Hello All,

I've done a quick search on here, but thought I would post directly.

I have my parents coming to visit this weekend and we are going to Zermatt for the day. I wanted to know if anyone has been and who are non-skiiers, any specific ideas on sights and activities to do? I would like to give them a taste of the mountains and slopes, but without the skiing part.

We also have a day in Zurich on the Monday and would welcome any suggestions for an activity for that day also. Our usual trip for visitors is to Uetliberg, but something else would be good.

Any ideas of acitivities you have done yourselves would be welcome.

Thanks in advance.

D

We went to Zermatt and did not ski (it was end October .. so we did quite a lot of walking instead).

Your parents will enjoy the "village" (in inverted commas .. it's way bigger than the Cantonal main town here in BL) itself.

And wrap up warm and go up some of the mountains around .. my recommendation would be the train up the Gornergrat. Fabulous views with minimum exposure to the elements. And the Matterhorn museum is really interesting at the top end of the main street. Or the other great spot for views and watching the skiers is up the mountain Paradies .. struggling to remember the name, hopefully someone will help out. You go up a furnicular thing in a tunnel from Zermatt town then up at the top you can connect into further gondola or cable car, or just sit at the restaurant and watch all the skiers. There is one of the best views of the Matterhorn from up there.

We spent 4 non skiing days there and really enjoyed ourselves so I am sure a daytrip will be very successful. Just try to pick a relatively clear day .. not getting a glimpse of the big toblerone in the sky would be dreadful after making the effort to get there.

Great, thanks for the info!

Gornergrat is really top notch, if the sky is blue then the terrace is an amazing place to sit on and soak the winter sun.
Alternatives would be Sunegga, that is a short direct funicular ride , or the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise that you need to change the cable cars and gondolas a couple of times to get up to.
I would think, however, that Gornergrat wins hands down with the view.

You only need to change gondola once to reach the summit.

What ever you do, bring your own snacks/food and drinks as it costs a fortune at the summit. The views are great, but after 10 min or so there is nothing much to do unless you want to go skiing that is.