Situated in the beautiful Valais region of Switzerland, Zermatt isn’t difficult to get to, but may be slightly inconvenient if you travel by car, as you will have to stop in the small village of Tasch to say goodbye to your fossil-fuelled vehicle and board a train to take you up the narrow valley. In Zermatt, cars are not permitted and so visitors and locals all travel around town by foot, in electric buses and taxis or by bicycle. The more upmarket hotels have horse-drawn carriages for their guests. Parking in Tasch isn’t cheap (around 100 CHF a week) and the return fare on the shuttle is 15CHF. It may be worth considering parking free of charge in Visp and taking the train from there. If you are considering taking the train all the way from home the best route is to catch the French TGV service to Geneva and then change at the airport for a Swiss service along the Rhone Valley. The train from London to Geneva takes around 9 hours.
Many UK airlines fly into Geneva (Switzerland), which a transfer time of 2 hours 40mins in a car or 4 hours on a train. The other major Swiss airport, Zurich, alongside Geneva, has the most flexible flight times although Basel airport and the Italian Milan airport are also options. There is also the much closer local airport of Sion just an hour and a half away and the new flights to here operated by Snowjet for the 09/10 winter season will make flying a much more desirable option.
- Sion to Zermatt 74km, road transfer time around 1.5hrs, train transfer 2hrs
- Geneva to Zermatt 217km, road transfer time around 2.7hrs, train transfer 4hrs
- Zurich to Zermatt 240km, road transfer time around 3.5hrs, train transfer 5hrs
- Milan to Zermatt 244km, road transfer time around 3.5hrs, train transfer 4hrs
- Basel to Zermatt 250km, road transfer time around 3.25hrs, train transfer 5hrs
