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The awe-inspring ski resort of Zermatt in Switzerland is the ultimate chocolate box location. Zermatt is Switzerland’s most popular ski resort for skiing, welcoming over 2 million enthusiastic visitors each year. 

An alpine playground of panoramic beauty includes the breathtaking peaks of the  Matterhorn, Weisshorn and Monte Rosa. You’ll find endless skiing slopes in the Matterhorn ski paradise suitable for every kind of skier. The slopes are open all year round on Zermatt's glacier and thanks to artificial snowmaking, there’s no official “opening”.

Switzerland's best-known resort brings together every Alpine cliché, from its views of the world's most photogenic mountain, the Matterhorn, to its narrow streets lined with wonky weathered chalets. Surrounded by 38 summits above 4,000m, the town is car-free town and full of life. 

Strolling around the car-free town is a pleasure, though there are bicycles and electric buses and taxis to watch out for. There's a busy, prosperous feel to Zermatt's centre, with ambling fur-coated couples and Japanese and Chinese tour groups rubbing shoulders with purposeful mountaineering types. Particularly lovely are the narrow lanes behind the Monte Rosa hotel on the main street, lined with a jumble of blackened, weathered, wobbly-looking chalets.

Zermatt is car-free apart from the electric taxis and buses, and although there are efficient buses to all parts of town, walking distances can be long and there's no ski-in/ski-out, centrally located accommodation.

You get to car-free Zermatt on an old cog railway and the journey builds expectations. You walk off the platform and straight into old Zermatt, a farming and mountaineering village in the Matter valley long before winter sports arrived. Passing through the waiting electric taxis and horse-drawn carriages, you walk up Bahnhofstrasse to the original Monte Rosa Hotel, and like countless others before, you stop and look up. Above the old Church, the Matterhorn dominates the view until you slowly appreciate that it is just one remarkable gem set in a coronet of fabulous high peaks, because there are 38 other 4,000m peaks surrounding this valley.

It’s essential to think carefully about location when picking accommodation, as the town of Zermatt is spread out. The three lift stations, which access different parts of the mountain, are the Gornergrat railway (next to the main railway station), the Sunnegga funicular, beyond the river, and the Matterhorn Express towards Furi and Matterhorn glacier paradise, upriver more than half a mile from the station.

Zermatt has snow-sure slopes, several high-altitude top stations (Matterhorn glacier paradise at 3,883m is the highest station accessible by cable car in Europe), 360km of pistes facing all aspects (counting the linked resorts of Cervinia and Valtournenche in Italy), a slick lift system that improves every year, extensive off piste, outstanding mountain restaurants and a buzzing cosmopolitan town.

There are good nursery slopes accessed with a special beginners pass on Sunnegga, gentle blue runs for novices reached by train on Gornergart, plenty of challenging reds for intermediates, and a long, high North-facing ridge from Hohtalli to Stockhorn that is the jumping off point for several steep official ungroomed ski routes and countless unofficial ones. Plus for those who want to learn, improve or explore, there is a wide choice of ski schools and guides, and several heliskiing operations. Other than skiing, the Gornergrat train ride, is an unmissable attraction. 

Zermatt has 200km of pistes of its own, and is also linked by a lift and piste to Cervinia in Italy, providing another 160km of pistes. For families, intermediates, experts and ski tourers, it sits up with the best. A spectacular gondola speeds skiers and sightseers alike to Klein Matterhorn at almost 4,000m, with 25 large cabins and panoramic views.

The 25-cabin gondola lift linking Trockener Steg to the Klein Matterhorn is one of the highest of its kind in the world, climbing from base station (2,923m) to mountain station (3,821m) in nine minutes and making short work of any queues – each cabin seats 28 people.

Zermatt comes into its own from February onwards, when the sun is higher, the challenging slopes of the Stockhorn open and the restaurant terraces beckon. Heliskiing and ski touring are good to try in March and April, when the crevasses are well filled on the glaciers. Spring also brings Zermatt Unplugged, the resort's music festival, which takes place in April each year. They come for the mountain restaurants which are among the very best in the world, with exquisite food, service and views.   

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