(gentle music) - [Dave] Zermatt, Switzerland is home to the mighty Matterhorn. We spent three days in this
glorious region of the Alps, hiking into the mountains,
mountain biking, and exploring the picturesque village. These are the best things to do in Zermatt that you cannot miss. - To find out more
about travel to Zermatt, make sure to click on the
links below in the description because we have full details
on our blog at theplanetd.com. We have arrived in Zermatt! The Matterhorn is behind us,
and this is such a pretty town. Isn't it? - It really is, with all the Swiss buildings,
the Matterhorn backdrop, man, it's no wonder
this is a postcard city. You could spend weeks
here really exploring if you love hiking, there's
skiing all year round here. Really, it's a nonstop adventure paradise. - I wish we had weeks, but we
only have three days. (laughs) - So let's explore. - Zermatt is a town that was built at the foot of the Matterhorn, specifically to attract
tourists to the Alps. It is very busy and no
motorized vehicles are allowed. So to reach Zermatt, make your way to Matterhorn Terminal Tasch to catch the train. It leaves every 20 minutes
and will drop you off downtown where you can grab an
electric cab to your hotel. Our hotel, the hotel Aristella Swissflair offered free shuttles from the station. The great thing about Zermatt is that there are no
cars allowed down here. There are electric vehicles,
and electric bikes, and electric taxis, and lots of people. So it's still really busy. I couldn't imagine if
they had cars down here. But if you do wanna get around, you can take an electric taxi or I suggest renting
an e-bike for the day. It's a great way to get
acquainted with the area. We have our mountain bikes
and we're ready to go. We picked them up here from Slalom Sport. And the great thing about Zermatt is you can get mountain
bikes that are e-bikes. It's really hilly here. So why not have fun? You're on vacation. Get an e-bike so you can
go touring. Can't wait. (upbeat music) We are off to cycle all around
the region of Zermatt here. The Matterhorn is just gonna
be in our view all day long. We're heading to the
four lake cycling trail. This is awesome. If you want to try some
something different, the four lakes bike tour is awesome, going down some single and double track mountain bike trails. (upbeat rock music) Zermatt is very bike friendly, and you can take your
bike onto the funicular from the Sunnegga-Rothorn valley station and then transfer to
the gondola to Blauherd. When you get to the top, you'll follow the route to
all of the lakes of Zermatt. Okay, we have transferred
from the cogwheel train. Now we're getting onto the gondola and then it's easy riding after this. No uphill. Awesome. - So what's pretty cool is that you can load
your mountain bikes here into the gondola, head up, and then just ride all at
the top here in Zermatt. It's pretty amazing. If you're a biker, you gotta do this. - All right, we're here doing some
mountain biking in Zermatt. We have the Matterhorn behind me. Look at these views. It's something you have to do
when you come here to Zermatt. (upbeat rock music) - The four lakes bike route
follows a lot of the same trails that the five lake hikers take
from Stellisee to Moosjisee. After stopping at Moosjisee, we split from the five lakes hike and joined the Oberer Hohenweg bike tour. This is where we had some
really fun single-track riding through the trails and one
hair-raising cliff to cross. (upbeat music) Well, we followed the bike trail path, and we are not riding
here, ladies and gentlemen, that's a sheer drop. Sometimes you just gotta get out and walk. (upbeat music) - Spectacular! (upbeat music) Now, that was epic. (laughs) (lighthearted music) We're at Glacier Paradise. - 3,883 meters. Whoo! - [Dave] What a view. - [Woman] Matterhorn Glacier Paradise is Europe's highest mountain station at 3,883 meters. - [Dave] We're in, we're off
to Matterhorn Glacier Paradise. - [Woman] The trip starts in Zermatt and you transfer to three
different cable cars before reaching the top. The gondolas move 2,000 guests per hour. So make sure to get there
early to beat the crowds. Are you excited, Dave? - I'm excited. We get to go up to the
Glacier Paradise here where you can look over all
the highest peaks in Europe. I'm excited! (gentle music) - We are riding the highest
gondola in the world up to Glacier Paradise
here at the Matterhorn. It is about a 40-minute ride to the top. You have one transfer that you have to, no, two transfers that you
have to do to get up here. Then you get onto this
luxury ride of like, it's the ride of all
