Gornergrat Rail Photos
Recommended Reviews - Gornergrat Rail
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The main reason I am giving this a three star rating is because of the exorbitant price. The ride up to the top is less than an hour, probably 40 to 45 minutes max and yet it's CHF 114 per person round trip. If they had had a live cam on their website or near the ticket office showing us that it was completely socked in the top we would not have gone. Basically when we got off of the train, which is an interesting ride in it of itself due to the steep elevation, but it was pea soup and you were lucky if you could see 100 yards in front of you max. The Matterhorn was totally not visible. There's not much to do at the top besides walk around the observation center, walk up to the hotel and go to the souvenir shop. There is a self-service café but not much else there if you are not staying at the hotel. Without views towards the surrounding mountains it's a rather isolated and less than stunning place. We decided to walk down to the second to the last station from the top in order to get a little exercise and hoping that maybe the mountain would come out on our way down. The footing was very rough and it was quite steep at the top with lots of loose gravel. We don't recommend this for people who are not fit enough to handle that type of terrain. There was a litter like field to the entire place as virtually no vegetation can grow at that elevation. We took the train back down to stations to the second to the last station, the first station on the way up, and walked our way down to town from there. That trail was also steep but completely different as it was within a forest and had a soft bed of Pineneedles and tree roots on the trail instead of loose gravel and sharp rocks as it had on the top. read more
Do not think for a minute that this is a tourist trap. It may be one of the greatest days I have ever spent with my family. We took the train to the top of the Gornergrat and were dressed for the cold but layered as we knew we were going to hike back down to Zermatt (estimated to be 4 hours.) At the top it's chilly and I think more often than not the elusive Matterhorn sits teasing its fans with a cloud coverage that just seems to sit in front of the peak. We started the trek down and enjoyed the postcard views. You truly feel like you have been transposed onto a movie set. The scenery is beyond words. The hiking trails are very well marked for the boundless tourists--so you don't feel like you can get lost, but you don't feel too isolated either. Everyone sort of goes their own way and at their own pace so you are on your own. About a quarter of the way down, the fog burned off and for the rest of our time on the Gornergrat, we had a bucket list view!! Invest in a good camera if you don't already have one. Of course, you can spend more time than we had in Zermatt and take the train partially up and just hike around the mountain, but if you only have a day, I highly recommend this gorgeous hike. And don't think it's not exercise because it's downhill, our legs were burning and were very sore for 2 days afterwards. read more
