Will it be buried in snow? Will hotels and restaurants be open? Any chance for hiking then? Thanks!

Hi Peep,

No snow at lower elevations this year, no snow on sunny slopes probably up to 2000 m.

In general, May is a poor time for a visit. Many hotels and restaurants will be closed.

Hiking may be possible on few trails, but don't expect to be able to access the higher places/trails.

Ingo

Thanks, Ingo! I'm trying to find places to go for the long weekends coming up in May. Any suggestions?

Hi,
May in general is a month of low activity in the alps (Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France). Most skiing areas have closed their slopes and hiking trails are still covered by spring snow (depending on the elivation).

Zermatt is one of the few villages, where you can do (glacier)-skiing in May and some gondolas & hotels/restaurants remain open (most of same are closed - also in Zermatt). May is also a good month for skitouring. Summer season for hiking is starting middle of June.

If your major interest is hiking I recommend to visit an area, where the mountains are not so high, as Zermatt is surrounded by the highest peaks of the alps.

Any suggestions? I live in Munich.

I live in Zurich and I am acutally going to Zermatt myself in early May for two nights. The hotels I was interested in are all open. The Seiler group has several good 4 and 5 star hotels in town, esp. the Rifflalp 2222m, 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. Also try the Romantik Hotel Julen at http://www.zermatt.ch/julen, which gets great reviews generally on this site. Zermatt is one of the few Alp places where we found that hotels are open, not the case in places like Wengen and Murren. If you don’t mind chancing the weather, IMO it is worth the trip to Zermatt, you may luck out and have a gorgous sunny weekend. I have a friend comiung from the US who wants to see it, and we are just going to play it by ear and walk if the weather permits. The cable cars are all running, so you can at least get to higher elevations in clear weather even if you can’t walk. If the weather is bad, we are going to have spa treatments indoors and relax.

For other places to see, I would suggest:

Relatively close to Munich (3-5 hours by train):

St Gallen and the Lake Constance area
Basel
Stein Am Rhine and Schauffhausen
Zurich
Zug
Lake Lucerne area (esp Vitznau or Weggis, although trying to go up Mt Pilatus or Rigi may not be possible due to weather)

A bit futher:

Lake Geneva, esp the north east end towards Montreux, gorgoues
Neuchatel, Gruyers and that area
Bern

We've been to most of those places, but not Basel. Can you tell me more about what there is to see and do there? Thanks!

Hi again,

Basel is an excellent idea. Here is a link to my Basel page on VT ... I am sure you'll find some tips what to see and do there ;-)

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/4166c/a919b/