The Matterhorn from the street
The world's most famous rock pyramid seen from the village.
chensiyuan — CC BY-SA 4.0 · W. Bulach — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bybbisch94 — CC BY 4.0 · Bybbisch94 — CC BY 4.0
You cannot reach it in your own car: the road ends at **Täsch** (5 km short), where there is a large paid multi-storey car park, and a shuttle train runs every 20 minutes reaching Zermatt in 12 minutes. Some hotels send electric carts to meet you at the station. The easier alternative is to come by train from the start — the Swiss network is excellent, and the Visp–Zermatt line is among its loveliest.
Early morning: the mountain tends to cloud over in the afternoon, especially in summer, and dawn gives it its famous golden colour. The two best spots in the village are **the bridge at the end of the Bahnhofstrasse** (the classic view) and the church area. For the famous water reflection, go up to **Riffelsee**. If the mountain is hidden on your arrival day, do not spend on the summits — wait for a clear one.
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Zermatt is a mountain village at 1,620 metres at the head of a closed valley, and it is **entirely car-free** and has been for decades: no road open to private cars reaches it at all — you leave your car in the town of **Täsch** five kilometres down the valley and finish by shuttle train (12 minutes, every 20 minutes). Inside the village there is nothing but small silent electric vehicles, horse carriages and bicycles. That decision (1961) is what preserved its character: one main street (the Bahnhofstrasse) of hotels, shops and restaurants, and side lanes holding **black wooden barns from the sixteenth century** raised on stone pillars capped with flat discs (to keep rats out) — the old Hinterdorf quarter, a rare authenticity in the middle of the Alps' most luxurious resort. And above everything stands the **Matterhorn**: the most famous rock pyramid in the world (4,478 metres), visible straight down the street and from the end of the village, and the reason Zermatt exists at all. The village is very expensive, but wandering it and the view cost nothing.
The world's most famous rock pyramid seen from the village.
Black barns on stone pillars with rat-proof discs.
No cars — electric carts, horses and bicycles only.
3920 Zermatt, Valais