rides on this gondola, and you're surrounded by glaciers already. It's amazing. A return ticket starts at 90
Swiss francs and 50 cents. And it's valid for two to 10 days. So you have the flexibility
to wait for good weather. - We're at Glacier Paradise! (dramatic music) - [Woman] This is amazing. There's people up here skiing, and you can ski all year long here. People come up here for the view but there are plenty of
other things to do up here. And we're going to start
with Glacier Palace which was our favorite experience. How often do you get to
walk underneath a glacier? - Wow, this is so cool. It's like, again, another
like, incredible ice palace underneath a glacier, man. - This is really out of this world. You know, the photographs,
they do not do this justice. They show ice sculptures down here. And I think it's far more interesting that we're just is going
through tunnels under a glacier because you can see ice
sculptures anywhere in the world but you can't walk under a
glacier anywhere in the world. Look at this. (gentle music) - Like, this is pretty amazing. Like, there's nobody here. We have this whole ice palace to ourselves to walk around and explore. Its pretty awesome. You
don't get that very often. - I think a lot of people
come up to the lookout and forget that there's a restaurant, and an ice palace, and other things to do. It's really worth it even
if the weather's bad. Whoa, this is crazy! The minute you step outside, you feel the wind, it's freezing. You feel the altitude. I can't believe people are skiing up here. It's warm down in Zermatt, and it's winter conditions up here. If you are looking for a real adventure, you can even trek to
the summit of Breithorn, the easiest of all the 4,000
meter peaks in the Alps. - Hey, where else can you take an elevator almost up to 4,000 meters? I don't think anywhere else. (gentle music) Well, we've made it up here to Gornergrat, and it is the highest point at which a cogwheel train goes. - [Woman] The Gornergrat cogwheel train has been operating since 1898, and is Europe's highest
open-air cog railway. The full journey is 9.4
kilometers from Zermatt, and takes 33 minutes to
reach the destination of 3,098 meters. - [Dave] It just keeps on going. I guess we get off at the end. - [Woman] It's a steep climb
with awe-inspiring views. And we had constant views of
the Matterhorn all the way up. - [Dave] Welcome to Gornergrat! - It's so cool because
you get right up here and you're amongst all the glaciers and just surrounded by these peaks. Usually, you'd have to fly or trek in or do a helicopter tour, but
the cog train took us right up, and it's a pretty special ride. - Definitely. - Gornergrat is home to
Europe's highest hotel. There's a small chapel, a restaurant, and an interactive museum. So it's worth spending
a little bit of time once you reach the top. Well, it's worth going into Zooom. That's a really cool interactive place where you can do some virtual reality. There's a great film that makes you feel like you're right in, like you're part of a,
flying through the air. And there's some history
on the area as well. So definitely go inside. I keep using the term spectacular, and I don't know what else
to use because it really is. Every time I turn around,
it's so beautiful. It doesn't seem real. (gentle music) After you've finished looking around, you can take the train
back down or you can hike. We highly recommend hiking because it's one extraordinary
scene after another. - This is worth the hike. - The great thing about
hiking in the Zermatt area is that most of the hikes are downhill. The hike from Gornergrat to
Rotenboden was about 45 minutes, but we probably took at least an hour because we kept stopping
to enjoy the sights. The trail follows the train tracks down. And once you reach Rotenboden, you can hike to Lake Riffelsee to see the beautiful
reflections of the Matterhorn. While you're there,
make sure to snap a shot of the Toblerone lookout, and keep an eye out for the
Zermatt blacknose sheep. (gentle music) The sheep are not too hard to find if you're willing to hike a bit, as they have GPS trackers
on their collars. Once we reached the train
station, we followed our GPS and found the shepherd with her herd, where she allowed us
to have a little visit with these cute creatures. Well, we found the beautiful
blacknose sheep here and the sheepherder
Deborah by using the app. That's really great. I was like, I didn't know
if it would work or not. And I'm walking down going, "I think the sheep are
somewhere around here," and here they are. It's amazing. (bell clonking) There are 150 sheep. They're lazy this afternoon.
