM departure because I read that mornings were best and the train station for this is directly across from the train station that you arrive in when you get into Zurmat.

For the best views, you’re going to sit on the right side of the train and we decided to do the priority booking.

22:35

It was the seven additional francs, but this guarantees that you board 1st so that if you want the right side, you will get it.

But if you don’t want priority boarding seats, you don’t have to do this.

But what is very important is you do need to book just this one way ticket to Gordegra.

22:54

You don’t want to do round trip because if you’re going to do this hike, you’re going to leave from a different train station and it’ll be cheaper to do it this way as well.

So the train ride up took about 37 minutes.

And of course, as you’re climbing the mountain, you’re going through forested green areas and of course you have views of Zermatt down below Chalets, the town, the Matterhorn.

23:17

So you’re really building yourself up on this 37 minute train ride till you get to the top.

And then you get to Gorner Grot, which they do have a large building hotel observation deck in this area.

But once you get off at the station, you can either start the hike or you can kind of go to the hotel observation area, which I would highly recommend doing because you get a different viewpoint of the Matterhorn.

23:43

But you can also see the Mount Rosa Mastiff Taz, Switzerland’s highest peak, I think it’s called the D for Spitzen.

Again, forgive the pronunciation on that one, but that mountaintop.

And then there is a photo area where you can see a historic and restored gold plated locomotive that they used initially that they brought up people to this area.

24:08

But beyond just seeing the Matterhorn, you’re really looking down and seeing a giant glacier.

This is the second largest glacier in the Alps right here that you have a view of.

So you’re seeing all these snow mountains, the glacier down below, little tiny side glaciers that are feeding into the big one.

24:25

And then just of course, the view of the Matterhorn, which is a completely different perspective because when you’re in the town of Zurmat, of course you’re down looking up.

And the Matterhorn’s known to be kind of a triangular mountain.

So you’re seeing the two faces when you’re in Zurmat.

24:41

But when you’re up here now, you only see one face of the mountain and a completely different side that it’s usually not filmed or photographed.

So I thought that was pretty cool too, that you’re just seeing the unique perspectives.

You’re seeing it now, elevated and of course the full mountain face side, which you haven’t seen when you first arrived down in the village, when you see the two faces of the mountain.

25:01

When you get to Gornagrat, you’re going to get off the train and everyone’s going to start taking pictures of the Matterhorn right there.

And it is a great view.

But like Jamal said, go up to the viewing platform.

We did that first thing and no one was up there.

So when we were taking pictures of the Gornor Glacier and getting all of these scenes, shots of the glaciers and peaks that surround the Matterhorn, we had that all to ourselves.

25:26

You can get so many good pictures of the Matterhorn along the way of the hike.

So don’t think like right when you get off the train, you have to get all the photos right then because it was really nice to have the platform to ourselves.

So once we did all of our picture taking up at Gorner Grot, we started the trail.

25:44

The trail is pretty easy I would say, because it is primarily downhill, so pretty easy.

You have Matterhorn views the entire way because you’re facing it.

We saw some people get off on earlier stations and then hike up to Gorner Grot, but then you’re going to be facing away from the Matterhorn and you’re not going to have the Matterhorn views.

26:07

You’d have to turn back and look at it.

If you go from Gorner Grot down, then you’re going to be facing it the entire time and this is what I would recommend we hike to refill Sea Lake.

And the lake in perfect conditions does have the iconic view reflection of the Matterhorn.

26:27

Unfortunately, the water was a little too rippled to get that view, but the lake with wildflowers in the front of it and the Matterhorn in the back, it’s just so, so pretty.

There are a whole bunch of trails that you can take to get to different train stations.

26:44

There is a train station right here as well, so if you wanted to hop on the train here you could and you could buy the tickets right at the station.

We decided to hike a little bit longer and we got on the train at the Rifleberg station and the whole trail that we did was listed at 3 1/2 miles.

27:04

But there are bunches of shortcuts, so if you wanted to shave off distance or wanted to save time, you could.

I think in the end we ended up hiking about a little under 3 miles, like 2 1/2 three miles instead of the 3 1/2 miles.

Yeah, at some point I should have continued straight and I veered right, thinking that was part of the trail, which cut off a little bit.

27:26

So that’s what Brittany’s talking about.

There’s the main trail, but then there’s the side shoots that look like it’s part of the main trail because it’s so well marked.

But of course, those are just the shortcuts, which we found later.

