8 Great (Mostly) Free Things to Do in Zermatt

So Much More Than a Ski Town

A perfect, yet pricey, European ski town. Zermatt sits in the shadow of the iconic Matterhorn (14,691’) and offers a summer hiking paradise. The facade of the town is rustic, but the shops are upscale. Despite its ritzy nature, hikers are hikers, and they were everywhere. The Matterhorn sits alone, but the Alps otherwise dominate the landscape with the Monte Rosa Massif, the tallest range in the Swiss Alps, serving as an imposing wall of rock, snow, and ice. In all, we spent just two days in Zermatt and logged 20+ miles of hiking while soaking in the astounding, staggering views. As a side note: Zermatt is touted as a pedestrian friendly car free town, but it is overrun with small electric taxis!

8 Great (Mostly) Free Things to Do in Zermatt

The Five Lakes Hike Lake Riffelsee

The Five Lakes Hike

Hiking Matterhorn

Matterhorn

Matterhorn hiking

Gornergrat glacier

The Matterhorn

Riffelberg Chapel on Gornergrat hike Zermatt

To Do in Zermatt

Free

Put on your hiking shoes and explore these free activities

Walk Around Town: There are great views, beautiful architecture, and, friendly people.
Hintersee: A short hike through the “magic” forest and a quiet flat walk around a modest lake with frigid water. Beautiful views of Watzmann Mountain.
Ramsau Church: Just a quick walk from a bus stop for a photo op of the Ramsau Kirche (church), but this picture postcard spot doesn’t disappoint.
Königssee: Crystal clear turquoise lake at the base of the Alps. Cold water that feels so refreshing after a hot hike.

Visit the Matterhorn Museum to learn more history about the mountain, the hiker’s and the famous accident in 1865 that killed four hikers.
Buy a Toblerone candy bar and eat it in the company of the majestic mountain peak. Trust us, you won’t be the only one.
Go paragliding. We did our paragliding in Wengen but had signed up to go in Zermatt and had our trip cancelled due to high wind. None of the paragliders we saw while visiting looked unhappy with their experience. Definitely try this activity.

Worth the Money

These activities are worth the spend

Tips for Visiting Zermatt

Look into a Swiss Family Pass or daily travel passes if you are going to do several train trips. It turned out to be less cost for us to do individual tickets but we felt somewhat limited in our excursions because of the $100+ per person train/gondola rides.
Pack a lunch, bring plenty of water and plan for side hikes. Everywhere you look are trails. They lead to lakes, views, ridges and glaciers. We did not find places to refill water bottles along the way.
Pictures of the Matterhorn or best before 3p and after 6p, the glacier views from Gornergrat are better later in the morning or afternoon but there is a risk of cloud formation.
There are several great places for a picnic lunch by the Rotenboden station. By Lake Riffelsee is very popular and great for people watching. There is plenty of seating with a wide open view of the glaciers past a smaller lake north of Lake Riffelsee (if you are looking at the Matterhorn from Lake Riffelsee it is behind and slightly to your left). Or you could continue down in the direction of Riffelberg station past Lake Riffelsee to a smaller lake for another great view.
Matterhorn reflection pictures are best from Lake Riffelsee which is a downhill walk from Rotenboden station or Lake Stellisee, the first lake on the five lakes hike. If you want this one people free you need to move quickly ahead of the crowds because they enter your scene from the Matterhorn side of the lake, reflecting beautifully into your picture…
Grocery stores and train stations all took credit card so we didn’t need Swiss currency.
The hike down from Gornergrat is doable, but several times along the way we questioned whether it was worth saving $170. We did have some great views and quiet trails that we would have missed by taking the train.
The area map you are given when you buy tickets is not sufficient for getting around and may give you a false sense of security. I do not think it gave any usable information on hiking trails and the signage is confusing. It may be worth finding a better hiking map so you can explore confidently.