It's been a long day. It's late, but this one
loves having her ears pet. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. (bright music) We have arrived at Lake Stellisee for sunrise over the Matterhorn. This is incredible. You take the 5:30 gondola up and it's about a 30-minute walk, maybe 20 minutes, it's pretty fast. And sunrise today was at 6:20. They change the gondola every time depending on when sunrise is. So we made it up in time
and it's spectacular. - I'm on top of the world. - So right behind me is
where all of the crowd is. And naturally that's the
classic perfect reflection. So if you want to get that spot,
you wanna get up here early and maybe even camp up here. And there you have it. The sun has risen over the Matterhorn. Not a bad way to get up in the morning. What do you think? - Well, we just finished
sunrise here at Stellisee with the Matterhorn, it was awesome. And now we're heading off
to do some more hiking in this beautiful area. - Another amazing thing to do in Zermatt is the five lakes hike. You don't need to be up
for sunrise for this hike. People take the entire
day to enjoy the trails. But if you do go for
sunrise, head out early because you'll have it all to yourself. I have to say doing sunrise at
the Matterhorn over the lake and then getting to walk down
the trail right afterwards, it's amazing 'cause we're
the only people here. Most people went off to breakfast. We decided to skip that so that we could get some
of the trails to ourselves. And the rest can't get up on the gondola until a little bit later. So it's pretty cool. I highly recommend it. The five lakes consist
of Stellisee, Grindjisee, Grunsee, Moosjisee, and Leisee. Each lake has different
views of the mountains, three lakes have reflections
of the Matterhorn, but I found them all to
be picturesque settings in their own right. Wowee! Another reflection of the Matterhorn here at Lake Grindjisee. We skipped breakfast
and got here right away, and it's just the stellar
shot, and nobody's here. It's spectacular. (gentle music) - All right.
(hands clap) This lake down. It's absolutely beautiful. We're off to the next one. - Well, this is a very scenic trail. Everything is something
new on our hikes too, all of the different lakes,
and lookouts, and viewpoints. Just massive hiking around here. - It's awesome. That's quite the rockfall. - Another gorgeous lake
out here is Grunsee. It's another beautiful reservoir. The Matterhorn is in the back and you can see all the
glaciers surrounding it. Lake Grunsee is a popular
lake for swimming. The sandy bottom lake is the
perfect place to have a picnic and sit back and relax. We suggest packing a picnic
lunch and plenty of water. But there are restaurants along the way where you can stop and recharge. If you need to use the washroom, you do need to order something. So make sure you have some cash on hand. Well, this is a nice little picnic stop right here at Moosjisee. But it's a beautiful turquoise lake with the Matterhorn in the background. - Yeah.
- Fantastic. - What a day. - Great thing about
hiking up here in Zermatt is that you can take the gondolas and the lifts up to so many places. So you don't have to do
some serious uphills, which you know, we all love doing. This is great because,
you know, most of it, you start at the top and
then work your way down, and you just have some undulating hills that you're climbing making
for a really pleasant day. I did not have to work
very hard to get up here. It was like a 20-minute walk, not bad, eh? (gentle music) There are many things to do in town. And one of your first stops should be a visit to the
Matterhorn Museum Zermatlantis. The museum focuses on the climbing history from the first ascent of
the Matterhorn in 1865. There are plenty of interactive displays and a recreation of the old
town taking you back in time. There is climbing there on display from the early pioneering days to the modern technology used today. Plus there are interviews with climbers who have summited the Matterhorn and memorabilia from their expeditions. It really is a great way to spend a couple of hours in the afternoon. (upbeat music) Come up the steps of the church
and look over the old town. And you have a great
view of the Matterhorn and all of the old original
buildings here in Zermatt. St. Mauritius Church
in the main town square has great views of the Matterhorn. And from here, you can also see the 30 historic buildings dating back to the 16th century. Known as the rear village or Hinterdorf, you can take a stroll through here, and then make your way
out to some hiking trails for better Matterhorn views. Or you can stroll down to the Vispa River. - There's great trails all around Zermatt that you can just follow the river. You can go on your bike.
You can walk around. It really is a great walking, biking city. (upbeat music) - Zermatt may be all about
exploring the Swiss Alps, but one of the best things you
can do is stroll around town taking in all the different views. And you cannot miss heading out to the pedestrian-only shopping street for some high-end shopping and dining. Well, walking in the old town
is a super busy place to be. If you wanna come out and go to the bars or have a beer and sit and
people watch, come on down here. It is busy, man. (gentle music) We are at the Zermatt Matterhorn lookout and we are overlooking the
entire village of Zermatt. And right there behind those clouds, you can just barely make
it out, is the Matterhorn. On our way up here, it
wasn't covered in clouds and now it is. But you know what? It's still a spectacular scene. So we're gonna wait it
out and see what happens. The Zermatt Matterhorn lookout is one of the best places for sunset. The weather didn't cooperate with us but it was still a beautiful
view over the entire town. So it's worth going up to see it. While the viewpoint is pretty high up along these cobblestone
path up to the lookout, it's really worth it, though, for a beautiful view over the town. It's a lot of work, so leave early. It's much easier going down. I'm enjoying this much better. And these are the best things
to do in Zermatt, Switzerland. And if you enjoyed our
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