So again, even though it is 3 1/2 miles, if you do it from the top at Gorner Grot, going down again, it’s all downhill.

27:45

The hardest part is really going to be stepping over a few stones, maybe a few big steps, but you’re not really physically exerting yourself then at that point, and you’re just getting great views from there.

So I mean, we really soaked in all the views up at top on the mountain here.

28:00

When we were done, of course, we took the train from Rifleburg back down down into Zurmont.

Yeah, I love that hike.

We had perfect weather conditions.

I’m really glad because there was like no clouds surrounding the peak.

28:16

It was just a really beautiful day with clear views of the Matterhorn.

I love that.

So when I was doing research on where to eat in Zermatt, the one thing that kept popping up was to eat at Shay Veroni.

So this restaurant requires reservations and has a Michelin plate, but to get to it, you either have to hike up from Zermatt, which can take about two hours, or you have to take the Sunega funicular.

28:46

And then once you get to the top of where the funicular drops you off, you have to do a 30 minute hike downhill.

And it was much steeper than I was anticipating.

I wore a dress, thankfully I wore close toed shoes, but it was definitely a steep, steep hike downhill.

29:04

So it’s like you go up from Zermatt, you’re at the top, then you have to hike 30 minutes down to get to the restaurant and then we’re looking up like, Oh my God, after we’re full, we’re going to have to hike back up full.

Anyways, we did it.

So real quick, I just want to preface this on Brittany had mentioned like, oh, once we’re up here, there’s like a little bit of a hike.

29:23

But if we harken back to last week’s episode when we were in Interlochen and we went to Harder Cone and we had to take the funicular up to the top there.

Brittany also did mention like, oh, you got a little bit of a walk and you can hike from there, but it wasn’t anything too crazy.

So when she told me here, hey, we got a little bit of a hike, I’m thinking to myself, OK, this is a popular restaurant.

29:44

You got to take the funicular up here.

There’s other stuff.

So if you’re telling me there’s a little bit of a hike and this is a popular restaurant, I thought to myself, it was a he’s going to be paved.

No, no, no, you are definitely going through a dirt path of hiking here.

30:00

So as we start hiking down, yeah, I’m thinking to myself automatically like what?

I got to hike this up.

I wore my nice shoes.

I didn’t realize that this was going to be the case somehow.

There’s this highly recommended restaurant in the middle of a hiking path with cows and everything like that, away from everything.

30:19

I don’t understand it.

That and the.

History.

To it, there’s a history to it, but like when you see the descriptions, you would not realize that it’s literally in the middle of nowhere.

So if you’re going to go to this, just recognize it’s in the middle of nowhere.

30:36

You got a 30 minute hike down which whatever, but by the time you’re full, you are hiking up and it’s a burner.

Like it’s a burner up.

It’s not just oh, it’s up.

It’s hard, FYI.

Our reservations were at 3:30 and the reason why they were at 3:30 was because the funicular stops running at 6 I believe in the summer.

30:57

I think it’s a little earlier in the winter.

So you figure that by the time you get to the restaurant, you eat, you kind of just hang out for a little bit.

You have your 30 minute hike up the last funiculars at 6:00.

So you just have to be mindful of that.

So you can’t really make late reservations unless you want to hike back down to Vermont, which again, is going to take you probably about an hour and a half to two hours to get down to the village.

31:22

The restaurant itself sits right under 7000 feet, but it does have perfect views of the Matterhorn.

There is inside seating, but there is a ton of outdoor seating on this deck.

It was very cute.

This restaurant does have vibes so the ambiance is good.

31:42

I will say that the restaurant was originally a tea house that was created in 1922.

It was blown over by the wind like 7 times.

Hikers used to stop there for like milk, soup and tea.

So it does have a storied history.

It was kept through the family through an inheritance, but amazing ambiance, cute decorations.

32:01

They do have blankets so that if it does get a little chilly while you’re sitting there outside, you can use their blankets.

It was really nice.

The food, Everything I read said that this was like the best food ever.

We got the gnocchi and the ravioli.

32:17

The ravioli was amazing. 10 out of 10 on the ravioli.

I could have dreams about that ravioli.

It was so good.

The gnocchi though, it was just average.

Well, tell me about the ravioli.

Like, was it red sauce?

White sauce?

What was it stuffed with?

It was a stuffed goat cheese ravioli.

32:36

I’m trying to really remember what the sauce was.

It was more like a yellow sauce because it had a poached or kind of cooked pear on top that went with it too.

