Advice on last minute Zermatt trip
 

DH is taking a long, last minute weekend to ski in Zermatt next weekend. Its basically the middle days of a two week trip to Germany. He doesn't have hotel reservations yet - any ideas? Will take the train from Frankfut - any suggestions/hints and will want to ski as much as possible with some nightlife but that's not the key criteria for restaurants. Any advice will be appreciated.

It's been a number of years but we stayed st the Sport Hotel (Zermatt). Don't know if it's still there, but we had a nice room, great views of Zermatt and the hotel owner was also the chef in the hotel's restaurant. He cooked one of the best meals we had in Zermatt. I remember it wasn't terribly expensive. Sorry I don't have any web sites for you

I hope your husband realizes that Frankfurt to Zermatt is about an 8 hour train ride with several changes. Pretty far to go for a weekend.

Check out www.zermatt.ch for last minute info on skiing conditions and hotel reservations.

Did you ever get the impression that some of the responses to posts have this little "undertone" which is basically, "Boy, are YOU stupid!"

My only suggestion would be to immediately start looking for a place to stay in Zermatt. Some of the places will have a several night minimum at this time of year. Delaying this process could bring disappointment.

He's already looked at the train schedule and will be going from heidelberg as of now. has a couple of hotel possibilities as well. found a website with a number of other possibilities for skiing. Its just nice sometimes to get input from people who've been there rather than the brochure-eze. Agreed - sometimes the replies are little condescending in tone.

My apologies!
I did not intend to sound condescending.

I live in Switzerland, and we have had guests who want to make this trip not realizing that Zermatt is especially difficult and time consuming to reach compared to other ski resorts.

Sounds like your husband has his travel plans well in hand.

I agree with the above poster about reserving now. Most European schools have a few weeks holiday sometime in February or March, which makes for full hotels, and some will have minimum required nights of stay, which may rule out some hotels. I would not wait until I got to Zermatt to try to find accommodation, esp. if he is going on a weekend when you will get more traffic.

Since he only has 2-3 days, I would pretty strongly recommend that he try to stay on the mountain rather than in the town of Zermatt. Getting up to the ski areas from the town will take about 30 minutes to an hour, depending upon where on the mountain he is going, how much of a line there is for the buses to the lifts, or whether his hotel is within walking distance of the lifts or the underground train to Sunegga. Conversely, getting back down at the end of the day can involve a very crowded narrow trail, taking a incline railway, or walking a good bit if there is not sufficient snow down into the village. He then has to wait with other skiers for a bus to his hotel, unless he is within walking distance of the two trails which come down into the town of Zermatt from the mountain areas.

The only places that I am aware you can stay on the mountain are on the Gornegrat part of the mountain (which is a very good ski area anyway, IMO, and has links to the other parts). The only drawbacks are getting into town if he really wants nightlife after dinner. The Riffelalp mentioned below have the easiest in-town access of all the mountain hotels, you can take the incline railway down into Zurich in about 20 minutes, and your ski pass is good on the train. Of course, the Riffelalp also has three very good restaurants and a indoor pool and health club with steam and sauna that make it very inviting to stay up on the mountain all night. . . .

There are three hotels on the mountain that I know of, in descending price order. All are ski in and ski out, which is very nice:

Riffelalp 222m, 5 star luxury, great rooms, views and amenities. Website is Riffelalp.com. The Seiler group, which runs this hotel, has several other good 4 and 5 star hotels in town, esp. the Monte Rosa hotel and the Mount Cervin hotel. Website for the group is www.zermatt/ch/seiler, or seilerhotels.com or www.seilerhotels.ch

Riffleberg, 3 star, have not been in the rooms, but lobby and restaurants are charming in Swiss style. http://www.matterhorn-group.ch. Great Matterhorn views. This group has other hotels in the town of Zermatt.

Klum Gornegrat. 2 stars, great location at the top of the Gornegrat with stunning views. I have not seen the rooms, but the restaurants and public areas are nice. Run by the same group which operates the Riffelberg hotel.

The Romantik Hotel Julen in town in Zermatt gets good reviews on this site.

He ended up at the Sonne-Masch which looks very nice from their website. Thanks for the help on such short notice.