It was really good.

I’m not going to disagree with Brittany.

Would I say 10 out of 10?

No, but really good gnocchi.

32:53

OK.

Esquati afterwards was basically saying, oh, but they said like the burger is really good there.

You should have tried the burger too.

That’s what it’s really known for.

So we did not get that.

Does this place have really good views of the Matterhorn?

Yes.

Is the food amazing?

33:11

The only thing that I’ve had with that was amazing was the ravioli.

But what I say it’s worth paying for the funicular and the hike.

This is where Brittany and I have differing opinions.

I think not everybody says this is a must.

I would say I don’t necessarily think so if you want to do it, but Brittany really enjoyed it and that’s, I would just want to say this.

33:29

That’s one of the things that we always get a lot of positive feedback.

People love that.

We have three different opinions.

Sometimes we all align, sometimes we’re similar but slightly different.

This is something where I would say like I didn’t think the food was that good enough for the price of the funicular and the hike to do.

33:48

I did appreciate though that they didn’t mark up their prices in comparison to like the restaurants in town.

They were still the same prices.

So the only thing extra that you’re paying for is the funicular.

That’s fair.

Yes, I agree.

Kind of a cool experience.

Maybe it’s not for the food, maybe it’s not for the view, maybe it’s a little bit of all of it, but it’s like out in the wilderness.

34:07

You have to kind of work for it.

You do, you do have to work for it.

I would like to go here as a group because they did have some apps that were like it would say shareable for three to four people.

So obviously Jamal and I aren’t going to get that.

But if we got like a few of the apps, apps plus an entree and you’re sharing it with, you know, a group of four to six, I think this would be a really good spot.

34:28

Especially if you went for like a late lunch and just had the rest of the afternoon to enjoy the sites and just kind of took it leisurely.

I think this would be really enjoyable.

I don’t disagree.

And I think where I really came with my thought process on this is I feel like if people are doing research on this, they’re thinking, oh, this is a dinner spot at the top of a hill and you got to take a funicular.

34:49

I don’t think there was anything really that talked about like, Oh yeah, like the hike to it is you really got to work for it and it’s not paved and all the sorts of stuff.

Because a lot of times when you take the gondolas or funiculars up to the top of mountain and hilltops in Switzerland, it’s paved and they have like a little village up there.

35:08

This is not like this.

So to Brittany’s point, she is correct.

I think that would be a fun experience.

But I also would think would be a fun experience is if you’re actually doing hiking in this area.

And then it’s like, yeah, I’m stopping in now while I’m doing my hike, which traditionally is really what happened in the origins of how Chez Veroni became what it is in terms of people stopping for the milk tea, snacks, etcetera, along the way.

35:32

That would be cool.

But I think just coming here for dinner, yeah, that that’s my perspective on it.

But I I would give it a go again.

But I think it would be better if I knew what I was getting into, which I feel like the description there wasn’t.

So that’s why I want to make sure all of you know what you are getting into. 30 minutes steep climb up back hill after you eat.

35:52

It’s not very fun.

Well, they say that the very best thing that you could do for longevity and metabolism is walk after you eat.

I do know this.

After that.

I like it.

I mean, it was kind of cool when we were in Canada, we went up to Agnes Tea House because it was part of the hike that we just did and it was cool to be in a place that you have to like work to get to.

36:17

Again, to your point, Kim, I agree with you, but we knew that we’re hiking to it.

It’s not like, oh, it’s sold as a whole restaurant and here’s like a gondola and then it’s just right here, you know, like I feel like it’s a little bit different.

I I agree with what you’re saying, but that goes to the point of what I said.

36:33

I feel like if you were actually actually hiking on the trails at the top of this mountain and we’re going there, it would be a different experience than just, oh, I’m going there.

If you don’t want the hike, I’m sure there are restaurants in Zermatt that do have Matterhorn views.

So if you want dinner and a view, that’s an option.

36:50

Or you know, if you have a hotel room with a balcony and seats, you can always pick up dinner, bring it back to your hotel for dinner with a view as well.

So you can enjoy the Matterhorn view multiple different ways.

But after we were done with our early dinner, we went back into Cermat.

37:08

We roamed through town, we window shopped, we walk the Main Street again.

And I was convinced that we were going to miss the goat parades because they happened at like 9:00 AM, which the only morning that we were going to be there, we were taking the train up to Gorner Grot.

37:23

And the next morning we wanted to leave pretty early before the parade.

I think the next time said 4:30.

So by the time we got back, it was close to five, but the Goat Parade, where we were, were on the Main Street was just starting to go through the part we were in.

So we walked outside of the shop we were in and the Goat Parade was going on right there.

37:43

I’m so glad our squatty, Cheryl from Portland, she was the one that told us about the Goat Parade.

So thank you so much, Cheryl, for telling us about it.

It was one of the highlights of my day.

It only happens for seven weeks in the summer.

About 70 black necked goats pass through the Main Street and some at every morning around 9:00 and then again around 4:30.

38:06

So if you have a chance to see it, it’s so cute, check it out.

So I didn’t realize it was only certain times of the year.

I thought it was every day.

Do you know when it stops?

Yeah.

So this year it is running June 28th through August 15th.

Aw man, then I’m just going to miss it.

38:23

Do you know what day off the top of your head you’re going to be in Cermak Kim?

It’ll be towards the very end of August.

So you will have just missed it.

Yeah, that’s a shame.

I mean, it’s one of those things where it’s cool and it’s cute.

I mean, they’re walking a herd of goats down the Main Street.

38:38

So it’s just fun and cool to see, but not anything that’s, like, exceptionally great.

But if you’re there during that time, it’s worth seeing.

Absolutely.

But quite honestly, that was the extent of our time in Zermatt.

Once we came back, we saw the goat parade.

We walked the town a little bit more, just soaking in more views.

38:57

We got really lucky because this is when the weather started to make a change.

By the time we got back to the hotel room, part of the Matterhorn was covered with clouds.

Could only see a little bit of it and then by the time it was evening, it was all covered.

We left in the morning, it was covered, couldn’t see anything whatsoever.

39:16

So we were really fortunate in terms of when we arrived and what we were able to see.

Yeah, I took a picture when we arrived, of course, of our view with the Matterhorn, and I took a picture when we left.

You can’t even tell that there’s a mountain there.

It was just so cloud covered.

39:33

So we definitely got really lucky.

I’m glad we got there when we did.

And I mentioned earlier, I think that an extra day to do the glacier paradise would have been amazing.

So if I were to go back, I would do that.

39:49

Yeah.

So I really think 3 days in Surmount would be good.

We did the two nights which turned into 1 1/2 days, but I really think 3 days is enough because you could only stroll the town so many times.

But you won’t get tired of looking at the Matterhorn and enjoying the views.

One thing that I saw that we didn’t do is they have these park benches or seats, but they lay down so that you can lay on them and look up to the Matterhorn and just to have a book or just like relax there and lay out there with views would be just so nice.

40:23

Or pick up your bottle of wine from the Co-op and just drink it while you’re sitting out on the bench doing that or beer or something.

Because I do believe you’re allowed to open alcohol out there.

I googled that actually, and I don’t want to say I got conflicting information.

It said that there’s no specific rules on it, so I’ll take no specific rules on it.

40:42

Doesn’t mean that it’s outlawed, but do your own research to confirm.

But I think you can’t.

I mean, so many places that I’ve been in Europe, in Greece and Italy and France, like alcohol is drink out and about and it’s.

Oh, I know, I know, I know.

It’s not like here because they can control themselves in public, unlike Americans sometimes who just resort to debauchery.

41:02

That’s why we have the laws that we do here in terms of not allowing in public.

I know it.

I know it.

That sounds amazing.

One thing I’m looking forward to with my hotel stay and the one that we got is that it has saunas, Whirlpool, steam rooms and relaxation rooms in the basement spa that they have there that’s included for hotel guests.

41:23

Did your hotel have anything like that?

Were you on the radar for that?

It wasn’t on our radar, but that sounds amazing, Kim.

I think you’re really going to enjoy that perk of your hotel for sure.

And it sounds like so far as Vermont and even Interlock in our last episode, it leans into slow travel.

41:39

Like you do a lot.

You went on hikes and stuff, but you also had time to just Mosey around towns and eat dinner on your balcony.

And you weren’t hustle and bustle morning, noon and night.

Yeah, we did have some downtime, especially in like the afternoons and evenings.

So this wasn’t as packed of a trip and I really enjoyed it that way.

41:58

It was really nice to have a little bit of break.

One night Jamal and I were sitting on the balcony just catching up on emails and getting some other work things that we need to get done done.

So this was a great, great place for that.

That’s lovely.

Well, thanks, Squattys for tuning into our Zoomat episode this week.

42:14

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42:32

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